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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
The emotion when he burns the offering to his grandfather - powerful. What a marvellous ride this one was!
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This series is terrific! I can’t believe I waited so long to read it!
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The next adventure with Miles and it is nearly as great as the last. Miles fumbles his way through this book again finding his way through disaster on luck and brain power. I like the more mature side of his thinking and the more strategic insights we get to see. An improvement over his last book for character growth but as it follows a similar plot line from starting out on the bottom and finishing in the top ranks of a makeshift mercenary fleet, I feel that I am left lacking a little more. The plot truly is different with more worlds, governments and new faces to be seen but the over working similarity is what draws me back from another 5 star review.
Just a wee-bit random on how all his circumstances come together! But incredibly fun!
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Another reminder that in this series of books the ones centred around Miles usually have the best stories..
A plot that rattles along as Miles becomes Admiral of a mercenary fleet to stop an invasion.
A plot that rattles along as Miles becomes Admiral of a mercenary fleet to stop an invasion.
I read this book concurrently with [b:Provenance|25353286|Provenance|Ann Leckie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492328037l/25353286._SX50_.jpg|45094649] and for the most part heartily enjoyed reading two books about interplanetary politics written almost 30 years apart from one another. But. I'd read this one a long time ago myself, and I'd forgotten how much casual homophobia is in here! Wowza. I mean, I'm not blaming Bujold, whose more recent works show her growth in that arena, and who seems to have even been progressive at the time, with complicated bi characters in this universe. It's more that this was written in 1990, and shows its age. That contrast is especially stark when read up against Provenance, where the two romantic couples in view are a two woman couple and a man and nonbinary person (called neman in universe) couple. Still, this book remains a nostalgia read for me, and I do so love Miles as a character.
Lighthearted space opera whose space cadet protagonist's primary skill is not shooting lasers or using psi powers, but talking people into things. This takes him from ignominiously cleaning storm drains through interstellar espionage/intrigue to space battle. Probably my favorite of the Miles stories.
In The Vor Game, Miles Vorkosigan has graduated from the the Imperial Military Academy and is taking - or trying to take - the first steps in his military career, steps which are seriously hampered by Miles's tendency to be the best strategic mind in the room and to know it. Instead of managing to fit in to life as a junior officer, Miles solves a mystery, joins a mutiny and ends up stopping an interstellar invasion fleet.
Having taken several tries to actually get into Bujold, I'm now very much enjoying working my way through the Vorkosigan saga; so far, they've all been enjoyable and entertaining and comforting without being fluffy. They may have many of the trappings of standard military SF, but they're really character-driven novels whose military setting is almost incidental. Bujold's characters are delightful and well-rounded, likeable but realistically flawed and sometimes exasperating; in this novel, Miles is continuing to grow and learn from his experience and his fairly frequent mistakes and misjudgements (despite an amazing talent for turning every situation to his advantage he is clearly very young, very inexperienced, and far from perfect), and I particularly loved Gregor, the young Emperor of Barrayar, resenting the weight of the crown he has worn since early childhood and trying to work out who he is and how to be his own person within the limitations of his role. The exploration of what makes a leader, and what it means to be Vor - a member of Barrayar's hereditary military/aristocratic class - is a big part of what makes these books not-fluff for me; they may be fun, but they're also interesting and thought-provoking.
I note that The Vor Game won the Best Novel Hugo*, which surprised me a little, as although I enjoyed it a lot the plotting isn't terribly tight and it doesn't have the "doing something new and interesting" feel I tend to expect from Hugo winners (even if "new and interesting" in 1990 was rather different from "new and interesting" now, it isn't doing anything very different from The Warrior's Apprentice). It's still great fun, though, and probably more enjoyable than many "new and interesting" but more serious books.
*"at the time when good writing and plot were more important than political leaning", says one Goodreaders reviewer, who has clearly failed to spot that the novel has a disabled protagonist, at least two prominent LGBT characters (to be fair, Aral's bisexuality is pretty much blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but Bel Thorne isn't) and more than one woman in typically male command roles.
Having taken several tries to actually get into Bujold, I'm now very much enjoying working my way through the Vorkosigan saga; so far, they've all been enjoyable and entertaining and comforting without being fluffy. They may have many of the trappings of standard military SF, but they're really character-driven novels whose military setting is almost incidental. Bujold's characters are delightful and well-rounded, likeable but realistically flawed and sometimes exasperating; in this novel, Miles is continuing to grow and learn from his experience and his fairly frequent mistakes and misjudgements (despite an amazing talent for turning every situation to his advantage he is clearly very young, very inexperienced, and far from perfect), and I particularly loved Gregor, the young Emperor of Barrayar, resenting the weight of the crown he has worn since early childhood and trying to work out who he is and how to be his own person within the limitations of his role. The exploration of what makes a leader, and what it means to be Vor - a member of Barrayar's hereditary military/aristocratic class - is a big part of what makes these books not-fluff for me; they may be fun, but they're also interesting and thought-provoking.
I note that The Vor Game won the Best Novel Hugo*, which surprised me a little, as although I enjoyed it a lot the plotting isn't terribly tight and it doesn't have the "doing something new and interesting" feel I tend to expect from Hugo winners (even if "new and interesting" in 1990 was rather different from "new and interesting" now, it isn't doing anything very different from The Warrior's Apprentice). It's still great fun, though, and probably more enjoyable than many "new and interesting" but more serious books.
*"at the time when good writing and plot were more important than political leaning", says one Goodreaders reviewer, who has clearly failed to spot that the novel has a disabled protagonist, at least two prominent LGBT characters (to be fair, Aral's bisexuality is pretty much blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but Bel Thorne isn't) and more than one woman in typically male command roles.