Teaser

It’s not easy being a spy. Not even when you’ve got cybernetics that let you predict the odds of every mission. Sometimes, no matter what you try, things can’t help but go wrong . . .

Review

The reality of publishing is that very few books are remembered. Most authors will go their entire career without appearing on a bestsellers list. Even a book that has a major publisher’s full hype machine behind it can sink like a stone in a matter of months. This doesn’t mean that the books in question are bad. Often it just means that the chips fell a certain way, the cards were unfavourable, and the book quietly fell into obscurity. This fate befalls some truly phenomenal books, but there will always be books even better that go down in history as classics. When I see a book with a bog ‘thirtieth anniversary edition’ label slapped on the cover, and when I learn that said book has spawned an entire literary universe of over two dozen novels, I assume I’m in for something truly special. Here is a book that has stood the test of time.

Granted, I was only tangentially aware of the Liaden Universe before seeing this book in the wild. Despite having over twenty volumes, I don’t think I’d found one in the UK until this year. The obvious reason for that is that the series is published by Baen Books (see the cover for all the proof you need). Baen are very much a US-focused publisher, and even their heavy-hitters like David Weber barely make an impact on UK bookshelves. Baen are a great source for military SF and space opera, but these are genres that have a very different flavour on this side of the Atlantic. Even major UK bookshops like Waterstones won’t tend to carry Baen books, and the only place I’ve even found them in any great number is Forbidden Planet Megastores. If you’re ever in the St Giles part of London, I highly recommend a trip to the basement. That’s where the books are kept.

The Liaden Universe is a sprawling one, but Agent of Change was the first published novel, so it’s as good a place to start reading as any. As is often the case with US space opera of a similar vintage, there’s a decidedly Star Wars-y feel about it. It feels like a big, busy, and breathing universe. But there’s no real interest in diving into any of it in depth. There are different strains of humanity, and some decidedly cool turtle aliens, and a whole lot of tech and space travel, but it’s all very surface-level stuff. At the end of Agent of Change I don’t feel like I know the universe any better than when I started. It’s all stuff I’ve seen before, and frequently done more engagingly.

That, ultimately, is my overall impression of the book. It’s fine. More than that. It’s an aggressively okay book. I kept turning the pages, sure, but I was never hooked. To mix my mediums a little, it went in one ear and out the other. Like a bargain bucket DVD that definitely has a bunch if sequels I’ll never see. This is a book with action, intrigue, romance, and a heap of fun gadgetry. What it lacks is an staying power. And yet, somehow, it has a thirtieth anniversary edition and a full universe of spin-offs. Maybe I’m just not getting it. Maybe it’s just too American for a Brit like me.

One thing that will stick with me is the authorship. Lee and Miller have a seamless style. I don’t know what the division of labour was with this book, but it never felt like the product of multiple hands. Interestingly enough, the authors speak of their collaboration as if Sharon Lee and Steve Miller were a separate, third entity. It certainly seems to be working for them, even if I did end up remembering more of the foreword than of the actual novel.

If you’ve read Agent of Change, I would love to hear about it. Especially if you enjoyed it, and even more so if you enjoyed it and you’re British. Is my blank-eyed response to Lee and Miller a cultural reflection, or a personal one?

Book Stats

• The Liaden Universe #1
• First Published 1988
• 370 Pages