Sept 2019 READER: To Cut an Edge by Lee & Miller

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

The September 2019 Reader Pick is the short story “To Cut an Edge” by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

This story appears in two collections and is free to read online as well.

Two Tales of Korval by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume I
Free online version:
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781451...

Official description of the story:
Val Con, a rookie scout, meets Edger the knife-making Clutch Turtle.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

This is a first contact story, and a good entry point to the Liaden Universe stories. Both Val Con and Edger appear in Agent of Change which the group read some time back.

I look forward to discussing the story, and I’m likely to also talk about the other stories in the Constellation collection.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

I’m rereading “To Cut an Edge” now. My memory was incorrect: it isn’t a true first contact story. Humans (Terrans at least) and Clutch Turtles have had previous contact. With that said, for Val Con it’s first contact. The natives are ignoring or outright avoiding him, and he doesn’t speak the language (at this point in the story).

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Very good short story, even recalling how it ends.

On to “A Day at the Races” which is the other story in Two Tales of Korval. I’ve read that one enough times to recall how it ends as well. This one isn’t space opera but it’s fun to outwit Aunt Kareen....

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Only going to mention some of the other stories. One that I really like is “Breath’s Duty”. This one is set toward the end of Saltation and I Dare, mostly from Daav’s viewpoint, some from Klonak.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Another favorite: “A Choice of Weapons”. It’s not space opera, but it’s fun. Daav, recently returned from the Scouts, while his mother yet lived. A garden party, and an unusual duel.

[Audrey]

“To Cut an Edge” is sort of first-contact-ish. Val Con didn't know what planet he was dropped on and didn't realize at first that the Clutch Turtles (a term I don't think was used in this short story) knew about Liadens or spoke Trade. He *thought* that he was in a first contact situation. I was amused to notice that for a number of years I have been reading Val Con's friend as Edgar (as in Edgar Allan Poe), when it was really Edger (as in, to put an edge on a blade).

Of course, since I started this story in A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume I, I am now engaged in reading the entire rest of it again.