on Vorkosigans

[xparrot]

So when that list of SF books went around, I mentioned I'd never read Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books, upon which someone kindly (evilly) linked me to the free e-book versions. So I popped them on my Kindle and started reading. Really enjoyed Cordelia's stories (insanely awesome (awesomely insane) female character FTW!), and Cordelia & Aral's mature, incredibly supportive romance and relationship (het OTP FTW!) Then I started reading Warrior's Apprentice.

Then I told my brother to read them. And my roommate. And gnine (that was a week and a half ago. She's finishing Cryoburn as I write this. Have I ever mentioned my sister's marathoning abilities are unbelievable?)

I knew the series was award-winning scifi, and I knew it had to have good characters from the number of fangirls who liked it. I'd also heard tell of h/c (Bujold is totally an h/c fangirl, whether or not she would use the term herself. She's also a whumper - there's quite a bit of 'hmm, the plot seems to be slowing down - time to beat on the hero!' but there's some sweet moments as well.) What no one ever mentioned was how funny the books can be. Some of them moreso than others; the whole series is incredibly manic depressive (just like its hero) - bouncing between hilarious and tragic within a few pages. ...Which, I've come to realize, is pretty much my favorite kind of fiction (see Gintama!) (Not that the Vorkosigan books are parody; they're pretty straight action/hard scifi/mystery. But they keep making me unexpectedly laugh out loud. And that's definitely a good part of how hard I've fallen for them...)

I could go on about how much I adore Miles and his amazing ability to take absolutely anything and run with it (to infinity and beyond, to legend! Also bankruptcy!) and all the snowballing escapades this gift gets him into, and how much I love how he's maybe the only genre hero I've ever read with a really solid, functional, caring relationship with both his parents (so much love for Cordelia & Aral, I don't even. And I love how Miles is so completely their son, Aral's mastery of strategy and Cordelia's unstoppable will in one package seemingly too small to contain it). Not to mention all the Dendarii, and Gregor, and Ivan (Ivan! <333) - but I'm about halfway through Brothers in Arms and it was a terrible place to stop, so I'm going back to reading now.

But thank you, everyone who recced them - and if you haven't read them yet, definitely give them a go!

(Ah, also, I'm reading in chronological order, so please please please no spoilers for Brothers in Arms or even vague references to any books after - I'm pretty much unspoiled and am enjoying not having any clue what's going to happen to Miles next!)

Comments

[sholio]

Oh yes, the humor - the humor in those books is great! I am also a huge sucker for humor mixed with serious/tragic (... just look at what I fan on; there's almost always a large dose of humor in the mix!).

And, heeee, Brothers in Arms - without getting spoilery beyond where you are, I absolutely adore the comedy-of-errors aspect to that book; between Miles trying to find a way to pay for his hideously expensive fleet of heavily armed mercenaries, and Miles convincing the world that he is his own clone(!!!), it's so funny. Only you, Miles, only you.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

It hasn't really struck me until fairly recently - I think it's always been true, but I hadn't realized it before - just how crucial a dose of humor is for me to really fall for something, for me to really start feeling the characters. I think it's why things like BSG never quite work for me; it's not just that they're so dark, but because they're so dark all the time...

Brothers in Arms reminds me more of The Warrior's Apprentice than any of the other books, in that it's an escalating series of things getting worse, and worse, and worse...and Miles diligently getting himself more and more over his head. Which is ridiculously fun to observe - especially because often he's the only one who fully realizes how deep he's in, while managing to fool everyone that he's still on top of things. (Ahahahah him coming up with the clone excuse! ...which now is proving to be unexpectedly true. OH MILES.)

[spacealien-vamp.livejournal.com]

I can't recall if I joined in on recommending the series to you, but I've certainly recommended it to a number of people. I'm glad that you're enjoying it!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I actually don't know how many people have recced this series to me, over time - but you were all right, it's fantastic! ^_^

[mahaliem.livejournal.com]

I love those books!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

They are amazing, I'm just happy I have so many left to read ^_^

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh - I will have to see how I feel when I'm done reading the series! I usually don't read fic for books I like - it's hard to explain, it sort of feels like I lose track of the real canon, when the source work and the fan work are the same media? Not a problem when it's something I'm not really into (I've probably read more Anne Rice fanfic than the original vampire books XD) but when it's a series I enjoy...yeah, weirds me out.

OTOH, if I finish the canon and still crave more...will see! XD

ETA: I do have to admit, that pairing intrigues me...

[amalthia]

This series took me over when I first started reading it! I also loved the humorous aspects of the books and cried more than once throughout the series.

I also second the Deeper Season rec..I have ebook versions of the fan fic if you're curious to give it a go after you're done reading the series. I was also rather intrigued by the pairing. :)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I know, once you start reading one it's hard to stop!

I will have to see how I feel about the fanfic, when I'm done...(and it's all up on AO3, so instant ebooks ftw! Though a combined one would be nice...)

[amalthia]

I think the reason why I haven't converted the last three stories is because they are up on A03. :)

p.s. forgot a link...

[amalthia]

A Deeper Season

I only have the first two stories in epub/mobipocket format. It's on my list of things to do to create ebook versions of the rest of the series and maybe create a single ebook that contains the entire Deeper Season verse.

