My sister has an excellent rule, one that I don't follow and I'm not going to follow here. She doesn't start unfinished series, no matter how good. I think this one is worth it, even as I'm frustrated that the author is too busy with some other series to get back to this one soon. She says on her website that she will, so I hold out some hope, and recall that Jack Vance took 30-odd years to finish one of his series, but he did finish it.

If you like romance, sweeping epic storytelling, gender bending and intrigue, you'll love these books. The first one is a stand-alone, and it's romantic and uplifting enough that you don't even have to be straight to enjoy the love story. The remaining books spin out an increasingly complex tale of civilizations that clash, high tech and low, and paints a familiar picture of how cultures get along, or don't, as "progess" and "development" come to them. The author also doesn't shy away from exploring topics like race relations, religion, homosexuality and conspiracy. Best of all, they are "happy" books, in that while not all the characters get everything they want, you're not left feeling depressed and down on humanity, like after so many similar tales.

Sometimes one needs to take a break from our depressing and horrifying world, and I recommend these books to those of you looking for a little distraction. Although, reading them again does make me long for the 90s; so much of what is produced in mass market fiction today leaves me bored and angry that literature is truly becoming a lost art in our society. Corporatism sucks.