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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read the entire Vorkosigan saga in such a flurry that it's hard sometimes to pinpoint exactly which books I loved the most, but this book is definitely a fun one that really gets into Miles as a character. I highly recommend it and the whole series!
Some favorite quotes:
"A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind. The mind was the first and final battleground. The stuff in between was just noise."
"There will be a 10% surcharge for resisting arrest."
Some favorite quotes:
"A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind. The mind was the first and final battleground. The stuff in between was just noise."
"There will be a 10% surcharge for resisting arrest."
Yeah, well, y'know, I was going to take a few months off before reading the next installment in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.
Just like I was only going to eat one Dorito.
As I wrote in my review of the series's preceding volume, "The Warrior's Apprentice," I'm 100% in the bag for Bujold as a writer. I find her prose style amusing, her characters interesting, and her plots great fun.
The Hugo Award-winning 'The Vor Game' is no exception. In it, young Miles Vorkosigan has graduated from his government's service academy and is all set to join the fleet as an ensign. All he has to do first is suck up a 6-month tour as the meteorologist at an Arctic training outpost without making any trouble, just to show that he can function as an obedient junior officer.
Um, Miles Vorkosigan is not good at not making trouble. Neither is he good at functioning as an obedient junior officer.
And so, we're off on another adventure that finds Miles getting into progressively more trouble as he tries only to survive through a combination of brains, audacity, and a finely tuned moral compass. Seeing as how there are many more volumes in this series, it's no spoiler to say that he succeeds. The joy in the story comes from reading how he succeeds, shaking one's head (along with the author's, it seems) when he gets out of some impossible bind through the implementation of some cockamamie scheme, and generally enjoying the ride as his seniors complain, "What has that kid gotten himself into this time?"
If I have one quibble, and it's totally a fan service quibble, it's that the book takes pains to establish that one of the supporting characters on "team good" idolizes another, very senior, supporting character who is one or two steps removed from the action. Near the end of the novel, when Bujold is putting a ribbon on things, she contrives for the latter to invite the former to lunch. I think that was supposed to be the junior character's narrative payoff for being on "team good," but I was left with a sense of incompletion: I wanted to see Miles commend the junior character to the senior, recognizing the former for his good service. I wanted a line or two about the junior character hitting it off with, or at least being praised by, the senior. Basically, I wanted more closure for that storyline than Bujold chose to give us, and I found myself writing my own headcanon to provide it.
As I said, however, that's fan service stuff. While this novel is billed as "Vorkosigan Saga #6," it can function perfectly well as a stand-alone volume for anyone whose interest in it is piqued by my enthusiasm. I encourage you to give it a go.
Note on the Audiobook edition: Grover Gardner, a narrator with 633 titles in his Audible bibliography, is a real pro. His diction is sufficiently clear to allow the trained ear to listen at 2.75x speed, and he brings a certain archness to his performance that fits quite well with Bujold's authorial voice. His work is certainly one of the reasons I'm enjoying this series so much.
Just like I was only going to eat one Dorito.
As I wrote in my review of the series's preceding volume, "The Warrior's Apprentice," I'm 100% in the bag for Bujold as a writer. I find her prose style amusing, her characters interesting, and her plots great fun.
The Hugo Award-winning 'The Vor Game' is no exception. In it, young Miles Vorkosigan has graduated from his government's service academy and is all set to join the fleet as an ensign. All he has to do first is suck up a 6-month tour as the meteorologist at an Arctic training outpost without making any trouble, just to show that he can function as an obedient junior officer.
Um, Miles Vorkosigan is not good at not making trouble. Neither is he good at functioning as an obedient junior officer.
And so, we're off on another adventure that finds Miles getting into progressively more trouble as he tries only to survive through a combination of brains, audacity, and a finely tuned moral compass. Seeing as how there are many more volumes in this series, it's no spoiler to say that he succeeds. The joy in the story comes from reading how he succeeds, shaking one's head (along with the author's, it seems) when he gets out of some impossible bind through the implementation of some cockamamie scheme, and generally enjoying the ride as his seniors complain, "What has that kid gotten himself into this time?"
If I have one quibble, and it's totally a fan service quibble, it's that the book takes pains to establish that one of the supporting characters on "team good" idolizes another, very senior, supporting character who is one or two steps removed from the action. Near the end of the novel, when Bujold is putting a ribbon on things, she contrives for the latter to invite the former to lunch. I think that was supposed to be the junior character's narrative payoff for being on "team good," but I was left with a sense of incompletion: I wanted to see Miles commend the junior character to the senior, recognizing the former for his good service. I wanted a line or two about the junior character hitting it off with, or at least being praised by, the senior. Basically, I wanted more closure for that storyline than Bujold chose to give us, and I found myself writing my own headcanon to provide it.
As I said, however, that's fan service stuff. While this novel is billed as "Vorkosigan Saga #6," it can function perfectly well as a stand-alone volume for anyone whose interest in it is piqued by my enthusiasm. I encourage you to give it a go.
Note on the Audiobook edition: Grover Gardner, a narrator with 633 titles in his Audible bibliography, is a real pro. His diction is sufficiently clear to allow the trained ear to listen at 2.75x speed, and he brings a certain archness to his performance that fits quite well with Bujold's authorial voice. His work is certainly one of the reasons I'm enjoying this series so much.
This is an ok book, it has Miles being all silly, but it's also very disjointed: the first half has him at winter training camp and being super noble and Vor. The second half puts him back with the mercenaries. Because this one was written later, it has so slightly different, more subtle opinions expressed. For example, I think Ivan is portrayed as a little nicer and less of an idiot.
Technically, I read half of this book earlier this year, see dates for the Vor Game, but this time I read the short story Labrynth, reread the borders of infinity, and read the framing story for the first time. I love the Borders of Infinity, it really captures the best of Miles.
More fun and games with Miles Vorkosigan, who is always fun, even when he's about to get spaced. As usual, he seems to be a trouble maker and a hero all at the same time.
I think am too much an idealist too really enjoy these. I want the politics, especially in the future, to be more fair and to work better. Miles is always put into unfair situations, either because his is a type of royalty, blue blood at least, because he is physically deformed, or because he is too smart for his own good and his questioning of bad authority. I always start very frustrated with the world. It takes quite a while to get into the stories. In the end I like the books but I don't think I'll ever love these books. I think I've read enough to know that they are not for me. Beginnings are too hard to get through.
I don't think it's possible to get enough of Miles Vorkosigan.
It's great to follow him as he grows -- as so many of us, NOT in the directions that people suspect. Miles is just so wildly GRANDER than all of us and has such amazing adventures, and yet... at the same time... his personal story arc is something so many of us can identify with. Underneath all the intrigue and space battles and adventure is a story about finding your place in the world and learning just who you really are.
It's great to follow him as he grows -- as so many of us, NOT in the directions that people suspect. Miles is just so wildly GRANDER than all of us and has such amazing adventures, and yet... at the same time... his personal story arc is something so many of us can identify with. Underneath all the intrigue and space battles and adventure is a story about finding your place in the world and learning just who you really are.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced