Tag Archives: schedule

Starting in one week

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The Liaden Universe Re-Read will begin next week, on Thursday, July 18.

The Schedule is divided into six Phases, and is expected to take approximately two years. (By which time, there may be new Liaden novels to read…)

Phase 1 Schedule

  • 18/7 – “Dragon Tide”
  • 19/7 – “Necessary Evils”
  • 20/7 – Crystal Soldier
  • 21/8 – Crystal Dragon
  • 27/9 – “Eleutherios”
  • 28/9 – “Where the Goddess Sends”
  • 29/9 – “A Spell for the Lost”
  • 30/9 – “The Wine of Memory”
  • 1/10 – Balance of Trade
  • 10/11 – Trade Secret

Availability

The novels in Phase 1 are Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, Balance of Trade, and Trade Secret.

Trade Secret is due to be released on November 5 in print and ebook.

The remaining three novels are all currently in print in a Baen collected edition titled The Crystal Variation, which is also available as an e-book.

(Baen also offers the old separate e-book editions of Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, and Balance of Trade.)

The short stories in Phase 1 are “Dragon Tide”, “Necessary Evils”, “Eleutherios”, “Where the Goddess Sends”, “A Spell for the Lost”, and “The Wine of Memory”.

“Eleutherios” may be read (free) on Baen’s website, or in the (also free) Free Stories 2013 e-book.

If you have some or all of the Adventures in the Liaden Universe® chapbooks put out by SRM Publisher, “Dragon Tide” is in #13 (Dragon Tide), “Necessary Evils” is in #11 (Necessary Evils), “Where the Goddess Sends” and “A Spell for the Lost” are in #2 (Fellow Travelers), and “The Wine of Memory” is in #4 (Certain Symmetry).

The chapbooks are out of print now, but they’re all available in e-book form via Pinbeam Books, whose Adventures in the Liaden Universe® page is also a convenient reference for which story is where.

Baen offers in e-book form the Liaden Unibus I and Liaden Unibus II, which collect #1-6 (including “Where the Goddess Sends”, “A Spell for the Lost”, and “The Wine of Memory”) and #7-12 (including “Necessary Evils”) respectively. If you don’t have any of the chapbooks already, these may be a more efficient option than obtaining individual issues.

#13 is included in the Baen e-book The Tomorrow Log and Dragon Tide, so that’s another way “Dragon Tide” can be obtained.

Baen is also working on updated collections, to be available in print and e-book form. A Liaden Universe Constellation, Volume One, out now, includes “Where the Goddess Sends”, “A Spell for the Lost”, and “The Wine of Memory”, among others. Volume Two, which will include “Necessary Evils” and “Dragon Tide”, isn’t due until next year, though.

For searching out second-hand print editions, the authors’ web site recommends Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore, The Missing Volume, and White Unicorn Books.

Starting date

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Based on all the feedback I’ve received over the last couple of weeks, I’m leaning toward a starting date of Thursday, July 18.

(This means that Balance of Trade will begin on the first day of a month. I have a weakness for meaningless congruencies.)

I’ll post a reminder about a week before the start date.

Phase 1 – Schedule and Availability

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Or: “When does it start?” and “Where can I get the stories?”

Schedule

When it starts depends on when we want it to end. The general aim is to finish Balance of Trade at a good time to move on to Trade Secret, but this could do with some refinement.

The official release date for Trade Secret is November 5. Personally, I’m aiming to get hold of the e-book as soon as possible after that, but what about the rest of you? Do we need to add time to allow for pre-ordered print copies to be posted, or other things of that nature?

Meanwhile, I figure as follows:

  • Short stories: 6
  • Crystal Soldier: 32 chapters
  • Crystal Dragon: 37 chapters
  • Balance of Trade: 40 chapters
  • Total: 115 days

(Crystal Dragon has a Prologue and an unnumbered “Interlude” in addition to the numbered chapters; but two chapters are less than a page each, and I’m figuring on bundling them each with its preceding chapter, so the number still works out to 37.)

If we’re aiming to finish Balance of Trade on November 5, the start date is July 14.

Availability

The novels in Phase 1 are Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, and Balance of Trade.

These are all currently in print in a Baen collected edition titled The Crystal Variation, which is also available as an e-book.

(Baen also offers the old separate e-book editions of Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, and Balance of Trade.)

