This is the third book starring Jethri Gobelyn ven'Deelin who has come far from being an unwanted extra on his birth ship to becoming a fully trained and competent trader. This story sees Jethri gaining his own ship through the offices of his mother foster Master Trader Norn ven'Deelin Clan Ixin and Master Trader pin'Aker Clan Midys who both expect great things of him.

They send him to the South Axis Trade Fair which is a gathering of Terran traders. This is an ideal location for him to talk about the Envidaria - a document talking about the future of trade which was first written by Jethri's father Arin who died when Jethri was a child.

But the Envidaria is not a universally popular document. Members of the Combine and TerraTrade don't want anything to upset their very comfortable current situation. And, after all, the coming of Rostov's Dust won't affect very many worlds. Jethri disagrees and needs to get very political if he is going to be able to save the Loopers, and family ships, and the planets who will be disrupted by the coming Dust.

Jethri has allies. Freza and Brabham from the Balrog have been working on Arin's plan since long before Jethri even knew about it. And other Loopers are also signing on to make the changes needed to survive the coming of Rostov's Dust. He also has enemies at the Trade Fair including Senior Technical Administrator Bory Borygard of TerraTrade who knew Jethri's father and disliked the Envidaria because it would disrupt his comfortable life.

Jethri has obstacles outside the congress too. While his master and mentor want him to be raised to the rank of Master Trader, the Liaden Trade Guild has enough members who don't want a Terran to be admitted to their ranks to throw a number of obstacles in Jethri's way.

Outside this main story of Jethri at the Trade Fair, we have the story of Dulcimer and her crew. They used to trade on the dark side with contacts who look like earlier versions of the Juntavas. But with the death of their parents, the new captain wants to shift their focus to the clean, legal side of trade. They also have a pod of norbears onboard which is causing conflict between those who want to keep them there and those who want to space the animals. Squithen Patel is the one who communicates best with the norbears but is otherwise a very low-ranked member of the crew. She was a very interesting character. The hints at the story of how the norbears came to be on Dulcimer is a story I want to know.

There is also another plot line concerning the Elsavair and her crew who seem to be earlier versions of the Bedel. They trade in Old Tech and have deals with the Uncle who happens to be Jethri's actual uncle being the brother of his father Arin. Jethri is particularly sensitive to Old Tech, a tweak his uncle and father built into his genetics, and ends up buying some disturbing devices from the Elsavair including a device worn like a hood which is a teaching tool that almost overwhelms him.

My only complaint about this story was that, while progress was made on a number of fronts, nothing was finished. It does make me eager for the fourth book in Jethri's story which is still mainly residing in the authors' brains as I finish this book. ( )

This is the continuation of the story of Trader Jethri Gobelyn. It is the back story of how the Liaden and Terran trade alliances began and brings in the back story of the Dust and the effect it is having on the planets on the Edge. This is not in any way a stand-alone book. Without the information from the previous stories it is very difficult to keep track of the rapidly multiplying cast and their many relationships. The pacing of the story is fairly slow. Tthere is a new ship crew introduced- the Dulcimer and it's rescued group of Norbears which does not seem to have much relationship to the main story of Jethri trying to implement his Father's plan to keep the Family-based Loopers actively employed and overcoming the threat of Rostov's Dust.
It's an interesting story for those already familiar with the characters and setting but not for anyone new to the series. . ( )

As usual, it's been long enough since the previous book in this sequence that I'm a bit lost on some of the details. Which does nothing at all to detract from this book (well, ok, maybe a little - it might be even better read in immediate sequence. I'll try that, sometime). Jethri is hitting some high spots - at the beginning of the book, he gets sent to be head trader on a smaller ship. And then things get interesting. He's making a good, solid set of enemies... The second half of the story is the Dulcimer, with the norbears and Squithy and the rest of her crew. There's a lot of interesting things going on there, too, as they work on changing course. And they share some of Jethri's enemy list - and friend list, too. Dulsey and the Uncle play their parts, and there's a couple groups of people who aren't on the mainstream of Trade but get drawn into events. It's a great story itself, with its own completed arc, and advances the series arc a lot. Can't wait for the next one! ( )

Jethri Gobelyn was born and raised on a Terran family Loop ship, where he was an unfavored junior, resented by the Captain for reasons of family history. Unexpected events led to him being taken aboard the Liaden tradeship Elthoria, and rising to the rank of second trader under his foster mother, Norn ven'Deelin Clan Ixin.

Now new changes are coming into his life. He's being transferred to be Lead Trader on a smaller Liaden ship, attending his first big Terran trade conference, and taking the lead position in pushing for the adoption of his late father's plan to revamp the trade loops to enable the small Looper ships like the one he grew up on to survive the encroachment of Rostov's Dust.

While he has allies in that last project, including some very influential Looper families, he also has quite dedicated opponents. These include TerraTrade itself, which favors remaking the trade routes to have Loopers acting as feeder ships to the big trade ships, not directly to the planets in the Rostov's Dust region. And this is utterly logical and reasonable, if your main concern is profit and stability. The big ships can't jump as far into the Dust, or as reliably, as small ships, and skipping a planet for a cycle or two would be just a business decision for the big ships, not the abandonment of trusted trade partners, as it is for the small ships. People would die because getting to them cost too much for the big ships.

Meanwhile, Jethri has a mistaken-identify problem. He looks just like his father, who looked just like the enigmatic figure called the Uncle, for the very simple reason that in fact they are all clones. This causes some actually quite reasonable small traders who unfortunately trade mostly in salvaged bits of the banned "old tech." and assume Jethri is a connection to Uncle, who generally buys it readily.

Another small ship on the edges of Looper society has its own problems, as the previous captain and first officer have died, and the younger generation are trying to break out of their elders' own fondness for crooked trading with a nasty small-time criminal gang leader. When the gang leader tries to hijack their ship and get the ship's recently acquired family of norbears--still largely unknown in this earlier time in Liaden Universe history--seized as dangerous, diseased animals, Jethri and his Looper allies get caught up in that, too...

Even as some snootier members of the Liaden Trade Guild are trying to get Jethri blocked from promotion to Master Trader because they don't like the fact that he's Terran.

There's culture clash, old friends, new friends, the first norbears in Liaden space, unsuspected minor populations including descendants of Liadens who opted out of the rigid society on Liad, Jethri facing challenges he feels inadequately trained for at best, and a lot of fun.

Recommended.

I believe I got this book as a gift. In any case, I'm reviewing it voluntarily. ( )

We get to spend time taking tea and other beverages with the good people, watch them maneuver around the malicious or self-serving and progress toward their goals a few clicks of the gears. Oh, and norbears are on the verge of coming into the Liaden® sphere of influence by way of Jethri. ( )