Space Opera Fans discussion

The October 2023 Reader Pick is Salvage Right by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Official description:
A door never closes, but a window opens . . .

With origins in the Old Universe, the malevolent, acquisitive intelligence of Tinsori Light sought to infect others with itself, and send those agents out into the wide new universe to infect even more.

For centuries, two heroes stood between Tinsori Light and the vulnerable universe – Light Keepers Jen Sin yos'Phelium and Lorith of the Sanderat.

Just when it seemed that they – merely human – must fail, Tinsori Light, enfeebled by aged systems, succumbed to the stress of a unique spatial event – and died, leaving the station a shell.

Luckily, the light keepers have back-up. A mismatched team of arcane specialists are on-station, working non-step to preserve the Light, build trustworthy systems, and open the refurbished station for business.

In fact, ships are already incoming, and it becomes a matter of urgency to sort friend from foe. In particular, the Lyre Institute wishes to acquire Tinsori Light, and will do anything, spend anyone, to achieve that goal.

I enjoyed reading this book as an eARC very much. My review is here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The book has minor references to a lot of previous books in the Liaden Universe, and very strongly follows after Neogenesis and The Space at Tinsori Light. It ties up a lot of loose threads in the series, however the authors have more books in the pipeline, so it is definitely not the last book, just the most recent one.

I keep reading Liaden stories because I loved the Great Migration Duology so much. I also liked Scout's Progress and most of the Agent of Change series (but for me, it kind of fell apart at the end).

More and more, the action takes place off-stage as in classical Greek theatre. The Chorus spends a lot of time in anguish about the morality of small choices, but the need for violence to uphold honor is rarely questioned.

I really want to know more about the way the Tree affects the structure of the Universe. But I want to know a lot less about tea drinking and how short yet fierce Miri is.

This installment was okay. It's mostly comprehensible (although a recent reading of Neogenesis is required). The need and method to civilize AIs is an interesting story arc, but how the structure evolved to do it (in a world where they are discouraged and even banned) is puzzling.

This may be an unpopular post.

Before starting my reread of Salvage Right, I went back and read The Space at Tinsori Light and Neogenesis again. I found this useful for a few plot points that had me a bit puzzled. Mostly because I last read them when originally published, 5 or more years ago. I think Salvage Right resolved quite a few hanging threads that had accumulated over a lot of years quite neatly. I definitely agree that I want to learn more about Tree and its progeny; they seem to be running a long term, and on-going, genetic engineering project involving clan Korval.

I think I would like memory beads, more like Seignur Veeoni had than what Jen Sin or Lorith was saddled with (no mind-controlling Great Enemy, please). Good for days when the mind is more like a colander than a steel trap.

I laughed a bit at the description of Clan Korval as "the least safe body of humans in the universe." They do seem to get into scrapes on a regular basis.

Indeed!

I remember from previous books that the M strain soldiers were genetically designed to die young (eg, M Jela). There have been M's in more recent books, including this one. I can't remember - was there ever discussion that the lifespan issue was fixed?

The Tree and relatives are adding to their collection of humans. I just passed the point where another one got collected. I imagine there is a long-term plan...