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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
sunlitrain's review against another edition
3.0
Quite satisfying. I'll have to look up more books in this universe.
continuity23's review against another edition
3.0
(Note: this review addresses both Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon, as I read them together)
Lovely as it is to finally meet Jela and Cantra yos’Phelium, the rather unconventional founders of Liad’s most unconventional clan, I was not overly thrilled by these books. The essence of Lee and Miller’s storytelling in their later books is a rather impressionistic skitter of scenes that outline episodes from a life rather than, strictly speaking, “telling a story”. It works reasonably well for the early romances, and manages despite a few bobbles, to work for the Agent of Change sequence as well, carrying through on the basis of splendid characterization what it occasionally lacks in plot. The trouble is, the connections between the rest of the Agent of Change books and the Great Migration duology are simply too complex and tenuous to survive the fragmented storytelling. Taken simply as an independent duology, this works quite well—Cantra and Jela are as entertaining as their later descendants imply, and the Tree takes a more active part than it gets in the later books. Taken as the prequel to on of my most-loved series, it’s a crashing failure, leaving me with an awful lot of name-checks (ahh, Solcintra. Liad. Dea’Guass…Lute and Moonhawk??) and profoundly unsatisfied as to the relationship between the universe of Cantra and the universe of Val Con and his contemporaries. If the authors know the answer, they aren’t telling, but it ends up feeling like two entirely dissimilar series linked by all too many names.
Lovely as it is to finally meet Jela and Cantra yos’Phelium, the rather unconventional founders of Liad’s most unconventional clan, I was not overly thrilled by these books. The essence of Lee and Miller’s storytelling in their later books is a rather impressionistic skitter of scenes that outline episodes from a life rather than, strictly speaking, “telling a story”. It works reasonably well for the early romances, and manages despite a few bobbles, to work for the Agent of Change sequence as well, carrying through on the basis of splendid characterization what it occasionally lacks in plot. The trouble is, the connections between the rest of the Agent of Change books and the Great Migration duology are simply too complex and tenuous to survive the fragmented storytelling. Taken simply as an independent duology, this works quite well—Cantra and Jela are as entertaining as their later descendants imply, and the Tree takes a more active part than it gets in the later books. Taken as the prequel to on of my most-loved series, it’s a crashing failure, leaving me with an awful lot of name-checks (ahh, Solcintra. Liad. Dea’Guass…Lute and Moonhawk??) and profoundly unsatisfied as to the relationship between the universe of Cantra and the universe of Val Con and his contemporaries. If the authors know the answer, they aren’t telling, but it ends up feeling like two entirely dissimilar series linked by all too many names.
max_pink's review against another edition
5.0
What a bananas book. Ambitious, confusing, stuffed to the brim with magic and worldbuilding that I barely grasped...and utterly compelling. It made me cry.
I got real in my feelings about this one. Part of this might have been the result of my discovering that Steve Miller passed away in February of this year (2024). That makes a lot of the themes of this book hit harder. What do you do when a loved one dies? You grieve, and you keep going for them. You make the friends that they didn't have the chance to. And, sometimes, you save the world.
I got real in my feelings about this one. Part of this might have been the result of my discovering that Steve Miller passed away in February of this year (2024). That makes a lot of the themes of this book hit harder. What do you do when a loved one dies? You grieve, and you keep going for them. You make the friends that they didn't have the chance to. And, sometimes, you save the world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery and Violence
Moderate: Rape
sherwoodreads's review against another edition
Crystal Dragon is the second half of the Great Migration Duology. Readers should realize that this is not a sequel so much as the second half of the story began in Crystal Soldier. In that book we met Jela (full name M. Jela Granthor’s Guard), the burned-out soldier who was a genetic experiment, and Cantra yos’Phelium, the burned-out smuggler pilot. Jela, stranded for a time on an empty planet, finds a single living tree, and rescues it.
Those who have never read a Liaden book will shrug at those three essentials, but anyone familiar with the series will resonate immediately. This duology is the prequel to all the Clan Korval tales. As the story spins out, elements behave almost like hypertext: you realize, ah, there’s where that came from! Oh, that’s what’s behind that mystery! What’s particularly cool is, I believe that new readers who might begin the Liaden tales with the duology will experience the same effect, only in reverse--when they read the books farther down the timeline they’ll discover what those same crucial elements eventually become. As soon as I finished reading Crystal Dragon I revisited one of the much-read Liaden novels and discovered that story elements I was used to now revealed new layers of meaning, which subtly altered how I perceived each scene, novel, and the overall arc of Liaden history.
It would be a mistake to go into the plot too much because there are so many surprises. So what I’ll do is confine myself to a bare sketch of the story-line, and comments on the reading experience.
Most important, don’t begin with this book--before the prologue it says Part Three. Even those familiar with the Liaden tales up the time-line really ought to read Crystal Soldier first. Crystal Dragon opens with a vastly strange prologue that makes sense only if you’ve read the first book. Chapter One brings us back to humans, specifically Tor An yos’Galan; and Chapter Two shifts us to Cantra and Jela, launching the second of the three lines that eventually converge at the promised galaxy-destroying disaster. In Part Four we meet some new characters--including a cat, who, like the tree, is more than it seems. These new characters form the third thread, binding the aliens and humans together at the last..
