You can't. We are, believe us, Really Sorry About This. As a general thing, we don't like to disappoint readers; you guys have stuck with us through thick and thin and we owe you. Sometimes, though, Life Happens. Sucks, but there it is.
The reason you can't get Web is that it wasn't finished at the time that Meisha Merlin closed its doors in May 2007. There are a bunch of reasons for that; we've talked about them in other venues, but they're not really pertinent here. If you're that interested, hit Google.
Will Web be picked up by another publisher? We'd be delighted if that happened, even though it would mean we'd have to finish writing it. But -- just between you and us? The chances of a book in a broken series finding a new publisher is vanishingly low. We know that miracles happen; the reason we're talking to you now -- the reason you're missing one of our books is that a miracle happened in 1998 and we were brought back from the dead. That never happens. We've been lucky once, and we're not pushing the universe for lucky twice.
In the meantime, if you're really jonesing for new Lee and Miller, check out Fledgling and Misfits.
Special Ancillary Question: What happened to Meisha Merlin?
Meisha Merlin ceased operations in May 2007, citing "distributor problems" as the cause of cashflow woes. See "Life Happens" and "Sucks," above. Before closing its doors, MM did contact its authors to offer stock in lieu of some of the royalties, advances, and other monies owed.
Several of Meisha Merlin's authors did take them up on this offer -- Lee and Miller did; Selina Rosen and Laura J. Underwood did. So, here's what you can do: If you have a favorite Meisha Merlin author and you want one of their books, say as a lending copy, or to give as a gift -- take a couple minutes to contact that author directly and see if they have some of their books on hand; bet they'd even be willing to autograph a copy for you.
1. What is the Liaden Universe®?
The Liaden Universe® was created by Sharon Lee with the help of Steve Miller. So far, ten novels have been published in the Liaden Universe® with the first seven (in publication order) detailing adventures of various members and progenitors of Clan Korval, and comprising in their entirety what the authors are calling their Agent of Change Sequence, in order to make life easier for the scholars who will undoubtedly study their work in future.
The eighth Liaden Universe ® novel, Balance of Trade takes place many years before the Agent of Change Sequence and involves a different cast of characters. Balance of Trade was received the Hal Clement Award as Best Young Adult Novel of 2004 (award given in 2005).
Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon, collectively known as The Great Migration Duology, are prequels to the Agent of Change Sequence.
A wide range of Liaden Universe® and releated chapbooks have been published by SRM, Publisher Ltd.. These chapbooks provide back story and side story to the novels, and the first five chapbooks, now out of print, have been collected into the Liaden Universe® Companion, Volume One, which is available from many stores and direct from SRM Publisher.
Liaden Universe® Companion, Volume Two is available for pre-order and is expected to be published in the summer of 2007.
Lee & Miller on the Liaden Universe®:
This all started long ago in a universe..oops, wrong page.
The Liaden Universe® is populated by mercenaries, traders, spies, turtles, scouts, soldiers and colorful people too numerous to mention. The Liadens are first among the four major races, those being: Liaden, Clutch, Terran and Yxtrang. Liadens are sneaky, Liadens are old, Liadens are prosperous, Liadens follow a strict and voluminous code of honor.
The first seven published novels in the Agent of Change Sequence (Agent of Change, Conflict of Honors, Carpe Diem, Plan B, Local Custom, Scout's Progress, and I Dare) follow the adventures of the members of Korval, a Liaden Clan of rather unLiaden flavor, whose necessities revolve around spaceships and a Tree which they own or which owns them.
Balance of Trade follows young Jethri Gobelyn, a Terran who finds himself apprenticed to a Liaden master trader. Clan Korval is, as far as we know, not involved in this story line.
The Great Migration Duology, consisting of Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon, deal with the three founders of Korval: Jela, Cantra, and Tor An, as well as with a universe where humanity is beseiged and the universe itself at risk. These books are deep background and may be read independently of the Agent of Change Sequence.
The Liaden Universe® chapbooks available from SRM Publisher offer back stories for many of the characters.
2. What's all this stuff mean, anyway?
A brief and necessarily fluid Liaden-Terran Dictionary is now online. While useful, it makes no attempt to be a complete explanation of the Liaden Universe®. For example the space drives aren't explained in it yet.
