Crystal Soldier

Liaden Universe Books of Before, Book 1

By: Sharon Lee, Steve Miller

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Centuries in the past, mankind fought a seemingly unbeatable adversary from sector to sector across the Spiral Arm until the war ground to a standstill and the Enemy withdrew. Believing that they had won, the citizens of the galaxy rebuilt. The Inner Worlds, which had escaped the worst of the war's ravages, became even more insular, while the Rim worlds adopted a free and easy way with law and order. Now, hundreds of years after their withdrawal, the Enemy is back - and this time they'll be satisfied with nothing less than the extinction of the galaxy.

©2004 Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Great Science Fiction story

What other book might you compare Crystal Soldier to and why?

As far as styles I'd say this book is along the same lines as B.V. Larsons Swarm series. Lots of high tech yet well developed characters.

What does Kevin T. Collins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Kevin does a great job with the various voices and is so consistant it helps to keep the mental image in sync with the story.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

It would have to be from an old song by REM. "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine"

Any additional comments?

I can't wait to listen to the rest of the series and parralel series.

The original Cantra

The Liaden Universe is a full and complex one. This tale starts with the original Cantra yos Phelium, and M Jela and his Tree. Yes, the tree is a character in this story as much as any other character. I will say that I enjoyed this book much more in audio than in print, which I don't often say! The narration is excellent, because it isn't over-dramatic, but is just enough to differentiate between characters.

This download also has a conversation between the narrator and Steve Miller. Don't skip it! It gives a lot of insight into what goes into narrating an audiobook, as well as learning a bit about how Steve and Sharon write their books. As well as the good news that a sequel to Balance of Trade is coming!

Disappointed

Any additional comments?

I picked up this book based on the brilliant reviews. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed by the series. While it is certainly not bad as such, it was not all that interesting either. I listened to Crystal Soldier and figuring, hey, with such good reviews, maybe it picks up in volume 2, I listened to that one as well. It was pretty much the same though, and I did not finish the series.

I loved this book - can't stand the audio version

I loved this book because I read it with the main characters being a hard as nails engineered space soldier and a tough space captain. I can not stand this version because they are read as emotional wrecks on the point of collapse. Even when the narration in the fraught scenes is almost sobbed out. Oh god save me! Our tough captain isn't dissolving in pathetic tears when the battle scenes are playing out, she's tough and capable not some teenage ninny. So she is not happy, but she does her job.

In some ways this was an education for me, it proved that you can completely ruin the tone of a book by reading it in a silly voice. If that is how the authors intended it to be read then I am probably done with their work and their worlds. But they write about capable men and women, not about pathetic ninnies, so I'll persist and just avoid Kevin Collins in the future.

Kevin? Dude! What did you do to this book??!

Exciting & Creative Sci-Fi Adventure

Set many centuries before the other Liaden Universe stories, this novel, and it's sequel - Crystal Dragon - are amongst the best Lee & Miller have ever written.
The main characters - Cantra yos'Phelium and M. Jela - are interesting people we want to learn more about. Chance met, danger and luck force them to cooperate for mutual survival, until gradually they build a partnership. A partnership beset by trouble as they have met in what may well be the closing stages of a war waged by an enemy apparently intent on deconstructing the universe a star system or two at a time.
Action, adventure, intrigue, mystery, and a bit of romance ... this is not a story to miss
Collin's narration is perfect, and truly captures the heart of the novel. I'm very much looking forward to listening to the sequel.

A good introduction to Lianden

I've never a Liaden book or a book from the authors. This far future sci-fi tale was interesting, the pace was constant, and the universe interesting. While this novel didn't excite me terribly, but it kept my attention and there are some interesting ideas that are in the background that will clearly be major elements of future books as this book was written after but takes place before the main series of books. I will look forward to reading them.

Is there a woman's military sci-fi genre?

I didn't even have to look at the author(s)... as soon as I started the book I knew it was a sci-fi written by a woman. Way more character development than my usual military sci-fi fare, and way too much "lollygagging at the views" for my personal tastes. Yes, it is all lovely to be thoughtful and present during a scenic event, but... I went in thinking this was a military sci-fi where stuff got blown up and people swore at each other. There is a lot of coddling and hand-holding here. Oh, perhaps it is the "mystical" component that I didn't like... something anyway.

