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Any Miles Vorkosigan fans here?

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Ethel
Post subject: Any Miles Vorkosigan fans here?
Posted: Mon 14 Feb , 2005 2:58 am
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This is a series of books I have enjoyed very much. There are about 10 of them (some of them are packaged together in recent publications) detailing the career (and precursors) of one Miles Vorkosigan. I guess you would call it Space Opera on the whole, but the different books vary quite a bit in tone - some are more what I'd call romances, others are more like detective stories, and still others are straightforward adventures. The writer, Lois McMaster Bujold, is quite an accomplished storyteller. The characters are complex, the dialog amuses, the plots are often agreeably surprising. She is a more-than-competent writer.

Th universe in which they occur is a multi-planet 'wormhole nexus' which includes Earth. Miles himself is from the planet Barrayar, a rather backward place which, due to a 'wormhole collapse' had until fairly recently been cut off from the rest of space.

Bujold says that she was inspired by the Hornblower books - liked the idea of basing a series of stories on the growth of one person, and the world (or in this case universe) in which he lived.

I have avoided spoilers in this post because I realize many may not have read the books. The first two stories in the series are about Miles' mother and father - they can be found in a single volume called Cordelia's Honor. (The individual novellas are Shards of Honor and Barrayar.)

Has anyone read them, or is anyone interested in giving them a try?

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Jnyusa
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Posted: Mon 14 Feb , 2005 3:48 am
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I'm interested in giving them a try, Ethel!

I just started reading the Donaldson books, at the rec. of Sassy and Holby. Right now is not a good time for me to do lots of recreational reading, but my situation will change at the end of March when all my new courses start running for the second time instead of the first and I won't be frantically preparing lectures.

If I can get back to my usual schedule, I'll be reading about a book a week (fiction) and I've been dying to find some new authors!

Jn

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Sun 20 Feb , 2005 11:03 pm
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I'm a fan, Ethel.

They are some of my favorite escape/pure pleasure reading--entertaining and also well done.

The only things I dislike about them are the horrid, garish, lurid covers--but that's Baen Books for you. Those covers don't at all reflect what's inside.


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Ethel
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Posted: Sun 20 Feb , 2005 11:34 pm
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Primula_Baggins wrote:
The only things I dislike about them are the horrid, garish, lurid covers--but that's Baen Books for you. Those covers don't at all reflect what's inside.
Too true, Prim! They are hideous. I doubt I would ever gotten past the covers if a very dear friend, who shares my passion for Jane Austen, hadn't handed me Cordelia's Honor and said, "I really think you'll enjoy this." Even then it took me a while to work up the nerve. But, at least in the case of these books, the old adage about not judging a book (etc) turned out to be perfectly true.

But then... think of the covers on that old Ballantine paperback edition of Tolkien! Oh, wait, here there are in all their, um, glory:

[ img ]

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Mon 21 Feb , 2005 4:39 am
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Those are the ones my mother read while she was having chemo, back when I was eight. She just sat quietly on the couch and read those three books over and over for months. She's fine and still going strong 38 years later, but she says those books helped her a lot. So, ugly as they are, I still feel warmth when I see them.

This is also the edition I read first, several years later.

But Jn, if you pick up Cordelia's Honor, invest in one of those cloth book covers or you will lose all credit. Gack.

(They also don't have their books copyedited. I mean, they really don't. I'd guess that Bujold either doesn't need much or has the mss. looked at before she turns them in.)


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kams
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Posted: Wed 16 Mar , 2005 11:39 pm
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Count me in as another LMB fan! She has a great wit and a great sense of strategy and storytelling.

I read them in order of appearance, but recommend to others that they start with the first "Miles" book The Warrior's Apprentice. Leave Shards of Honor and Barrayar until after you are completely taken in by Lois' writing. They are good books, but not her best books.

http://www.dendarii.com Great Website with discussion of female science fiction writers and their characters. I love Cordelia, I really do, but Lois' could do SO much more with Miles. Not because of his handicaps; Cordelia as a female in Barrayar is handicapped! No, because Miles is male and male characters can do more in science fiction.

Perhaps that was true in the 1990's but not true now??
I'd love for someone to disagree with me and give me some examples.

p.s. I like McCaffrey too. While Lessa was strong, wasn't F'lar more commanding, more interesting? And the HarperMaster, too.


in green for St. Pat's Day :D


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