For autopope, and others who may be too shy to ask
Sunday, March 20th, 2011 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniDown in the comments of the last post, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
autopope asks the musical question:
Speaking of the Liaden books, is there any chance you can do a blog post with a suggested reading order?
There's a list of suggested reading orders here. Yes, that's right -- plural orders. And it's worth noting that some readers have made their own determination of which order the books are best read in, for them.
There are a couple of reasons why there isn't One True Reading Order.
The first is that we're telling a really long, braided story as the plot-lines occur to us. I speak for Steve here as well as myself when I say we are not tidy writers. We get a lot of props for doing long-arc plotting, which are quite possibly not at all deserved. Of course, there's also the possibility that the back-brain knows exactly what it's doing and just hasn't bothered to tell the hired help.
The second reason is that we deliberately tried to make doors into the Universe at various points, so new readers didn't necessarily have to read umpty-leven books in order to find out if they liked what we were doing. "Doors" include Balance of Trade, Local Custom, Fledgling, Agent of Change, naturally. I'm aiming George to be another door -- aka a "side book" -- but we won't know if I've hit the mark until it's done.
I hear from readers that the Crystal books (Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon) take "a lot of dedication" and are not a good place to start. Some it seems, would like to expel them from the canon entirely. Baji-naji -- I've also heard from readers whose first exposure to the Liaden Universe(R) were the Crystal books and not only weren't harmed in the least, but went on to read the rest of the books with gusto.
I've also lately heard that it's. . .difficult for old fans to recommend that new fans start with Agent of Change because AoC is "too embarrassing." It is, I'll note, more than 20 years old, and doubtless showing its years. However, it is the Very First Book Ever Written in the Universe and if you are a reader who prefers to follow a series along as it was written, you sorta have to start there.
...I think that's probably sufficient confusion for one post.
Question? Ask and I'll do my humble best.
autopope asks the musical question:Speaking of the Liaden books, is there any chance you can do a blog post with a suggested reading order?
There's a list of suggested reading orders here. Yes, that's right -- plural orders. And it's worth noting that some readers have made their own determination of which order the books are best read in, for them.
There are a couple of reasons why there isn't One True Reading Order.
The first is that we're telling a really long, braided story as the plot-lines occur to us. I speak for Steve here as well as myself when I say we are not tidy writers. We get a lot of props for doing long-arc plotting, which are quite possibly not at all deserved. Of course, there's also the possibility that the back-brain knows exactly what it's doing and just hasn't bothered to tell the hired help.
The second reason is that we deliberately tried to make doors into the Universe at various points, so new readers didn't necessarily have to read umpty-leven books in order to find out if they liked what we were doing. "Doors" include Balance of Trade, Local Custom, Fledgling, Agent of Change, naturally. I'm aiming George to be another door -- aka a "side book" -- but we won't know if I've hit the mark until it's done.
I hear from readers that the Crystal books (Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon) take "a lot of dedication" and are not a good place to start. Some it seems, would like to expel them from the canon entirely. Baji-naji -- I've also heard from readers whose first exposure to the Liaden Universe(R) were the Crystal books and not only weren't harmed in the least, but went on to read the rest of the books with gusto.
I've also lately heard that it's. . .difficult for old fans to recommend that new fans start with Agent of Change because AoC is "too embarrassing." It is, I'll note, more than 20 years old, and doubtless showing its years. However, it is the Very First Book Ever Written in the Universe and if you are a reader who prefers to follow a series along as it was written, you sorta have to start there.
...I think that's probably sufficient confusion for one post.
Question? Ask and I'll do my humble best.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 04:38 pm (UTC)Me, I started at...
Date: 2011-03-20 04:42 pm (UTC)I've also back-door'd some younger folks in via Balance of Trade.
And the Crystal books were a hard slog for me, more for the loss of mystery than for the books themselves.
You're kidding, please tell me?
Date: 2011-03-20 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 05:18 pm (UTC)I would have said it's unwise to read things too much out of internal chronological order, but after watching him do that, I'd tend to say it comes down to how much you like puzzles.
He really likes puzzles.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 05:20 pm (UTC)I hope to get to a Lunacon someday. I think the first and only time I was, sorta, present, was when Steve and I were still traveling in art and we interrupted a visit to his cousin on Long Island to go over to the con to pick up some paintings from...Karl Kocich?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 05:22 pm (UTC)So, yanno, in a sense I'm the last person who ought to be advising people on proper reading order :)
Re: You're kidding, please tell me?
