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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
At this point, I'm on board with the Vorkosigan Saga. I'm not sure why. They're very military adventure, which isn't really my jam. I guess they're a known quantity. I think I tend to pick one up after I've read something disappointing.
4/5… but really 3.5/5. I’m rounding up.
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I’ll always round up for you, LMB! I said before about Cetaganda: not all Vorkosigan books can be so compelling. Maybe I was trying to read this one too quickly, or maybe it just wasn’t as fresh for me as some of the others felt. It doesn’t feel totally fair just to talk about how this one didn’t *quite* stack up to the others, though, so I’ll start with the good (there is a lot of it):
1) Future Earth is a functionally solarpunk vision, and I love it. Solarpunk is a scifi subculture dedicated to hopeful futures, building visions that we can work toward. Lois McMaster Bujold’s vision of Earth is such a Utopia. Where the rest of the –galaxy? universe? unclear — is racked with conflict and colonization, Earth is in a peaceful backwater that is disconnected from the rest of the universe. Without hitting us over the head with it, LMB shows us that Earth now is quiet and thoughtful and civilized. More than anything it is quaintly historic.
2) Mark, the clone, and the discussions of clone ethics were excellent — I could have used more. LMB rarely if ever hits us over the head with any kind of social message, and she doesn’t here either, but I kind of wish she had explored the clone question in more depth. As always, she puts some of her most progressive, provocative thoughts into Cordelia’s and Betan society’s norms: that Mark, as a clone, is naturally Miles’s brother by law, that there is nothing wrong with cloning. Instead, what is wrong is the subsequent takeover of the body by a rich old person, per what happens in Jackson’s Whole. We saw a little of this world, and I’m hungry for more here. Mark in general was an excellent character — the idea that he was created to be Miles means that his inherent relationship with Miles is fraught.
3) FINALLY, we get more about Komarr! I know we have known of Komarr’s strategic importance for a while, and we’ve known Aral to be the “Butcher of Komarr.” In this book we finally learn about what actually happened, and why it continues to be challenging from a astro-political view. I would have enjoyed automatically understanding why it was significant that Galeni was from Komarr without having it explained to me, but I’m glad to have learned about it at all.
4) Speaking of which… FINALLY we get a competent superior to Miles! Galeni is an exceptional human being, and I deeply appreciated the growing respect between Miles and Galeni. Miles has been plagued with superiors who don’t understand his particular brand of genius, who are Barrayaran career soldiers who follow orders and protocol to a T, and I’m tired of it. I was so excited for this theme to be broken, and for Miles to connect with someone in his own force with a level of competence that he had.
5) The Dendarii Fleet’s money troubles were so real. I keep thinking of more good things about this book, and this was yet another one. The financial pressure on the
Dendarii fleet was always lurking. I appreciated the use of capitalism in this space opera context to ground the story in something that feels hyper realistic to us non-space travelers.
6) Elli Quinn, Elena Bothari, what lovely lady isn’t Miles going to fall for? I’m a little tired of every book having a new woman for Miles to fall in love with. I could say: at least they don’t all fall in love with him? But it doesn’t help.The women are real characters in these books — but Miles doesn’t always treat them like real characters. He’s still pretty young when it comes to these relationships.
7) Miles mostly felt safe throughout this story, and his disabilities felt more like veneer than they did in other books. In the first book, Warrior’s Apprentice, the fear of Miles’s bones breaking was ever present, only mitigated by the presence of Bothari. When Bothari died, Miles no longer felt safe — I feared for him. That carried through The Vor Game, but got lost in Cetaganda and Brothers in Arms. Miles feels undefeatable now. LMB needs to make us feel like Miles is really at risk. I hope to see more of that in future books.
I can’t speed through these, they are too good, and yet I find myself consuming them like cheese and crackers, soup on a cold day, lemonade in summer. I will be so sad when they are over.
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Check out my blog!
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I’ll always round up for you, LMB! I said before about Cetaganda: not all Vorkosigan books can be so compelling. Maybe I was trying to read this one too quickly, or maybe it just wasn’t as fresh for me as some of the others felt. It doesn’t feel totally fair just to talk about how this one didn’t *quite* stack up to the others, though, so I’ll start with the good (there is a lot of it):
1) Future Earth is a functionally solarpunk vision, and I love it. Solarpunk is a scifi subculture dedicated to hopeful futures, building visions that we can work toward. Lois McMaster Bujold’s vision of Earth is such a Utopia. Where the rest of the –galaxy? universe? unclear — is racked with conflict and colonization, Earth is in a peaceful backwater that is disconnected from the rest of the universe. Without hitting us over the head with it, LMB shows us that Earth now is quiet and thoughtful and civilized. More than anything it is quaintly historic.
Spoiler
2) Mark, the clone, and the discussions of clone ethics were excellent — I could have used more. LMB rarely if ever hits us over the head with any kind of social message, and she doesn’t here either, but I kind of wish she had explored the clone question in more depth. As always, she puts some of her most progressive, provocative thoughts into Cordelia’s and Betan society’s norms: that Mark, as a clone, is naturally Miles’s brother by law, that there is nothing wrong with cloning. Instead, what is wrong is the subsequent takeover of the body by a rich old person, per what happens in Jackson’s Whole. We saw a little of this world, and I’m hungry for more here. Mark in general was an excellent character — the idea that he was created to be Miles means that his inherent relationship with Miles is fraught.
3) FINALLY, we get more about Komarr! I know we have known of Komarr’s strategic importance for a while, and we’ve known Aral to be the “Butcher of Komarr.” In this book we finally learn about what actually happened, and why it continues to be challenging from a astro-political view. I would have enjoyed automatically understanding why it was significant that Galeni was from Komarr without having it explained to me, but I’m glad to have learned about it at all.
