R- Shards of Honor (v,x,b), Barrayar (v,b), The Vor Game (v,b), Borders of Infinity (v,x,b), Mirror Dance (v,b), Falling Free (v,x)
PG16- The Warrior's Apprentice (v), Cetaganda (v,slight x), Ethan of Athos (v), Brothers in Arms (v,slight x), Memory (v,slight x), Komarr (v,slight x), The Spirit Ring (v,b), A Civil Campaign (some v,slight x-discussions)
Not yet classified- Dreamweaver's Dilemma
Warning! In the race to re-print Bujold's extremely popular books, the publishers have come out with books that are nothing but compilations of previous works. These books include (but may not be limited to by now) Young Miles (Warrior's Apprentice + The Vor Game + "Mountains of Mourning" from Borders of Infinity) and Cordelia's Honor (Shards of Honor + Barrayar). If a particular Vorkoshigan adventure is new to you, check and see if it is a compilation before you buy books you may already have...
Bujold writes with a singularly clear and active style. She has a wonderful imagination and a strong background in psychology, so all of her characters are unusual mentally, even if they seem normal on the surface (or not...). She also has an open imagination that really uses the best that Sci-Fi has to offer in terms of freedom for the author. Her books are quite easy to read and quite difficult to put down. They focus on psychology rather than politics. They are comfortable to read on a basic level, though they prod the upper levels of the mind into action. They also tend to suck the reader in emotionally, which is part of why they are so hard to put down.
Some people read Bujold for one character only: Miles Vorkosigan. While I applaud their dedication, I think they're wrong. Other books set in that universe and elsewhere are excellent and should at least be tried, especially Shards of Honor.
All of Bujold's books except for The Spirit Ring and Dreamweaver's Dilemma are set in a future galaxy where humankind has discovered wormholes and has been exploring so long it produced Barrayar, a planet which lost contact with the rest of civilization long enough to become completely medieval. Suddenly, the Cetagandan Empire invaded Barrayar, thinking it easy pickings. The war that ensued lasted years, and Miles' grandfather the Count Piotr masterminded much of the defense of the planet.
Now that Barrayar has rediscovered the galaxy, it is having some growing pains. For centuries, the difficulty of living on the edge created a massive prejudice against those with birth defects or handicaps. Children born visibly defective were often killed. Enter Miles Vorkoshigan, heir to Lord Aral Vorkoshigan. Miles is not merely visibly defective- his bones break at the slightest impact and he stands about 4 feet 10 inches tall. But that doesn't stop him. In fact, nothing stops him. A psychologist might call him manic- the rest of us would just say he's a force of nature. The saying goes "Where there's a will, there's a way", and with Miles there is always a will.
Falling Free: 200 years before Miles is born, a new race of humans is created through genetic engineering. With four arms instead of arms and legs, they are perfectly suited to working in free-fall. The company that created them plans to use them to build stations faster and cheaper. With the oldest only teenagers and just beginning to have children of their own, they are suddenly rendered obsolete by another Betan invention- artificial gravity. Suddenly it is a race against time and corporate economics for the "quaddies", a race that will decide whether their kind can survive in the ever-evolving galaxy, or whether they will go the way of the Dodo bird.
The Vorkoshigan series begins with my favorite book of the series, Shards of Honor. Miles' mother Cordelia meets his father Lord Aral, who just happens to be a member of the Barrayaran military and the mastermind behind the invasion of Komarr. As a Betan, Cordelia is clearly opposed to him. Through an accident, however, they find themselves on the same side for a while even after he takes her prisoner. As a theist and a soldier, Cordelia creates problems for the Barrayarans, who are non-religious and quite sexist. In the second half, Aral and Cordelia find themselves on opposite sides, with her once again a prisoner. She meets several of his officers again and finds herself accidentally embroiled in the nasty personal politics of Barrayar at war. Finally, she escapes back to her home on Beta Colony, only to find that home doesn't fit as well as it once did.
Barrayar is the story of how Miles became deformed through a gas attack on Cordelia while she is pregnant. His life is saved, but he sits in a uterine replicator trying to recover from the damage. Suddenly a civil war breaks out on Barrayar, and Aral is at the center, as the Regent and sworn protector of child-Emporer Gregor. What part can one foreign woman play in this deeply cultural showdown? Does she truly understand the motives of those around her, or is she deluding herself? And what will a woman do when faced with the possible loss of her child?
