Thirty‑three shorter tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time in two mega‑volumes.  Seventeen tales to start with in Volume One!

The nationally best‑selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world‑building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge‑of‑the‑chair action.

Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe® with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore. 

Listen to the authors discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

BOOK 2 in The First Liaden Universe® Collection. Fifteen short tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

Thirty-three shorter tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time in two mega-volumes. Fifteen tales complete Volume Two!

The nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world-building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge-of-the-chair action.

Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe® with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore.

Celebrating 25 Years of the Liaden Universe®

Listen to the authors discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

BOOK 3 in the multivolume Liaden Universe® short fiction collection. Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans. The nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world-building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge-of-the-chair action. Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe® with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore. Contains all new entries published after 2011.

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

BOOK 4 in the multivolume Liaden Universe® short fiction collection. Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

For more than thirty years, the Liaden Universe® novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have captivated readers with their unique blend of action adventure, science fiction, and romance. In addition to twenty-one novels (and counting) Lee and Miller have written dozens of shorter works based in the Liaden Universe®, featuring the strong characterization, detailed world-building, wit, and derring-do that readers of the series adore.

This fourth volume collecting Lee and Miller’s shorter Liaden Universe® stories features four novelettes, two novellas, and two short stories—including the celebrated linked stories, "Block Party" and "Degrees of Separation."

Sure to delight longtime fans and newcomers alike, these tales highlight why the nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados, with detailed world-building, strong characterizations, compelling romance, and edge-of-the-chair action in stories that range from cosmic to comic.

Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

STORYTELLING ON AN EPIC SCALE

For more than thirty years, the Liaden Universe® novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have captivated readers with their unique blend of action adventure, science fiction, and interpersonal relationships. In addition to twenty-one novels (and counting), Lee and Miller have written dozens of shorter works based in the Liaden Universe®, featuring the strong characterization, detailed worldbuilding, wit, and derring-do that readers of the series adore.

Sure to delight longtime fans and newcomers alike, these tales highlight why the nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados, with amazing settings, strong characterizations, compelling romance, and edge-of-the-chair action in stories that range from cosmic to comic.

NEW NOVEL IN THE NATIONALLY BEST-SELLING LIADEN UNIVERSE® SERIES. Sequel to national bestseller Neogenesis.

Exiled from Liad after bombing a city to save it from The Department of the Interior’s infernal weapons and plans, Clan Korval has gone to ground on the back-water planet Surebleak, whose people are as untamed as its weather. The old Boss-controlled fiefdoms largely fell to Pat Rin yos’Phelium’s influence, but the world is restive, the influx of outworld lawyers, guns, and money a brewpot for armed dissatisfaction.

Far beyond the surface of frigid Surebleak Korval’s farflung trade network needs a serious reset to recover from exile. From flagship Dutiful Passage to the experimental—if centuries old—self-aware Bechimo co-captained by the Delm’s blood-sister Theo Waitley, the clan’s ships are prowling space lanes seeking trade. Meanwhile, Old Tech from a failed universe—the ancient but revived Tinsori Light—and the machinations of the mysterious Uncle are coalescing into dangerous opportunity or nefarious trap.

And the Department of the Interior is not done with Clan Korval yet. They seek a final fully reckoned revenge, with Surebleak and Korval’s ships and people everywhere in the crosshairs.

A Liaden Universe® Novel "LEE AND MILLER STRIKE SPACE OPERA GOLD."
 —Robin Wayne Bailey

Once a brilliant First-in Scout, Val Con yos'Phelium was "recruited" by the mysterious Liaden Department of Interior and brainwashed into an Agent of Change—a ruthless covert operative who kills without remorse.

Fleeing the scene of his latest murderous mission, he finds himself saving the life of ex-mercenary Miri Robertson, a tough Terran on the run from a team of interplanetary assassins. Thrown together by circumstances, Val Con and Miri struggle to elude their enemies and stay alive without slaying each other—or surrendering to the unexpected passion that flares between them.

