Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series, and The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

[rowyn]

I've been re-reading Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan stories lately, partly because they're good books, and partly because there's a least one new one I've not read and I want to refresh my memory of the series before I do.

I've re-read the two Cordelia books (and one short from between them, all compiled into Cordelia's Honor) and the first two Miles books, The Warrior's Apprentice and The Vor Game so far. Now I have to chase down the short stories that are from around this time in the timeline -- Lut has them in e-form if not paperback, somewhere. I'm not bothering with the library because Lut's got multiple copies of all of them. Oh, and I need to decide if I want to read Ethan of Athos, which I remember as being okay but not one of my favorites. Also, not technically about a Vorkosigan, so not that important to later continuity.

I haven't been reviewing these, because (a) I've read them before and (b) it's a series so there's practically nothing I can say about them that isn't a spoiler for later books. But I highly recommend the Vorkosigan series -- in fact, it struck me that these are the one series prior to the Aubrey/Maturin books where I've read a lot of books about the same protagonist.

The Vorkosigan books are comparatively short -- most of the adult fiction I've been reading lately is 400+ pages (in some cases, 1000+), and the Vorkosigan stuff has mostly been around 300 so far. It is striking to me that it takes me maybe a day and a half to read a 300 page novel, but a week to read a 700 page one. I don't really know why that is.

Reading them again is fun and I still like the books, but they rely more upon coincidence and improbable events than I remembered. I am putting them at an 8 so far instead of a 9.

I read The Emperor's Soul today, Yet Another Brandon Sanderson story. This one is a novella weighing in at a mere 157 pages. It's the shortest work I've ever read by Sanderson, whose adult fiction tends to page counts of 500+. It's an interesting take on the con-job story, with a fantasy setting and a counterfeit artist being held hostage to pull off a counterfeit at an empire-wide level. The characters are sketched briefly but affectionately: as is not infrequent with Sanderson's work, one often feels that the grand messes people make are less a function of evil than incompetence, too lazy or inept or lacking the foresight to do better. I will give this one a 8 too. I seem to be running into a lot of 8s lately.

Comments

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

*purrs for Vorkosigan books* ^_^

I do want more like the original Vorkosigan books. Younger disadvantaged but clever and indomitable protagonist in a lively science fiction setting, with an upbeat and essentially honorable backing, not the nihilistic 'everyone's out for their own' vibe one so often gets off of near-future stories.

[rowyn]

I kind of dislike precocious protagonists in general (Miles overcomes this but his extreme youth is not one of the things I like about the early books), but otherwise I'm agreed. I think the future is full of promise, and I prefer sf that reflects that. :)

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

The Vorkosigan books are one of the series that I didn't hate reading but had no desire to read more of after the first book. But read another two anyway, getting more and more annoyed with them. I don't remember much about them except that Miles was really really annoying.

[rowyn]

Hee! I think you're the only one I've heard say that they read some of the Vorkosigan books and didn't like them. I guess I can see reasons one might find Miles annoying, although I always liked him. Certainly a lot the characters around him find him frustrating.

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I read the first one (Vorkosigan) and was "eh" about it, never bothered to read any others. I read a different Bujold book and was somewhat turned off by the writing, which came across as smug to me. Not sure how else to describe it. That book had a plot point which made me physically ill so I only got to 75% with it, then had to stop reading it.

[xyzzysqrl]

The BF is re-reading these again right now, actually. I may take it up after him.

[rowyn]

Have you read them before? I totally recommend them if you haven't. :)

[xyzzysqrl]

I've read large chunks of the series more or less at random. I have no idea how everything lines up chronologically, but luckily I don't have to mind, because for the most part they go "Miles is curious and clever, let's see how he solves the issue of the week THIS time."

[rowyn]

This is very true! The individual books generally stand on their own pretty well (by design -- Bujold's always aimed at having books that you can pick up regardless of having read the precursors). If you decide to re-read them chronologically, Wikipedia has the order conveniently listed. At the back of most of the paperbacks is the chronological order too (as of the publication of that volume, anyway).