The short stories in Phase 1 are “Dragon Tide”, “Necessary Evils”, “Eleutherios”, “Where the Goddess Sends”, “A Spell for the Lost”, and “The Wine of Memory”.

“Eleutherios” may be read (free) on Baen’s website, or in the (also free) Free Stories 2013 e-book.

If you have some or all of the Adventures in the Liaden Universe® chapbooks put out by SRM Publisher, “Dragon Tide” is in #13 (Dragon Tide), “Necessary Evils” is in #11 (Necessary Evils), “Where the Goddess Sends” and “A Spell for the Lost” are in #2 (Fellow Travelers), and “The Wine of Memory” is in #4 (Certain Symmetry).

The chapbooks are out of print now, but they’re all available in e-book form via Pinbeam Books, whose Adventures in the Liaden Universe® page is also a convenient reference for which story is where.

Baen offers in e-book form the Liaden Unibus I and Liaden Unibus II, which collect #1-6 (including “Where the Goddess Sends”, “A Spell for the Lost”, and “The Wine of Memory”) and #7-12 (including “Necessary Evils”) respectively. If you don’t have any of the chapbooks already, these may be a more efficient option than obtaining individual issues.

(Baen is also working on updated collections, to be available in print and e-book form. A Liaden Universe Constellation, Volume One is due this July, and will include “Where the Goddess Sends”, “A Spell for the Lost”, and “The Wine of Memory”, among others. Volume Two, which will include “Necessary Evils” and “Dragon Tide”, isn’t due until next year, though.)

For searching out second-hand print editions, the authors’ web site recommends Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore, The Missing Volume, and White Unicorn Books.

Reading Order – Draft 2

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Based on all the feedback I’ve received about the various options I’ve posted over the last few weeks, this is the reading order I’m currently planning to use.

If you’re considering joining in for some or all of the re-read, I’d like to hear your thoughts on this reading order.

That goes double if you were considering joining in but find this reading order off-putting. I don’t want to frighten people away; I don’t think it would be nearly as much fun to do the re-read alone.

General overview

The basic organizing principle is chronological order, the internal order of events.

There are places where I have split up novels to fit in stories that take place between chapters. If I hear from people that this is a problem for them, I’ll reconsider, but for me I see finding out how things fit together as part of the point of doing it chronological.

(For myself, I don’t have any particular problem with re-reading a Liaden novel piecemeal. Many’s the time I’ve taken one up to re-read just a particular scene or a chapter or two.)

I have resisted any urge to split individual chapters or short stories. I have mostly avoided scheduling lots of back-and-forth between novels that overlap chronologically, and attempted to keep each novel’s chapters in the same order as printed (though I Dare is a law unto itself).

I have attempted to place the splits where there’s a natural break in the flow of the story, even when that means fudging the chronology a bit. (Interestingly, in practice there turn out to be places where respecting the flow of the story means that I would rather break between chapters of a novel than between novels. For instance, I would hate to put anything between the end of Scout’s Progress and the beginning of Mouse and Dragon, while the multi-year-gap between two late chapters of Mouse and Dragon feels like fair game, the more so since it follows what might easily have been the ending point of the novel.)

