SFF Chronicles News
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- Oct 20, 2013
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23rd June 2013 03:38 PM
Jo Zebedee
For quite a while those who know my SFF reading tastes have been encouraging me to explore Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan books. I did read the first two, Shards of Honour and Barrayar, a couple of years ago, and found them heavy on the romance side and a little implausible in terms of the characters’ motivations. I reached the end of them – up to the point where it became evident that Cordelia and Aral’s son was going to have lingering birth defects on a planet with deep-seated racial intolerance to any deformities. Interesting, I thought, but not so much so that I wanted to continue with the series.
Having read a number of threads on the SFF chronicles about the books they continued to pique my interest, particularly the character descriptions of Miles Vorkosigan, and when I was given the opportunity to run amok with £10 on Amazon, I decided to buy something not readily available in the local shops. I choose the compilation Young Miles, which brings together two books and a novella, outlining Miles’s early military career.
I was hooked, quickly, on the central character and his world. The determination to strive past physical limitations and the relentless energy that drives Miles keeps the story at break-neck speed. The wider world and characters: Ivan (aka that idiot Ivan), Miles’s attractive but not intellectually driven cousin; Cordelia, who has grown much since the first two books; and Aral, the father whose reputation Miles must live up to on a native planet that rejects Miles and declaims him as a “mutie lord”. That Bujold combined the central character and his limitations with an alter ego, the suave and polished Admiral Naismith, further developed the character and the balancing act between dutiful son on a duty-bound planet struggling to accept him, and dashing intergalactic spy worked well, in my opinion.
In contrast to the young, hyperactive, Miles shown in the early books, we have the post-Admiral Naismith of Memory and beyond. Older, with years of operations – and one death — behind him, and a legacy of feedback that leaves him struggling with his body image, this Miles is more intriguing. Memory, in particular, explores the contrast between the Miles of the early books and a poised, able diplomat. The later books are more assured, with a nice touch for comedy fully evident in A Civil Campaign. The use of Miles’s cloned brother, Mark, as a mirror for Miles and a contrast to him – first captured in Mirror Dance – is handled deftly.
On the minus side, Bujold likes her sci-fi light, with many concepts not fully explained. Her military set-up, particularly in the early books, with the depiction of a hierarchy prepared to employ a soldier who is both insubordinate and unable to pass their physical requirements, stretches belief. So, too, does the sense of a hero who can talk his way out of any trouble, an invincibility, if you like. In addition, Bujold’s tactic of throwing what she can at the characters left me a little unsatisfied, as she tended to gloss over the actuality of the events, whilst openly using them to frame storylines and character motivations.
In the later books, Bujold moves past much of this. Miles’s military career fully supports his status as a tactical specialist, and the various ailments/mental fragilities he has picked up over the series create a hero who has lost the sheen of invincibility. The question changes from will Miles survive – to which we give a resounding yes – to in what state Miles will survive in. That he has an ability to embrace life’s opportunities when offered stands in stark contrast to the challenges he faces, and, sometimes, falls under, imparting an overall sense of hope to the series.
Bujold’s writing style is light and easy to read. Her point of view discipline is very good, with the world mostly being seen through strict third limited perspective. Her dialogue is lively and her character observations good. (A tendency to leave out question marks had me questioning, however.)
Despite the lightness of touch, many themes are explored, particularly those around our acceptance of people who deviate from the norm. This theme is visited not just with Miles’s birth damage and the prejudice he faces – framed against that of Taura’s story, who was deliberately engineered – but also in the quaddie tales, about a race of now-outdated mutants designed to operate in zero-g conditions. Mark’s fight to overcome the split aspects of his damaged persona takes this further, and Ethan of Athos’s exploration of homosexuality and its acceptance appears another extension of a similar theme.
For anyone who likes their space opera light, fast and fun I’d recommend the Vorkosigan books. Their focus on character rather than science appealed to me and, given their popularity, many others it would seem.
