Whew, hard book to review. Not because it's not a page turning novel because it is - do not start this when you have other things pending [such as cookies in the oven, children in need of transport, or parents needing to be picked up at the airport]. Those of us who have read the books that are chronologically later know what has to happen in this book - and that's what makes this a hard review for me. So let's leave it as:
Great book, great read, great plot, great characters - and have the later books handy for follow-up reads...

This book belongs to 'branch' in the main storyline. Since Scout's Progress and Mouse and Dragon [literally] overlap, don't read M & D without reading SP. Reading Local Custom first would be good, but not urgently necessary. Below is the way I order the books:

Great Migration & Founding of Clan Korval
Crystal Soldier (2005)
Crystal Dragon (2006)

Older Terran/Liaden history
Balance of Trade

Current Generation - Korval main line
Conflict of Honors
Agent of Change
Carpe Diem
Plan B
I Dare

Previous generation - Korval side branch
Local Custom
Scout's Progress
Mouse and Dragon
Fledgling
Saltation
Meets up with the main line in I Dare...

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Wonderful book! A direct sequel to Scout's Progress that fills in the story between the end of that novel and what we know eventually happens from having read the original Liaden trilogy of Agent of Change, Conflict of Honors, Carpe Diem. I couldn't put it down and was very very happy to finally find out how exactly things got from here to there.

The only mildly annoying thing was that the little tidbits at the beginnings of the chapters (quotes from the Code or various documents) were almost entirely the same bits at the beginnings of the chapters in Scout's Progress. That might not have been as obvious or irritating if I hadn't read them on back to back nights.

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