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silverflight8I would first like to say, I should have read these YEARS AGO, I only read Shards, and somehow didn't go on. But now I have read everything except Ethan of Athos/Falling Free. My friend C proposed The Warrior's Apprentice for one of my small book clubs back in January. C is not only very thoughtful about figuring out whether so-and-so might like a book, she and I overlap in book tastes the most of anyone I know, with only one or two exceptions (only really notable because of how rare this is). She just scored 58 on the 100 formative novels list I posted, ha. Flist, I lost my mind. I feel like I've been thinking about these books, and/or flat out reading non-stop, for about two or three months. I pulled my other small book club into reading these, too, since both C and the third person love the series, and I sat down at book club and monologued like a villain (from my copious notes) about all the things I liked.
While I'm babbling about the series as a whole - I guess I'll do a full summary afterwards - I read a lot of the commentary on Reactor formerly Tordotcom, which start here: https://reactormag.com/tag/vorkosigan-saga/?sort=newest¤tPage=17
Jo Walton does a post per book plus a couple character posts, and I really like her analysis. Well worth reading, and the link above starts from her summation. She did finish up the whole thing prior to Gentleman Jole & the Red Queen (the only book I do not like) and she doesn't have a post about that novel, but her posts are insightful, enjoyable, and very, very worth reading. Reactor also has Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer do a full read-through. Her posts are the vast majority of the posts about Vorkosigan on the site, and...well, I have reached a level where I am scrounging for any kind of discussion/commentary, but in many places I disagreed with her take, felt she went on not just unnecessary but dumb tangents, and sometimes she was flat out factually wrong, even about facts she had just read. I am a little irritated by that; forgivable in whole-novel/series summations, but surely you can recall the fact from the chapter you just read. Also - this offends me most, I think - she flies through Mirror Dance's juiciest and most important parts by just doing chapters 9-17 in one post, then 18-33 in a second. Other works like 'Winterfair Gifts' short story she did in three separate posts, and C-M simply elides all the yes painful, yes difficult, but really good stuff in Mirror Dance, one of the best of the series. So it offends me. There is both interesting comments and stupid comments in the re-read as well.
With that being said! Shards of Honor and Barrayar!
I wouldn’t call Shards a romance novel, but the first few chapters of it are up there when it comes to high-octane emotional enjoyment, which is what I come to romance for. I’d like all my enemies to lovers romances to start with an involuntary 200km hike through uncharted wilderness, please! I was a little sad that the planetary survey got cut off so fast, because I love a good xenobiology nerding out, but we did get a little - the hexapod “preference” in limbs maybe the same way tetrapods got locked into 4-or-fewer limbs here, the vampire air-jellyfish - they definitely have more horrible bird-analogues compared to us. But the hike!! The understated romance!! The fact Aral takes an injury the first night that kind of festers and leads to more openness between the two of them! This is the good stuff! The proposal onboard the General Vorkraft! And when Aral is preparing to rush the mutineers, that he says seriously that he’s sorry but he won’t be able to make that walk on the esplanade after all and if he ends up like Dubauer, Cordelia, promise me you’ll administer the mercy-kill? So juicy.
I like Cordelia as a viewpoint character, because she’s so relentlessly practical and resourceful. A lot of other characters would be shivering wrecks, but she goes on, because there’s no point in breaking down. Bide your time and wait for an opportunity. Aral keeps happening upon her (or her work) – I love that he just expects to find the whole scene turned upside down after Cordelia’s been through. She’s very good at sabotage! For all that she finds soldiering appalling, she’s good at it. She's generally unbothered by other people's opinion of her, which is a huge strength - she's got a very solid core that can't be touched by it.
For a first novel there’s a ton of complexity to the characters. In Mirror Dance, Aral says to Mark that calling Bothari criminal is “incomplete”, not that Mark is wrong. Even here, someone like Bothari is very layered; so too is Aral, Cordelia, Ezar, major and minor characters. Vorrutyer’s insane, but you get little details of the relationship he has with Aral, and then the scale steps way, way back to encompass the huger evil that underpins the Escobar plot. But on the other hand, I understand Ezar's fears. Especially in light of some modern things - "But the Emperor said if it wasn't done now, we would all be trying to do it ourselves, five or ten years down the road, and probably botching the job and getting all our friends killed, in a full-scale planet-wide civil war." I’m very fond of Illyan, and we get to see him as a young lieutenant here, already fitted with that memory chip, already wrestling with the clash of his principles/duty against horrific things.
