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

[azurelunatic]

Mirror Dance is a great place to sit and take a break, yeah.

[sholio]

I drifted away from the series later on somewhat, but it's a longtime favorite and a definite influence on some of my early writing! I have a special fondness for the Brothers in Arms/Mirror Dance duology because MARK. (But really, they're all so excellent.)

[spiralsheep]

Memory is the best book (but only read as part of the series), although not my favourite, but it's paced slower than most of the series. Enjoy!

[sherrilina]

Good to know! I read the first book in the series about the parents peobably a decade ago, but still haven't gotten around to continuing the series yet, like you until recently. Part of the issue is that these days I almost only have time for audiobooks, and there is no audiobook for them via my library. But I do have a copy of Young Miles sitting on my shelf that I got at a used book sale.

[hamsterwoman]

Hello, excellent, about time! :D

she'd like to discuss Memory, but only if I can make it there.

I am glad you are on track to hit Memory, because I do think that's an excellent one to discuss in a book club setting (I think it's probably the best of the series, and also quite likely to produce a lot of feelings), but also definitely a book that needs the heft of the rest of the series behind it to work properly.

But also do agree that Mirror Dance is a good place to pause in a headlong rush through the series; that's where my pause naturally fell when I was reading Vorkosiverse for the first time 20+ years ago (although because I was relying on library rather than omnibuses, I skipped over some things at the time).

My personal favorite is A Civil Campaign, so I am also looking forward to you getting to that one.