"I was mesmerized, awed, and totally entertained. I am hooked by the Liaden world. Bravo!"
—Mary Balogh

"Full of action, exotic characters, plenty of plot, and even a touch of romance. OUTSTANDING."
—Booklist

"You may never care about a cast of characters more or await their return with more anticipation."
—SF Site

Now with a new afterword by authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller!

THIRTY YEARS AND COUNTING: The 30th Anniversary edition of Agent of Change, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s rousing intro to the star-spanning Liaden Universe.®

IT STARTS WITH A MAN WHO WAS NOT WHAT HE SEEMED

“The man who was not Terrence O’Grady had come quietly.”

Introducing Val Con yos’Phelium—interstellar spy, starship pilot, musician, and incidentally, a brother to Clutch Turtles. Running from an assassination he comes upon Miri Robertson, a not-so-retired mercenary soldier born to trouble on a back world and facing disastrously uneven odds in a firefight with her former employer’s enemies. Forced to intervene, Val Con becomes a target himself, and the pair are hunted, hounded across space, becoming unwilling partners of necessity. Facing terrible danger from within and without, their own skills and training argue that one of them must die if either is to survive. But Val Con has faced tricky situations before, and he's not about to let something like impossible odds get him down.

A new novel in the popular and exciting science fiction Liaden Universe® series. Over a half million Liaden Universe® books sold with an audience that keeps growing!

Beset by the angry remnants of the Department of the Interior, challenged at every turn by opportunists on their new homeworld of Surebleak, and somewhat low on funds, Clan Korval desperately needs to reestablish its position as one of the top trading clans in known space. To this end, Master Trader Shan yos'Galan, aboard Korval's premier trade ship, Dutiful Passage, is on a mission to establish new business associations and to build a strong primary route that links well with existing Loops and secondary routes.

But reestablishing trade and preserving the lives of the few remaining members of the clan aren't all of Korval's problems. Matters come to a head as Dutiful Passage, accustomed to being welcomed and feted at those ports on its call-list, finds itself denied docking, and blacklisted, while agents of the DOI mount armed attacks on others of Korval's traders, under the very eyes of port security systems.

Traveling with Dutiful Passage on this unsettling journey is Padi yos'Galan, the master trader's heir and his apprentice. Padi is eager to make up for time lost due to Korval's unpleasantness with the Department of the Interior. She is also keeping a secret so intense that her coming of age, and perhaps her very life, is threatened by it.

Contains two shorter works set in Lee and Miller's Liaden Universe®: Short story "A Visit to the Galaxy Ballroom," which first appeared on Baen.com; original novelette "Ambient Conditions"; and an authors' foreword.

"Galaxy Ballroom" explores the rift that has opened in the Scouts subsequent to Korval's removal to the planet Surebleak, and the consequences of loyalty. "Ambient Conditions" details a dark time in Liaden history, and looks at what happens when discarded people are given power, and must choose how to use it.

Together again for the first time.

Three stories set in the Liaden Universe®, featuring characters who may not embrace honor fully.

Included are: “Excerpt from Two Lives”, “Dark Secrets”, and “Revolutionists”.

All three stories have been previously published.

Assistant Trader Jethri Gobelyn is an honest, hardworking young Terran who knows  a lot about living onboard his family's space going trade ship 'Gobelyn's Market', something about trade, finance, and risk taking and a little bit about Liadens.

Oddly enough, it's the little bit he knows about Liadens that seems likely to make his family's fortune—and his own. In short order, however, Jethri Gobelyn is about to learn a lot more about Liadens . . . like how far they might go to protect their name and reputation. Like the myriad of things one might say—intentionally or not—with a single bow. Like how hard it is to say "I'm sorry!" in Liaden. Like how difficult it is to deal with a beguiling set of Liaden twins who may very well know exactly what he's thinking . . . . Soon it became clear that as little as he knew about Liadens, he knew far less about himself. With his very existence a threat to the balance of trade, Jethri needs to learn fast, or become a pawn in a game that will destroy all he has come to hold dear.