Re-reading Shards with the knowledge of the Serg plot is also exquisite. You can really see the little details, like Aral’s advance knowledge about the shields, so he’s prepared for command to fall on him - he’s telling Venne to pipe down the information, sure, that could just be wanting to know what’s happening, but as the hour approaches when the fleet will reach Escobar and close battle, he’s showered and put on dress greens, and just waits in horrible anticipation for the whole thing to collapse. Like Cordelia says, no wonder he’s insane with stress.
The most frightening part of the book is actually not the Vorrutyer bit, but the Betan therapy. I think it’s exacerbated by the secret that Cordelia is holding, because she thinks it can hurt Aral if they find out. I wonder if she would let them make her go through the therapy if it weren’t for her concern about Aral. She’s very pragmatic, but would she go through the motions of a therapy she doesn’t need (and whatever amount of messing they would do to her mind?) to make it go away? It’s her mind, after all. I’m afraid her fleeing to Barrayar and immediately marrying Aral must’ve been incredible vindication of their fears.
I find that the end of Shards and the beginning of Barrayar blur together for me, even with ‘Aftermaths’ between, though I suppose that’s not surprising as Barrayar picks up the narrative the very next day. Bujold is on record saying that she actually overshot Shards, and cut it back when she edited, which shows a little. I always think of it as ending when Cordelia surprises Aral at Vorkosigan Surleau – which I love, so much – and it takes me off guard when it keeps going with Elena Bothari’s birth, and the scene with Ezar of course. In the scene with Ezar I liked most Aral’s horror at the regency’s implication specifically regarding Gregor, which only Ezar and Cordelia understand. “Me, of all men, to step into his father's shoes, speak to him with his father's voice, become his mother's advisor—it's worse than grotesque.”
Whew, this was a really good book, but also a really stressful one. I feel like I started stressing at the first assassination attempt and barely breathed till the very end.
There’s some really good character work with Piotr, who we only see extremely briefly in Shards of Honour. The escalating dispute between Piotr and Aral at Vorkosigan House, just before Negri arrives with Gregor, is a continuation of the already ugly argument in ImpMil. A character like Piotr in other books is an eminently hateable one, and I have hated a lot of them – old men who are obsessed with their bloodline and can’t accept their ideas of what’s best is hurting or unacceptable to their children, especially female children. But he’s a very complicated character. Piotr is one part of why Miles is so messed up - not the only part, but probably a significant part; and, too, a big part of why Miles made it, too. (Eventually). This argument about what to do about Miles in the replicator, as Piotr tries to claw back control by escalating the fight, is exquisitely painful, especially since Aral declines to fight back. It’s so obvious Piotr’s threats, like refusing them the right to live at Vorkosigan House or Surleau, are ones he hopes Aral doesn’t take up. The threats hurt Piotr as much or more than Aral, Aral’s retreating replies are hurting Piotr, too, a pyrrhic victory... “My home is not a place, sir, it’s a person….People.” is such a painful and good line. And it’s amazing how fast they immediately go from what’s a gut-slashing argument to instant no-nonsense working together as soon as they realize who’s in the lightflyer, and that Vordarian’s moved already. I love that!
The escape up to the hills is also really enjoyable. Unlike many of the other books, there’s no space travel at all. It all takes place solidly on Barrayar, and this part in the hills is really the oldest of the old-school parts of Barrayar. Actually, the science fiction parts of Barrayar are mostly focused on the uterine replicators. Riding a horse some four weeks post-partum (via traumatic c-section) has got to be horrible, but I liked that Cordelia got to put her oar in and conduct some of her own sabotage. She’s quite good at that. It also gives us another view onto Piotr, from loyal and longtime soldier Amor Klyeuvi, who rides what has got to be one of the most strenuous mail routes of the planet. He’s got to be nearly eighty, to be a three-times-twenty man. There’s just so much good worldbuilding - army-mad Barrayar, the hill-people of Vorkosigan’s province, the famed caves, the loyalty and deep feudal roots. Like ‘Mountains of Mourning’, Barrayar gives the whole series a solid foundation of why someone might love Barrayar. It provides an important scaffolding for the Vor system. And I think I’d enjoy hiking in the Dendarii mountains. It sounds beautiful, red-and-brown vegetation and all.
