Vorkosigan Saga #12: Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold

Posted on February 19, 2018 by MrPopularSentiment

Read: 18 February, 2018

I was very clever and read the “Borders of Infinity” novella before coming back to this book. While the book Borders of Infinity comes next in the chronological order, the novella (which can be found in the book) comes just before Brothers in Arms. While it isn’t absolutely necessary to read them in that order, much of Brothers in Arms is dealing with the aftermath of the story in “Borders of Infinity”, so I do think it’s best to read them in order. What I did was read all the novellas in Borders of Infinity, then come back and read Brothers in Arms, then read the framing device in Borders of Infinity.

It’s probably no surprise that I really loved this one. So far, the Vorkosigan has been a whole lot more hit than miss. I love the dissection of identity and personhood, and I love the exploration of how wartime actions and choices can keep coming back to haunt whole lineages.

We haven’t heard much about Earth so far in the series, so it was interesting to see how Bujold sees the future right here at home.

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Vorkosigan Saga #13: Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold

Posted on February 19, 2018 by MrPopularSentiment

Read: 18 February, 2018

I recommend reading the third novella, “Borders of Infinity”, before reading Brothers in Arms, as the events in the novella come up quite a bit in that book.

There isn’t too much to the framing device – Miles is back on Barrayar, getting interviewed by security chief Simon Illyan about some recent missions (and the expenses they accrued). As far as I can recall, there’s nothing that gives away key plot points of Brothers in Arms (spoiler: Miles survives), so this book could be read first, even though it comes next chronologically.

It was nice to see Cordelia again, however briefly. Since Barrayar, she’s often been a presence, though usually only off-screen. That said, I can understand Bujold’s choice. Both Cordelia and Aral are rather larger-than-life characters in Miles’s mind, so it makes sense to keep them hidden from the reader to preserve Miles’s perspective.

The Mountains of Mourning

I reviewed this in more detail in Dreaweaver’s Dilemma. It’s still a heart-wrenching novella, in addition to being a really good exploration of Miles in his home environment. It does a lot to show us the tension between the old ways and the new world that Aral (and, to a lesser extent, Miles) is trying to create.

Labyrinth

Despite the questionable romance between a 20-some year old and a sheltered sixteen year old (somewhat mitigated along other power axes), I really dug this story. I loved the exploration of humanity that Bujold did so well in Ethan of Athos, and the way it kept coming up to hammer at Miles, smoothing out his prejudices. I enjoyed seeing more of Bel Thorne, particularly the exploration of its gender fluidity. It reminded me of the romance in LeGuin’s Left Hand of Darkness, where a gender fluid individual shifts presentation to accommodate the preferences of a heterosexual.

I also liked the theme of accessibility. It’s always around when Miles is present, of course, due to his brittle bones, but here we also see someone who requires a mobility aid. It’s just not something that many authors think to include in their stories – even in science fiction, where technology could remove so many barriers to public participation for people with disabilities or physical differences.

Mostly, though, I loved getting to see a quaddie again. I’ve been dying to find out how they’ve been getting on ever since Falling Free, and here we see one – two hundred years later, a product of an ongoing colony. I wish we could have spent more time with her, but it was lovely to get that much.

The Borders of Infinity

I just didn’t click with this one so much. Some of it is just the setting, which I don’t think would have ever worked for me. I didn’t like it in Riddick, I don’t like it here. But, also, because there’s a sort-of-twist ending, Bujold chose to hide a lot of Miles’s thinking from the reader. The joy of reading the Vorkosigan stories is in getting to see all the strategies and counter strategies that Miles comes up with – and if we don’t know what he’s trying to accomplish, it just isn’t nearly as fun.

This wasn’t a bad story, by any means, but I do think it’s the weakest of the Vorkosigan stories that I’ve read so far.

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Vorkosigan Saga #8: Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold

Posted on January 3, 2018 by MrPopularSentiment

Read: 2 January, 2018

The Cetagandans have lurked in the shadows of this series since the beginning, but – other than a brief glimpse in Warrior’s Apprentice – this is the first time we’ve gotten to meet any of them.

