Woohoo! Two books into the Liaden Universe (Agent of Change and Conflict of Honors) and I’m glad I bought them. There’s a sense of fun in them that is often missing from space opera, convulsed as it is with BIG THEMES and WORLDS IN THE BALANCE.
I’m now starting Carpe Diem. Back to Val Con and Miri, trapped in a wounded spaceship by the Yxtrang. It’s not often I find an entire book ending with a cliffhanger, but that’s what Agent of Change does.
I’m glad you’re enjoying these! A friend lent me those same volumes a couple of years ago, and I called her and demanded to know how I had never heard of the series. The short answer was bad luck with publishers. The first two went bankrupt, putting the series in legal limbo and making it really hard to find. However, the fans are devoted, and a few years ago Lee and Miller started self publishing reissues, to show that there was a market. The sales were there, and Baen stepped in. We are promised new volumes ! Woot!