The incident at the caravanserai is unexpectedly violent, and helps set the stage for how much prejudice Miles is going to have to overcome. Koudelka looks all right, is a big man, but they didn’t like how he used a stick and walked funny, and the amount of violence for such a small thing was staggering. A society that values military action so highly, must have injured veterans, especially since it’s not up to galactic medicine standards yet, but the cultural mutagenic fear seems to wash this out. I wonder if Aral scooping up Koudelka to be his secretary saved his life – plus it put Cordelia in his orbit.
I didn’t realize that Bothari and Cordelia delivered Ivan! That’s kind of sweet. The Chekhov’s gun earlier of Alys and Cordelia comparing pregnancy horror stories is fulfilled here, with poor Alys literally watching her husband killed before her eyes and then pretty much finishing up labour immediately after. The only thing worse is dying in childbed, honestly. But fortunately (and typically for him) Ivan is born and has no problems at all, just rudely healthy and perfect. Oh Ivan. Lucky for him, lucky for Alys. Of course, you see Alys from Miles’ POV in subsequent books, thirdhand from Ivan, but not how tough she really is. Cordelia observes that Alys has very acid judgement of Vorbarr Sultana’s high society. More to come on Alys’s feelings about this incident, which I’ll save for Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance.
Despite the ever higher stress in the Tannery Base segment, I liked the discussion of strategy that goes into Aral and Cordelia’s first re-union. Aww, of course they would. Aral talks about how it’s just a large palace coup, not an uprising of the populace, and tailors his approach to making sure he continues to be seen as the legitimate party. So long as weapons must be manned…Plus Kanzian and his discussion of what they ought to do with the space forces, Illyan’s role smuggling him out.
I enjoyed that Kou’s black-market grocery knowledge is one of the reasons Cordelia’s little strike team makes it in successfully. Both the grocery knowledge, like what’s more likely to be inspected (Vordarian’s men shaking down the people conveying in meat for steaks) and Bothari, too, for judgement on how much bribe to offer, their cover in the inn, etc. I didn’t realize till later that Cordelia also tells Vordarian back in that party that she disposed of Serg because he annoyed her, and then actually ends up carrying out this threat. Too bad he never had time to assimilate the information. The shopping scene is famous and I was delighted. Everyone is horrified, but it’s a fun bloodthirstiness.
And I always like culture clash. Cordelia’s observation in Shards that living on Barrayar must be like living with cannibals is kind of borne out here, especially with civil war breaking out. I love that her Betan eye interprets wood panelling and wood-burning fires as insane displays of wealth rather than anything from wealth to deepest poverty; the contrast in Beta’s wide open information network and very active paparazzi coverage compared to Barrayar’s private parties for the elite; that on Beta Colony they seem to stop at somewhere about lower middle class, instead of the poverty of Barrayar where Bothari says dolefully Alys and Kou might get robbed for the winter clothes they’re wearing. Cordelia horrified that Vordarian would fast-penta everyone, even the children, though admittedly Kly is unhappy about it himself. Bujold doesn’t tell us what’s on Cordelia’s list of social rules about what’s acceptable to say in what context about sex, but I love that she tried to compile one and had to give up, and that it made Aral laugh uncontrollably.
The soltoxin attack itself. The whole thing is so monstrously complicated, and while you can argue that it is Carl’s fault for having that duel – unquestionably illegal – which Aral had perfect legal right and reason to let the punishment stand – but which was Carl’s over-in-a-second mistake which he probably regretted, instantly – the whole affair rushes immediately onwards into an awful, realistic explosion of consequences that draws in so many more people. Evon’s regret when he realizes he’s hit Cordelia and her baby. Vorhalas losing both sons on top of his brother, who was killed in action probably six months or less ago. Plus the echoes all the way into The Warrior’s Apprentice, where the enmity almost causes Miles to be charged with Vorlopulous’s law a second time.
