Liaden universe
Nov. 15th, 2009 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrAfter being recced them a bunch of times I finally got around to trying a Liaden Universe novel. They're by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
Specifically, "Local Custom", which was written something like 5th in the series but is first chronologically. It was a lot of fun, somewhere between Anne MacAffery and Lois McMaster Bujold on the girly space opera continuum.
The setting doesn't bear much scrutiny but is well designed for satisfying light romance science fictionyness. There are three groups of humans in a mixture of conflict and uneasy alliance with each other: the Terrans, who are Earth in the future (sort of but not?), the Liadens, who are space traders whose society is sort of a cross between Regency England and Edo era Japan but with gender equality (all clans and complicated customs and pretty dresses), and a Scary Warrior Race I haven't met yet.
"Local Custom" is about the complicated star crossed relationship between a Terran linguistics proffessor and a Liaden guy whose mother (the clan head) has set him up with a politically expedient arranged marriage. Much cross-cultural drama ensues. It didn't really hit my buttons as a romance but I enjoyed it as an engaging light drama with a happy ending. I liked that the relationship is bi-racial not only by their standards but by ours since the Terran woman is "brown" (nobody cares about this, the problem is that she's Terran, eg amongst other things she's like a head taller than the whole planet of Liadens)
I do wonder about the class and sexuality issues: what's life like for the lower members of the clans? How do gay/asexual etc Liadens feel about the rules saying EVERYONE needs to marry (at least for a few years) and have babies? On the plus side noone says you have to love or be faithful to your partner, there's a bunch of changes like that which make the society more likeable than the actual past. And what about the various cultures of Earth, the protagonist of this story was from "New Dublin" but is Africa etc homogonised into the same generic America-lite Star Trek-esque future?
I've started the sort-of sequel (it came from the library as a double set) "Scout's choice" which is also pretty fun so far.
Specifically, "Local Custom", which was written something like 5th in the series but is first chronologically. It was a lot of fun, somewhere between Anne MacAffery and Lois McMaster Bujold on the girly space opera continuum.
The setting doesn't bear much scrutiny but is well designed for satisfying light romance science fictionyness. There are three groups of humans in a mixture of conflict and uneasy alliance with each other: the Terrans, who are Earth in the future (sort of but not?), the Liadens, who are space traders whose society is sort of a cross between Regency England and Edo era Japan but with gender equality (all clans and complicated customs and pretty dresses), and a Scary Warrior Race I haven't met yet.
"Local Custom" is about the complicated star crossed relationship between a Terran linguistics proffessor and a Liaden guy whose mother (the clan head) has set him up with a politically expedient arranged marriage. Much cross-cultural drama ensues. It didn't really hit my buttons as a romance but I enjoyed it as an engaging light drama with a happy ending. I liked that the relationship is bi-racial not only by their standards but by ours since the Terran woman is "brown" (nobody cares about this, the problem is that she's Terran, eg amongst other things she's like a head taller than the whole planet of Liadens)
I do wonder about the class and sexuality issues: what's life like for the lower members of the clans? How do gay/asexual etc Liadens feel about the rules saying EVERYONE needs to marry (at least for a few years) and have babies? On the plus side noone says you have to love or be faithful to your partner, there's a bunch of changes like that which make the society more likeable than the actual past. And what about the various cultures of Earth, the protagonist of this story was from "New Dublin" but is Africa etc homogonised into the same generic America-lite Star Trek-esque future?
I've started the sort-of sequel (it came from the library as a double set) "Scout's choice" which is also pretty fun so far.
