Knot of Shadows by Lois McMaster Bujold

 I've said it before, I'm certain, but Bujold is one of those writers whose works I can enjoy over and over again. She's like comfort food for my brain.

Knot of Shadows continues the saga of Penric and Desdemona which began with Penric's Demon, and has generated a total of nine novelettes so far. Can't determine whether the story length selection by Bujold has been an inspirational affair or a financial decision; more books at a lower prices = better net sales over time? It certainly has made it an easier decision for me to pull the trigger on the latest Kindle offering at $3.99 rather than $14.99 for most other authors. Dorothy Grant has done something similar that seems to be working out well.

Anyway, most of the recent offerings in this saga have had at their heart some quirky mystery that Penric needs to solve, using his wits, sorcerous skills, and Desdemona's experience, as well as a little help from his friends. In this story, a body has been fished out of the harbor which is only, as they say "mostly dead". It turns out to have been inhabited by a ghost, not the spirit of the person who occupied the body originally, who has been slain by death magic, or death miracle, depending on your theological point of view in the world of the Five Gods.

For those who have been following Bujold for some time, this further explores some concepts that arose in her first book in this world, Curse of Chalion, about how death magic/miracles work and some of their more unexpected consequences. Hmmm...we don't seem to have any novels by Bujold involving death magic where it happens exactly as expected, do we? Point to ponder.

Reading this one inspired me to go back and binge read Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls over the weeekend. I highly recommend all of Bujold's books, but most especially the Vorkosigan stories and the Five Gods stories.

Time flies

And another month goes by of crazy times.

Read the latest by Bujold, Penric's Mission, which is fun, but too short, and which introduces a love interest into Penric's saga.

More Stephanie Plum novels for light reading, always reliable for a chuckle or two.

Tried Murder in the Place of Anubis, by Linda S. Robinson , as recommended to me by a friend, but found it not all that interesting after all, I'm afraid.

Finished Magic Binds, by Ilona Andrews, which was very engrossing, and kept me up long past my bedtime. It got mixed reviews on Goodreads, but I found it to be one of the better ones in the Kate Daniels series.

Read A Curse on the Land, by Faith Hunter, sequel to Blood of the Earth. Interesting buildup to a rather disappointing finale. Will still read the next book in this series - Hunter's work does have its peaks and valleys.

Created to be God's Friend, by Henry T. Blackaby, was an interesting take on the life of the patriarch Abraham. Gives one hope that we can be used of God despite, or perhaps because of, our faults and failings. I had read his study, Experiencing God, some time ago and found it insightful, so was happy to pick this book up at a garage sale.

One of my finds during my travels had to be read simply because I'd never read anything by the legendary musician, and A Salty Piece of Land by Jimmy Buffet was reasonably amusing.

Enjoyed a new iteration of Toby Daye, in Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire. A bit of a locked room mystery, solved in only the way that Sir Daye can.

I think I got The Red Queen by Jeb Kinnison recommended to me at According to Hoyt. It may be Kinnison's first novel, and it's a pretty decent read. If he continues to improve his writing as the series moves along, it will be well worth the money. This is what I would consider a "near future" novel, set in a very plausible future when political correctness and progressive policies have gotten a touch out of control, especially on college campuses. A new take on time/dimensional travel, vaguely reminiscent of Tunnel in the Sky, by Heinlein.

That's all I can remember reading in the last several weeks, though there might be more.

Sorry for no in-depth reviewage.

Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold

This novella, set in Bujold's world of the Five Gods, picks up the tale of Penric - all growed up, trained as a Learned now - a couple of years after the events of Penric's Demon. When a temple investigator named Oswyl shows up on the trail of a murderous shaman, the young scholarly fellow sets out to help justice be done, though perhaps not in the way that Oswyl intends.

Bujold seems to be trying to express a theme I've heard discussed in a few sermons regarding how the Gods get their work done in the mundane world - usually by sending their servants, willing or not, to go take care of things. When you whine about, "why does God allow this to go on? Why doesn't he do something?", the answer seems to be to get up off your tail and do your part, miracles may follow as required.

Not the best of her Five Gods stories, but amusing enough.

The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

I've read and re-read the Vorkosigan saga over the years, but this is the first time, since encountering him in Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, that I noticed Lieutenant Jole in Aral Vorkosigan's entourage. I had wondered a bit if Bujold had simply introduced him created out of whole cloth, and was reassured to find he had been there all along.
Note: He appears in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, as well.


Anyway, that has nothing much to do with the plot of The Vor Game, but I found it interesting, at least.


The book begins with the inclusion of a novella detailing Miles' first assignment after completing military training when, instead of being given ship duty he is sent to be a weather technician at Kyril Base, amid a wasteland of frozen tundra. The base is commanded by an Old Army type who turns out in the end to be a homicidal lunatic, and Miles' trainer is a hopeless alcoholic. In the pursuit of his duties, Miles nearly dies when his ground car is submerged in a bog, discovers a body in a drainage ditch, and is arrested for mutiny. And that's just the first 10% of the book.


To keep Miles out of further trouble, Aral and Ilyan decide to keep him on a short leash, and he is assigned to Ilyan's ImpSec. Fat chance!


When Admiral Naismith's Dendarii Mercenaries turn up to enforce a blockage in a nearby solar system, Miles is escorted by some very unimaginative officers to the Hegen Hub, where his assignment is simply to once again assume the persona of the little admiral and to order the fleet out of the area, which is crucial to Barrayaran interests.