The story is kinda interesting - and the characters are well-developed. It just doesn't really fit into the genre I thought it was trying to fit into. I see now that it is a prequel to a more advanced series, which is fine (it read like a stand alone book), but I don't think it has enough action to stimulate a reader to keep reading in the series... nothing very thrilling occurs, and I finished the book wondering why I really care what they do in a future adventure.

If there was such a genre as women's military science fiction, this might be the flagship type of story for that. For me, there was just not enough action, or enough military content, and just a bit too much touchy-feely and psychedelic wanderings (kinda like dream-sequences)...

The narration is good and there is nothing graphic in this book...

Finally, Liaden on Audible

Crystal Soldier is the chronologically first book in the Liaden Universe series from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. It was, however, written several years after the first published volume (Agent of Change) and is thus on Audible as part of the "Books of Before" sequence.

Crystal Soldier tells the story of M. Jela and Cantra yos'Phelium, as well as the original Tree of Korval's Tree and Dragon. This is very much a prequel to the later events of Clan Korval, and leads naturally to the next book, Crystal Dragon and the migration to Liad to escape the total destruction of the universe.

If you're new to the Liaden Universe, you have a choice of how best to read the books. Personally, I prefer strict chronological order, but a valid argument can be made for published order as well, since that is how others have discovered this fascinating universe. If you're inclined that way, then start with the Agent of Change sequence first, and loop back to the earlier books when you're ready.

The narrator for this three book set of Before books is Kevin T. Collins, and he does an excellent job. Each character has a distinctive voice, but the distinction is subtle and doesn't interfere with the narrative. This was my first book with Mr. Collins as narrator, but I'll be searching out more. Well done.

Beginning of a big sprawling classic space opera

I want to say either I liked this book or I disliked it, but really, it was a bit bland, and had neither any Big Ideas nor characters memorable enough to leave an impression. Filled the time but left me with no desire to read the rest of the 11+ book series. Evidently, this book introduces plots and characters who recur throughout the series and is something of a prequel.

The Shereika want to wipe out all life in the universe, and humanity is fighting a losing war against them. Humankind has bred people to be soldiers, slaves, and assassins, creating a fairly traditional aliens-light space opera universe. Even the Shereika are actually genetically engineered humans. Humans are losing the war and falling back from the spiral arm. The Shereika are mostly an off-stage threat in this book, intergalactic bogeymen who have listening devices and agents everywhere, but don't show up in their planet-killing ships... yet.

The POV alternates between two main characters. M. Jela Granthor's Guard is a genetically-engineered soldier who, while fighting the Shereika on a distant uninhabited planet, happened upon a group of sentient trees and deduced that they had somehow fended off the Shereika. So he carts a tree around for the rest of the book. On a special assignment from the military, he runs across Cantra yos'Phelium, a generically-engineered assassin who's now the solo captain of a "dark trader" - i.e., a smuggler. The two of them end up rescuing a genetically-engineered slave, Dulsey, and taking her to a mysterious man known as the Uncle who runs some sort of free colony for other slaves like Dulsey, out in the beyond.

Crystal Soldier has a bit of a Firefly vibe to it, and also reminded me of "The Phoenix in Flight" by Sherwood Smith and Dave Trowbridge, another first novel by an authorial duo in a sprawling epic space saga, and another one I found moderately entertaining but just too paint-by-numbers to really get invested in what happens next. I don't know what it says about my reading tastes that star-destroying mega-battlecruisers no longer intrigue me. I loved Niven and Saberhagen back in the day, but 11 books of this just make me think of better or more interesting books on my TBR list.

So, this was good SF, not great SF, and if you are looking for a long series maybe it will grab you more than it grabbed me.

There is a long interview at the end of this audiobook between the author and the narrator which I found pretty interesting, since the narrator, Kevin T. Collins, answers lots of questions you might have about how audiobooks (particularly SF audiobooks) are put together.

5 stars if you have read other Liaden books

I previously reviewed this as a 4 star book, and said that I had mixed feelings about reading number 2 after finishing, but was happy when I did. This was my first experience with the Liaden books. Having now read the Agent of Change sequence, I'm now giving this one a 5, since it really brings the whole universe to an entirely different level. On it's own, still a good book, but personally, I'd start with Agent of Change then come back to these later.