Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

[meganbmoore]

Set very shortly after Shards of Honor, Barrayar chronicles the first year or so of Aral’s regency over the Barrayar Empire, and how it affects Cordelia’s pregnancy with their son. (No spoilers that aren’t reveled on the cover jacket of Cordelia’s Honor.) I liked Cordelia’s radical (to them) ideas of motherhood and sexuality clashing with the strict ideas Barrayaran society has about those things, and her liberal ideas clashing with their more medieval ones, especially when it came to Miles.

As was mentioned in my post on Shards of Honor, the difference in writing between the two books really stands out. I also think Bujold handles the conflict much better. Then again, they’re two very different kinds of conflict. Here, it’s something that clearly needs to be done, it’s just coming to the decision that it’s worth the risk, and actually taking the step to do it. There, it was a case of a choice needing to be made, and an easy out (narratively, not for the character) being produced instead.

Bujold is also a lot more willing to dig into the horrors of war here, and the lengths both sides go to. She hinted at it in Shards of Honor, but mostly kept it off the pages. Here, she pretty much digs in. 

SPOILERS!

I wonder, though, how much this trend of Cordelia gaining fame and infamy both for Bothari’s kills (one to save her, one at her orders) is going to continue? If it weren’t for the fact that I don’t want to go any deeper into his head than I already am, I’d be pretty interested in something for focused on their relationship. (In a non-romantic way. Just to clarify.)

Also, between Miles, Ivan, Gregor, Elena, and whatever kids Drou and Kou obviously promptly got to making, how clearly is Bujold setting up her future cast, anyway? 

Comments

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I read these two earlier this year and loved them! They're like regency romance novels in space! With extra military crap. Bujold has said that she takes inspiration from Georgette Heyer and named 'A Civil Campaign. after 'A Civil Contract'.

'Barrayar' was even better than 'Shards of Honour', imo, mostly for Cordelia trying to adjust to/scandalising the Barrayaran elite. And I have a soft spot for Droush and whatshisname.

I've got the first first Miles book in ebook form from my sister, but my eyes hate me for reading ebooks and, despite what everyone says, I'm afraid I won't like him as much as Cordelia.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I like Miles very much (although I do adore Aral and Cordelia both) but I'm not a huge fan of the first couple of Miles books. They're fun, but if the rest of them had been along the same lines, I wouldn't be a rabid fan. Luckily, they pick up steam for me really quickly!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard f Miles, I suspect that I'll like him, but that he's also a character type that I'm kind of tired of. (At least partly because it's a case of exceptions to the rules, but an exception only allowed for males.)

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

If it's any help, the unfairness of the exception being only allowed for males is acknowledged in the books, repeatedly. The fact that Barrayar is a very sexist society is not backgrounded at all.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm referring to the fact that it's relatively popular to have your main hero be ugly, deformed, or hideously scarred, but forbidden for females. They have toeither be no worse than "plain," or actually attractive, just not conventionally so.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Without giving too much away, there's an . . . interesting reversal of the 'Beauty and the Beast' trope for Miles.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see what you mean. I was thinking of other things, which I won't go into 'cause of spoilers.

The attractiveness thing is, I think, a valid criticism. However, Miles is a bit more interesting than the average deformed hero, because he's not just unattractive; he's disabled, and IIRC most of the emphasis (at least in the earlier books) is placed on that aspect of his situation, rather than his looks.

[booster17.livejournal.com]

What's interesting is that you're reading these books in their chronological order - not the order they were written in. I can't remember which one out of Shards of Honour and The Warriors Apprentice came first, but Barrayar was a later addition to the series. That's why there's quite a bit of setting up the families here.

[booster17.livejournal.com]

And I meant to add that's why you have the difference in the writing between the books. Shards was so early in her career, she improved by the time Barrayar came out and thus the easy narrative choice you mentioned.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think in Shards, she was trying so hard to not have the normal easy resolution (one government is evil) that she wrote herself into a corner.

I'll probably be reading the series as the omnibuses, which I think are in chronoligical order. (Unlike DWJ's Chrestomanci books, which are in the order they came out.)