Conflict of Honors

Honor and family are the watchwords of the Liaden universe. To be Liaden sounds wonderful and the authors have made a great universe full of interesting characters and an ongoing plot against them. This is one of the original books written many years ago. After the authors could not find a publisher, they stopped writing until the Liaden Universe fan club brought them back. This book, for me, was the start of a love affair with Shan and Val Con. The authors mix humor and thrills in all their novels along with a whole made up way of life for their characters including an honor code! Even if you start with this novel you can be caught up in a great space opera, years in the making.

Priscilla Delacroix y Mendoza left her homeplanet when she was only sixteen, convicted of blasphemy and exiled to be homeless and clanless, but she survived. Ten years later, after working her share of grunt jobs, she was the cargo master on the Daxflan, a Liaden ship captained by Sav Rid Olanek. It wasn't an easy job as Terrans were treated like second-class citizens and the second mate, Dagmar, kept trying to "charm" her into a relationship, but Priscilla could not afford to leave the ship and damage her reputation so she stayed. Then Priscilla discovered that the Captain had taken on a cargo of illegal drugs and passed them off as innocent pharmaceuticals. Priscilla tried to hide her knowledge, but she found herself knocked out and locked up on a second-class planet with no money, no job and a resume that now claimed she was a thief.Priscilla knew that she had to get off the planet and hunt down the Daxflan, if for nothing else than to reclaim her possessions, so she turned to the only ship in orbit at the time - the Dutiful Passage captained by Shan yos'Galan. Unbelievably, the Captain hired her as a pet librarian and then proceeded to help her with pilot and leadership training. Priscilla did not know quite how to react to the friendship of those aboard the Dutiful Passage, but she slowly started to think of the ship as her home. But Dagmar and Captain Olanek were not going to let Priscilla escape and they had a score to settle against Shan yos'Galan, her beloved Captain and source of protection...Conflict of Honors (also found in an omnibus edition called Partners in Necessity) is the third book in the Liaden trilogy if you go chronologically, but it was the first book written in the Liaden universe. In it we see Shan yos'Galan again, whom we met as a child in Local Custom (the story of his parents) and it was wonderful to see what he turned out like. I absolutely adored the characters in this book and felt myself cheering Priscilla on whenever she had doubts or faltered, but my favorite was Shan with his irreverent sense of humor and very independent character. The universe is skillfully created with lots of details and clear differentiation between planets and cultures. If you have not yet treated yourself to the Liaden series by Lee and Miller then you are really missing out! They are must reads for any science fiction/space opera fan or anyone who loves to read well-crafted books!

We watch Priscilla cast out from her home world, and learning to make her way as a trading ship crew member. We watch her learn the perils of working for one of the Liaden Traders. Then an act of treachery against her delivers Priscilla to another Liaden, Captain Shan and the trading ship Dutiful Passage. The wonder of the Dutiful Passage is the honor and respect among the crew with the strangely quirky and utterly captivating Captain. I fell in love with the captain and crew. Back in the 1950's we were told 'A good Science Fiction story is a good People story.' (I believe, Joseph Campbell.) I feel this book is one of the proofs of that observation. The first thing I did when I finished Conflict of Honors, was to turn to the front and start over.

You can now buy this book as part of a 3 novel compilation called "Partners In Necessity."

I liked this book the first time I read it but I liked it more the second time. I guess now it is my favorite science fiction book next to Witches of Karres by James Schmitz. My original book wore out and I've almost worn out the second one, I read it and lend it so often!When I think about it, the wit and irony the chracters use with each other, and the way the story flows from the characters instead of the characters feeling pushed around by plot, is why this book is so good. There's what feels like honest romance along with the science fiction --and I first heard about this book when it was suggested in a Romance reader's magazine!I like the other two Miller and Lee books, too, and I can't wait for the next one.