What is Lee and Miller's BEST Work? You decide!

[rolanni]

OK! Here's some fun. Far more often than seldom, a review will appear -- either in a professional venue, or in a blog, or on Amazon, which states, "While X is not up to Lee and Miller's BEST work..." (robotech_master, yours is only one in a long line). This sort of thing has always seemed...like a bit of a cheat...to me, because, yanno, here's this reader who knows what Lee and Miller's BEST work is -- and they're not going tell you!

Dirty pool, I say.

So, here's your chance. Below is a list of longer Liaden works. Which is the Best? Choose one and only one, then! Defend your choice in comments.

Have at it.


[Poll #1538793]

Comments

[reedrover]

(I was good and voted first, then opened the link.)

I agree with GingerWood.

Due to just starting Mouse and Dragon, it was easy to get lured back into thinking Scout's Progress was the best work.

The two topics against which I judged the best were worldbuilding and character-building. Which books gave me the best sense of the where of the story, and which books gave me the best sense of who? The stark location shots and amazing jump descriptions in Scout's Progress and I Dare made it almost impossible to choose between them. It really came down to the secondary characters on SureBleak (as opposed to the supporting cast at Binjali's) that gave me such a sense of who in I Dare. Oh, yeah, and plot? Yes, it's nice to have one. But there are so many kinds of plots, from personal development and relationship conflict to good-vs-evil that this isn't something I even wanted to try to rank order.

... And OWIE! this was a hard quiz!

ETA: signal boosted

[gingerwood.livejournal.com]

I voted for I Dare because it was the book I reach for most when I go for a re-read. And I go to re-read Pat Rin's story. During the coarse of the first read, I went from disliking Pat Rin's character to loving him. Steve and Sharon have taken characters out of their comfort zone, they've put them under pressure and they've evolved them, but they did all three to Pat Rin in I Dare and then jacked the pressure up to 11. The Pat Rin at the end of the book was unrecognizable from the character at the beginning of the book, yet his progression was somewhere between natural and inevitable. And unlike other characters who have undergone rapid development, he did it without a stronger character to lean on or guide them.

[drammar.livejournal.com]

Thank you -- I've been unable to answer the "why" question adequately, but you have summed it up beautifully.