I wonder if Cordelia would have chosen to keep Miles if she’d known the depth of Barrayar’s hatred for mutation, or how much pain Miles would go through. She doesn’t have perfect information, though, and doesn’t know how well the re-calcification treatment would heal things. Cordelia and Aral are both compassionate about the wounded, but have very different ideas of what should be done, and they come from very different levels of medical support as well as culture. Well, those two things influence each other. My read on Cordelia’s attitude is that if there is hope, she should not cut off the chance, or perhaps she feels does not have the right to do so. She saves Dubauer, she seizes Vaagen’s opportunity. Aral wants to limit the pain and considers a certain level of suffering/lessened function to be unacceptable. But they’re both not inflexible on this – Cordelia in particular revisits Dubauer’s outcome all the way in Cryoburn.
Barrayar has a lot to say about motherhood, pregnancy, and what it means to create a human being. Walton nails it in the quotes she pulls for each novel: “One birth, one death, and all the acts of pain and will between.” Cordelia thinking about how if she dies in the mountains, she dies singly. The uterine replicator seems at once dangerous and safe. On one hand, carrying the baby in your body means the baby is as close as possible to you, the person perhaps most invested in its well-being. But if you are forced into dangerous situations! On the other, being confident in the replicator’s safety also relies on an effective, well-trained medical staff. Being Betan, Cordelia is used to regarding replicators as just the same (or better) than in-body gestation, which also gives her an interesting science-fiction exploration. Beta Colony controls the number of children that couples can have, plus it is well-capitalized and stable, so these kinds of medical facilities probably are incredibly trustworthy. The implication of the uterine replicator get more exploration later, though not quite the “any two somatic cells” one.
Miles at five is adorable and hair-tearing. Even Cordelia and Aral, both extremely competent people who have the ability to hire a ton of staff, are overwhelmed. I love that his ability to recognize a good dressage horse lets him bond with his grandfather. Little Gregor is already quiet, maybe a little isolated already because of his position, and has a weakness for cream cakes.
I struggle to talk about why this book is good, at least succinctly. It just is. Theme, action, prose, character, all working together. Fun and excellent are two separate axes, but this book nails both.
While I'm babbling about the series as a whole - I guess I'll do a full summary afterwards - I read a lot of the commentary on Reactor formerly Tordotcom, which start here: https://reactormag.com/tag/vorkosigan-saga/?sort=newest¤tPage=17
Jo Walton does a post per book plus a couple character posts, and I really like her analysis. Well worth reading, and the link above starts from her summation. She did finish up the whole thing prior to Gentleman Jole & the Red Queen (the only book I do not like) and she doesn't have a post about that novel, but her posts are insightful, enjoyable, and very, very worth reading. Reactor also has Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer do a full read-through. Her posts are the vast majority of the posts about Vorkosigan on the site, and...well, I have reached a level where I am scrounging for any kind of discussion/commentary, but in many places I disagreed with her take, felt she went on not just unnecessary but dumb tangents, and sometimes she was flat out factually wrong, even about facts she had just read. I am a little irritated by that; forgivable in whole-novel/series summations, but surely you can recall the fact from the chapter you just read. Also - this offends me most, I think - she flies through Mirror Dance's juiciest and most important parts by just doing chapters 9-17 in one post, then 18-33 in a second. Other works like 'Winterfair Gifts' short story she did in three separate posts, and C-M simply elides all the yes painful, yes difficult, but really good stuff in Mirror Dance, one of the best of the series. So it offends me. There is both interesting comments and stupid comments in the re-read as well.
With that being said! Shards of Honor and Barrayar!
I wouldn’t call Shards a romance novel, but the first few chapters of it are up there when it comes to high-octane emotional enjoyment, which is what I come to romance for. I’d like all my enemies to lovers romances to start with an involuntary 200km hike through uncharted wilderness, please! I was a little sad that the planetary survey got cut off so fast, because I love a good xenobiology nerding out, but we did get a little - the hexapod “preference” in limbs maybe the same way tetrapods got locked into 4-or-fewer limbs here, the vampire air-jellyfish - they definitely have more horrible bird-analogues compared to us. But the hike!! The understated romance!! The fact Aral takes an injury the first night that kind of festers and leads to more openness between the two of them! This is the good stuff! The proposal onboard the General Vorkraft! And when Aral is preparing to rush the mutineers, that he says seriously that he’s sorry but he won’t be able to make that walk on the esplanade after all and if he ends up like Dubauer, Cordelia, promise me you’ll administer the mercy-kill? So juicy.
