--- Title: Agent of Change Subtitle: Sometimes you just need “popcorn”—and this is exactly that. Category: Art Tags: [book reviews, science fiction] slug: agent-of-change # because I want to preserve the original feed entry Date: 2018-02-16 06:30 Summary: Sometimes you just need “popcorn”—and Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s first novel is exactly that. (Just… pardon the frequent POV switches.) --- I keep my book review ratings simple---they're either *required*, *recommended*, *recommended with qualifications*, or *not recommended*. If you want the TL;DR, this is it: **Recommended:** Sometimes you just need “popcorn”—and Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s first novel is exactly that. (Just… pardon the frequent POV switches.) --- At my friend [Stephen](http://stephencarradini.com)’s recommendation (“a surprisingly fun sci-fi adventure romp. Lots of romantic tension, surprisingly chaste (and pretty satisfying) payoff [with] some of the coolest, most interesting protagonist aliens I've read about in a long time”) I picked up Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s _Agent of Change_,[^1] and I quite enjoyed it. Sometimes, in the midst of hammering away at work and dealing with the tumult of moving into a new house, it’s nice to grab the literary equivalent of a bag of chips or a bowl of popcorn. This is that. There was nothing in this book that was anything like as interesting or engaging as sci-fi [can be](http://v4.chriskrycho.com/2017/icehenge.html "Icehenge (review on this site)")—but it was, in Stephen’s words, an *adventure romp*, and that was perfect. The characters are fun, well-drawn if never particularly surprising. The plot is essentially an escape story (and in more ways than it first appears). The only real *problem* on display with the book is that it completely disregards anything like modern conventions around point-of-view. A paragraph break is sufficient for a total change of internal perspective. This drove me crazy the entire book. Might I read another entry in this universe, the next time I’m looking for merely a romp? Indeed I might. [^1]: _Agent of Change_ is the first book in their Liaden series. It’s also listed as anything *but* the first book, because republication and branding have dropped it at its chronological position in their larger universe… but book *nine* it is not, whatever Amazon tells you.