Lee and Miller's award-winning Liaden Universe® series has garnered high praise for master level world building, deft characterization, and action-packed plots. These are not characters. They are real people, whose lives we have been privileged to share.
—Jennifer Dunne, SFRomance

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller know how to write one blazing story. Luckily for us, they can keep the adventurer — and the romantic — inside each of us supplied. Royally.
—Usa DuMond, Contributing Editor and Senior Reviewer for SFSite

Baltimore-born Jen Pierce is starting to settle into her new job as a reporter at the Wimsy Voice, and her new life in small-town Wimsy, Maine. The town's busy enough to keep a reporter hopping, though violence is usually on the level of one neighbor punching another in the nose after they've both had too much beer. Then, in very short order, a handsome stranger moves to town, and a local preacher is murdered at the barn-raising for a newly settled Wiccan couple. Jen's bucolic life is about to get interesting.

To survive, humans need air, water, a place to stand, a place to sleep, and sustenance. Bread is a good start for sustenance. Don Eyr and Serana were survivors who came to Low Port—it gave them air, water, a place to stand and a place to make bread. The place to sleep meant they needed a certain amount of safety and to get that they founded a bakery at the corner of Crakle and Toom, brought in others seeking to survive in the midst of the poverty and ignorance, and built a tiny bastion of a self-sufficient community dedicated to raising competent, alert children who understood decency.

Low Port toughs tried to break the bakery and a planet-shaking blast from the skies nearly did it in, but the bakery was hope, and people who have hope will fight to keep it.

This chapbook collects four stories about sustenance, all about the bakery, its people, and its influence. ″Degrees of Separation,″ ″Fortune’s Favors,″ and "Block Party" are reprints. The novelette ″Our Lady of Benevolence″ appears here for the first time.

Sequel to National Bestseller Carousel Sun.

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED

Welcome to Archers Beach in the Changing Land, the last and least of the Six Worlds, where magic works, sometimes, and the Guardian husbands the vitality of the land and everyone on it ‑‑ earth spirit and plain human alike.

Kate Archer, Guardian and carousel‑keeper, has been busy making some changes of her own, notably beginning a romantic relationship with Borgan, the Guardian of the Gulf of Maine, Kate's opposite number, and, some would say, her natural mate.

Oh, and she's been instrumental in releasing the prisoners that had been bound into the carousel animals ‑‑ which she's inclined to think is a good thing. . .

Until a former sea goddess sets up housekeeping in the Gulf of Maine, challenging Borgan's authority; endangering Kate and everything she holds precious.

. . .because the goddess has fallen in love in Borgan; and she'll stop at nothing to possess him.

Archers Beach is about to suffer a sea‑change ‑‑ and the question is whether Kate can survive it.

Nationally best‑selling co‑creator of the Liaden Universe® saga, Lee brings high energy action and romance to this tale of contemporary fantasy and redemption.

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

The long‑awaited sequel to Carousel Tides, enchanting contemporary fantasy by Sharon Lee, award‑winning co‑creator of the popular Liaden Universe® saga. When magic meets mundane, sparks fly: these are exciting times in Archers Beach, Maine! A unprecedented Early Season has united townies and carnies in an effort expand into a twelve‑month resort, recapturing the town's former glory.

Kate Archer, owner‑operator of the vintage wooden carousel, is caught up in the excitement—and is quite possibly the cause of it. Because Kate leads a double life, as carny, and as Guardian of the land. Her recent return to the home she had forsaken has changed the town's luck—for the better—and energized the trenvay—earth and water spirits who are as much citizens of the Beach as their mundane counterparts.

But the town's new energy isn't the only change afoot. Joe Nemeier, the local drug lord, whose previous magical consultant was vanquished by Kate, has acquired a new ally—and this one plays with fire.