Events, and their own inner drive, force Jela and Cantra to transcend their tired, middle-aged humanness. The aliens become gradually less impenetrable and more interesting as the sides in the universe-scale conflict form up. Along the way many questions are answered about the nature and origin of the tree, the dramliza and sheriekas, the true meaning of Korval, and finally where ‘Liad’ comes from. .
The flow of the story begins with deceptive slowness, but the threads bind together around a single thread of luck with inexorable speed, wracking up the tension line to a taut ending. The impact of the last chapter, only a page, was just breathtaking--especially the last line.
Those who have never read a Liaden book will shrug at those three essentials, but anyone familiar with the series will resonate immediately. This duology is the prequel to all the Clan Korval tales. As the story spins out, elements behave almost like hypertext: you realize, ah, there’s where that came from! Oh, that’s what’s behind that mystery! What’s particularly cool is, I believe that new readers who might begin the Liaden tales with the duology will experience the same effect, only in reverse--when they read the books farther down the timeline they’ll discover what those same crucial elements eventually become. As soon as I finished reading Crystal Dragon I revisited one of the much-read Liaden novels and discovered that story elements I was used to now revealed new layers of meaning, which subtly altered how I perceived each scene, novel, and the overall arc of Liaden history.
It would be a mistake to go into the plot too much because there are so many surprises. So what I’ll do is confine myself to a bare sketch of the story-line, and comments on the reading experience.
Most important, don’t begin with this book--before the prologue it says Part Three. Even those familiar with the Liaden tales up the time-line really ought to read Crystal Soldier first. Crystal Dragon opens with a vastly strange prologue that makes sense only if you’ve read the first book. Chapter One brings us back to humans, specifically Tor An yos’Galan; and Chapter Two shifts us to Cantra and Jela, launching the second of the three lines that eventually converge at the promised galaxy-destroying disaster. In Part Four we meet some new characters--including a cat, who, like the tree, is more than it seems. These new characters form the third thread, binding the aliens and humans together at the last..
Events, and their own inner drive, force Jela and Cantra to transcend their tired, middle-aged humanness. The aliens become gradually less impenetrable and more interesting as the sides in the universe-scale conflict form up. Along the way many questions are answered about the nature and origin of the tree, the dramliza and sheriekas, the true meaning of Korval, and finally where ‘Liad’ comes from. .
The flow of the story begins with deceptive slowness, but the threads bind together around a single thread of luck with inexorable speed, wracking up the tension line to a taut ending. The impact of the last chapter, only a page, was just breathtaking--especially the last line.
dryad3's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0
Crystal Dragon is quite a mix. I'd call it essential reading for anyone already invested in the series and characters. The book seems built upon explaining components that come later in the series, so if you've already read the later books, then you can be pulled into the links. However, the different story lines are SO different in style that the transitions feel bumpy, really slowing the overall pace of the book. Additionally, not all of the explanations are that compelling, so we've got an adventure book aiming for some really big sci-fi ideas, and some of them don't fly very well. Still, there are multiple memorable and lovable characters, and I'm always happy to read about the tree. An early rape scene, though, was unexpected and not in line with the overall spirit of the series.
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape
karinlib's review against another edition
4.0
What a wonderful conclusion to the Great Migration Duology!
04/16/2018: Re-reading the series in Chronological order (rather than publication).
04/17/2018: Loved it again.
04/16/2018: Re-reading the series in Chronological order (rather than publication).
04/17/2018: Loved it again.
mary_soon_lee's review against another edition
3.0
"Crystal Dragon" is a direct sequel to "Crystal Soldier," which is chronologically the first book in the authors' Liaden Universe, although far from the first to be written. I highly recommend seeking out the Liaden Universe books ... but start somewhere *other* than this pair of books, perhaps with the thoroughly delightful "Conflict of Honors."
In the case of "Crystal Dragon," I found the sections about the Iloheen strange rather than intriguing, and the hinted-at mathematical theories unpersuasive. The first half of the book didn't compel me. The second half held me much more firmly. There were moments that made me tearful, and characters I cared about very much: Jela, Tor An, dea'Gauss, the cat, the tree. (Yes, one of the characters is a tree.) I would recommend this book primarily to those already familiar with the Liaden Universe, those for whom the characters and ending will resonate.
In the case of "Crystal Dragon," I found the sections about the Iloheen strange rather than intriguing, and the hinted-at mathematical theories unpersuasive. The first half of the book didn't compel me. The second half held me much more firmly. There were moments that made me tearful, and characters I cared about very much: Jela, Tor An, dea'Gauss, the cat, the tree. (Yes, one of the characters is a tree.) I would recommend this book primarily to those already familiar with the Liaden Universe, those for whom the characters and ending will resonate.
felinity's review against another edition
3.0
Essential reading it you want to understand the dramliz and the Enemy, but it's much more esoteric and very difficult to follow unless you know where it's going. My least favorite book of the whole series... but I still reread it.