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The Liaden Universe® didn’t start out as a Universe; it started out as one book. That book, a quirky little space opera called Agent of Change, was published by Del Rey as a paperback original, in February, 1988.

That would be, let’s see…

Twenty-five years ago, this February.

Holy bananas.

You’d think that having a Silver Anniversary to celebrate in 2013 would be excitement enough for any pair of authors — but you’d be wrong.

Not only is February 2013 the Silver Anniversary of the Liaden Universe®, the sixteenth novel in the Universe, Necessity’s Child will be released on February 5, in hardcover, signed hardcover, ebook, and audiobook!

Also?  Every single Liaden Universe® novel ever written is — at this very instant! — in print, as omnibus, hardcover, trade paper, mass market, ebook, an...

Scheduled for release in trade paper from Baen Books on July 2, 2013.  Cover art by Stephen Hickman.

art by Stephen Hickman

Please note that, despite what it says on the above mocked up cover, this publication is NOT a novel; it IS a collection of short stories.

In fact, it is the first of two collections.  This volume contains the seventeen stories that first appeared in SRM Publisher’s Adventures in the Liaden Universe® chapbooks 1-8 and “Sweet Waters,” which appeared in 3SF, and in the SRM chapbook Calamity’s Child — that’s about 152,000 words of story.

Necessity’s Child

A Liaden Universe® Adventure

©2012 by

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Chapter One

Inside the duct, it was hot and wet — nothing new there, thought Kezzi, shifting her weight carefully. The metal snapped in complaint, and she made herself be still.

The space felt smaller than it had last time. Pulka would scoff if she said so, and ask if her shoulders yet touched the walls. They didn’t, but she had several times bumped her head as she’d crawled to the leaking seam, and scraped her elbows against the metal while she was applying the sealant.

Pulka said it was only her weak heart that made her clumsy. He would tousle her hair as if she were Very Small, and tell her to ask the luthia for a prayer and a potion.

After the last repair, when Pulka had laughed at her, Kezzi ha...

This — well.  These just in, for your viewing pleasure:

First, the final cover art for Necessity’s Child, from David B. Mattingly:

Final Art Necessity’s Child Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Art by David B. Mattingly

And! the final cover for Necessity’s Child, from Baen Books:

Final cover Necessity’s Child
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Art by David B. Mattingly

It is traditional at times like these to try to find the cat in the image.

Now! Mr. Mattingly has a pleasant practice of making a limited number of posters of our cover art available to those interested.  To call these “posters” is to do them a disservice; they are beautiful giclee prints worthy of framing.  I say this with confidence, as we have four of them (the art for Saltation, Ghost Ship, Dragon Ship, and Mouse and Dragon) framed and ...

From Steve:

This is the kind of day young writers sending out their first story dream of — the day down the road when the world takes notice, when there’s a whole lot going, when in addition to a few awards sprinkled among the time, there are books, books for people to read, books people can suggest to their friends, lots of books. And so I’m pleased and I admit it. As usual there’s a glitch or two — the master link to see our books in one spot as The Liaden Universe at Audible hasn’t been switched on yet — but hey, that’s minor.

Here’s a listing of the The Liaden Universe® series as being issued by Audible:

The Books of Before Sequence:  Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, Balance of Trade

The Space Regencies Sequence:  Local Custom, Scout’s Progress,
Mouse and Dragon

The Agent of Change ...

The one-hour free audio samples of the first book in each Sequence of the Liaden Universe® are now up!

Links below:

Crystal Soldier
Local Custom
Agent of Change
Fledgling

Eileen Stevens faced two challenges in recording the Theo Waitley Sequence — Fledgling, Saltation, Ghost Ship, Dragon Ship.  Not only did she need to deal with a main character who ages during the course of four books, but she was the lucky narrator who got the brand-new novel on her to-do list.

Steve interviewed Eileen.  To hear it, click the link:

Andy Caploe voiced the Agent of Change Sequence — five books in all; the most books drawn by any one narrator.  Because of that and Audible’s determination to release all fifteen novels on Dragon Ship’s official release day, Andy had to hustle.  Thanks, Andy!

To hear Andy’s interview, click the link:

We’re posting the narrator interviews in Sequence order, which means that next up is Bernadette Dunne, who voiced Local Custom, Scout’s Progress and Mouse and Dragon.

When Bernadette and I were going over the Weird Word Lists, we discovered a shared admiration for the work of Georgette Heyer.  Given that Local Custom and Scout’s Progress were written as tributes to Heyer, it seemed that this narrator/book pairing was nothing other than Destiny.

You can hear Bernadette’s interview by clicking the link:

One of the fun things we did recently was interview each of the sequence narrators for the Audible.com editions of the Liaden Universe® novels.

Kevin Collins narrated the Books of Before.  To hear his interview with Steve, click here:  [audio:https://dl.dropbox.com/u/528975/Liaden%20Interview_Kevin%20Collins%20and%20Steve%20Miller.mp3]

We’ll be uploading interviews with Bernadette Dunne, narrator of the Space Regencies; Andy Caploe, who read The Agent of Change Sequence; and Eileen Stevens, narrator of the Theo Waitley Sequence, so check back!