Vorkosigan saga

[silverflight8]

I'm so incredibly late to reading this and very much should have read it so much sooner, but it's been eating my brain. I read Shards of Honour years ago and enjoyed it, but was stymied by the knowledge that most of the series is about Miles - I generally hate it when book sequels go to the next gen, so I never pursued the further books. I really should have, because it turns out I really like them! I really like space opera/military SF in general, and these are just so good.

I'm in a bunch of book clubs and for one of them we decided to read The Warrior's Apprentice, based on C's recommendation on where we should start. So I read it. And I loved it. A few days later I was getting dinner with another friend in another book club (I have too many book clubs) and was telling K about how much I enjoyed The Warrior's Apprentice & The Vor Game, the next in sequence, and K was like "oh, I love those books!". K is in another book club with C with me, so when we met, we discussed the actual book we had chosen, and then devoted the rest of the time to Vorkosigan. The next meeting is going to be "whatever book I can get to", with K saying she'd like to discuss Memory, but only if I can make it there. Both C and K have read them all, so we tentatively set Memory as a goal, and this book club may temporarily just turn into us discussing Vorkosigan until I suppose I read all of them. As of Feb 15, I am absolutely going to make it to Memory, as I've just finished Mirror Dance. Though I need to force myself to take a break. I finished The Warrior's Apprentice on January 18th, and since then I have read Mountains of Mourning, The Vor Game, Cetaganda, Labyrinth, Borders of Infinity, Shards of Honour (having forgotten all the plot from my first reading, this felt just like a new book), Barrayar, Brothers in Arms, and Mirror Dance. I took a break in the middle in various places to try to read other books, but it was kind of difficult because I just wanted to keep going with Vorkosigan. I have copies of a bunch of omnibus editions, which also makes it so easy to just keep going.

I have so many feelings.

Comments

[silverflight8]

Ha, I'm thinking of re-reading A Civil Contract in preparation. All I really remember is that Jenny seemed to be way too good for him...I like Heyer a lot but I often find that modern romance tends to be much better at giving emotional satisfaction, vs Heyer's enjoyment for me is more on the setting & writing side.

Yes - some of the best payoffs are the ones after many books' build up so you really like the characters and care. (But also, I'm scared, lol).

I'm gonna try to at least put my scattered thoughts on here. Since we're gonna be talking about six books I've started taking notes as well...

[hamsterwoman]

I read and loved A Civil Campaign without having consumed any Heyer at all at that point, and I don't think it detracted any from my enjoyment. Though it is definitely a comedy of manners book. (I have since read one Heyer, I think? Which was decently enjoyable for a cultural experience, but also did not make me want to go out and read more. But I'm generally not a romance reader, either classic or modern.

I'm gonna try to at least put my scattered thoughts on here.

Looking forward to it!!

[silverflight8]

Fair enough! I do love a good comedy of manners book (and indeed romance haha).

[spiralsheep]

A Civil Contract is also my favourite, atypical, Vorkosigan novel and I don't think an intimate knowledge of Heyer improves it tbh.

(Heretically, I actually think that Memory is Bujold's third best novel and the first two Chalion novels are her best, especially if you like angsty romance. Read the remaining Vorkosigan classics first though or you might get sidetracked into Chalion. The newer Vorkosigans revisited stories are a bit more varied in quality imo.)

[silverflight8]

Ha, good to know.

I do like fantasy as well so I will probably dive headfirst into her other stuff afterwards. :)