I like Cordelia as a viewpoint character, because she’s so relentlessly practical and resourceful. A lot of other characters would be shivering wrecks, but she goes on, because there’s no point in breaking down. Bide your time and wait for an opportunity. Aral keeps happening upon her (or her work) – I love that he just expects to find the whole scene turned upside down after Cordelia’s been through. She’s very good at sabotage! For all that she finds soldiering appalling, she’s good at it. She's generally unbothered by other people's opinion of her, which is a huge strength - she's got a very solid core that can't be touched by it.
For a first novel there’s a ton of complexity to the characters. In Mirror Dance, Aral says to Mark that calling Bothari criminal is “incomplete”, not that Mark is wrong. Even here, someone like Bothari is very layered; so too is Aral, Cordelia, Ezar, major and minor characters. Vorrutyer’s insane, but you get little details of the relationship he has with Aral, and then the scale steps way, way back to encompass the huger evil that underpins the Escobar plot. But on the other hand, I understand Ezar's fears. Especially in light of some modern things - "But the Emperor said if it wasn't done now, we would all be trying to do it ourselves, five or ten years down the road, and probably botching the job and getting all our friends killed, in a full-scale planet-wide civil war." I’m very fond of Illyan, and we get to see him as a young lieutenant here, already fitted with that memory chip, already wrestling with the clash of his principles/duty against horrific things.
Re-reading Shards with the knowledge of the Serg plot is also exquisite. You can really see the little details, like Aral’s advance knowledge about the shields, so he’s prepared for command to fall on him - he’s telling Venne to pipe down the information, sure, that could just be wanting to know what’s happening, but as the hour approaches when the fleet will reach Escobar and close battle, he’s showered and put on dress greens, and just waits in horrible anticipation for the whole thing to collapse. Like Cordelia says, no wonder he’s insane with stress.
The most frightening part of the book is actually not the Vorrutyer bit, but the Betan therapy. I think it’s exacerbated by the secret that Cordelia is holding, because she thinks it can hurt Aral if they find out. I wonder if she would let them make her go through the therapy if it weren’t for her concern about Aral. She’s very pragmatic, but would she go through the motions of a therapy she doesn’t need (and whatever amount of messing they would do to her mind?) to make it go away? It’s her mind, after all. I’m afraid her fleeing to Barrayar and immediately marrying Aral must’ve been incredible vindication of their fears.
I find that the end of Shards and the beginning of Barrayar blur together for me, even with ‘Aftermaths’ between, though I suppose that’s not surprising as Barrayar picks up the narrative the very next day. Bujold is on record saying that she actually overshot Shards, and cut it back when she edited, which shows a little. I always think of it as ending when Cordelia surprises Aral at Vorkosigan Surleau – which I love, so much – and it takes me off guard when it keeps going with Elena Bothari’s birth, and the scene with Ezar of course. In the scene with Ezar I liked most Aral’s horror at the regency’s implication specifically regarding Gregor, which only Ezar and Cordelia understand. “Me, of all men, to step into his father's shoes, speak to him with his father's voice, become his mother's advisor—it's worse than grotesque.”
Whew, this was a really good book, but also a really stressful one. I feel like I started stressing at the first assassination attempt and barely breathed till the very end.
There’s some really good character work with Piotr, who we only see extremely briefly in Shards of Honour. The escalating dispute between Piotr and Aral at Vorkosigan House, just before Negri arrives with Gregor, is a continuation of the already ugly argument in ImpMil. A character like Piotr in other books is an eminently hateable one, and I have hated a lot of them – old men who are obsessed with their bloodline and can’t accept their ideas of what’s best is hurting or unacceptable to their children, especially female children. But he’s a very complicated character. Piotr is one part of why Miles is so messed up - not the only part, but probably a significant part; and, too, a big part of why Miles made it, too. (Eventually). This argument about what to do about Miles in the replicator, as Piotr tries to claw back control by escalating the fight, is exquisitely painful, especially since Aral declines to fight back. It’s so obvious Piotr’s threats, like refusing them the right to live at Vorkosigan House or Surleau, are ones he hopes Aral doesn’t take up. The threats hurt Piotr as much or more than Aral, Aral’s retreating replies are hurting Piotr, too, a pyrrhic victory... “My home is not a place, sir, it’s a person….People.” is such a painful and good line. And it’s amazing how fast they immediately go from what’s a gut-slashing argument to instant no-nonsense working together as soon as they realize who’s in the lightflyer, and that Vordarian’s moved already. I love that!