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

About Carousel Tides:

Kate Archer left home years ago, swearing that she would die before she returned to Maine. As plans go, it was a pretty good one — simple and straightforward.
Not quite fast enough, though.
Before she can quite manage the dying part, Kate gets notice that her grandmother is missing, leaving the carousel that is the family business untended.
And in Archers Beach, that means ‘way more trouble than just a foreclosure.

Advanced Praise for Carousel Tides:

“Carousel Tides pulls you into the chill foggy reality of peeling-paint sand-grit coastal Maine outside of tourist season and then hands you something else — the hidden world lurking in shadows or under the land’s surface or just offshore, where Black Dogs hunt the night and selkies toss unpleasant truths over their shoulders before diving into the next wave. In the center of this, Kate Archer tends and guards one of the spookiest carousels this side of Ray Bradbury and wonders what has happened to her grandmother. The old woman sent her a letter, left papers deeding over the carousel and old house and the Land (meaning much more than property), and vanished, telling the spirits of the land and sea that she expected to be back before the turning of the year.

“Now March has come and gone and Kate must return from self-exile to take up powers and responsibilities she has renounced, or dying will be the least of her problems...
“Sharon Lee weaves fantasy into reality so deftly that you scarcely notice when you slip across the edge. And once you’re there, the story’s own magic won’t let you turn back from the strong characters, deep mysteries, and even deeper danger.” —James A. Hetley, author of Dragon’s Eye, Dragon’s Teeth, and Dragon’s Bones * * * “Proof that contemporary fantasy is alive and well and living beyond the big city limits — Carousel Tides is a worthy inheritor to Charles DeLint’s Newford series, and magical in its own right. Delightful.” — Laura Anne Gilman, author of Hard Magic * * * “Sharon Lee is one of my all-time favorite authors, a gifted storyteller whose work never fails to enchant. With Carousel Tides she gives her fans another opportunity to spend time with fascinating characters, bringing them to life in a place that becomes so real you can smell the salt air around you. Her fine hand with detail never lets the suspense falter, as mystery, folklore, and magic are artfully interwoven into a thoroughly engaging tale. Carousel Tides will leave you eagerly awaiting the next novel by this master.” —Jan Burke, author of The Messenger, Bones, and Bloodlines * * * “Sharon Lee’s finely observed detail evokes magic in Maine and gives conviction to six alternate, richly-inhabited universes.” — Rob Weisbrot, author of Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules, the Legendary Journeys: The Official Companion * * * “Carousel Tides is a gripping, enthralling read that I didn’t want to put down for any reason. From its beautifully detailed small-town Maine setting to a cosmology that manages to be unique and familiar at the same time, this book demonstrates the best of what urban fantasy can be. It’s rare that I find a book I can recommend without any reservations; Carousel Tides is one of those books.” — Seanan McGuire, author of Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, and An Artificial Night

A Liaden Universe® Novel

On the run from interplanetary assassins, covert operative Val Con yos'Phelium and former mercenary sergeant Miri Robertson have wound up stranded on a distant planet with no rescue in sight. Until they figure out a way back to Liad, these two lost souls must find a way to trust each another—and let their love heal the dark wounds of their past. . . .

Back on Liad, Shan yos'Galan, Val Con's cousin and foster brother, and his life-partner, Priscilla Mendoza, have initiated their own search for the missing member of Clan Korval. But what they don't know is that those who seek to destroy Val Con and Miri are just as determined to bring down Clan Korval. All the deadly enemy needs is someone to unwittingly lead them to their target. . . .

"Val Con and Miri are the most romantic couple in SF!"
—Susan Krinard, author of Touch of the Wolf

"You may never care about a cast of characters more or await their return with more anticipation."
—SF Site

"Full of action, exotic characters, plenty of plot, and even a touch of romance. OUTSTANDING."
—Booklist

Times are perilous, violence rife, and the future uncertain. Success and the survival of all you hold dear may hinge on how you manage change.

Some people advise that we “Embrace Change!” Other people realize that change has edges, and if you embrace it the wrong way, it may feel a lot more like a knife than a bromide when it touches your guts.

