Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

[meganbmoore]

I'm actually reading the Cordelia's Honor omnibus that collects this and Barrayer.  Normally with an omnibus, I'll just wait until I finish the whole thing, but I decided I wanted to address these books separately.

Shards of Honor kicks off Bujold's much vaunted Vorkosigan Saga, and, for the most part, does so extremely well.  On an expeditionary survey for the Betan Empire-a technologically advanced empire that is extremely forward thinking-Commander Cordelia Naismith's crew is attacked by a ship of the Barrayaran Empire-a more militaristic empire based on the middle ages.  Stranded on the planet, she finds herself face to face with-and prisoner of-Aral Vorkosigan, a Barrayaran noble and officer who is known as "The Butcher of Komarr," for slaughtering many surrendered prisoners, and learns that she and her people got caught in the middle of a mutiny.  Travelling together for five days, the two get to know each other, and Cordelia learns how much of his dark reputation he's earned, and how much he hasn't.

Bujold manages to avoid all the bad cliches of the "enemies in love" trope.  Cordelia isn't his prisoner for long, and when she is, it's almost a formality.  Though their social statuses in their individual societies aren't quite equal, they're close enough to avoid a power imbalance, and Cordelia not only manages to avoid needing rescueing by Aral (quite a feat, actually) but actually manages to leave him in her debt and rescues not only herself, but also her misguided but well-intentioned crew.  Not to mention Aral himself.  Aral and Cordelia are both very mature, and their developing romance is pulled off very convincingly, avoiding all the angstridden cliches of the trope and approaching it as two adults who completely understand the situation they're in.  (Leading to a proposal-early on, not the climax-that reminded me of the first proposal in Sayers's Strong Poison.)

There is, however, a "but."  And while it's not enough of a "but" to ruin the book for me or even to really lower my opinion, it is a big one.

SPOILERS!

The thing about a setup like this is that, in time, one or both of the lovers is meant to have to make a life changing choice, either to choose between lover or country, or to help find compromise.  Throughout the book, neither the Betan nor the Barrayaran Empires are shown to be perfect or evil.  They both appear to be strong societies with both strengths and weaknesses, with complex political maneuverings going on.  Both Cordelia and Aral are very loyal to their empires, and we're shown why, even as we're shown what problems they may have with them.  In addition, both accept their lots, and that it isn't an easy path.  In some ways, I think Bujold handled the situation too well, as they were both so secure and so mature that a normal resolution to the situation that would have one of them making a choice wouldn't fit.

And so Cordelia is forced into a faux choice by her empire.  Returning home from the war, she finds herself roommate to a psychiatrist.  When the psychiatrist learns that she had been held prisoner by an officer known for raping and torturing his female prisoners, and hears Cordelia deny killing him, which is the commonly believed story, the psychiatrist refuses to believe her, and thinks Cordelia has been brainwashed into forgetting her experiences.  When she gets home, her refusal to condemn Aral and rejection of her "heroine" status, not to mention her shock at being treated as such, causes her to appear to be a madwoman to her people.  She's placed on leave and assigned a psychiatrist who drugs her without her permission, and then decides that, not only has she been brainwashed, but she's probably also a spy without her knowing it.  And so people show up at her house to arrest her, and Cordelia is forced to rescue herself (something she's quite good at) and flee to Barrayer and Aral, where she helps him get pasts the ghosts of the war, and they're married.  The way it's supposed to end, right?

Well, yes.  Expect for the part where neither one ultimately had to make a choice to get there.  A story revolving around conflicting  loyalties and affections is generally meant to lead to one or both characters eventually choosing between them.  Here, they choose loyalty to their empires.  Except that choice doesn't lead to marriage, and so the choice had to be taken from them, and Cordelia was forced into leaving Beta nd going to Aral.  Not that that's the wrong place for her to end up, but how she ended up there felt very forced and contrived, as is Bujold realized they couldn't end up together unless one was left with no other choice.

Like I said, it didn't lower my overall enjoyment, I just wish it hadn't resulted in what felt like the easy way out of the relationship conflict.

Comments

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Aral Vorkosigan

Not to be confused with Anal Vorkosigan, gay porn star.

Barrayaran porn has no room for the weak.

[isweedan]

Oh, how much I forgot I like this book.

I love the little tastes of Russian myth Lois sprinkles Barrayer with.

Excuse me as I go acquire a copy Right Now.

It's so exciting every time I eat at this one oncampus foodery, they have a wall o quotes in decorative typefaces and on of the biggest quotes is a Bujold. I'm sure they just found it in a quote generator and have never laid eyes on the inside of one of her books. But still.
I smille every time I see it.

[the_rck]

I'm of the opinion that Bujold improves quite a bit, the further one gets into her career. Shards of Honor is one of her first books, and it shows. When one reads it back to back with Barrayar which was written years later, the difference in the writing shows.

I still remember my first Bujold book. It was this one. I read it and couldn't wait to recommend it to a good friend. She was, at the same time, trying to recommend to me this wonderful book, called The Warrior's Apprentice, that she'd just finished reading. We had a good laugh when we realized they were by the same author.

[chomiji]

I don't know why, but these books just leave me cold. So many of my sf-reading friends (both male and female) love them that I made my way through several of them, but they just didn't do anything for me.

On the other hand, I enjoyed her fantasy The Curse of Chalion, and its sequel Paladin of Souls. They're not among my top 10, but I like them enough to do re-reads.

[kingcrankycat.livejournal.com]

I haven't read her Sci-Fi books, but I do intend to. She gets the complexities down even better the further you move along in her series, and I don't doubt that's true for her sci-fi work as well.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

haha, yes it's quite the cop out, but well, it was her first novel :)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

You know, despite the fact that you can really tell that it's a first book, especially after reading some of her others, I adore Shards of Honor so very much. For me, mainly because I love Cordelia and Aral to bits (and I while Miles is great, he didn't do it for me as a character the way his parents did) there isn't a book I enjoy as much until you get to 'a civil campaign.'

But I see why you have problems with the ending. The two characters were so well-balalanced SOMETHING had to snap, externally.

Oh, and this is a nitpick, but Aral was the Butcher of KOMARR. I do think that the fact that is WASN'T her people was PART of why she could listen so willingly to his side of the story. Had they been Betans, it probably would have taken a bit more work.