Tag Archives: Barrayar

Vorkosigan Saga #17: A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold

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Read: 17 October, 2018

Would it really shock anyone if I said that I loved this?

Wit, political intrigue, plots, subterfuge, and romance. And just because that wasn’t quite enough, Bujold throws in a trans man, and handles him reasonably well.

I liked Ekaterin right off the bat. She isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, mostly because Quinn was such an immediate force of nature. But, I find, Ekaterin is, too. She’s just been stifled for too long that she doesn’t know her own power. Right from Komarr, however, it was clear that that power was there, hiding somewhere just beneath the surface. A Civil Campaign has her go through the process of finding it, and I suspect that she will get to properly own it in a coming book.

The marriage proposal itself was perfect. It was absolutely everything this series demanded from it. It was so dramatic and funny and wonderful, and I absolutely loved it.

Ivan is acting more the Bertie Wooster than ever, and his scenes were an absolute joy, as well.

I’m still a bit ambivalent on Mark, and I find his emotional dependency on Kareen rather frightening. I don’t want her to end up subsuming her own life to manage his. That said, at least Mark is working on it, which is more than most men in his position tend to do. And as for Kareen herself, she is certainly learning how to identify her own wants/needs and to speak out for them.

We’re eleven books and a novella into the series and, somehow, the characters – even Miles himself – still manage to show so much growth. I was blown away at the very end when Miles is every bit the imposing count that his father is, and I realised that this is who he is now. I can remember skin-of-his-teeth Miles from Warrior’s Apprentice, and his growth into this self-possessed master of his own domain has been so gradual that I’ve hardly noticed it, but it’s been natural. Having him find a widow who is in also in her 30s and who has a son who will be a teenager in not too long seems perfectly fitting.

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Vorkosigan Saga #16: Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold

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Read: 11 September, 2018

In Mirror Dance, we got to know Mark. It was the first time since Cordelia’s books that we spent a good deal of time in another character’s head. And it made sense that we’d be given Mark – so similar to Miles, and yet so notably different.

In Komarr, the narrative is again shared, this time by Ekatrin. This is her book, giving her time to come into herself as she is freed from an unhappy marriage. There’s also a political mystery in there somewhere for Miles the Imperial Auditor to solve, but that almost feels like an afterthought.

I love Ekatrin. Right from her first moment on her balcony, tending to her ugly little plants, bristling at her husband’s presence. She’s the historical woman – smart, strong, and competent, but kept uneducated and off-balance. I love that Miles saw right through her conditioning to her potential, and I loved that she didn’t just run to him as a rescuer. He may have seen her potential, but her character arc happens when she sees her own potential, and it’s not hearing it from Miles that makes her do so.

I enjoyed meeting Ekatrin, and I look forward to seeing how her relationship with Miles develops. Mostly, though, I look forward to seeing how she develops.

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Vorkosigan Saga #15: Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold

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Read: 28 August, 2018

I was trying to explain to someone about this book I was reading. Nothing’s happening, the main character is just kinda wandering around in a depression funk. He goes on a little vacation to the country, too. No, it isn’t boring at all, actually. It’s wonderful!

Sometimes, you just gotta read it for yourself.

The plot proper (anything that could be mentioned in a blurb) doesn’t actually start until at least halfway in. Before that, Miles is still dealing with the aftershocks of his temporary death in Mirror Dance – both physical and psychological. But this is Bujold, master of character, and it is riveting stuff.

Once the plot itself got underway, I barely had time to come up for air. I was nearly late for work this morning because I had to sit in the car out in the parking lot just so I could finish “just this chapter, I swear!”

Needless to say, I really enjoyed this one. Miles’s life is in for a heck of a change, and I am so excited to see where this leads!

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Vorkosigan Saga #14: Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold

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Read: 9 May, 2018

This is the first time since Barrayar that we’ve had a book that focuses on the Vorkosigans but not on Miles. We met Miles’s clone/brother in Brothers in Arms, but there wasn’t much to him – he’d been conditioned and trained to imitate Miles, and had never been given much space or encouragement to develop a self of his own. At the time, it was so significant just for Miles to give him a name.

So it was really quite a joy to see the birth of Mark as a real, distinct person. Bujold has done a fantastic job of showing that split between the two of them, while also showing us the aspects of them that remain very similar.

I normally find the series to be very comedic – largely driven by Miles’s deadpan commentaries. But without Miles, much of that comedy was missing as well. Combined with a rather uncomfortably long torture sequence, this was the hardest book to read in the series. Still enjoyable, but boy did it ever get dark.

One of the recurring details in the book is Mark’s weight. His metabolism is much slower than Miles’s, plus he has an eating disorder. I’m rather conflicted about this. On the one hand, I really didn’t appreciate all the characters staring at Mark’s body in disgust, nor all the times characters talk about their concern for their health (presented matter-of-factly, as though it were a scientific truth that fat=ill-health, absent other factors). Enough of that, thanks.

On the other hand, Mark’s weight is an important means for him to forge his own identity, and I did like that, in the end, he chose to remain fat and seems quite happy with his body.

I just wish that there had been some character other than Mark himself who could recognise that fat isn’t disgusting or necessarily unhealthy. And I wish that the focus of people’s shock was more on the speed of his weight gain or the difference between his body and Miles’s, rather than disgust at his corpulence.

I don’t think I’d want to spend a whole series with Mark, but I’m glad that I got to spend more time with him. And I loved the way his budding self-hood was handled. He has the typical Vorkosigan Extreme Excellence, but I really liked that it’s a very different kind of excellence from Miles.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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