Here are two Lee and Miller stories set in the Liaden Universe®, "Street Cred," original to this chapbook; and "Wise Child," reprinted from Baen.com. Both stories with the complications arising from decisive change, and decisive Change Management at the point of peril.

Includes two stories set in far corners of the Liaden Universe®.

Short story "Command Decision," which first appeared in the anthology Release the Virgins, features Bjarni, a man with a nose for 'shroom, improbably standing at the intersection of change and tradition.

Novella "Dead Men Dream," is original to this chapbook, and harks back to the time of Lee and Miller's novel Trade Secret. What is life after death, after all, if not an adventure?

Thirty‑three shorter tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time in two mega‑volumes.  Seventeen tales to start with in Volume One!

The nationally best‑selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world‑building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge‑of‑the‑chair action.

Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe® with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore. 

Listen to the authors discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

BOOK 2 in The First Liaden Universe® Collection. Fifteen short tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

Thirty-three shorter tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time in two mega-volumes. Fifteen tales complete Volume Two!

The nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world-building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge-of-the-chair action.

Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe® with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore.

Celebrating 25 Years of the Liaden Universe®

Listen to the authors discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

BOOK 3 in the multivolume Liaden Universe® short fiction collection. Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans. The nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world-building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge-of-the-chair action. Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe® with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore. Contains all new entries published after 2011.

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

BOOK 4 in the multivolume Liaden Universe® short fiction collection. Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

For more than thirty years, the Liaden Universe® novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have captivated readers with their unique blend of action adventure, science fiction, and romance. In addition to twenty-one novels (and counting) Lee and Miller have written dozens of shorter works based in the Liaden Universe®, featuring the strong characterization, detailed world-building, wit, and derring-do that readers of the series adore.

This fourth volume collecting Lee and Miller’s shorter Liaden Universe® stories features four novelettes, two novellas, and two short stories—including the celebrated linked stories, "Block Party" and "Degrees of Separation."

Sure to delight longtime fans and newcomers alike, these tales highlight why the nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados, with detailed world-building, strong characterizations, compelling romance, and edge-of-the-chair action in stories that range from cosmic to comic.

Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

STORYTELLING ON AN EPIC SCALE

For more than thirty years, the Liaden Universe® novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have captivated readers with their unique blend of action adventure, science fiction, and interpersonal relationships. In addition to twenty-one novels (and counting), Lee and Miller have written dozens of shorter works based in the Liaden Universe®, featuring the strong characterization, detailed worldbuilding, wit, and derring-do that readers of the series adore.

Sure to delight longtime fans and newcomers alike, these tales highlight why the nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados, with amazing settings, strong characterizations, compelling romance, and edge-of-the-chair action in stories that range from cosmic to comic.

NEW NOVEL IN THE NATIONALLY BEST-SELLING LIADEN UNIVERSE® SERIES. Sequel to national bestseller Neogenesis.

Exiled from Liad after bombing a city to save it from The Department of the Interior’s infernal weapons and plans, Clan Korval has gone to ground on the back-water planet Surebleak, whose people are as untamed as its weather. The old Boss-controlled fiefdoms largely fell to Pat Rin yos’Phelium’s influence, but the world is restive, the influx of outworld lawyers, guns, and money a brewpot for armed dissatisfaction.

Far beyond the surface of frigid Surebleak Korval’s farflung trade network needs a serious reset to recover from exile. From flagship Dutiful Passage to the experimental—if centuries old—self-aware Bechimo co-captained by the Delm’s blood-sister Theo Waitley, the clan’s ships are prowling space lanes seeking trade. Meanwhile, Old Tech from a failed universe—the ancient but revived Tinsori Light—and the machinations of the mysterious Uncle are coalescing into dangerous opportunity or nefarious trap.

And the Department of the Interior is not done with Clan Korval yet. They seek a final fully reckoned revenge, with Surebleak and Korval’s ships and people everywhere in the crosshairs.

