Book Cover from Amazon
In the mood for Romantic Science Fiction with the feel of Victorian England? Then head on over to Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Liad Universe where everyone is polite and most people end up with a happily-ever-after. The stories combine action and love stories with spaceships and aliens (you have to meet the Turtles and their version of Space Travel!). The writing team has been together since the 1980’s and work best in the long form. They have a lot of short stories out as well, and I have read most of them.
One of their biggest challenges in making a living through writing has been publishers. But it seems like they finally found a good home with Baen and are producing at the volume level they had always wanted to. I do prefer their earlier manuscripts where the editing trimmed them down to a crisp pace. Their more recent manuscripts follow the current “vogue” of wide-ranging stories with multiple story lines; more of an epic fantasy feel for their new century stories rather than the old century of space opera. It takes a while to get up-to-speed if you haven’t read the previous books. Some of the recent books work as stand-alones and others do not.
They have other universes they have created and one needs to be careful not to go down those rabbit holes unless you really want to read the material. I found the first book of the Fey Duology book off-putting. I expected another sweet romance, and this is anything but. But with over a dozen novels and scores of short stories (get the Omnibuses, they are cheaper) you can live in the Liad Universe for some time.
So if you see Liad Universe on the cover, you are all good. If you see anything else, double-check by reading the Amazon teaser to make certain the format is to your taste.
You can follow them through their multiple websites:
Sharon Lee’s website – http://sharonleewriter.com/
Clan Korval’s (from the Liaden Universe) – http://korval.com/
The Splinter Universe, a genre fiction site where some of their unpublished works are available – http://splinteruniverse.com