Jo Zebedee
Jo Zebedee
For quite a while those who know my SFF reading tastes have been encouraging me to explore Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan books. I did read the first two, Shards of Honour and Barrayar, a couple of years ago, and found them heavy on the romance side and a little implausible in terms of the characters’ motivations. I reached the end of them – up to the point where it became evident that Cordelia and Aral’s son was going to have lingering birth defects on a planet with deep-seated racial intolerance to any deformities. Interesting, I thought, but not so much so that I wanted to continue with the series.
Having read a number of threads on the SFF chronicles about the books they continued to pique my interest, particularly the character descriptions of Miles Vorkosigan, and when I was given the opportunity to run amok with £10 on Amazon, I decided to buy something not readily available in the local shops. I choose the compilation Young Miles, which brings together two books and a novella, outlining Miles’s early military career.
I was hooked, quickly, on the central character and his world. The determination to strive past physical limitations and the relentless energy that drives Miles keeps the story at break-neck speed. The wider world and characters: Ivan (aka that idiot Ivan), Miles’s attractive but not intellectually driven cousin; Cordelia, who has grown much since the first two books; and Aral, the father whose reputation Miles must live up to on a native planet that rejects Miles and declaims him as a “mutie lord”. That Bujold combined the central character and his limitations with an alter ego, the suave and polished Admiral Naismith, further developed the character and the balancing act between dutiful son on a duty-bound planet struggling to accept him, and dashing intergalactic spy worked well, in my opinion.
In contrast to the young, hyperactive, Miles shown in the early books, we have the post-Admiral Naismith of Memory and beyond. Older, with years of operations – and one death — behind him, and a legacy of feedback that leaves him struggling with his body image, this Miles is more intriguing. Memory, in particular, explores the contrast between the Miles of the early books and a poised, able diplomat. The later books are more assured, with a nice touch for comedy fully evident in A Civil Campaign. The use of Miles’s cloned brother, Mark, as a mirror for Miles and a contrast to him – first captured in Mirror Dance – is handled deftly.
On the minus side, Bujold likes her sci-fi light, with many concepts not fully explained. Her military set-up, particularly in the early books, with the depiction of a hierarchy prepared to employ a soldier who is both insubordinate and unable to pass their physical requirements, stretches belief. So, too, does the sense of a hero who can talk his way out of any trouble, an invincibility, if you like. In addition, Bujold’s tactic of throwing what she can at the characters left me a little unsatisfied, as she tended to gloss over the actuality of the events, whilst openly using them to frame storylines and character motivations.
In the later books, Bujold moves past much of this. Miles’s military career fully supports his status as a tactical specialist, and the various ailments/mental fragilities he has picked up over the series create a hero who has lost the sheen of invincibility. The question changes from will Miles survive – to which we give a resounding yes – to in what state Miles will survive in. That he has an ability to embrace life’s opportunities when offered stands in stark contrast to the challenges he faces, and, sometimes, falls under, imparting an overall sense of hope to the series.
Bujold’s writing style is light and easy to read. Her point of view discipline is very good, with the world mostly being seen through strict third limited perspective. Her dialogue is lively and her character observations good. (A tendency to leave out question marks had me questioning, however.)
Despite the lightness of touch, many themes are explored, particularly those around our acceptance of people who deviate from the norm. This theme is visited not just with Miles’s birth damage and the prejudice he faces – framed against that of Taura’s story, who was deliberately engineered – but also in the quaddie tales, about a race of now-outdated mutants designed to operate in zero-g conditions. Mark’s fight to overcome the split aspects of his damaged persona takes this further, and Ethan of Athos’s exploration of homosexuality and its acceptance appears another extension of a similar theme.
For anyone who likes their space opera light, fast and fun I’d recommend the Vorkosigan books. Their focus on character rather than science appealed to me and, given their popularity, many others it would seem.
Jo Zebedee