A Liaden Universe® Novel "LEE AND MILLER STRIKE SPACE OPERA GOLD."
 —Robin Wayne Bailey

Once a brilliant First-in Scout, Val Con yos'Phelium was "recruited" by the mysterious Liaden Department of Interior and brainwashed into an Agent of Change—a ruthless covert operative who kills without remorse.

Fleeing the scene of his latest murderous mission, he finds himself saving the life of ex-mercenary Miri Robertson, a tough Terran on the run from a team of interplanetary assassins. Thrown together by circumstances, Val Con and Miri struggle to elude their enemies and stay alive without slaying each other—or surrendering to the unexpected passion that flares between them.

"I was mesmerized, awed, and totally entertained. I am hooked by the Liaden world. Bravo!"
—Mary Balogh

"Full of action, exotic characters, plenty of plot, and even a touch of romance. OUTSTANDING."
—Booklist

"You may never care about a cast of characters more or await their return with more anticipation."
—SF Site

Now with a new afterword by authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller!

THIRTY YEARS AND COUNTING: The 30th Anniversary edition of Agent of Change, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s rousing intro to the star-spanning Liaden Universe.®

IT STARTS WITH A MAN WHO WAS NOT WHAT HE SEEMED

“The man who was not Terrence O’Grady had come quietly.”

Introducing Val Con yos’Phelium—interstellar spy, starship pilot, musician, and incidentally, a brother to Clutch Turtles. Running from an assassination he comes upon Miri Robertson, a not-so-retired mercenary soldier born to trouble on a back world and facing disastrously uneven odds in a firefight with her former employer’s enemies. Forced to intervene, Val Con becomes a target himself, and the pair are hunted, hounded across space, becoming unwilling partners of necessity. Facing terrible danger from within and without, their own skills and training argue that one of them must die if either is to survive. But Val Con has faced tricky situations before, and he's not about to let something like impossible odds get him down.

A new novel in the popular and exciting science fiction Liaden Universe® series. Over a half million Liaden Universe® books sold with an audience that keeps growing!

Beset by the angry remnants of the Department of the Interior, challenged at every turn by opportunists on their new homeworld of Surebleak, and somewhat low on funds, Clan Korval desperately needs to reestablish its position as one of the top trading clans in known space. To this end, Master Trader Shan yos'Galan, aboard Korval's premier trade ship, Dutiful Passage, is on a mission to establish new business associations and to build a strong primary route that links well with existing Loops and secondary routes.

But reestablishing trade and preserving the lives of the few remaining members of the clan aren't all of Korval's problems. Matters come to a head as Dutiful Passage, accustomed to being welcomed and feted at those ports on its call-list, finds itself denied docking, and blacklisted, while agents of the DOI mount armed attacks on others of Korval's traders, under the very eyes of port security systems.

Traveling with Dutiful Passage on this unsettling journey is Padi yos'Galan, the master trader's heir and his apprentice. Padi is eager to make up for time lost due to Korval's unpleasantness with the Department of the Interior. She is also keeping a secret so intense that her coming of age, and perhaps her very life, is threatened by it.

Contains two shorter works set in Lee and Miller's Liaden Universe®: Short story "A Visit to the Galaxy Ballroom," which first appeared on Baen.com; original novelette "Ambient Conditions"; and an authors' foreword.

"Galaxy Ballroom" explores the rift that has opened in the Scouts subsequent to Korval's removal to the planet Surebleak, and the consequences of loyalty. "Ambient Conditions" details a dark time in Liaden history, and looks at what happens when discarded people are given power, and must choose how to use it.

Together again for the first time.

Three stories set in the Liaden Universe®, featuring characters who may not embrace honor fully.

Included are: “Excerpt from Two Lives”, “Dark Secrets”, and “Revolutionists”.

All three stories have been previously published.