Ethan of Athos, another of my favorites, is fairly light-hearted, though not as much as Cetaganda (reveiwed in the next section). Athos is a small backwater planet where only men live- they use uterine replicators and cultured ovaries for reproduction. Yet someone has targeted this insignficant planet, and "Athos' only agent of any kind", Ethan, must find out who and why before his entire planet is effectively destroyed or he himself is killed. Luckily for him, Miles has sent Elli Quin back to her home Kline Station, the station nearest Athos, to do a little recognizance. If Ethan can survive her, he can survive anything, right?
I frankly feel the new cover of The Warrior's Apprentice is wrong. Personally, I think the warrior that Miles is apprenticed to is Bothari. But that's just my opinion. This book covers Miles' stunning debut on the scene of galactic warfare and Barrayaran politics. In it, we meet the Dendarii and Miles's grown up friends: Ivan, Gregor, and Elena Bothari. To tell you anything about the plot is to give something away, because it takes so many turns. Just be prepared for Miles' bloody introduction to the real world of combat in a war that isn't even his.
The Vor Game follows two story lines like "Shards of Honor": Miles' first assignment to the incredibly cold and miserable Kyril Island, where he finds himself having to decide what constitutes a criminal order and save the lives of men he doesn't much care for, or leave them to die and to haunt him for the rest of his life. After that debacle, he is sent on a desperate mission to preserve intergalactic peace. Along the way, he reunites with the Dedarii mercenaries, but they aren't as friendly as last time. Finally, he must find and rescue a VIP from Barrayar before anyone realizes he is missing, or it may cause yet another war. Miles is a very busy boy in this one, and he gets to play Admiral Naismith to the Barrayarans themselves for a change.
Next, we have Borders of Infinity, which contains "Mountains of Mourning", where Miles' is asked to judge the murder trial of an infant born with a mutation. This story is intensely emotional for him not only for that reason, but also because the setting is his own favorite Dendarii mountains, the ones his grandfather once loved. Next, there is "Borders of Infinity", where Miles' attempts to rescue the an entire army of Cetagandan prisoners with nothing to wear but an imaginary hat. Finally, in "Labyrinth" Miles is sent to kill the wolf-woman Taura and meets her in a dark sub-basement of the House of Bharaptura, based on Jackson's Whole. They are both prisoners, and Miles must decide what one life is worth, even if it's not human.
Cetaganda happens sometime after The Vor Game and "Mountains of Mourning", but before "Labyrinth" and "Borders of Infinity". It is a rather light-hearted tale of espionage and mystery set on the homeworld of Cetaganda itself. Miles visits the planet in order to act as Barrayar's emissary to the funeral of the dowager Empress, but finds himself framed for a murder and under attack from the unlikliest angles. With elegance and grace, not to mention beautiful ladies, the Cetagandans have everything over the Barrayarans- except sheer stubborness.
The intensity of Brothers in Arms finally recaptures the levels reached by the Cordelia books and Warrior's Apprentice. After his break-out of a Cetagandan prison camp in "Borders of Infinity", Miles runs all the way to Earth to escape Cetagandan revenge. There, he plays two roles at once, both Admiral Naismith and Lord Vorkosigan. Somewhere along the way, he begins to wonder just who he really is, as people from a multitude of sides try to kill different versions of him and he dreams he's really splitting into two people.... The delightful characters of Elli Quin and Duv Galeni really get their first introductions here, bursting onto the stage with almost as much energy as Miles. And there's always Ivan. But the psychological power games lacing Miles life provide the most intense drama, as they begin to close in a trap that may be of his own making. Will he sacrifice everything to keep what he wants? Or has he learned that some things are too precious, even for the highest of principles? Human lives hang on his mental balance....
By the time you reach Mirror Dance, you need to start reading the books in order. Otherwise, you get critical spoilers for previous plots, and you lose the thread that Bujold is weaving. Mirror Dance is a story from two perspectives- Miles and his clone-brother Mark. Yet again, Mark passes himself off as Miles, but this time he does it to try to save some clones on Jackson's Whole who will die otherwise. Yet in the process, a most extraordinary things happens- Miles dies. No, that's not really a spoiler. It happens in the second or third chapter, and you can see it coming. It's what happens after he dies that changes Miles' life- and Mark's- forever. Never before has Mark been even the least part a master of his own destiny. And now he is the master of many, and is in turn mastered by others. He must learn to find a way out of the insanity that is Jackson's Whole, that is Barrayar, that is himself. Cordelia, Aral, and the Dendarii can only watch and pray while the two brothers desperately try to retrieve something from the mess they've made.
