Scouts Progress [Paperback]

But before Aelliana could leave Liaden, she had to get her pilot's license. Luckily, she was docked at Binjali's, where the pilots were irreverent and surprising, but genuinely friendly. Before she knew it, Aelliana found herself adopted in to a kind of family where her skills were valued and her opinion was asked. She quickly found herself looking forward to her lessons with Master Pilot Daav, who challenged her to become more and to take risks. What she did not know was that her quirky co-pilot was in fact Daav yos'Phelium, the Delm of Korval and arguably the most powerful man on the planet. She also did not know that Daav was in negotiations for a contract marriage or she never would have let herself fall in love with him....

Scout's Progress is the second book in the Liaden series after Local Custom, where we are first introduced to Daav. It was written after books 3-5, however, so most call it a prequel. I found this book to be just as well written and intriguing as Local Custom. I think that the Liaden universe is fascinating and every time I get my hands on one of the books, I am riveted and cannot stop reading until I am finished. All of the characters are interesting with quirks and strengths and weaknesses. I particularly enjoyed Daav's weird sense of humor and how he likes to play the game of life on Liaden. There are some who say that this is simply a romance with science fiction trappings and I would agree that the romance is very important to the plot, but I would also say that it is the characters and the world building that keep me reading, not the romance, although I enjoyed that as well. If you enjoy science fiction or space opera and have not yet read this wonderful series than you are in for a real treat! I cannot recommend this series highly enough!

The good: Some great characters, great description of the Liaden universe, great descriptions of the pilot heirarchy and process to become qualified.

The bad: The characterization was wanting. The tree was the only character in the book w/ any depth. Daav was entirely too good, Ran Eld entirely too bad, Aelliana too naive. Essentially most of the characters were one-dimensional cliches of the Romance genre. A portrait of extremes, no nuance whatsoever.

Summary: I liked the book but it is fluff. I wouldn't call it excellent SF by any means. In all honesty I am a little disappointed in this one after reading Local Customs. Daav was a character I really enjoyed in Local Customs. In this book he is a cardboard knight in shining armor. No chinks in the armor at all. It was a huge let down because he was a great character. Aelliana was portrayed as the damsel in distress w/ a brain. In this book, she's a genius but she is also a woman who must ultimately be taken care of. I guess that leads to what my overall complaint about this book in particular and the Liaden universe in general (admittedly I have only read 2 books). The portrayal of women in this universe is borderline misogynistic. Women in power (delms and port authority) are materialistic and status mongering. They seem to care little for their daughters well-being while their sons deficiencies can be overlooked. Aelliana's older sister was jealous and mean. Aelliana was naive and subserviant. Sammiv tel Izak (pilot/fiance) is having nightmares about the tree. All the women are either unfeeling shrews or scared of their shadows. The male characters in contrast were almost all good-natured, intelligent, good looking and well meaning. A very noticable contrast in characterizations based upon gender.

All in all, it was a good, fun read. A rip-roaring, fast-paced novel which really doesn't slow down. It is however, a cliche festival. There is no real depth in this novel so don't come looking for it and you'll be fine. I will return to the Liaden universe.

The book is good even if one isn't a romance reader - there's plenty of plot, snappy dialogue, and seat-of-the-pants spaceship flying, as one would want in Space Opera.

But let me describe the romance part of the plot, so that Regency readers can see that indeed, this book hits every one of the cliches of the genre - and does it quite well, too! Let's see. Girl lives at home with cruel older brother, who has previously married her off to one of his equally cruel and abusive friends, and threatens to marry her off to another such unless she is completely submissive to him. Older sister thinks marriages of convenience are fine, for money and heirs - that's what's normal, after all. Younger sister is smart-alec brat, intelligent, but too young to really understand the tensions going on about marriage. Girl teaches at school; she's a math genius, but has virtually no public recognition. She goes out with some of her students to a gambling hell - er, hall - and winds up winning a spaceship from a card sharp. (The card sharp's family eventually finds out that he has fleeced many other young members of the nobility, and that's why so many other noble families aren't talking to them; he gets banished to the Americas - er, to a farm planet, with a distant aunt.) She decides to learn to pilot, and thus escape from her family and earn her own living. Who should wind up giving Aelliana piloting lessons but Daav, who doesn't give her his last name - because he's actually a member of the top aristocracy, who doesn't want to intimidate her or scare her off.

Older brother eventually finds out about her winnings, demands they all be turned over to him, and when she refuses, punishes her, locking her in. Daav, however, finds her home, and rescues her. Mother disowns Aelliana's brother. Everyone else lives happily ever after.

The card game she wins is called pikit, and I can hear the Regency readers saying "shouldn't that be spelled piquet?" The casino even has a stakes book. And there are characters named Per Sea, and Sed Rik (Percy and Cedric), and indeed, most of the characters in this book have names that are far closer to traditional "English" names, than the other Liaden Universe novels do. They really jump out at one.

Now, the science fiction bits: this is, in internal chronology, the second novel in the Liaden Universe series, although it is one of the later ones published - _Conflict of Honors_, _Agent of Change_, and _Carpe Diem_ came out long before this one, while _Local Custom_ came out at about the same time. Conflict, Agent, and Carpe concern the offspring of the characters in Scout's and Local. The entire Liaden series is space opera, extremely well done, with large doses of cultural anthropology that really make the societies involved seem complete, and the conflicts seem real. Liadens are a race of humans, but not Earth humans - at this point, it is still being argued among the various planets as to whether Terrans, Liadens, and Yxtrang are all from the same original stock; the companion book to this one, _Local Custom_, discusses that issue in more detail. This particular book in the series has much less space travel than the others. Keep your eye out for navigational computers and sleep-learning machines. It really doesn't matter whether you read this one or _Local Custom_ first, but it's a good idea to read both, before starting in on the next generation, even though the next generation ones were published first. That's always a dilemma with series books - publishing order or internal chronology?

The authors show a terrific sense of humor, and a great hand with dialogue. (Oh, and for readers who still have no idea what "regency" refers to, think Napoleonic War era, think Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey and Maturin series recast as romances.) If you like this book, then you will be addicted to them all.