The escape up to the hills is also really enjoyable. Unlike many of the other books, there’s no space travel at all. It all takes place solidly on Barrayar, and this part in the hills is really the oldest of the old-school parts of Barrayar. Actually, the science fiction parts of Barrayar are mostly focused on the uterine replicators. Riding a horse some four weeks post-partum (via traumatic c-section) has got to be horrible, but I liked that Cordelia got to put her oar in and conduct some of her own sabotage. She’s quite good at that. It also gives us another view onto Piotr, from loyal and longtime soldier Amor Klyeuvi, who rides what has got to be one of the most strenuous mail routes of the planet. He’s got to be nearly eighty, to be a three-times-twenty man. There’s just so much good worldbuilding - army-mad Barrayar, the hill-people of Vorkosigan’s province, the famed caves, the loyalty and deep feudal roots. Like ‘Mountains of Mourning’, Barrayar gives the whole series a solid foundation of why someone might love Barrayar. It provides an important scaffolding for the Vor system. And I think I’d enjoy hiking in the Dendarii mountains. It sounds beautiful, red-and-brown vegetation and all.
The incident at the caravanserai is unexpectedly violent, and helps set the stage for how much prejudice Miles is going to have to overcome. Koudelka looks all right, is a big man, but they didn’t like how he used a stick and walked funny, and the amount of violence for such a small thing was staggering. A society that values military action so highly, must have injured veterans, especially since it’s not up to galactic medicine standards yet, but the cultural mutagenic fear seems to wash this out. I wonder if Aral scooping up Koudelka to be his secretary saved his life – plus it put Cordelia in his orbit.
I didn’t realize that Bothari and Cordelia delivered Ivan! That’s kind of sweet. The Chekhov’s gun earlier of Alys and Cordelia comparing pregnancy horror stories is fulfilled here, with poor Alys literally watching her husband killed before her eyes and then pretty much finishing up labour immediately after. The only thing worse is dying in childbed, honestly. But fortunately (and typically for him) Ivan is born and has no problems at all, just rudely healthy and perfect. Oh Ivan. Lucky for him, lucky for Alys. Of course, you see Alys from Miles’ POV in subsequent books, thirdhand from Ivan, but not how tough she really is. Cordelia observes that Alys has very acid judgement of Vorbarr Sultana’s high society. More to come on Alys’s feelings about this incident, which I’ll save for Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance.
Despite the ever higher stress in the Tannery Base segment, I liked the discussion of strategy that goes into Aral and Cordelia’s first re-union. Aww, of course they would. Aral talks about how it’s just a large palace coup, not an uprising of the populace, and tailors his approach to making sure he continues to be seen as the legitimate party. So long as weapons must be manned…Plus Kanzian and his discussion of what they ought to do with the space forces, Illyan’s role smuggling him out.
I enjoyed that Kou’s black-market grocery knowledge is one of the reasons Cordelia’s little strike team makes it in successfully. Both the grocery knowledge, like what’s more likely to be inspected (Vordarian’s men shaking down the people conveying in meat for steaks) and Bothari, too, for judgement on how much bribe to offer, their cover in the inn, etc. I didn’t realize till later that Cordelia also tells Vordarian back in that party that she disposed of Serg because he annoyed her, and then actually ends up carrying out this threat. Too bad he never had time to assimilate the information. The shopping scene is famous and I was delighted. Everyone is horrified, but it’s a fun bloodthirstiness.