Assistant Trader Jethri Gobelyn is an honest, hardworking young Terran who knows  a lot about living onboard his family's space going trade ship 'Gobelyn's Market', something about trade, finance, and risk taking and a little bit about Liadens.

Oddly enough, it's the little bit he knows about Liadens that seems likely to make his family's fortune—and his own. In short order, however, Jethri Gobelyn is about to learn a lot more about Liadens . . . like how far they might go to protect their name and reputation. Like the myriad of things one might say—intentionally or not—with a single bow. Like how hard it is to say "I'm sorry!" in Liaden. Like how difficult it is to deal with a beguiling set of Liaden twins who may very well know exactly what he's thinking . . . . Soon it became clear that as little as he knew about Liadens, he knew far less about himself. With his very existence a threat to the balance of trade, Jethri needs to learn fast, or become a pawn in a game that will destroy all he has come to hold dear.

Lee and Miller's award-winning Liaden Universe® series has garnered high praise for master level world building, deft characterization, and action-packed plots. These are not characters. They are real people, whose lives we have been privileged to share.
—Jennifer Dunne, SFRomance

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller know how to write one blazing story. Luckily for us, they can keep the adventurer — and the romantic — inside each of us supplied. Royally.
—Usa DuMond, Contributing Editor and Senior Reviewer for SFSite

To survive, humans need air, water, a place to stand, a place to sleep, and sustenance. Bread is a good start for sustenance. Don Eyr and Serana were survivors who came to Low Port—it gave them air, water, a place to stand and a place to make bread. The place to sleep meant they needed a certain amount of safety and to get that they founded a bakery at the corner of Crakle and Toom, brought in others seeking to survive in the midst of the poverty and ignorance, and built a tiny bastion of a self-sufficient community dedicated to raising competent, alert children who understood decency.

Low Port toughs tried to break the bakery and a planet-shaking blast from the skies nearly did it in, but the bakery was hope, and people who have hope will fight to keep it.

This chapbook collects four stories about sustenance, all about the bakery, its people, and its influence. ″Degrees of Separation,″ ″Fortune’s Favors,″ and "Block Party" are reprints. The novelette ″Our Lady of Benevolence″ appears here for the first time.

A Liaden Universe® Novel

On the run from interplanetary assassins, covert operative Val Con yos'Phelium and former mercenary sergeant Miri Robertson have wound up stranded on a distant planet with no rescue in sight. Until they figure out a way back to Liad, these two lost souls must find a way to trust each another—and let their love heal the dark wounds of their past. . . .

Back on Liad, Shan yos'Galan, Val Con's cousin and foster brother, and his life-partner, Priscilla Mendoza, have initiated their own search for the missing member of Clan Korval. But what they don't know is that those who seek to destroy Val Con and Miri are just as determined to bring down Clan Korval. All the deadly enemy needs is someone to unwittingly lead them to their target. . . .

"Val Con and Miri are the most romantic couple in SF!"
—Susan Krinard, author of Touch of the Wolf

"You may never care about a cast of characters more or await their return with more anticipation."
—SF Site

"Full of action, exotic characters, plenty of plot, and even a touch of romance. OUTSTANDING."
—Booklist

Times are perilous, violence rife, and the future uncertain. Success and the survival of all you hold dear may hinge on how you manage change.

Some people advise that we “Embrace Change!” Other people realize that change has edges, and if you embrace it the wrong way, it may feel a lot more like a knife than a bromide when it touches your guts.

Here are two Lee and Miller stories set in the Liaden Universe®, "Street Cred," original to this chapbook; and "Wise Child," reprinted from Baen.com. Both stories with the complications arising from decisive change, and decisive Change Management at the point of peril.

Includes two stories set in far corners of the Liaden Universe®.

Short story "Command Decision," which first appeared in the anthology Release the Virgins, features Bjarni, a man with a nose for 'shroom, improbably standing at the intersection of change and tradition.

Novella "Dead Men Dream," is original to this chapbook, and harks back to the time of Lee and Miller's novel Trade Secret. What is life after death, after all, if not an adventure?