4) Speaking of which… FINALLY we get a competent superior to Miles! Galeni is an exceptional human being, and I deeply appreciated the growing respect between Miles and Galeni. Miles has been plagued with superiors who don’t understand his particular brand of genius, who are Barrayaran career soldiers who follow orders and protocol to a T, and I’m tired of it. I was so excited for this theme to be broken, and for Miles to connect with someone in his own force with a level of competence that he had.
5) The Dendarii Fleet’s money troubles were so real. I keep thinking of more good things about this book, and this was yet another one. The financial pressure on the
Dendarii fleet was always lurking.
Spoiler
Sure, they never mutinied on him — but they could have, and would have, and6) Elli Quinn, Elena Bothari, what lovely lady isn’t Miles going to fall for? I’m a little tired of every book having a new woman for Miles to fall in love with. I could say: at least they don’t all fall in love with him? But it doesn’t help.
Spoiler
I thought the part where he proposed to Elli Quinn was bonkers, but I liked the way she let him down.7) Miles mostly felt safe throughout this story, and his disabilities felt more like veneer than they did in other books. In the first book, Warrior’s Apprentice, the fear of Miles’s bones breaking was ever present, only mitigated by the presence of Bothari. When Bothari died, Miles no longer felt safe — I feared for him. That carried through The Vor Game, but got lost in Cetaganda and Brothers in Arms. Miles feels undefeatable now. LMB needs to make us feel like Miles is really at risk. I hope to see more of that in future books.
I can’t speed through these, they are too good, and yet I find myself consuming them like cheese and crackers, soup on a cold day, lemonade in summer. I will be so sad when they are over.
Me gusta entrar en los libros de la Saga Vorkosigan sin saber nada o lo menos posible, aunque en realidad no ha habido libro en que Miles y su tropa no me haya sorprendido varias veces: Nunca, absolutamente nunca, sabes por dónde te va a salir el bueno de Miles. Solo sabes que en cuanto huela el más mínimo problema, se meterá en él de cabeza.
Y menudos problemas los que escoge el hombrecillo, cada uno más complejo que el anterior, siempre. Todo empieza con una pequeña tontería de nada, que cualquier persona hubiera solucionado rápidamente o hubiera ignorado por completo, pero no Miles Vorkosigan. Consigue que todo acabe siendo una especie de juego de muñecas rusas, esas que se meten una dentro de otra, de más grande a más pequeña, pero en el sentido contrario, de menos a más.
Llegado a este punto no se puede revelar mucho más, creedme, es divertidisimo, estrambótico, irreverente y tiene un genio para el mal que utiliza para… no se, algo. Lo que si quiero señalar que en el libro tercero, cuando conocimos a Miles (los dos primeros libros corresponden a Cordelia y Aral Vorkosigan) nos parecía un niñato insoportable con una flor en el… en fin, y a medida que transcurren los libros se va dando una cuenta de que te gusta más y más como personaje. Porque es tan poco ortodoxo en sus métodos, tiene tales salidas de tono y tales ideas que no sabes si tiene límite, pero quieres estar ahí con él para comprobarlo.
Y menudos problemas los que escoge el hombrecillo, cada uno más complejo que el anterior, siempre. Todo empieza con una pequeña tontería de nada, que cualquier persona hubiera solucionado rápidamente o hubiera ignorado por completo, pero no Miles Vorkosigan. Consigue que todo acabe siendo una especie de juego de muñecas rusas, esas que se meten una dentro de otra, de más grande a más pequeña, pero en el sentido contrario, de menos a más.
Llegado a este punto no se puede revelar mucho más, creedme, es divertidisimo, estrambótico, irreverente y tiene un genio para el mal que utiliza para… no se, algo. Lo que si quiero señalar que en el libro tercero, cuando conocimos a Miles (los dos primeros libros corresponden a Cordelia y Aral Vorkosigan) nos parecía un niñato insoportable con una flor en el… en fin, y a medida que transcurren los libros se va dando una cuenta de que te gusta más y más como personaje. Porque es tan poco ortodoxo en sus métodos, tiene tales salidas de tono y tales ideas que no sabes si tiene límite, pero quieres estar ahí con él para comprobarlo.
I think this is the best book in the series so far. Not that the others were bad but they were just a little too slapsticky to connect with me emotionally. But this one made me feel things.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love Miles. I love Miles. I love Miles.
I like this story (even though I'm missing some of the events before this - apparently there are short stories or something about it?) and the mystery and everything on Earth.
I love how Miles is confronted with both of his identities and has to handle being them at the same place.
And the thing with Mark? Woha!
I loved this story front to back. It’s going to be hard to top this one; it feels like peak Miles. Politics! Double-crosses! Attempted assassinations! Romance! Kidnapping! Clones! Spreadsheets! A cat blanket!
Yeah, that last one is pretty creepy, a furry blanket that purrs. But the characters seem to like it, and it’s hardly the weirdest thing in this universe. We also get to meet Miles’ clone, later dubbed Mark, and I’m hoping we see more of him. The story possibilities are endless.
This was just a vastly entertaining adventure with nary a dull moment.
Yeah, that last one is pretty creepy, a furry blanket that purrs. But the characters seem to like it, and it’s hardly the weirdest thing in this universe. We also get to meet Miles’ clone, later dubbed Mark, and I’m hoping we see more of him. The story possibilities are endless.
This was just a vastly entertaining adventure with nary a dull moment.
Another delightful and funny book. Miles ends up on Earth and surrounded by intrigue. As usual.