Draft Reading Order

  • “Dragon Tide”
  • “Necessary Evils”
  • Crystal Soldier
  • Crystal Dragon
  • “Eleutherios”
  • “Where the Goddess Sends”
  • “A Spell for the Lost”
  • “The Wine of Memory”
  • Balance of Trade
  • Trade Secret
  • “Naratha’s Shadow”
  • “The Space at Tinsori Light”
  • “Sweet Waters”
  • “Phoenix”
  • “Pilot of Korval”
  • “A Choice of Weapons”
  • “The Beggar King”
  • Local Custom
  • Scout’s Progress ch.1-38
  • Mouse and Dragon ch.1-36
  • “Guaranteed Delivery”
  • Mouse and Dragon ch.37-41
  • “Veil of the Dancer”
  • “Heirloom”
  • “Intelligent Design”
  • “A Matter of Dreams”
  • “Moonphase”
  • Conflict of Honors ch.1
  • “Fighting Chance”
  • “To Cut an Edge”
  • “Shadow Partner”
  • “A Day at the Races”
  • “Certain Symmetry”
  • “This House”
  • Conflict of Honors ch.2-50
  • “Changeling”
  • Fledgling
  • Saltation ch.1-32
  • “Landed Alien”
  • Agent of Change
  • Carpe Diem ch.2-35
  • “Quiet Knives”
  • Carpe Diem ch.36-71
  • I Dare ch.1-4,10-12
  • “Daughter of Dragons”
  • “Persistence”
  • I Dare ch.18,20,22-23,25-27,29-30,35-36
  • Plan B ch.1-3
  • “Breath’s Duty”
  • I Dare ch.40-42
  • Plan B ch.4-30
  • I Dare ch.46-48,50
  • Plan B ch.31-35
  • I Dare ch.5-9,13-17,19,21,24,28,31-34,37-39,43-44,53
  • I Dare ch.45,49,51-52,54-57
  • “Misfits”
  • Saltation ch.33-41
  • Saltation ch.42 & I Dare ch.58
  • Ghost Ship ch.1-5
  • “Moon on the Hills”
  • Ghost Ship ch.6-23
  • “Hidden Resources”
  • “Kin Ties”
  • Ghost Ship ch.24-epilogue
  • “Prodigal Son”
  • Necessity’s Child
  • Dragon Ship
  • “Skyblaze”

Reading Order – Draft 1c

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And yet a third possible reading order, with chapters arranged as close as possible to when the events occur.

Draft Reading Order

  • “Dragon Tide”
  • “Necessary Evils”
  • Crystal Soldier
  • Crystal Dragon
  • “Eleutherios”
  • “Where the Goddess Sends”
  • “A Spell for the Lost”
  • “The Wine of Memory”
  • Balance of Trade
  • Trade Secret
  • “Naratha’s Shadow”
  • “The Space at Tinsori Light”
  • “Sweet Waters”
  • “Phoenix”
  • “Pilot of Korval”
  • “A Choice of Weapons”
  • “The Beggar King”
  • Local Custom
  • Scout’s Progress
  • Mouse and Dragon ch.1-36
  • “Guaranteed Delivery”
  • Mouse and Dragon ch.37-41
  • “Veil of the Dancer”
  • “Heirloom”
  • “Intelligent Design”
  • “A Matter of Dreams”
  • “Moonphase”
  • Conflict of Honors ch.1
  • “Fighting Chance”
  • “To Cut an Edge”
  • “Misfits”, ch.2
  • “Shadow Partner”
  • “A Day at the Races”
  • “Certain Symmetry”
  • “This House”
  • Conflict of Honors ch.2-50
  • Fledgling
  • “Changeling”
  • Saltation ch.1-32
  • “Landed Alien”
  • Agent of Change
  • Carpe Diem ch.2-35
  • “Quiet Knives”
  • Carpe Diem ch.36-50,52,58
  • I Dare ch.1-4,10-12
  • “Daughter of Dragons”
  • “Persistence”
  • I Dare ch.18,20,22-23,25-27,29-30,35-36
  • Carpe Diem ch.51,53-57,59-71
  • Plan B ch.1-3
  • “Breath’s Duty”
  • Plan B ch.4-9
  • I Dare ch.40-41
  • Plan B ch.10-16
  • I Dare ch.42
  • Plan B ch.17-34
  • I Dare ch.46-48,50
  • Plan B ch.35
  • I Dare ch.5-9,13-17,19,21,24,28,31-34,37-39,43-44,53,45,49,51-52,54-55
  • “Skyblaze”, ch.1
  • “Misfits”, ch.1
  • I Dare ch.56-57
  • “Misfits”, ch.3
  • Saltation ch.33-40
  • I Dare ch.58
  • Saltation ch.41-42
  • Ghost Ship ch.1-5
  • “Moon on the Hills”
  • Ghost Ship ch.6-23
  • “Hidden Resources”
  • “Kin Ties”
  • Ghost Ship ch.24-34
  • Necessity’s Child ch.1-2
  • Ghost Ship ch.35-36
  • Necessity’s Child ch.3-4
  • Ghost Ship ch.37-38
  • Dragon Ship prologue
  • Ghost Ship ch.39
  • Necessity’s Child ch.5-8
  • Ghost Ship ch.40-41
  • “Prodigal Son”
  • Ghost Ship ch.42,epilogue
  • Necessity’s Child ch.9-13
  • Ghost Ship ch.43
  • Necessity’s Child ch.14-38
  • Dragon Ship ch.1-43
  • “Skyblaze”, ch.2

Again, not a final order, offered as something to react to. What are your thoughts?