And I always like culture clash. Cordelia’s observation in Shards that living on Barrayar must be like living with cannibals is kind of borne out here, especially with civil war breaking out. I love that her Betan eye interprets wood panelling and wood-burning fires as insane displays of wealth rather than anything from wealth to deepest poverty; the contrast in Beta’s wide open information network and very active paparazzi coverage compared to Barrayar’s private parties for the elite; that on Beta Colony they seem to stop at somewhere about lower middle class, instead of the poverty of Barrayar where Bothari says dolefully Alys and Kou might get robbed for the winter clothes they’re wearing. Cordelia horrified that Vordarian would fast-penta everyone, even the children, though admittedly Kly is unhappy about it himself. Bujold doesn’t tell us what’s on Cordelia’s list of social rules about what’s acceptable to say in what context about sex, but I love that she tried to compile one and had to give up, and that it made Aral laugh uncontrollably.
The soltoxin attack itself. The whole thing is so monstrously complicated, and while you can argue that it is Carl’s fault for having that duel – unquestionably illegal – which Aral had perfect legal right and reason to let the punishment stand – but which was Carl’s over-in-a-second mistake which he probably regretted, instantly – the whole affair rushes immediately onwards into an awful, realistic explosion of consequences that draws in so many more people. Evon’s regret when he realizes he’s hit Cordelia and her baby. Vorhalas losing both sons on top of his brother, who was killed in action probably six months or less ago. Plus the echoes all the way into The Warrior’s Apprentice, where the enmity almost causes Miles to be charged with Vorlopulous’s law a second time.
I wonder if Cordelia would have chosen to keep Miles if she’d known the depth of Barrayar’s hatred for mutation, or how much pain Miles would go through. She doesn’t have perfect information, though, and doesn’t know how well the re-calcification treatment would heal things. Cordelia and Aral are both compassionate about the wounded, but have very different ideas of what should be done, and they come from very different levels of medical support as well as culture. Well, those two things influence each other. My read on Cordelia’s attitude is that if there is hope, she should not cut off the chance, or perhaps she feels does not have the right to do so. She saves Dubauer, she seizes Vaagen’s opportunity. Aral wants to limit the pain and considers a certain level of suffering/lessened function to be unacceptable. But they’re both not inflexible on this – Cordelia in particular revisits Dubauer’s outcome all the way in Cryoburn.
Barrayar has a lot to say about motherhood, pregnancy, and what it means to create a human being. Walton nails it in the quotes she pulls for each novel: “One birth, one death, and all the acts of pain and will between.” Cordelia thinking about how if she dies in the mountains, she dies singly. The uterine replicator seems at once dangerous and safe. On one hand, carrying the baby in your body means the baby is as close as possible to you, the person perhaps most invested in its well-being. But if you are forced into dangerous situations! On the other, being confident in the replicator’s safety also relies on an effective, well-trained medical staff. Being Betan, Cordelia is used to regarding replicators as just the same (or better) than in-body gestation, which also gives her an interesting science-fiction exploration. Beta Colony controls the number of children that couples can have, plus it is well-capitalized and stable, so these kinds of medical facilities probably are incredibly trustworthy. The implication of the uterine replicator get more exploration later, though not quite the “any two somatic cells” one.
Miles at five is adorable and hair-tearing. Even Cordelia and Aral, both extremely competent people who have the ability to hire a ton of staff, are overwhelmed. I love that his ability to recognize a good dressage horse lets him bond with his grandfather. Little Gregor is already quiet, maybe a little isolated already because of his position, and has a weakness for cream cakes.
I struggle to talk about why this book is good, at least succinctly. It just is. Theme, action, prose, character, all working together. Fun and excellent are two separate axes, but this book nails both.
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Date: Apr. 6th, 2025 04:34 am (UTC)Eeeexcellent :D
I love Cordelia. I love Aral. I love them together as a couple -- the are my clearest canonical OTP. I love the way their relationship develops in 'Shards' and deepens in the complicated environment of 'Barrayar'.
The most frightening part of the book is actually not the Vorrutyer bit, but the Betan therapy.
I do really like how, as clearly backwards and not great as Barrayar is in many ways, progressive, advanced Beta is actually not a utopia at all -- it's got its own horribly restrictive rules, and its own terrible blindspots. I like that a lot as a worldbuilding choice (and it does help explain why someone could choose to make a life on Barrayar.)
There’s some really good character work with Piotr,
You will likely be unsurprised that, given my fondness for terrible old men and terrible fathers, I really like Piotr. I mean, he is terrible! But in a complicated and interesting way, and I love the relationship he eventually develops with Miles.
