Book Recommendation: The Liaden Universe

This has become one of my all time favorite universes of books. I have to say universe rather than series because the reading order of the books is really up to you as most of them can be read independently of the others.

However, for the full experience I would recommend reading the novels in order of their internal chronology which would make it Balance of Trade, Local Custom, Scout’s Progress, Mouse and Dragon, Conflict of Honors, Agent of Change, Carpe Diem, Plan B, Fledgling, I Dare, Saltation, Ghost Ship, Necessity’s Child, Dragon Ship and Trade Secret. 

I intentionally left out Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon which are in many ways prequels to the whole universe of stories... those two novels deal with the story of the universe before, how it was destroyed, and how the survivors came to Liad, Terra, and the other worlds in the new Universe. I would recommend reading the two Crystal books sometime after Scout's Progress and before Fledgling.  

But those are just recommendations, the novels are pretty easy to ready in just about any order. The only warning I'd give about reading order is Crystal Soldier needs to be read before Crystal Dragon and Carpe Diem, Plan B, I Dare, Ghost Ship are serial as is Fledgling, Saltation, Ghost Ship, and Dragon Ship. Yes, Ghost Ship is in both series as the two storylines intermingle.

The stories are written by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller who do a wonderful job crafting intense plots, vivid backgrounds, and facinating characters.

I've only mentioned the novels in the universe but the Liaden Universe also has two or three dozen short stories as well. These are easy to get on Amazon for Kindle but woe be to anyone like me that wants to get them on paper... it gets down right expensive. Its a bit easier to collect them all in paper if you order the reprintings Ombibuses that gather bunches of them together: Liaden Universe Companion Volume One, Liaden Universe Companion Volume Two, Liaden Universe Constellation One, and Liaden Universe Constellation Two. (Hint: I have the final three of the four and if any of you REALLY love me and want to give me an impractically expensive gift, the Liaden Universe Companion Volumn One usually sell on E-bay or Amazon for about $200-300 dollars a copy - for a book that was originally around $20, unfortunately it had a small run and was already out of print before I discovered the Universe for myself).

Liaden Universe stories are usually a wonderful blend of action, scifi, comedy, culture, cats and romance. A delight to read for almost anyone.