Agent of Change Review

Agent of Change is a Liaden Universe novel by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. The book is one of two free entry points into Lee and Miller's science fiction universe where mankind (in three main forms) has spread throughout the stars and shares the universe with several space-faring alien species.

Agent of Change is the story of Val Con, a spy whom the reader is introduced to as Terrence O'Grady, a disguise he uses to complete the mission he is on. Following that mission, Val Con comes into contact with Miri Robertson, a former mercenary who is under attack from members of an organized crime group called the Juntavas. What follows is a chase story as Val Con and Miri try to escape those after them while not quite trusting each other.

Along the way, Lee and Miller continue to peel back the layers on a broader Universe that the reader gets the sense has a lot of depth and history waiting to be explored. In that Universe the various human factions (Terran, Liaden and the Yxtrang) are consipiring (or in outright conflict) with each other and non-humans like the Clutch (a sentient turtle-like alien race) of which Edger (above) is a member. Behind this is the organized crime group, Juntavas, which is looking out for its own interests even to the detriment of our main characters. All in all this is a fast-paced story with tense moments and several humorous interactions as we get to know Val Con and Miri and follow them on their race to escape their enemies.

Once you are done with Agent of Change, you will be happy to find that there are (at least) an additional 15 novels, several chapter books and short stories to learn more about the Liaden Universe. The series has been published for over 20 years going through several publishers (and being saved early on by the persistence and loyalty of fans) and is currently published by Baen Books. Baen offers two of the books in the series as free ebooks and others are available individually or as omnibus editions. There are several entry points into the Universe and the books often do not follow chronologically, so it is recommended that after picking one of the free entry points that you check out Lee and Miller's website where they cover the order to the books here.

I found Agent of Change, written in the 1980s, to be fun and quite enjoyable. It didn't suffer from some of the challenges of earlier science fiction novels where the technology of today makes what was written feel outdated or obsolete. Plus the books is free. Well worth your time, I give Agent of Change 3 and a half Mick Happies. Go get a copy for yourself here.

The Secret World Chronicle Review

For those who don't know, there is a whole world of podcast audiobooks out there. These are books, either published or not that authors have decided to have read or performed for your listening enjoyment. The most famous of these may be those by Scott Sigler - see here. But right about the same time Scott was giving us audio horror, Mercedes Lackey (well-known author in her own right) got a group of writers together to start a shared world story akin to Wild Cards called the Secret World Chronicle.

The Secret World Chronicle is based in an alternate version of our world where superheroes called metahumans exist and many work to maintain law and order throughout the world. This is thrown into chaos when a mysterious group of armored soldiers and metahumans attack all over the world causing devastation. The story focused mainly in Atlanta, where one of the metahuman groups, Echo, works to understand who has attacked and how to stop them from doing so again. Each book of the series expands on the story of the metahuman and regular human men and women of Echo and other groups as they deal with a world at war fighting to determine how to stop a menace no one knew was coming.

This is the start to the Secret World Chronicle, which has been podcasted (available for free on iTunes) since 2006 and is currently "airing" its sixth book in the series. Each book is a single narrative brought together through a set of stories by different authors. The authors working with Mercedes Lackey are Steve Libbey (books 1 & 2), Larry Dixon, Dennis Lee, Cody Martin and Veronica Giguere. Veronica also pulls double-duty as the producer and voice for the podcast version of the books. The podcast has also successfully led to the first few books in the series being published by Baen books - more here. As a side note, many of the characters in the story started life as characters of the authors in the City of Heroes MMO.

If you like Super Heroes, big battles, strong characters and well performed audio books, then you should give the Secret World Chronicles a try. The characters are not all good, with many that are broken or damaged from their past and we get to see how they deal with the situation the authors have placed them in. One of my favorite things about the series is how well Veronica Giguere does in giving each character a distinct voice, making it easy for the listener to fall into the story.

I started listening to the Secret World Chronicle in 2006 when I had a long commute to work and it was a great way to pass the trip. I recently started back listening again and have been rapidly consuming books 3 and 4. The story keeps up the adrenaline and doesn't pull any punches. If you have a long drive or just want a fun story with Super Heroes, go out and download the Secret World Chronicle, a 4 Mick Happies podcast novel series. I know I will be listening to more tomorrow on the way to work.

2012-2013 TV Wrap-Up

Not too long after the 2012-2013 TV season started, I posted my thoughts on a few of the shows that my family was watching. Now at the end of the season, I thought I would revisit those thoughts with the benefit of the whole picture.

Those that didn't make it:
There were a few shows that we watched and the dropped over the course of the year. Those included Suburgatory, Revolution and regrettably Suits. Suburgatory was dropped after one episode due to the lack of funny story lines and the seemingly too-hard trying to be quirky. Revolution made it much farther, but after the long hiatus and weak story lines, I have dropped to reading synopses online and haven't bothered to see how it ended. I would have preferred not to know how the power went out and have the story lines about rebuilding civilization and dealing with the difficulties of living without power. Lastly is Suits, which came back for the second part of Season two just after the holidays and really lost the two against difficult cases vibe that had worked for the show throughout Season one. Just haven't been able to get through the last four or five episodes yet.

Those that won't be picked up for next year (by us):
When I say picked up, I mean buying a season pass on iTunes so that I can see the episodes the day after they air. This list includes shows like Hart of Dixie (wife and daughter were watching this one) and The Big Bang Theory (BBT). We have enjoyed BBT for years and own every season so far on DVD or digitally. This season saw many stale jokes and situations, short episode times and a major lack of character growth. Some of the characters are made too "bitchy", some never learn from their mistakes and others aren't allowed to have enough screen time eventhough they are most of what made this last season even partially watchable. The Penny character has become lame with her dealing with everything with either snide comments or drinking heavily. Sheldon on the other hand continues to be the most consistently funny character but the lack of growth until the very last few episodes was disappointing as well. Maybe we'll pick up the 2013 - 2014 season on DVD in Fall 2014.

Show that was okay, but has been cancelled:
Go On. They really should make that group session video on YouTube lamenting the show being cancelled that I tweeted about after the cancellation. I will miss John Cho's character the most of any on the show.

Shows we will be glad to see back next year:
This list is pretty small, but the main one here is Elementary. The show was good and the chemistry between the lead actors is as well. We (my wife and I watch this one) also liked that they didn't fall into the "must have a cliffhanger" finale trap and gave some resolution while there definitely being more stories to tell. Lost Girl also is in this category eventhough the ending did have a cliffhanger that really wasn't necessary. See the review for the season here.

Shows I am having to wait for, but will be watching when they hit DVD:
This list covers shows that either we caught the pilot episode but weren't able to get the others or we didn't want to get the season pass. Vikings from the History Channel, Game of Thrones season 3 (naturally), Orphan Black from the BBC and Supernatural. We have been hearing good things about all of these and were surprised by the resurgence of Supernatural since we gave up after the Leviathan story line had been so annoying. Be interesting to see if it as good as the "buzz" is saying. I am also looking forward to giving Defiance a try too.

Best show of the year: Elementary

Runner up: Lost Girl

Update: Honorable Mentions: Grimm and Continuum

That's it. The year over and a couple months to wait for shows to come back. Maybe I can get caught up on older shows I didn't get to when they aired like Fringe, Eureka, Warehouse 13, etc.

Be back soon with new reviews.