BALANCE OF TRADE, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Meisha Merlin Publishing, Decatur, Ga., 2004, hardcover, 464 pages, $25.

Winslow authors Lee and Miller have returned with the latest installment in their intelligent space adventure series, set in their well-realized Liaden Universe.

For newcomers to the series, Liadens are shorter in stature but longer-lived than humans, and have prospered while following a strict and exhaustive code of honor.

Perhaps calling it the latest in the eight-volume series is deceptive. In terms of chronology, it’s actually the earliest, with the action taking place 250 years before the next earliest novel, “Conflict of Honors.” This makes it a good jumping-on point for new visitors to the Liaden Universe, which gets more involved the further the reader gets into it.

At the center of “Balance of Trade” is teenage human Jethri Gobelyn. Jethri grew up aboard his family’s cargo ship, Gobelyn’s Market, captained by his distant mother, Iza, (his father Arin died in an accident years before). Jethri helps out on the ship while, like many his age, he tries to discover his niche in life.

After a particularly profitable trading run, Iza decides to bring the ship into dry-dock for retrofitting. This requires only essential personnel, and Jethri isn’t that, so he’s cut loose and allowed to find his own way. A misadventure in trading ends up earning Jethri a berth as apprentice to the Liaden master trader Norn ven’Deelin, an arrangement unheard of between the two species.

The book follows Jethri’s maturation from a callow youth to a polished human ambassador among the Liadens. In addition to creating a terrific new cast of characters for future stories, Lee and Miller also fill in some of the history that helps explain the background of previously published books in the series, weaving in exposition without sacrificing action along the way.

Dale McGarrigle can be reached at dmcgarrigle@bangordailynews.net.