My first venture into the writings of Bujold since she was recommended to me earlier this year. The book was "OK", and yet I have to say I LOVED it.

The character's were fun, even if some where a little flat in the beginning, but towards part two the secondary characters get a pit more fleshed out. I have to say the plot was very diverting and I enjoyed getting lost in Barrayar. It moved along at a brisk pace, and I never felt it drag, or the need to skip pages.

There were some spots of humor that caught me completely off guard, esp. when Cordelia "mimed" a conversation her husband and Koudelka were having across the room... *giggles*

Not as well written as I was expecting from Bujold's reputation, That being said, I went out and bought the next book (Young Miles) and will continue to read and enjoy the Vorkosigan Saga. ( )

Don't judge a book by its cover. Bujold's books w/ Baen all have these bizarre romance novel looking covers that don't really represent the books' content very well. I really liked this book, even though I didn't like the follow-on books about the protagonist's son all that much. The character development is very good, the plot moves along with decent suspense and some nice twists that aren't easily predictable, and does a good job exploring the tensions between two very dissimilar cultures via the main characters. Like much good sci-fi (IMHO), this is character-driven not technology-driven. ( )

This is an omnibus of two books - the first, 'Cordelia's Honor' is an excellent blend of romance and science fiction which touch on some interesting feminist themes during Cordelia's personal journey from a member of a progressive, equitable society to a more regressive, heirarchical and militaristic one. The second book is slightly weaker. It starts off on a strong note, and it widens the cast and sets up the world of Barrayar which will be familiar to people who have read other works in the Vorkosigan universe, but is slightly uneven in pace and tone in its later part. Its still eminently readable though. Overall this is a book worth pursuing, even if, like me, you have not really delved into the miles corkosigan universe. ( )

I became a fan of Bujold when I was in high school, and for a while now all of the Vorkosigan books have been some of my favorite comfort rereads. Cordelia's Honor ranks high among that number. Know that Cordelia's Honor is an onmibus of two novels that were originally published separately.

In Shards of Honor, we meet Cordelia, who is an intelligent and resourceful captain of a planetary survey team. While studying a planet, they run into a team from another planet - one who has just mutinied against their captain, the famous (perhaps infamous) tactician and starship battle commander, Aral Vorkosigan. They end up working together and growing feelings between them as they travel through the wilderness of this unsettled world and take back Aral's ship.

In Barrayar, the newly married couple face the worst kind of political upheaval on Barrayar. A failed assassination attempt severely damages their unborn baby, but Cordelia insists that they use uterine replicators, a technology painfully new to Barrayar, to save their child's life. Cordelia is further wrapped up in the course of events as first she is put in charge of the five year old emperor and later as she finds that her child's uterine replicator has been taken hostage. Since everyone else sees the damaged fetus as expendable, it is up to Cordelia to fix this mess and save her baby.

While technically not Bujold's best books, these are still fantastic. Cordelia is witty. She is a fabulous reluctant hero. She really is only doing things because something needs to be done and there's no one else around to do it. Bujold states in one of her afterwards that she writes books by making a character and then putting them in the worst set of circumstances and then watches and records as they dig their way out. While the Miles book are a better example of this method of creating plot, you can see it here as well. Both books have a great balance of character development and action - and plenty of each. They have elements of military science fiction, space opera, action-adventure, spy novels, you name it, this book has it. In general, this book and this series are fairly accessible to people who do not normally read science fiction.

It is certainly a must for anyone who has read the Miles books - it puts his life in perspective. We also get Barrayar at very strange state socially and technologically - the planet is already a galactic power, and yet it is still clawing its way out of a dark age. Here more than anywhere else we get hints about the Cetagandan war in which Piotr fought - I'd personally love to hear more about that.

I recommend this book to be read after Young Miles so that in Warrior's Apprentice you have a chance to develop a soft spot for Bothari before you find out that he really is a psychopath. I also recommend that this book be read before Memory, so you can see what Simon was like before he becomes head of Imperial Security. In general, I recommend that this be read earlier rather than later since it explains Escobar and Gregor's ascension to the throne rather well. ( )

I have finished Cordelia's Honour. It is kind of awesome. Okay, actually, it's really awesome. The first novel, Shards of Honour, is... okay. Actually, no, it's more than okay, it's not spectacular, but it's nice enough. Cordelia is the only character who really comes to life in it, but she does, so beautifully - she's brilliant, and brave, and also very human, and I really, really like the way she's drawn. It's a long time since I read a novel with a female protagonist who actually rang true to me - this is not a male action hero with breasts, nor a Lara Croft type, nor a wilting flower, but a woman who's sometimes a hero and sometimes miserably afraid, who takes life very seriously and has a sense of humour. I like that, very much. And the romance is lovely. Again, it rings true - it's not fluffy or overblown, but sweet, full of sex and charm. (I was upset at the lack of onscreen wedding. I have been reading too much Patrick O'Brian and demand weddings.)

And then the second novel, Barrayar, is just fantastic, and people keep telling me this, but yes, you can see the maturation of Bujold's writing style. Suddenly all the characters come to life - all of them, except Cordelia, were a bit cardboard previously, and then suddenly all their motivations make sense. I loved it, and I can't remember liking a novel nearly so much for a while. I especially like how it isn't Science Fiction with initial caps - it's a story about war and family and people, with a kind of scenic background of faster-than-light travel and uterine replicators. The imperial structure of Barrayar is marvellously mediaeval, or at least, a lot like India - complete with heavily feudal power structures, grand old patriarchs, sexism, racism, dowries and caste - and I love that Cordelia provides an ultra-liberal, socialist-utopian commentary on the whole thing. It's a delight.

Also? Also. Aral Vorkosigan is bisexual. Yeah. This is not handled perfectly. There's a brief exchange where Bujold seems to imply that "bisexual" cannot equate to "monogamous", or that a bisexual person in a relationship stops being a bisexual person, or something. But... I don't know, I get the sense that this is a case of sloppy use of language, not sloppy thinking. Because the joke is that it takes Cordelia several paragraphs to realise that the fact that someone telling her this is supposed to be an insult, and her reply is pretty smooth, all things considered - despite the odd use of terms, she goes on to tell the guy, frostily, that she didn't think she was marrying a forty-four-year-old virgin. His bisexuality is a matter of supreme indifference to her, and by extension, to the reader (tight third-person narration throughout, naturally).

Which I find... interesting. Is this the only example, in science fiction and fannish source generally, of a character who is unproblematically bisexual and described as such? I mean - in the sense that he doesn't exist in a universe where everyone is bisexual (like, say, the Culture), and it isn't code for him having sex with everything in sight, and it isn't "experimentation" or a transitional phase on the way to coming out as gay. Bi-visbility, yadda yadda, do not get me started on Willow Rosenberg. I liked seeing it treated as, well, just as a thing.

And, finally, the head in the bag? Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. I should keep reading these.

- Iona