I Dare (2002)

3.5 stars ( )

3.5 stars ( )

3.5 stars ( )

I really thought I had read this one - along with Local Custom and Scout's Progress. Once I started, it has become rather evident that I had not. This is the conclusion to the Agent of Change sequence - the plot-line with the Department of the Interior.

I've been fascinated with Pat Rin ever since his character was referred to in Conflict of Honors. While the first bit of Pat Rin we see is rather drab (no jewels or fancy parties to be seen), once he truly becomes involved in the action, his transformation from a ne'er-do-well to a formidable opponent and business man is fascinating (and sad due to the circumstances) to watch.

In fact, there's a lot of fascinating transformations here. You have traders, business men, pilots, and other clan members of all sorts becoming warriors, people in charge of everything suddenly become in charge of nothing, the clan-less acquiring clans and vice versa. It's good to see people dealing with situations far beyond their comfort zone.

Yet, at the same time, many people were TOO good at dealing with the situations. If you have people acting outside their accustomed roles, they're going to make mistakes and probably quite a few of them. But for the most part, everything goes abnormally smoothly. For instance, Miri had never had a clan or associated with Liadens before she married Val Con but due to telepathically sharing memories, she knows exactly how to bow, how to talk, all the different modes and inflections of speech, all the clan history and laws, etc. Even though this is newly acquired memories, I'd think she'd make some missteps before knowledge becomes habit but she never does. Mistakes are often more interesting than perfection.

Another issue I had was that some characters aren't fully introduced. Part of this is my fault - I started with the original book, Conflict of Honors and re-read in chronological order from there forward. Unfortunately, this led to me skipping the prequel duology that was published just before I Dare. So when characters (Daav, et al) show up suddenly from those books, I have no clue who they are, and their history may not be explained for another hundred or more pages. This also happens with the first mate - he's introduced as a first mate but not much more than that in the previous book and with this book is suddenly capable of things that make you scratch your head and say "Huh? How did he do that?" Only his back story isn't in any book, it's a short story. While maybe I should have followed the publication order, I really think you should be able to read a series in chronological order - one sequence of events from start to finish - without missing the major chunks of the story that you'll miss here. And also, I don't think short stories should be essential to the understanding of any series! I really think I'll have to revisit this book once I've read the prequel duology and the two short story collections to fully appreciate some of these events. Maybe when I do, I'll adjust my rating up a bit.

Lastly, I would either like another book covering the events just after I Dare, or some sort of epilogue wrapping things up a bit more. It's such an intriguing ending and one that I didn't see coming, that I'd love to see more of that portion of the storyline. Also, I don't see that full Balance was achieved, and I can't see clan Korval leaving the situation as it is. There's apparently a trilogy encompasing Theo's story but from the synopsis, it doesn't sound like it has much to do with clan Korval's story. ( )

Not a favourite despite it's bringing together an end of various previous plot lines. It is Not a suitable place to begin reading the Liaden series.

Very jumpy with a lot of switches in character and location - not all as well signaled as the should have been. This picks up from the scenes at the end of Plan B, with Korval more or less re-united offworld but under attack from the Deptartment of the interior. I'm not quite sure why they're re-united because the Plan calls for them to scatter far and wide. However they have done so, and this describes most of the actions they take as Balance, in returning to Liad. In this they are aided by Pat Rin, dis-favoured cousin who has fled to Surebleak (Mira's old homeworld). Pat Rin setsabout on conquest within a remarkable period of time before discovering his lifemate - somewhat predicatbly. Korval now seems to have only lifemated partners, and how it will manage it's genetic diversity remains unasked.

Other than that much as other Liaden books. But somewho short of action and plot - probably because of the frequent character jumps. I feel it would have been much better as Pat Rin's book with another covering the eventual Balance. ( )