Gatchamania.net - Print: Liaden Universe

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Posted by CricketBeautiful on 13-07-2004 at 18:06:

Liaden Universe

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

I'm reading the Liaden books at the moment. Five in two weeks --
saturation, but so worth it!

Classic Space Opera, done right.

They break so many rules it ain't funny -- characters that are bigger than life; they know they're in love because of a metaphysical life-mates bond; one small family against the universe. Yet it works. Their characterization is consistent. The relationships are clear and inviolate -- usually a cheap device to keep things easy for the writer -- but they are also very real, and, while key to the story, don't require sacrifices of the other parts. The individual goals are clear; the plots are intricately intertwined. The rescues are bound to happen, but they do so in ways you don't expect.

And the language! Oh, the language! You can tell by the one who is speaking, and their background, and even which language they are speaking. High Liaden -- eloquant and precise and formal; Low Liaden -- reserved for kin; Terran -- workhorse; Yxtrang -- brutal language for a brutal culture; Bennish -- society just passing the industrial
revolution. Val Con's Bennish is incredible: He learns it after being stranded on the planet. He speaks it with the precision of his native Liaden, but with the semantics of a beginner. He improves over the eight months he is there, and, once fluent, he still speaks it as a foreigner.

It is the stories of individuals, each with a complete history of his own, but all bound up in a complex web.

I could keep gushing, because this is more of a gush than an actual review, but I'd rather you read them for yourselves.

__________________
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