Book & Audio Review: A Liaden Universe Constellation Volume 1 by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

A Liaden Universe Constellation, Volume 1
Author: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Narrator: Kevin T. Collins
Series: Liaden Universe Collection (Book 1)
Publication: Baen Books (December 8, 2013); Tantor Audio (June 7, 2022)
Length: 522 p.; 18 hours and 55 minutes

Description: Thirty-three shorter tales of the Liaden Universe brought together for the first time in two mega-volumes. Seventeen tales to start with in Volume One!

The nationally bestselling Liaden Universe novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world-building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge-of-the-chair action.

Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe with the excitement, action, and romance that listeners of the hit series have come to adore.

My Thoughts: This is a collection of seventeen stories set in the Liaden Universe. This is the first time that I have listened to the stories. They aren't new to me. I read them first in chapbooks published by the authors and again when they were collected and published by Baen.

There are a wide variety of stories. Quite a few of them are origin stories that provide more depth on the characters who are stars in the main series. We learn how Val Con meets Edger and becomes his brother. We learn how Ren Zel came to be clanless and a pilot on the Dutiful Passage. There are a couple of stories that star Pat Rin and a couple more that tell the backstory of Priscilla Mendoza and how she came to leave Sintia.

There are a few stories that star Moonhawk and Lute and give more of their history. There is a story about Er Thom and Daav when they are first separated sending Daav to the Scouts and Er Thom to his mother to learn to be a trader. Still another story tells what happens when Daav saves the day when Nev'Lorn is attacked by the Department of the Interior.

The stories were all wonderful as stories, but for fans, filling in some of what happened outside of the main stories adds a whole bunch of depth and richness to an already complex and intriguing Liaden Universe.

Favorite Quote:

One of the questions that readers often ask writers is, "Where do you get your ideas?"

There are a couple of ways to reply to this, depending on your writer. In general, answers range from Harlan Ellison's now-classic, "I get my ideas from a post office box in Schenectady," to the more factual, and most often disbelieved, "Ideas are easy," to the in-your-face, "Do you mean to say that you don't have ideas? For God's sake, tell me how to make them stop."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.