Apr 28 2007
The Curse of Chalion – Lois McMaster Bujold
On a rather different tangent to the Vorkosigan saga, Lois has written a trilogy of true fantasy novels, without a nerve disruptor or space craft in sight :>
The book opens with a man, travelling on foot on an important journey. It took me a while to really get into the book, but it is worth the initial investment.
The man is not as simple, or lowly as he appears, and his life has been full of betrayal, hard graft and omens of things to come.
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Apr 27 2007
Diplomatic Immunity – Lois McMaster Bujold
Returning to the traditional novel format, Lois finally bowed to fan-pressure. (OK, no proof of that, to be honest, but I know people were asking her if they’d return) The Quaddies return :> (See the Falling Free review)
Miles and his wife go on their honeymoon, whilst their babies are approaching full term in their uterine replicators. (The same system that enabled Miles to be born after the attack on his mother and father). When Miles and Ekaterin are returning home, his friend the Emperor dispatches Miles to sort a problem with the Quaddies.
Not only does he have to use all his mental faculties to try and sort out the initial incident, but another conflict is brewing, both on the inter-stellar scale, but also domestically – if he isn’t back home before his children are ‘born’ his mum & wife will have his guts for garters.
That marks the end of my Vorkosigan Saga book reviews, we have 3 more offerings from the same author to come, but these are based in a different time and universe.
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Apr 27 2007
Winterfair Gifts – Lois McMaster Bujold
Although part of the Vorkosigan series, this is a novella – originally written for a collection of short stories. However, if you’ve stuck with the series thus far, I would recommend the book still.
Set in the same space and time as the preceding stories, this book centres around the Wedding of Miles and his beau from the previous story – Ekaterin. However, it is written through the eyes of Miles personal bodyguard/assistant. Who I’ve forgotten the name of. Again, I’ll re-read the story and update this review once I’ve finished my current batch of books.
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Apr 26 2007
A Civil Campaign – Lois McMaster Bujold
Here we find Lois dipping heavily into clan politics, and the issues surrounding gender-based hereditary titles. It is actually a lot more interesting than I’ve made it sound, I promise :>
Once more, the Ceragandans re-appear, and serve as a plot device to finally lay Miles’ alter-ego – Admiral Naismith – to rest. Though nothing ever seems to be certain in the universe Lois’ has spun over all these years.
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Apr 26 2007
Komarr – Lois McMaster Bujold
To be completely honest, I can’t actually remember this book very well. Sorry.
If you head over to Wikipedia’s short review, you’ll get a basic plot outline.
My apologies – once I’ve finished reading my other books, I’ll return to this one and write a proper review.
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Apr 26 2007
Memory – Lois McMaster Bujold
Now that all the main characters have had their ground work laid, Lois is able to concentrate on the plot a little more, at least in my mind. Miles, although only just 30, has suffered heavy tolls on his brittle boned body, through all the battles and scrapes he has survived. ImpSec (Imperial Security) plays a large role in this story, and Miles often finds himself unsure of who to trust.
Gregor, already a fully fledged emperor, decrees that Miles should be made an auditor – the highest and most powerful investigator position possible within Barryar’s realm.
I particularly liked this book, and found most of the plot twists not as predictable as usual.
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Apr 26 2007
Mirror Dance – Lois McMaster Bujold
This book takes some time out to look at the effects of multiple personality disorders.Mark (the clone I previously mentioned) is still slim enough to be able to impersonate Miles. This leads to the Dendarii Free Mercenaries (Miles’ private army & now ImpSec approved!) being led into a dangerous situation without Miles’ expertise.
Miles tries to save the day, and dies as a result. As we both know there are more books in this series, I don’t think I’d be spoiling your read too much to say Miles does return.
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Apr 26 2007
Brothers in Arms – Lois McMaster Bujold
This book follows closely on from Labyrinth, and also introduces a key character for later books. After his ‘rescue work’ in Labyrinth, Miles and his fleet are chased by the Cetagandans. Shards of Honor saw an explanation for Miles’ Dad’s nickname – The Butcher of Komarr. In this book, we meet one of the relatives of someone who suffered at the battle. Unfortunately, this person is Miles’ & Ivan’s new boss.
As I mentioned, an important character is introduced in this book – Miles’ clone! Interesting facts are revealed, and if you want to know more, again, ask me or buy the book :>
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Apr 26 2007
Borders of Infinity – Lois McMaster Bujold
This is actually a collection of three other books, all pressed together. The books – The Borders of Infinity, The Mountains of Mourning and Labyrinth do vary in their style slightly, and the scenes surrounding the areas betwixt original stories do feel a little strained at times.
However, the very fact that they vary, and touch on such delicate subjects as infanticide make this collection worth reading. The 1st book is a reasonably predictable PoW story, but you’ll still find yourself cheering Miles on, constantly second guessing what will happen next.
In Mountains of Mourning, Miles is sent out into the wild backwards country, where the old laws of nature often take precedence over any decrees from the Regent – Miles’ father. He is sent out mainly to gain some experience, and to appreciate what a heavy responsibility being a judge can be. His own deformed body is a constant reminder that ‘muties’ (genetic mutations) will experience a tough life outside of the cities, if they live that long.
In the last book, we start to discover that playing with sexual preconceptions will become a running theme for Lois’s books, and for this reason, I couldn’t really recommend this particular book for young children. Obviously this is down to the parents concerned, but I wouldn’t want parents to buy this book for their children without reading it first. Anyway, Miles goes on a mission to pick up a scientist whose expertise are in fields with highly questionable ethics. Nothing goes to plan, and Miles has to escape imprisonment with a creature called Taurus.
It has been a while since I read this last book, but I’m pretty sure a quad (last seen in Falling Free) gets a couple of quick mentions.
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Apr 26 2007
Ethan of Athos – Lois McMaster Bujold
Picking up on the starts of some ideas in the Cetaganda book, this novel is unusual in the Miles Vorkosigan series, in that Miles does not make a direct appearance.
However, if you have liked the books so far, I would still definitely recommend this book. Not only does Lois take an original look at how men may come to view women in the future, the character interplay does, in places, even exceed the high standards set in previous books.
If you’ve ever wondered what the planet might be like without Woman, now is your chance to discover one possibility, well portrayed.
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