My read on Cordelia’s attitude is that if there is hope, she should not cut off the chance, or perhaps she feels does not have the right to do so.
That's my read as well, yep.
Fun and excellent are two separate axes, but this book nails both.
Yep, agreed! Can't wait to hear your thoughts about the rest! (And I love Jo Walton writing about books, and have enjoyed whichever of her posts about the Vorkosigan Saga I've read.)
(Have you been reading fanfiction yet? Everything by
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Date: Apr. 7th, 2025 12:33 am (UTC)Agreed about Beta. They have their own kind of draconian rules, though it does seem like the application of them are evenly done, which is important and difficult. And it's not just Cordelia, Mayhew is horrified by the therapy too. I love Barrayar (this is easier as I do not live on the planet) partly because the mix of old and new are kind of like our own. The medical care definitely is way better, but the way you'd have to live indoors all the time would drive me insane. I'm also not cut out for Elli's spacer life. No. Piotr managed to live to 90 on Barrayar, I'm ok with that lifespan if I get to climb mountains and see the sky and moonlight and all that.
You will likely be unsurprised that, given my fondness for terrible old men and terrible fathers, I really like Piotr. I mean, he is terrible! But in a complicated and interesting way, and I love the relationship he eventually develops with Miles.
HAHAHAHA. You know, I've tried to explain why I hate Nikolai Bolkonsky to people before and I feel like I simply end up spluttering and foaming at the mouth (he's just the worst). Cordelia is his equal though, and moreover, backed up by Aral. That fight at Vorkosigan Surleau just before Negri arrives!! When she sees he's wavering a little and she kind of goes for the kill. Plus him admitting that he underestimated her at the shopping incident. Hah. Piotr messed Miles up, but he was also super important to Miles and stood behind him (sometimes literally)...
Jo Walton has such good and interesting things to say about books. I read her posts about Dragaera, too. Delightful. Haven't gotten round to fic yet but I admitted on meme I ship Simon/Alys and several people were like YOU NEED TO READ PHILOMYTHA I may go friend her actually haha
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Date: Apr. 7th, 2025 01:55 am (UTC)Yes, and her Aral/Cordelia is also superb :)
but I think from the outside she'd be a lot, cf Miles dodging her in Memory, lol.
True, but also, Miles in Memory has profoundly fucked up, and I can see him not being ready to face Cordelia's incisiveness until he's worked through it all on his own, you know?
I love Barrayar (this is easier as I do not live on the planet)
Yes. I also like Barrayar a lot, but would probably enjoy it a lot less if I had to actually live there. Although post-Cordelia Barrayar is probably more bearable :P
I'm ok with that lifespan if I get to climb mountains and see the sky and moonlight and all that.
No birding on Beta or in space stations, I suppose :P
When she sees he's wavering a little and she kind of goes for the kill.
Yes, I think part of what allows me to love Piotr in his terribleness is that Cordelia is perfectly equal to taking him on.
Piotr messed Miles up, but he was also super important to Miles and stood behind him (sometimes literally)...
Yes. Like Barrayar itself, in a way :)
Jo Walton has such good and interesting things to say about books. I read her posts about Dragaera, too. Delightful.
Yes! I love those also, of course :)
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Date: Apr. 7th, 2025 03:16 am (UTC)Re: post Cordelia Barrayar - the medicine has caught up, too, though rollout depends on how rich you are and how close you live to the cities (too real) which makes a big difference too. None of the Vorkosigans are motivated to work on the Salic law/female inheritance issue. I feel like the custody of children thing also is scary, Ekaterine got her arm twisted by this for Nikki. But it's changing a lot!
No fresh air! No sky!! Nowhere to hike!!! They have concourses and public spaces, but I assume it's all like one biiig mall. Which is just depressing.
Yesss I have a whole writeup for Memory already about how important Barrayar is to Miles (and I love that) ahhh
I wish Jo Walton had done the read-along. Sigh.
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Date: May. 16th, 2025 08:37 pm (UTC)Great review, BTW. Really enjoyed it.
I've read this series many times, and I still come back to it again.
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Date: May. 20th, 2025 10:28 pm (UTC)Glad you enjoyed 🙂 I am finding it has a ton of reread potential too, it's so great.