Authors’ Foreword
Welcome to the fifth Liaden Universe® Constellation, which reprints stories from many venues in one convenient volume!
With the publication of this volume of shorter works, the Liaden Universe® is now on the order of three million words strong.
Three million words. Thirty-three years (absent the decade when no one would publish our work). Twenty-three novels. Seventy-two shorter works.
Not bad, considering that we had initially sketched in seven novels—say 700,000 words, total.
But here’s the thing. The more we wrote, the more we learned about the characters, the more worlds and cultures we visited in this expanding universe we had created—the more we wanted to know.
And here we are at a cool three mil, still writing, still wondering, still exploring.
Still having fun.
As we hope you’ll have fun with the ten stories in this volume. All of these stories have previously appeared in other venues, so it’s entirely possible that you’ll see old friends in these pages. You may also make new friends—even surprising new friends.
Thank you for reading.
Enjoy.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Cat Farm and Confusion Factory
March 2021