The stakes don’t feel quite as high in this book, for some reason, but the worldbuilding is incredible. It reminded me a bit of A Door Into Ocean and Dune, in the sense that women are in charge of bio-engineering. And, in all three books, it’s through the monopoly of bio-engineering that these women secure their power/freedom.

I liked the way the female and male spheres were separated, yet also intertwined and interdependent – mirrored by the relationship between the haut and the ghem classes.

Mostly, though, I liked that all of this was just a glimpse. Miles is permitted a peek at the inner lives of the haut, but no more than that. I can’t wait to see both how Miles’s actions in this book will affect the Cetagandans of the future, as well as how his experiences with them will affect his own responses to their future conflicts.

I love seeing how much Miles seems to be maturing as the series progresses. He seems more self-aware now, with a greater understanding of why he does the things he does (like keep problems secret from his superiors until he can solve them himself).

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Vorkosigan Saga #7: The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

Posted on December 21, 2017 by MrPopularSentiment

Read: 21 December, 2017

Miles is at it again!

Freshly graduated from the academy, Miles’s first posting is in an isolated polar base where they send people they’d rather just forget about

This book reminded me somewhat of Shards of Honor, at least in its structure. Both books can be divided neatly into two – each portion having its own separate plot, its own resolutions, its own setting. But, at the same time, the events of the first come back to become integral to the events of the second. So in both books, we get two distinct novellas that complement each other. In this case, we get Miles at the polar base, and then Miles in space and far, far away from home.

Warrior’s Apprentice came with something of a wakeup call. It’s all fun and games as Miles gallivants around the universe having adventures, until responsibility starts hitting him in waves – first the danger to himself, then the danger to his friends and crew, and then the danger to the entire political system of Barrayar.

In The Vor Game, we get a somewhat wiser, more jaded Miles. He’s not much older, but he has a better understanding of his responsibilities, and of how badly his actions can harm others. Even better, we get to watch, from his perspective, as the Emperor Gregor goes through the same lesson.

It’s this negotiation of danger (especially as the spheres of danger come into conflict with each other) that makes this book so interesting.

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Vorkosigan Saga #5: The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold

Posted on October 20, 2017 by MrPopularSentiment

Read: 20 October, 2017

I’ve seen Miles before (not counting his time as a fetus and small child in Barrayar) in “The Mountains of Mourning”. As a short story set in a very fleshed-out universe, “Mountains” didn’t give me too much to go on about Miles, except for his odd relationship to his people – as a mutant, as a half-foreigner, as a lord…

Apprentice didn’t give me too much more to go on in understanding his relationships with his family members (Aral gets about as much page time here as he did in “Mountains”), but I did get to see a lot more of Miles himself. Much of the book is spent off-world, which was an interesting contrast to “Mountains” as it gave me a glimpse into how Miles is Barrayaran, as opposed to how he is not.

A big focus of the story is on his relationship with Bothari. In fact, Bothari’s been fairly central to all three of the books I’ve read so far, with Escobar as the linchpin to many of the central events in all three. Miles’s relationship with Bothari is, of course, very different from Aral’s or Cordelia’s, and that added an interesting dynamic.

Mostly, though, this book is funny. Bujold is great at this deadpan absurdism – in this case as Miles accidentally builds an army. Throughout the first 2/3rds of the book, Miles just goes from situation to situation, snowballing his successes well beyond what he’s able to handle. It’s like the Chosen One trope, but self-aware.

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Vorkosigan Saga #4: Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

Posted on October 12, 2017 by MrPopularSentiment

Read: 12 October, 2017

Shards of Honour gave us the Cordelia and Aral’s ‘meet cute’, and now Barrayar gives us Miles’s origin story. But, of course, there’s so much more.

I loved this book. Cordelia and Aral mesh together so much better than they did in Shards, even though they spend so little time together. I loved Cordelia’s commitment to her son, in a society where he is seen as disposable at best. I loved the description of childbirth, which is hands down the most relatable labour scene I’ve ever read (and that includes descriptions in childbirthing non-fiction books). And I loved the ending, which resonated with Shards in an almost comical way.

The only weakness that I could see was Droushnakovi and Koudelka’s relationship – and then not for any literary reason. I just found Koudelka, who started off sympathetic, to be utterly aggravating.

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