Reviews

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold

rampaginglibrarian's review against another edition

4.0

I loved this book~made me want to Bujold's other books in this series (started one but wasn't too fond of it~wasn't a continuation of the "species/race" i wanted to hear more about).
I know those books are really popular but i couldn't so much get into them.
Anyway~this was a great one~a really quick read in the sci-fi (tho not too heavy) range with both a good message and an involving story.

eve_prime's review against another edition

3.5

This is a Vorkosigan Saga prequel, which introduces a sub-species of humans called the “quaddies.”  An acceptably evil corporation has genetically engineered a thousand children with two sets of arms, the lower set replacing the legs, which they are treating as a labor source that they own, because they’re great at doing work at zero-G.  An engineer, Leo Graf, arrives to train the teenagers among them in his specialty, welding, and is appalled to learn that they’ve just been rendered obsolete.  The corporation plans to confine them to a barracks (with gravity, which will seriously handicap them), but there are other forces at work that would like to get rid of them entirely.  How can Graf help the young people solve their problem?  We readers know that 200 years later, they’re still around – Miles Vorkosigan has met at least one, a musician, and in the next full-length book he’ll be working with their whole colony – so we expect he will succeed somehow.

This book is more “engineering fiction” than science fiction – it turns out Bujold’s father was a world expert in this type of engineering, and she’d picked up enough of it that she could write a convincing novel when she didn’t have the time to research something new.  I expect that Graf was also based on her father.

flagstaff's review against another edition

Started the series with this book. Good start will continue with the series. Some interesting concepts.

clamthegiant's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

mysana's review against another edition

3.5

I really love Bujold's romances, her B-plots, and watching her line up the dominoes for them to fall perfectly at the end. This book does not show any of those elements at their best, which is understandable because it's one of her first books, and a novella on top of that. The novella format definitely meant there wasn't as much space to stretch out, which Bujold no doubt would have taken advantage of, but it worked well as a tight, fast-paced book. 

This book is a love letter to engineering and effective management, and it does that well.

Science and engineering triumph over poor management.

I did not like the romance, but I did like both characters in the romance so it wasn't too off-putting, and it was very background. I thought all the of the character work was really well done actually, Bujold has a talent for making characters, even those who are never named, feel real and like they have their own lives happening off-screen. 

I was hesitant on the antagonist at the start of the story, and why they were chosen, but ultimately I think it works really well.

The splices of how Bruce reacts to failure vs Leo was both excellent at showing why Leo deserved to win, and was very satisfying. I loved the ultimate malicious compliance and brick to the head at the end as the combo that stopped Bruce lol.

My absolute favorite scene is

when Leo is first teaching and he shows the falsified safety document and explains it as "the most evil thing" the quaddies have ever seen. Especially given the censorship they've experience, showing truth as good and lying as evil and the comment of physics not caring about the documentation - that whole thing was brilliant. It also works really well with Leo's thoughts on how he's saved thousands if no more lives in his career in accidents which haven't happened.

iceberg0's review against another edition

3.0

Interesting look at the consequences of genetic alteration.

kcphillipsbooks's review against another edition

5.0

It wasn't perfect but I loved it all the same. Thank you, Mother Lois

honeypossum_reads's review against another edition

adventurous

4.25

edwinavalos's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

humanignorance's review against another edition

3.0

3 stars. An interesting concept was explored here. It was quite slow to begin, but once the main plot got going about a quarter of the way through it kept my interest. The characters were competently developed but in no way exceptional. The engineering parts were poorly explained, and I felt there was unrealized potential for philosophical discussions.