Partners In Necessity [Paperback]

Conflict of Honors: Priscilla Delacroix y Mendoza left her homeplanet when she was only sixteen, convicted of blasphemy and exiled to be homeless and clanless, but she survived. Ten years later, after working her share of grunt jobs, she was the cargo master on the Daxflan, a Liaden ship captained by Sav Rid Olanek. It wasn't an easy job as Terrans were treated like second-class citizens and the second mate, Dagmar, kept trying to "charm" her into a relationship, but Priscilla could not afford to leave the ship and damage her reputation so she stayed. Then Priscilla discovered that the Captain had taken on a cargo of illegal drugs and passed them off as innocent pharmaceuticals. Priscilla tried to hide her knowledge, but she found herself knocked out and locked up on a second-class planet with no money, no job and a resume that now claimed she was a thief.

Priscilla knew that she had to get off the planet and hunt down the Daxflan, if for nothing else than to reclaim her possessions, so she turned to the only ship in orbit at the time - the Dutiful Passage captained by Shan yos'Galan. Unbelievably, the Captain hired her as a pet librarian and then proceeded to help her with pilot and leadership training. Priscilla did not know quite how to react to the friendship of those aboard the Dutiful Passage, but she slowly started to think of the ship as her home. But Dagmar and Captain Olanek were not going to let Priscilla escape and they had a score to settle against Shan yos'Galan, her beloved Captain and source of protection...

Agent of Change: Val Con yos'Phelium, Clan Korval, future Delm and Second Speaker, was just doing a routine mission on some backwater planet in the middle of the universe when his life changed. After completing his mission, he encountered a small spitfire of a woman and saved her life, for which she promptly repaid him by bashing his head in. When Val Con woke up, the spitfire dumped him, but Val Con was intrigued, so he followed her and saved her life again. Now Miri Robertson, whose life he had saved twice, was forced to deal with Val Con, honor demanded it. She was intrigued by Val Con, whom she nicknamed "Tough Guy", but definitely didn't want a partner. As a former mercenary and bodyguard, she could handle herself and, as a target for the powerful Juntavas crime ring, she couldn't trust anyone...

However, both Val Con and Miri, both of whom were used to working alone, soon found that they worked well as partners, at least they would if Miri would stop trying to ditch Val Con at every opportunity. Val Con knew that Miri was something special, she made him feel things that he hadn't felt in years, she made him feel alive again. Miri didn't know what was wrong with Val Con, but she knew it had something to do with what he called The Loop, some kind of brain implant that gave him the odds of success on every mission/action he made. As they grew closer together, both Val Con and Miri realized that the Department of the Interior, who had trained Val Con as an agent, must have some ulterior motive in plan. But in order to find out what it was, they had to stay alive...

Carpe Diem: Val Con his lifemate, Miri Robertson were ordered not to be harmed by the Juntavas syndicate. However, personal interpretation of 'not be harmed' left Val Con and Miri on a broken-down spaceship in the middle of nowhere with the enemy Yxtrang ready to kill them for the hunk of junk they were sitting in. However, Val Con and Miri managed to rig something together and 'jumped' to one of the nearest planets - a backwater world named Vandar.

Vandar had no contact with the outside universe and didn't even know that other cultures existed. With no spaceships and no radio comm that they could use, Val Con and Miri tried to resign themselves to a long stay and set about learning the culture and the language. Meanwhile, Shan yos'Galan, Val Con's brother and his lifemate, Priscilla, began searching the galaxy for him, as did Edger and Sheather, Val Con's Clutch brothers. Back on Liad, Nova yos'Galan, Val Con's sister, had translated a cryptic message from Val Con that, while ensuring the Clan of the heir's survival, told them precious little else. But she did discover that the Department of the Interior, a department that seemed shrouded in mystery and determined to conquer the planet of Liad and from there, the universe, was also looking for Val Con. The more she investigated, the more interested the Department became in Clan Korval...until Nova was forced to call Plan B - retreat strategically, trust no one, prepare for all out war....

These are books 3-5 in the Liaden series if you read them chronologically, which I recommend. As with the other books, I simply loved Lee & Miller's characters and world building. They spend time on the details and it shows that they have carefully thought out and executed another masterpiece. I really feel as if I know the Korval family and am taking a remedial course on Liaden etiquette, these books are that well written! If you enjoy any kind of science fiction or space opera then this book has something for you - great characters, lots of action, enemies on all sides, high tech battle sequences, romance, family relations, honor, and much, much more! You can read this book as a stand-alone novel, but I would recommend starting with the prequels (Local Custom & Scout's Progress, also found in omnibus Pilot's Choice), so that you are familiar with Liad and Clan Korval, but, these books were the originals for the Liaden universe and were written first. Also, you definitely should not miss out on any book in the wonderful Liaden universe - all of them are very highly recommended!

Liaden series notes:
This volume contains "Conflict of Honors", "Agent of Change", and "Carpe Diem", the first three tales of the "present" generation of Clan Korval, especially Val Con yos'Phelium and his foster-brother Shan yos'Galan, in plot-chronological order (the 2nd happened to be *published* first).
These are followed by the cliff-hanger "Plan B", and the [conclusion] "I Dare".
The first story ("Conflict of Honors") is all about Shan and his lifemate-to-be, Priscilla Mendoza, but then Val Con and HIS lady, Miri Robertson, take center stage for most of the subsequent volumes - though the rest of the family is far from left out.
"Pilots Choice" is a prequel 2-in-1 ("Local Custom" & "Scout's Progress") featuring Shan & Val Con's *parents* -- and by the way, read these at least before "I Dare"!
The authors' website, Korval.com, includes reference data (FAQs, pronunciation guide, etc.) and a complete bibliography for the series, including many shorter entries NOT available as standard HCs or PBs.

Trust me, if you clicked any link that landed you on this page, you can't help but enjoy these stories!

I devoured this book and immediately got on-line to order all the other books in the series. While I was waiting for them to arrive, I re-read this book. When the others came, I devoured them, and then re-read the whole series!!! I have only re-read one other series because I couldn't bear to say goodbye to the characters, and I have never read a book three times in a row before. I even went to the author's website and bought all the companion short stories. I might seriously consider reading them again--but I ignored so many responsiblilies while reading it the last times that there are piles and piles of other things I ought to do first). There may not be any "profound" messages here, but the story comes together so beautifully, the characters are so vivid and likeable, and the universe is so consistant and interesting that I just don't want to let it go.

So, buy this book... and go ahead and get the rest of them too. You won't regret it.