Agent of Change

Liaden Universe Agent of Change, Book 1

By: Sharon Lee, Steve Miller

Narrated by: Andy Caploe

Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Fleeing the scene of his latest mission, Val Con yos'Phelium finds himself saving the life of ex-mercenary Miri Robertson, a young Tarren on the run from interplanetary assassins. Thrown together by circumstances, Val Con and Miri struggle to elude their enemies and stay alive without slaying each other - or surrendering to the unexpected passion that flares between them.

©1988 Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

At long last we have the Liadan stories on Audible

Among my favorite authors are Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Their first three novels, Agent of Change, Conflict of Honors, and Carpe Diem were released in paperback form in the last 80s, which is when I purchased my copies. While other books have been placed and then removed from my bookshelves, these books have remained among my favorites. The characters are familiar friends and I always reconnect to them with pleasure.

After these novels were published, Lee and Miller were dropped by the Del Rey after they were asked to write books according to someone else' formula and they declined. It was a loss for their fans and their books fell out of print. Fortunately, Meisha Merlin picked up their catalog in the late 90s and started publishing new novels from them as well. Now, they are being published by Baen. As new readers pick up their novels, they need to realize that the writing is not consistent through their oeuvre, a fault that may be due to different editors. Consequently, I recommend that readers begin with the first three novels published and continue with the books in the order published instead of following the space opera's chronological order. Don't abandon the series because one or two novels aren't as good as the others. This is space opera at its finest and I highly recommend the series.

As for the audio versions, some of these novels were previously recorded and released as audiobooks. Of these, only one, Local Custom, was released by Audible. Now many of the older novels have be rerecorded as the new ones have been recorded and the sound quality is much better. The narrator Andy Caploe does deliver in terms of delivering some of the subtleties of Lee and Miller's writing style. The best narrators tell the story as if they are sitting around the kitchen table talking to you personally. Unfortunately, Andy Caploe delivers the narration in this novel with a slow weightiness that tends to weary and he doesn't do well with the women's' voices. Every word does not need to be treated as if it is the most important word in the world. And while he does a fairly good job with Val Con and Edger's voices, he fails completely with Miri's voice. She comes off not as a young, strong, smart woman, but as a whiny, old woman from New York who smokes and whose voice is lower than a mans. It is a complete miss in terms of representing her character.

Love the Liaden Stories

Let me start by saying I am a huge fan of the Liaden Stories and have been since the 80s. I have read them all multiple times and wait with baited breath of the next book in the Balance of Trade arc. Having said that --- Andy Caploe's female voices drive me batty. They are all breathy and whiny and ugh. Miri is not breathy - she is mercenary Sargent for the sake of the first egg. And all of his minor female characters sound the same.

I am going to get Carpe Diem and see if it gets better. If not I don't know if I will buy the others in this arc that he reads which is really sad.

favorite story

love this book. I have re-read it every year. now I can listen to it!

Love story in space

This story of Val Con and Miri, at least, the beginning of their story! I love this story, especially Edger and the other Clutch Turtles. The narrator performed them well, though I still find some of the voices a bit different that I liked. Edger was perfectly done, though! And I loved the New Jersey accents of the Juntavas. Made me laugh!

Dated space opera

As others have said, the narrator is not strong and the story is a bit flat. The motivation of the characters is murky and it's often unclear why things are even happening. There is plenty of other science fiction/space opera more worthy of anyone's time.

Great science fiction romance

I rarely read science fiction and normally stick to romance, paranormal, or nonfiction. I was looking for some light reading. Based on reviews I decided to read Agent of Change. Looking at the author’s website for reading order it appeared that this was the first book written, or possibly the second, in this series. In any case it was a stand-alone book.
I listened at 1.4 speed because I could not handle the slow speech. Listen to the sample.
The story grabbed and kept my attention from the very beginning to the end.
I really like that the male lead was not the stereotypical tall, dark, and handsome. I also very much appreciated that the romance had no written sex scene.
I look forward to listening to the rest of this series.

Space Opera I couldn't put down!

What did you love best about Agent of Change?

I've enjoyed the Liaden Universe and Miri and ValCon are amongst my favorite characters. This story tells how they met -- didn't like each other much at first, but learned how to get along. While it isn't the first chronologically, it's a good place to start in the series.I like how they slowly learn about each other and work together to solve the problems they each face. Of course not everything gets resolved and you must "tune in next time" for more!

Who was your favorite character and why?

My favorite character would be Miri because of her change from not wanting to rely on anyone else to accepting a partner.

What three words best describe Andy Caploe’s performance?

Story comes alive

Any additional comments?

Like others, his personification of Miri was very distracting. Though I did get used to it, I always found it slightly annoying. I loved how he did Edger!

Enjoyed it so much I got the next one

Would you listen to Agent of Change again? Why?

A masterful saga sweeping over the vast expance of space, Loved the story line which brought to life complex and interesting characters, couldnt wait to get the next in the series

Great Space Opera

An exciting story of action, adventure, and romance among the star lanes. This is one of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's most action-filled Liaden Universe novels. and brings together key characters Val Con and Mirri for the first time.
This book also serves as an excellent entry point into the wider series.
Andy Caploe provides solid narration for this exciting Space Opera tale.

A fun SF adventure

I really enjoyed this book. A friend recommended I read it and the audiobook was excellent. One complaint, if it's a complaint, is that I chose to up the speed to X1.25 because the reading felt slow to me. But that was an easy fix with the option to increase the reading speed.

The characters are very well developed and continually surprised me (pleasantly) as the story went along. The pair are fun to follow on their adventures, from their escape from a relentless mob family on a planet that grew more and more hostile to them to their association with the fascinating Clutch species and a final standoff with the frighteningly mysterious Extrang (forgive my spelling errors, not sure how to spell the species since I listened to the book rather than read it). And the romance was subtle, which I appreciated. The science fiction had touches of fantasy, and it was all delightful. The storytelling is very well done to reveal aspects of this futuristic space opera in bite sizes that are easily digestible and leaves the right amount of mystery and tension to make it difficult to put down.
Highly recommended.