3. Help! What order do I read the books in?
Veteran Friends of Liad recommend starting the Agent of Change Sequence with the "original three" -- Agent of Change, Conflict of Honors, Carpe Diem -- followed by Plan B, Local Custom, Scout's Progress, finishing up with I Dare. This is a perfectly valid reading order -- it is, indeed, the order in which the books were written and published.
For those who like to read things in "universe order," that would be: Local Custom, Scout's Progress, Conflict of Honors, Agent of Change, Carpe Diem, Plan B, I Dare.
Or, if you'd like to sample one book and see if you like the neighborhood, you might try Balance of Trade.
4. Is I Dare the end? Please tell me that there will be more Liaden books!
OK. There will be more Liaden books.
In fact, there's a Liaden book being written right now.
5. I want to read the Liaden Universe® novels and stories on my Palm!
You're in luck. The Liaden Universe® novels and chapbooks to date are available from Baen Webscriptions
6. I want to listen to the Liaden Universe® audiobooks!
Again, you are the most fortunate of mortals. Buzzy Multimedia released the audiobook version of Local Custom in January 2005. Michael Shanks, aka Dr. Daniel Jackson of Stargate SG-1, narrated. As time goes on, we hope to have more audiobooks; if you can't find the audio Local Custom elsewhere it can be bought from SRM Publisher.
7. Yuck! There are girl cooties in these books!
Deal with it.
8. Why are Liaden guys so, ummm, feminine? Don't the authors know how to write Real Man characters?
Well, yes. The authors know perfectly well how to write Real Man characters, have done so and will doubtless do so again. Liaden men, now -- are a product of their society. Liaden society is fiercely competitive, and the prudent person -- male or female -- speaks softly and with great politeness, unless they deliberately chose to do otherwise. There are no inadvertent insults in Liaden society, and while duels of honor are frowned upon, they do happen.
9. Why is the Liaden Universe® so straight?
It's not. While there is a strong emphasis on the duty of each member of society to produce a "child of the body" to carry on their work for the clan, who one loves on one's own time is not up for discussion. At least, not on the basis of gender. Best to think of the Liaden Universe® as extensively bi-sexual.
10. Why is Liaden Universe® trademarked? Are the authors trying to fool readers into thinking their books are like Star Trek®?
Sadly, there are people in the world who like to make trouble for other people. One such person targeted Lee and Miller, and in order to protect their work, the authors were advised to trademark their universe.
11. Lois McMaster Bujold doesn't worry about troublemakers stealing Miles Vorkosigan and she's a much better writer than Lee and Miller.
This is, obviously, Ms. Bujold's business.
12. Have Miller and Lee written anything besides Liaden Universe® material?
Actually, yes.
Both Steve and Sharon have written independent fiction. In addition, they have collaborated on The Tomorrow Log, and on the Kinzel fantasy stories. Sharon has seen her mystery novel Barnburner, and its sequel, Gunshy, published. In his abundant free time Steve is working on The Grasp of Griffins, a fantasy novel set in the Kinzel universe. In addition to all of that Sharon and Steve edited the Meisha Merlin anthology Low Port.
Sharon and Steve were also commissioned by Phobos Books to write The Sword of Orion, which became a Locus bestseller.
In addition to genre fiction, Sharon and Steve have written for numerous newspapers, as reporters, reviewers, and features writers. Completists may want to hunt out old issues of Practical Survival magazine for Steve's article on choosing where to move when leaving the city. Or not, if you've just moved to the city.
13. Is there anything new coming from Lee and Miller?
Baen Books has contracted for a fantasy duology, Duainfey and its as-yet-untitled-sequel.
14. Will there be a sequel to Sword of Orion?
Sword was a work-for-hire -- that means the rights rest with the publisher, not the authors -- and the publisher has not requested a sequel from Lee and Miller, or, as far as we're aware, from anyone else.
15. I want to get in touch with Lee and Miller about a project!
Please contact our agent, Jennifer Jackson, at the Donald Maass Literary Agency.
16. I want to talk to other fans about the Liaden Universe®
There are several options available to you. You can:
Those fans who are following the Liaden Universe® serial Fledgling have a lively discussion going over at the Theo Waitley LJ community.
17.Do Lee and Miller have blogs?
Yep, they do. Steve's blog is Journeyman and Sharon's is Eagles Over the Kennebec.
18. Is there a Liaden Universe® newsletter?
Yes. You may subscribe here.
19. You may also want to see the wikipedia entry which may be more up-to-date than our faq.
This page is maintained by Steve Miller. Contents copyright 1995-2007 by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
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