Barrayar (original 1991; edition 1991)

It goes against all logic that I don't love this book. All my friends love it and have pressed it upon me at all opportunities. It sounds like something I should adore. But Shards of Honour didn't get its claws into me, and I have to say, nor did Barrayar. It felt like a chore for me to read -- there were bits I enjoyed, like Cordelia's put-downs of people who sneered at Koudelka (clearly set-up for what happens to Miles), or the relationship between her and Aral.

But. Maybe this is a fault in me at the moment, with not being in the mood, because I keep not getting into books people think I should like. Or maybe it's just that Bujold's SF is just not for me. I'm still going to try the Chalion trilogy, though: I'm told it's completely different. Jo Walton's post about it on Tor.com, here, gives me hope... ( )

9/2012 Yup. Solid 4 stars but maybe more next reading. I loved coming back to this after the whole series was under my belt. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

6/2012 I suspect that this book is going to become a 4 star book as I re-read & inhabit this series. I think I'm reading for plot now, and after another 3 or 5 books, I'm going to have to come back and read for character.
I like Bujold's voice, and I'm deeply interested in the society she lays out. There are a LOT of characters here, and a lot of backstory to absorb. Every time I think I've got it figured out, there's suddenly a new character with a huge and fascinating history. Onward to the Miles books! ( )

I liked this one tons as well. I was intrigued by the one-sided view of Barrayar that we got in this book and wondered through the whole thing if we would see things differently in the next book, when we got Miles’ point of view. [Oct. 2010] ( )

A lot of people think that Barrayar is the superior of the two books chronicling the adventures of Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan (the other, and first, being Shards of Honor - the two book should not be read out of order). And Barrayar is really good. But it includes a lot of plot elements that do not appeal to me personally, and regardless of the book's objective quality made it less fun for me to read.

For example: I have a really strong, totally irrational phobia about pregnancy. I'd explain but nobody wants to hear about all the ways that fetuses remind me of parasites. Cordelia spends most of this book pregnant, defending her baby's right to live, and just generally being a mama bear. It's well done but...not my thing.

And also: I get really grumpy when a character like Cordelia, who's introduced as this pants-wearing, career-first badass, shows up in a second book married, playing second fiddle the husband, and wearing skirts all the time. Admittedly, Cordelia's not a warrior. And in Shards of Honor she spent a fair amount of time as a prisoner of war - not exactly a position of strength, though Cordelia seems to do best when she's got her back up against the wall. But she and Aral were united by their professionalism, their dedication to the highest ideals of their careers.

In Barrayar, she's a sort of sci-fi First Lady and she's restricted, mostly, to the activities of a Barrayaran female. She buys presents, socializes with other powerful women, and gestates. And, yes, that's called assimilation and exactly what she ought to be doing, and yes, she does have a few opportunities to break out the badass, but...I'm just not as riveted by the life of a political wife as I was by the adventures of a scientist spaceship captain.

That being said - the book is deeper and more complex than Shards of Honor. In Barrayar Aral and Cordelia no longer have to worry about obeying orders - Aral is the highest authority. Instead, he and Cordelia falter under the weight of responsibility, and let guilt weaken them. They aren't separated by loyalty to country; they're married, and settled on Barrayar. This time around, Aral's responsibilities take up almost all his time and the hard choices he makes reduce him to a shadow of his former self, while Cordelia's fierce protectiveness of her baby puts her at odds with Aral's family and, in fact, the entire nobility of Barrayar.

If Shards of Honor ultimately led to one horrible decision that nearly broke Aral, Barrayar is the Chinese water torture version, the slow erosion of character version, as messy as Shards was clear.

It's still highly quotable - "You should have fallen in love with a happy man, if you wanted happiness. But no, you had to fall for the breathtaking beauty of pain", for example, or "Cordelia's own soul felt like an exhausted snail, shelled in a glassy numbness." And it's still about good people struggling to do the right thing in a world that smashes everything right and good about a person to a million tiny pieces. In a way, it's the Aaron Sorkin version of sci-fi, with these heroic characters who lead you through the most gruesome situations.

Really, if you read Shards of Honor you'll know whether or not you want to continue with the series. I did, and I think I'll be moving on to read at least a little about Miles Vorkosigan, Aral and Cordelia's son. ( )

I love this book. I love Cordelia and the way she trips through a new world with different customs. I love the way she's judged and changes things around her when she doesn't really look (or necessarily) understand the broader implications, because she sees something that needs to be done and she does it. I love that she and Aral are not perfect, gorgeous, automatic heroes. And I pretty much love all of the rest of the characters. The plot is fast and crisp, Bujold doesn't waste any time or words. This book is super fun. ( )