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Ivan! <33333

He gets even more awesome, just FYI. :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Heeee, now that is a spoiler I'm happy to get ^__^

(I can't help myself, Ivan's a flake but he's such a cute almost-brother to Miles, and I've got a thing for well-meaning idiots who aren't quite as dumb as they come across...!)

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's one of my favorite character types as well. :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee - the (origfic) novel I'm working on now stars such a char, so I'm especially attuned to them at the moment ^^

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it'll be an awesome book! XD

[serrende.livejournal.com]

*jumps in* I didn't know you were walking on a novel! That's very cool to know.

[cienna.livejournal.com]

After hearing gnine go on and on about this series, and now reading your comments, I have to say, it intrigues me! That is awesome that there are free e-book versions! I might just have to give the first book a try.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

The free e-books are a great help! (and now my bro has gone and bought hardcopies because of them, so I think they did their job...)

I really liked the first book, but if Cordelia's story is not to your taste I would recommend trying the second in the ebook collection, Young Miles - the first book in that is The Warrior's Apprentice and is a ton of fun and somewhat different in flavor.

[serrende.livejournal.com]

Another Vorkosigan fan here, reporting in! You've got some great stuff ahead of you.

Also, since you've already read Barrayar, can I show you the new cover to that volume? This series has not been well-served with covers generally, but I really like this one (http://www.murphyillustration.com/images/full/Barrayar.jpg) (even if everyone is glamourised on it!).

And I totally agree re Miles and his relationship to both his parents.

Btw, I haven't read through the comments yet so maybe someone else has already said this, but Bujold is quite positive towards fanfics and started out in the early Star Trek fanzines herself, way back when in the 70s.

ETA: I see you're not interested in fanfics... oddly, I tend to feel the same way about book fics. And it may be because it's the same medium. Or maybe I just have an inherently bigger respect for books that I can't shake, I dunno...

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

There are many Vorkosigan fans out there, I'm realizing! (Totally justified, because it's an awesome series...)

That cover is pretty epic - yeah, Cordelia's more fashion-modelly than I picture her, but it's pretty representative (eheheh it's after she's 'gone shopping', I see...oh Cordelia.)

No one's mentioned the fanfic connection here yet, but my sis just informed me of it! I'd thought I remembered something about Bujold with Star Trek, but then was wondering if I was thinking of a different author...ahh, it's very nice to know she is/was 'one of us'!

[serrende.livejournal.com]

There's even a bit of a legend that Shards of Honour started out as a Star Trek fic with Aral as a Klingon officer and Cordelia from the, uh, Federationwhatsit (as you can see I'm not up on Star Trek myself); but it's been refuted by Lois. She had some vague idea in that direction long before starting the book, but there were several other ideas that went into it as well, and once she started writing for real it was all original.

Lois even used to read fics of her own stories until she realised that carried its own dangers (if a future plot resembles a fic she's read, perhaps the author would sue)... But when it comes to other series, she still reads sometimes, apparently. (She's said that for a year after her mother's death in the early 00s, fanfiction was the only thing she was able to make herself read, for some reason.)

When it comes to that new cover, I think of it as how Cordelia would look in the popular Barrayaran imagination at that moment, so there's no visible stress or dirtiness, and everyone looks their best! ^_^ (Okay, the general public probably has no clue that Drou and Bothari were there, but still... *handwaves*)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Heee, the cover pic as Barrayan propaganda, I love it! That works perfectly for me ^_^

I could totally see where that could be a really basic origin for Shards of Honor - a seed that fast grew into something else. (I've had a couple origfic ideas myself that started as me thinking about writing a fanfic and then deciding to take it somewhere else...) The Barrayar did remind me of a classic Star Trek-style "warrior race"...I've been a Trekkie forever, so any such associations just lend to my enjoyment!

[gnine.livejournal.com]

...Hee, that cover is AWESOME! Love all the details they got right on it!

And yeah, I have the same trouble with reading fic for books..I think it's mainly the medium, added to the fact of the single author/creator's voice. Shows, movies, etc. have various levels of screen writer schizophrenia, so that one's already used to many small variations and takes on the chars. But with one creator, the characters are more consistent so then the OOCness of the characters is more noticeable in fic?

[serrende.livejournal.com]

For me it seems to be a medium thing: the single author/creator's voice is not so much the problem, since it's the same for the manga fandom(s) I write in. In fact, I like that kind of reliability or should I say accountability in a canon: what this creator has put down and said goes, and that is that (in my view).

But not only do I doubt I could make myself write in pastiche Bujold, or stop being disappointed at falling short if I tried; but I also don't really have any urge to check if others could do so. Even if some of them are likely excellent at it...

[elvaron.livejournal.com]

o.m.g. I've loved this series for forever, so much so that it's one of the rare few I write for, and it's wonderful to hear how you're enjoying them! The only problem with the e-books, I think, is that they don't seem to have Memory, which is one of the later books and also an absolutely critical part of the series (and also my absolute favourite). I'm not sure why and I'm not sure they even have it in e-book format :|

Anyway, wishing you a glorious, happy read!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

They are terrifically enjoyable! I'm on Mirror Dance now, so Memory is coming up next - I've been warned before of its absence, and the bro ended up ordering the entire series hardcopy (on my recommendation), so I'm going to be able to swipe it and read it (soon!)