Shards of Honor (1986)

I don't read much sci-fi anymore, but listened to the CD version of "Shards of Honor" on a long road trip and found it to be a refreshing return to the days of the space opera. Not technology obsessed, not alien species oriented, just space war, politics and romance in a galaxy far, far away. I'll read more. ( )

I have to review this using my iPod, since my computer can't currently post reviews from my browsers, so pardon me if this is a little brief. I'll come back and add more, perhaps, when/if the bug is fixed.

I've been meaning to read Bujold's books for a while. Everyone has sung her praises, it seems -- though there hasn't been a reliable consensus on which book to start with, Cordelia or Miles, so I finally plumped for doing things chronologically. I'm told the later books are higher quality, but I do like to begin at the beginning.

I didn't really understand the hype about this book, in any case. I did enjoy it, but it didn't blow me away: I've read plenty of speculative fiction which I found fresher and/or more profound. I did enjoy the characters, but I didn't live in their skins with them; it was reasonably well paced, but there were sections where it was far too easy to put the book down. I didn't get deeply absorbed in the political game being played, either: it was functional, certainly, but not riveting. I did get quite involved with the fate of Bothari, and there was horrible pathos in the situation with him and Elena. That aspect of the books isn't simple at all, and I did connect with that. The aftermath section really affected me, too.

Definitely looking forward to continuing with the series, but not deeply in love with it (yet?). ( )

8/2012 I got to the end of the series and had to start at the beginning again. Coming at this from the other end, oh how wonderful it is. "Of course," one thinks, over and over, "how very like Cordelia (or Bothari, or Aral...) to respond thus." And one has a deeper appreciation for the world-building that Bujold begins here. I love these people, I do.

6/2012 I enjoyed this straight-forward science fiction story, though it did take me a long, long time to get totally behind. This series has long been highly recommended, and I do like to begin at the beginning no matter what. I suspect that after I read the whole series, I'll need to come back to this again and have a whole new view of it. Solid, plot-driven writing, nicely executed. ( )

by Lois McMaster Bujold

Opening line: "A sea of mist drifted through the cloud forest, soft, grey, luminescent."

My fellow Sounisians tend to be a pretty canny bunch. I first heard about Elizabeth Wein from them, and that recommendation certainly paid off. So when they kept mentioning this "Vorkosigan family saga" I was interested, but also daunted by the sheer number of books* involved. Finally I heard that Shards of Honor was a good entrance into the series. I got it out from the library and fell in love.

Interplanetary politics! Sneaky alliances! Romance! Creepy people! Manipulative emperors! Clearly this book is awesome!

It really is great for any Megan Whalen Turner fan looking to fill the empty void between now and the publication of the next book. There is a healthy dose of cultural worldbuilding--without going into too much physical description or relying too heavily on slang Bujold manages to convey the different cultures of Barrayar and Beta and why they would be in conflict. Cordelia is a sympathetic main character, one not too overly afflicted with self-doubt, but also human.

There is a scene which creeped me out and hints at the horrific, but nothing is ever described in detail and in fact (spoiler) nothing happens.

I will definitely be reading the next book as soon as possible.

Book source: public library
Book information: Baen, 1986 (originally)

* This was also my problem with Redwall. Where do you start?

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A reread. Very strange to go back to the beginning and see Cordelia and Aral so unfinished, as it were. The outline is there, but the details are far from filled in. Still, what a great beginning! And it’s so necessary if you want to understand Miles’s character. [Sept. 2011] ( )

The Vorkosigan series has been on my radar for a while now. I did a little bit of investigation into this much-loved series and determined I'd have to wait for the right mood to enjoy a story about two painfully noble souls driven apart by honor; mature adults whose straightforward feelings for one another are complicated by curveballs that arrive in the form of war and deadly political intrigue.

I tend to favor more complicated, less admirable characters. But I love a good opposites attract romance, and Cordelia's Honor delivers that in spades. The heroine, Cordelia Naismith, is a scientifically minded captain from a very liberal society; her people eat meat grown in vats, never slaughtered on the hoof; they've eliminated poverty; they're constitutional and democratic. By contrast, the hero, Aral Vorkosigan, is a military man from a culture that is warlike, imperial, patriarchic, and violent.

And they fall in love. In wartime. Because despite the fact that both hero and heroine perfectly embody their respective cultures, strong morals and unshakable honor make them more alike than they are different, and unique among their fellows.

The novel balances its sci-fi elements and romance elements pretty well; I'd say it's split evenly between the two genres. So along with the love story comes a truly harrowing political intrigue. There book starts on the eve of a war between Aral's civilization (Barrayar) and another group closely allied to Cordelia's. Aral and Cordelia get to know one another before tensions ratchet up, soon forcing them to opposite sides in the war. But where Barrayar is concerned, there are always wheels within wheels, and Cordelia finds herself with a front-row seat to some truly blood-curdling politicking; as Aral explains:
The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present -- they are real.
Aral is at the center of it all - and once Cordelia falls in love with him, so is she.

It would be a shame to spoil the details, though, so I won't. I was gobsmacked by two major plot twists, and really loved the way the story unfolded.

Bujold is hardly a lyrical writer, but her landscapes are fully realized and she's full of wise little quips - "From spaceman to caveman in three days...How we imagine our civilization is in ourselves, when it's really in our things," observes Cordelia at one point. She later defines power as "Energy applied to work," and evil as "an infection of the imagination, that spreads from man to man."

I was in the mood for exactly this book when I picked it up, and enjoyed immensely - it managed to be both soothing and exciting at once. ( )