Memory happens shortly after Mirror Dance, when Miles has returned home to Barrayar. Exhausted both metally and physically, he is pretty much unprepared for the result of his head-on collision with death. Unable to serve with the Dendarii, he falls into depression. Fortunately (or not, as the case may be), Chief of ImpSec Simon Illyan falls ill suddenly, and Miles begins to investigate the causes. Deep within the bowels of ImpSec, he returns his beloved game of cat and mouse, with neither party sure which part they are playing. With the whole Imperium counting on him, Miles comes to feel almost himself again- until he meets face to face with temptation and is forced to decide: what price loyalty? And can he pay it?
Slightly more tame than the three books before it, Komarr nonetheless maintains a certain frenetic energy, a balance of opposite forces that never quite explodes in this novel (but look for sequels!). Ekaterin, wife of Tien Vorsoisson, has quietly watched her life fade for years. But she has watched it with dignity, and she has provided for her son, that he may live a different life. But her husband's genetic disorder could destroy what's left at a moment's notice, with nothing to salvage, not even dignity. So Ekaterin watches, and waits, and bides her time, until Miles Vorkosigan bounds onto the scene.
In a million ways, they are complete opposites, yet somehow they provide a little space of hope to each other, the way soul-friends do when they meet. Slowly, Ekaterin comes to realize that she can make a way out, if none presents itself. But Miles isn't there for a picnic. He's come as an Imperial Auditor to investigate a suspicious accident that destroyed the solar mirror of Komarr. Treason is afoot, and Ekaterin has unwittingly stepped into it. A walk in the park has become a nightmare of deceit, lost chances, misplaced honor, and impending doom. Will Komarr be destroyed? Will Ekaterin? Has the work of Miles' life, and his parents' before him, come to an end? Or is it just the beginning...? A delightful book, in the style of Cetaganda and Memory.
What do you get when you combine all of the main Barrayaran characters still alive, six major plotlines, galactic technology, ex-ImpSec agents, romance, and business ventures? "Oh my" was the only thing I could think throughout A Civil Campaign. True, the chances of getting a needle grenade in the chest were much lower in this novel, but the chances of making a unredeemable faux pas were much higher.
The story begins with Miles, who wants to marry Ekaterin. Of course, so does every other eligible Vor or military bachelor in Vorbarr Sultana, once they hear about her. Then we have Mark, who wants to be with Kareen, and also wants to make it big with his new pet scientist's "Butterbugs". Ivan, as usual, wants to get a date without any commitment, while staying as far from his mother as possible. Lady Alys wants Gregor's wedding to go perfectly, Ekaterin wants to become monetarily independant, Nikki wants to know what happened to his father, and the Koudelka girls all want to catch husbands. Enter new characters: Lady Donna Vorutyer doesn't want her obnoxious cousin to get the countship, Ekaterin's cousins want to take Nikki away from the political situation in the capital, Mark's new scientist wants everyone to see his precious (and ugly) butterbugs, and nobody knows what Byerly Vorutyer wants. Now stir in a healthy does of political intrigue, rumormongering, dinner parties, and impulsive marriage proposals, and you have a plot crazy enough to keep any fan on the edge of her seat. In order to understand the story, you really must have read all the books in the main story arc (including the Cordelia and Aral ones). This book will probably not win a Hugo, but it's the most fun you can have sober.
The Spirit Ring is about the daughter of a prominant mage/metalworker in an Italian city-state. Just when our heroine is discovering love and her own abilities with magic, her country is overun by enemies and everything she owns is destroyed, except for the clothes on her back and the ring she had made only the day before. It was supposed to be a magic ring, to bring her true love. What it brings her instead is a chance to fight back against her oppressors before they use magic to destroy everything she truly cares about. This book contains detailed descriptions of magical rituals and metalworking which make it something more than the usual fantasy novel. However, the content is probably unsuitable for younger readers because of the specific content of the rituals.
A collection published by a small press in Boston and consequently hard to find, Dreamweaver's Dilemma contains short stories and essays by Bujold. Some of them have previously been printed elsewhere. While most of the short stories could use some refinement, some are pretty good, and Bujold has a great knack for essays. For the hard-core Bujold fan only, I suspect, but definitely good enough to feed your obsession while you're waiting for the next book.
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Last Updated: December 8, 1999
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