Date: 2011-03-20 05:23 pm (UTC)Mind you, I'm not sure what I'm expected to do about it. Write another first book?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 05:25 pm (UTC)One of the few downsides of having an extensive backlist. In Olden Days, there was a book. And a Looooong Time After that -- there was another book...
Re: Me, I started at...
Date: 2011-03-20 05:28 pm (UTC)Another reasonable doorway into the Universe.
I've also back-door'd some younger folks in via Balance of Trade.
Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 05:28 pm (UTC)And Karl Kofoed?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 05:32 pm (UTC)No...I'm pretty sure Kocich, Koscich...something. Used lots of dark browns and reds...giants, gnomes, almost every painting was a joke. Gah. I'll need to ask Steve if he can remember. I mean, it's only been, what? Thirty years?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 05:59 pm (UTC)Re: Me, I started at...
Date: 2011-03-20 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 06:05 pm (UTC)...for which we had to find Wilma, who was not pleased.
But yes, we have not been to a Lunacon in decades.
I don't think we can actually count having "been" at that one, given everything...
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 06:15 pm (UTC)I don't know why people would find AoC embarrassing; it's perfectly lovely. It does have a very different feel from later books though.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 06:26 pm (UTC)I personally started with Conflict of Honors and then went 'back in time' to find out about Anne and Er Thom, and then read Agent of Change and the following novels, and still cheer a little mentally when Er Thom or Shan or Anne or Priscilla get some screen time :-).
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 06:47 pm (UTC)My introduction was with Partners in Necessity, which starts with Conflict of Honors. By the time I finished that one, I was in love with Priscilla and Shan, and sort of resented it when the next book brought in Val Con and Mari.
It didn't take long for me to get over that. But I'll always have a soft spot for Pris and Shan, who don't get enough air time...
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 08:38 pm (UTC)So, CoH, AoC, and Carpe Diem, and then publication order after that.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 03:21 am (UTC)Plus, Cantra is my hero.
I started reading with Partners in Necessity, which at the time, I didn't realize was part of a larger body of work. I was never so sad as when I realized I couldn't get the rest, until I discovered the backlist in ebook... I generally start off with loaning them first simply because I have a hardcopy to loan (if I can get it back from my dad - again), then I talk people into buying their own copies of the others.
Where to Start Reading?
Date: 2011-03-21 07:18 am (UTC)Congrats on signed copies. I can't remember how we are going to pay for ours if we've signed up so I trust you'll remind us at the time.
I think purple hair would be good. Maybe I'll try that sometime.
C.
Re: You're kidding, please tell me?
Date: 2011-03-21 10:24 am (UTC)Re: Where to Start Reading?
Date: 2011-03-21 11:18 am (UTC)What I really want to do (in my Copious Spare Time) is to print out each story as a separate volume, and then put all of them on the shelf with the books and everything in internal chronological order. Yeah, as if I'll actually get round to that.
But I still probably wouldn't read them in order, because I tend to dive in at whichever book I feel like reading at the time.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 12:50 pm (UTC)I would recommend AoC for a reader who likes action, SP for romance, CoH for somthing in between and F for YA. BoT would be fine, but I think something in the era of the main sequence is better, and I agree that the Crystal books aren't the best starting point.
Can't think why AoC would be embarrassing!
Caroline
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 02:08 pm (UTC)That seems to me to be as good a method as any.
And I actually found the Crystal books engaging.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 02:58 am (UTC)Re: Me, I started at...
Date: 2011-03-24 04:08 am (UTC)There's nothing _embarrassing_ about AoC, but it loses impact if you don't recognize from the start that Something Is Wrong With Val Con. Knowing him as Shan's brother first creates a delicious cognitive dissonance that is gradually diagnosed, and then cured, in the main arc of AoC/CD/PB/ID.
Re: Where to start Reading
Date: 2011-03-26 09:32 pm (UTC)Then - I was back in my student/security guard days at the time - I found an abandoned copy of Agent of Change at a worksite and completely read it that night. I was hooked, and read CoH as soon as I made the connection between the two books. I checked the SF section of every bookshop I visited thereafter looking for more Liaden tales. I was rewarded with Carpe Diem the next year and then suffered, along with the early fans, the decade-long drought 'til Plan B came out.
In recent years, my favourite new novels have been Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon - they brought back the wonder and break-neck action of the Aoc/CD/PB/ID sequence, though I've enjoyed all the books.
I've always recommended CoH and AoC to new readers but I particularly liked the anonymous post above suggesting different entry points depending on reader "genre" preference.