Reading Order – Draft 1b

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Here’s an alternative possible reading order, with short stories fitting in between chapters of novels, but the novels not otherwise overlapping or rearranged.

Draft Reading Order

  • “Dragon Tide”
  • “Necessary Evils”
  • Crystal Soldier
  • Crystal Dragon
  • “Eleutherios”
  • “Where the Goddess Sends”
  • “A Spell for the Lost”
  • “The Wine of Memory”
  • Balance of Trade
  • Trade Secret
  • “Naratha’s Shadow”
  • “The Space at Tinsori Light”
  • “Sweet Waters”
  • “Phoenix”
  • “Pilot of Korval”
  • “A Choice of Weapons”
  • “The Beggar King”
  • Local Custom
  • Scout’s Progress
  • Mouse and Dragon ch.1-36
  • “Guaranteed Delivery”
  • Mouse and Dragon ch.37-41
  • “Veil of the Dancer”
  • “Heirloom”
  • “Intelligent Design”
  • “A Matter of Dreams”
  • “Moonphase”
  • “Fighting Chance”
  • “To Cut an Edge”
  • “Shadow Partner”
  • “A Day at the Races”
  • “Certain Symmetry”
  • “This House”
  • Conflict of Honors
  • “Changeling”
  • Agent of Change
  • Carpe Diem ch.2-34
  • “Quiet Knives”
  • Carpe Diem ch.35-71
  • Fledgling
  • Plan B ch.1-3
  • “Breath’s Duty”
  • Plan B ch.4-35
  • I Dare ch.1-12
  • “Daughter of Dragons”
  • “Persistence”
  • I Dare ch.13-57
  • “Misfits”
  • I Dare ch.58
  • Saltation
  • “Landed Alien”
  • Ghost Ship ch.1-5
  • “Moon on the Hills”
  • Ghost Ship ch.6-12
  • “Hidden Resources”
  • “Kin Ties”
  • Ghost Ship ch.13-41
  • “Prodigal Son”
  • Ghost Ship ch.42-44
  • Necessity’s Child
  • Dragon Ship
  • “Skyblaze”

Again, not a final order, offered as something to react to. What are your thoughts?

Reading Order – Draft 1

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The responses I’ve got so far have been strongly in favour of reading each novel in one go, without stepping out between chapters to read short stories or any other such business.

That collapses the problem space down to the point that I can do this:

Draft Reading Order

  • “Dragon Tide”
  • “Necessary Evils”
  • Crystal Soldier
  • Crystal Dragon
  • “Eleutherios”
  • “Where the Goddess Sends”
  • “A Spell for the Lost”
  • “The Wine of Memory”
  • Balance of Trade
  • Trade Secret
  • “Naratha’s Shadow”
  • “The Space at Tinsori Light”
  • “Sweet Waters”
  • “Phoenix”
  • “Pilot of Korval”
  • “A Choice of Weapons”
  • “The Beggar King”
  • Local Custom
  • Scout’s Progress
  • Mouse and Dragon
  • “Guaranteed Delivery”
  • “Veil of the Dancer”
  • “Heirloom”
  • “Intelligent Design”
  • “A Matter of Dreams”
  • “Moonphase”
  • “Fighting Chance”
  • “To Cut an Edge”
  • “Shadow Partner”
  • “A Day at the Races”
  • “Certain Symmetry”
  • “This House”
  • Conflict of Honors
  • “Changeling”
  • Agent of Change
  • Carpe Diem
  • “Quiet Knives”
  • “Daughter of Dragons”
  • Fledgling
  • Plan B
  • “Breath’s Duty”
  • I Dare
  • “Persistence”
  • “Misfits”
  • Saltation
  • “Landed Alien”
  • “Moon on the Hills”
  • “Hidden Resources”
  • “Kin Ties”
  • Ghost Ship
  • “Prodigal Son”
  • Necessity’s Child
  • Dragon Ship
  • “Skyblaze”

This is, of course, not the final order, but it gives us something to react to. How does it look? Can you see any problems with it?