Falling Free (1988)

A Generic Evil Corporation genetically modifies humans to have arms instead of legs. These four-armed “quaddies” are much more able to function in free-fall (any situation without gravity) than normal humans, so they are a valuable workforce. Unfortunately, Generic Evil Corporation is evil, so when the technology to have gravity on space ships and stations arrives, they decide to kill the expensive and now-outdated quaddie program. Literally kill. All of the quaddies. But hurray! There is also Generic Human Protagonist who wants to save the quaddies! It all very much feels like 50s sci-fi.

Falling Free is kind of like a summer movie. You’re vaguely amused while you’re watching it, but there’s no character development and nothing thought-provoking, just plot and asses. That was my experience with this novel.

And for some reason, there is a completely tacked-on love angle that comes practically out of the blue. After expressing inexplicable and unprompted romantic feelings all of THREE TIMES throughout the entire story, the novel ends with Leo and one of the quaddies kissing passionately and thinking about a new life together.

Their relationship has zero development and adds absolutely nothing to the story. I have no idea why LMB shoved it in.

After how much I loved Paladin of Souls, I was disappointed in my gurl LMB. I think it really shows that this is one of her early novels.
( )

Set 200 years before the Vorkosigan saga begins, this is the story of the beginnings of the Quaddies. They are a bio-genetic engineered race of people, created to live in free fall (the state of no gravity in space) with minimum damage to their bodies. What happens to such a people when there are no laws to give them human status? They are classified as organic matter belonging to the company which created them. What happens when their usefulness to said company becomes obsolete?

Bujold creates memorable characters and moral situations. She asks us to think about things not in a knee-jerk way, but in a long-term consequential way. She doesn't preach, she shows. For me, the technical bits went on too long and with too much detail, but I'm sure other folks love those bits. ( )

For having never read LMB, I was pleasantly surprised. Not sure I'd jump right in and read everything thing else she's ever written; but I liked this story. ( )

I liked this early entry in the Vorkosigan saga (it predates Miles and his planet by several hundred years) well enough, but it seemed a little flat after some of Bujold's later work. It was well done but not as funny as the Miles books. ( )

This is one of those [b:Murphy's Law|225591|Murphy's Law (Law Series, Book #2)|Lori Foster|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172865904s/225591.jpg|2924954] books, where everything that can go wrong, does, so you have to read it all the way through and get everything straightened out so you can sleep.
Maeve Binchy's books are like this too, except hers are about Irish people and not about genetically-enhanced four-armed teenage space engineers. ( )