A wide assortment of stories. Leaving aside the Liaden story I was reading for, most of the stories that interested me seem not to come attached to books, unfortunately. The ones they did have books, or series, attached...were mostly ideas and characters that I didn't want to see any more of. Not all - there's a few near the end that were better - but the two stories I liked best (again, aside from Steve and Sharon's) were contest winners, and I think neither author had (yet) written anything else. And then there's the last one, Preferred Seating by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - there's not much to the story, I had some difficulty figuring out when it is (clearly not after Plan B, but Korval seems to be in much the same sort of trouble), it's mostly introducing a few new characters and setting up their connections - but it's lovely, as I expected. Some very interesting wizardry/psionics, characters I want to know more of, and the usual beautifully written descriptions evoking this world very clearly. And I read this book because a reviewer was kind enough to mention that this story is a prequel to their latest chapbook, which I also have and hadn't gotten to reading yet. So I know I'm going to get to see more of these people, yay. Also it's set in Trader's Leap time - I don't (yet) know how that relates to the generation of Korval I know best. More good reading ahead of me. ( )