How did I miss the fourth book of this series? It was time to backtrack and patch this hole in my Liaden knowledge. I appreciate how Lee and Miller follow many characters, keeping their story telling fresh. This, then, is the second installment of the adventures of one Jethri Gobelyn ven'Deelin, raised on the Terran ship Gobelyn's Market (such a clever name) but adopted by the Liaden master trader van'Deelin.
Never before has a Terran been adopted and trained as a trader. As a result, there is resentment among certain Liaden clans, who feel that associating with humans is beneath their dignity. Surely Jethri cannot understand their complex system of melanti, Balance. Unfortunately for them, Jethri is quite competent in his understanding of most aspects of trade and of Liaden society. He has had exemplary education, after all.
However Jethri encountered resentment on the Terran family ship also. The current captain disliked him for quite unaccountable reasons, refusing him pilot training and forcing him off ship. Only by a stroke of good luck (or was it bad luck?) did he find his way to his new Liaden adoption. In this volume, he discovers that his biological father's work may account for this situation and he must set about recovering items inherited from that man. He also learns of his close relationship to that mysterious man known only as Uncle to most of the universe.
Jethri gets to grow up, learning about piloting, getting experience at trading, having confidence, not to mention how to conduct himself with young women. Like all the Liaden books that I have read, there is plenty of space travel, subterfuge, and action. I hope I will meet young Jethri again in the future.
Book number 513 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project
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