Chariot to the Stars features some of Steve Miller's favorite early work from Amazing Science Fiction and elsewhere. as well as a previously unpublished short story.

The stories in Chariot to the Stars ask:

*Who builds a chariot to the stars?
*What if the fate of the world were in the paws of a pet?
*Where do you find zero-gravity buckets and Christmas twice a year?
*When is the best time to count the lines on the highway?
*How can a spaceman survive the destruction of his ship 100 light-years from home?

Why wait to find out? The answers are in
Chariot to the Stars

A Liaden Universe® Novel

Sixteen-year-old Priscilla Delacroix was declared legally dead by her mother, High Priestess of the Goddess. Banished to survive on her own, Priscilla has roamed the galaxy for ten years as an outcast—to become a woman of extraordinary skill. . . .

An experienced officer assigned to the Liaden vessel Daxflan, she's been abandoned yet again. Betrayed by her captain and shipmates, she's left to fend for herself on a distant planet. But Priscilla is not alone. Starship captain Shan yos'Galen is about to join Priscilla's crusade for revenge. He has his own score to settle with the enemy. But confronting the sinister crew will be far easier—and safer—than confronting the demons of Priscilla's own mysterious past.

"THE LIADEN BOOKS HAVE IT ALL—action, adventure, romance, wit, and a story that keeps getting better."
—Kate Elliott, author of the Crown of Stars series.

"POWERFUL."
—Melisa Michaels, author of Cold Iron

"OUTSTANDING. . . "—Booklist

You can't go home again...

What do you do when home is a conspiracy that's been 3 discovered and destroyed When home is a planet in a star system that's gone missing When home means working for the destroyers of galaxies When home is a spaceship that's calling out to the enemy Cantra 'yos Phelium isn't a quitter, but she has more than a little problem: the Enemy has accelerated its attacks and how do you fight an Enemy whose, major form of attack is the de-crystallization of everything around itself A smuggler with a rogue soldier for a co-pilot, and a tree with an attitude for crew, Cantra's the only one who can get close to the man who holds equations that might, that just might&—thwart the Enemy.

All she has to do is help a young pilot from a missing world, juggle a slippery promise she never quite made to a pair of wizards, and then forget who she is along with everything, and everyone, she's ever known.

You can't go home again... Suddenly, staying alive is more than a personal problem . . .

In a galaxy worn down by generations of war against an implacable foe, a star pilot's mission brings him an unexpected ally and a chance to serve his troop—and mankind.

M. Jela Granthor's Guard is a soldier who was born to be a~ soldier, a solider whose genes were selected before birth, whose life was chosen for him as one of service and dedication.

Cantra yos'Phelium is an ace pilot and a thoroughgoing rogue. She trades the dark and the gray markets along the war-torn Rim, running solo, and with an eye firmly on her own profit.

When chance deals her an ex-soldier, she's inclined to leave him where she found him. That was before mutual trouble arose, and Jela proved himself a good man in a tight spot. Still, she thought to ditch him next planet down the line.

Only he wasn't being easy to ditch. Worse, he had a puzzle going that just naturally drew a pilot's close attention.

So the two of them form an unlikely—and uncomfortable - alliance, the soldier intent on his mission; the pirate intent on her survival.

And neither one, in the face of alien technology, outlaws, and the enemy's renewed assaults, can quite forget a life lesson shared by people who live on the edge of chance:

Sometimes, no matter what, you're just going to lose . . .

Lee and Miller's award-winning Liaden Universe® series has garnered high praise for master level world building, deft characterization, and action-packed plots.

" . . .the authors' craftsmanship is top_ notch, recalling the work of Elizabeth Moon and Lois McMaster Bujold . . ."
—Publishers Weekly

"These authors consistently deliver stories with a rich, textured setting, intricate plotting, and vivid, interesting characters from fully realized cultures, both human and alien—and each book gets better."—Elizabeth Moon, Marque and Reprisal