This simple mission manages to rapidly go off the rails when Miles is falls afoul of some arms dealers, ends up as indentured labor, and discovers that Emperor Gregor has run away from home, and landed in the Hegen Hub!


The story of how Miles rescues the Emperor, gains and loses and gains command again of the Dendarii, double-talks some psychotic murderers, and foils an invasion attempt by the Cetagandan fleet, is absolutely delightful, in the manner we've already come to love from Bujold and Miles Vorkosigan.

The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold

This is the book that introduced me to the world of Lois McMaster Bujold, and which has forced me to buy every sequel that she's published over the last few decades.

Son of Count and Regent Aral Vorkosigan and Cordelia nee Naismith Vorkosigan, Miles has some big shoes to fill, especially when you add in the riding boots of his Grandfather, Piotr. He has put everything he has into successfully passing the entrance exams for the Imperial Military academy, and the story begins with the tragedy of him washing out of the physical portion of the test after shattering his legs trying to leap tall buildings...or at least an obstacle course wall.

Mentally cut adrift, he determines to take a trip to Beta Colony for a visit with his maternal grandmother, dragging along his childhood friend, Elena, daughter of the dour and faithful Sergeant Bothari, his batman. He hopes that they'll be able to solve the mystery of who Elena's mother was by poking around in cemetery records there, since that knowledge is still classified burn before reading on Barrayar, tied up as it was with Prince Serg's disastrous armada and glorious death (Read Shards of Honor).

We learn very nearly all we need to know about Miles in the first hour or so on Beta Colony, when he pokes his nose into something that is most definitely none of his business, and ends up rescuing a pilot, Arde Mayhew, and buying a ship by mortgaging part of his inheritance - some radioactive swampland. From this point forward the tale skips from frying pan to fire and back - repeatedly. Along the way, he also picks up a Barrayaran deserter, Baz Jesek, who is stranded offworld, and to keep him from being arrested, swears him in as his personal armsman, tying up the diplomatic teams of both planets in a snarled mess.

In order to pay off the mortgage on the ship, Miles takes on a dubious cargo of "agricultural equipment", which is to be delivered to the losing side in a planetary war, past a blockade maintained by a mercenary fleet. Miles plays the role of a devil may care mercenary a bit too well, and we begin to wonder if his personality is splitting at the seams. When they encounter the blockade, all is going reasonably well, the cargo is well concealed, and the shakedown bearable, until the leader of the boarding party decides he needs to take a hostage, too - Elena.

When Miles and his companions reach their breaking point moments later, they overwhelm the bored and out of shape mercenaries, then turn the tables, boarding the mercenaries ship and taking command. When faced with the need to keep the mercenaries, who outnumber them, too busy to launch a counterattack, Admiral Naismith and the Dendarii Free Mercenaries are born!

Simply one of the best, most entertaining stories I have ever read...and re-read...and re-re-read.

Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

Though this novel was actually published a number of years after The Warrior's Apprentice, where we meet Miles Vorkosigan for the first time, it precedes that book in the Vorkosiverse timeline. It picks up shortly after the end of Shards of Honor. Cordelia and Aral are married and living on Barrayar, expecting their first child. Emperor Ezar is dying, and needs Aral to act as Regent for the five year old boy, Gregor, until he reaches his majority. Aral definitely does not want the job, but Ezar points out to him the serious flaws in all of the other candidates for the position, and Aral is forced to do the task.

His appointment, followed shortly by the death of the Emperor, triggers plotting by those who wanted the power for themselves. One of those consequences is the soltoxin grenade attack on Aral's home, which leaves him and Cordelia briefly poisoned, while the antidote to the poison threatens to destroy the skeletal structure of the child in her womb. They take the drastic measure of placing their child in one of the recently acquired uterine replicators (which Aral fortuitously took charge of at the end of Shards), bombarding the baby with massive amounts of bone-enhancing therapies while he is growing.

When one of Aral's colleagues in the council of counts decides he must have the regency for himself, he takes Princess Kareen, Gregor's mother, hostage, claims that Aral has had the boy murdered, and begins to imprison and execute any of Aral's loyalists he can find. Ezar's old head of Security, Captain Negri, escapes the fighting with the boy emperor and in his last dying effort, delivers him to Aral for safekeeping. Aral's father and Cordelia and Sargent Bothari take the boy and escape into the mountains to hide, leading Vordarian's troops on a wild goose chase while they attempt to capture him.

When the man charged with fetus Miles' care shows up suddenly to tell Cordelia and Aral that Vordarian has seized the replicator and that it is being held hostage in the palace, Cordelia defies Aral and heads into the capitol to rescue her son.

This book is filled with ties to tons of the other events in the rest of the Vorkosigan series, and provides a number of in jokes later on for dedicated readers, as well as filling in some of the gaps in characters' backgrounds. Another one of the books that has grown on me with time.

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

It's hard to believe that I never got round to writing about some of the early books in the Vorkosigan saga, but it appears that Memory came out during the early days of this blog, and I never went full retro, as I did with Cole & Bunch's Sten novels. I recently finished Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, and it led me to re-read Shards of Honor (and continue through to Barrayar) in a moment of temporary new novel drought, as I had copies on my tablet ready to hand.

There are certain stories which I cannot read without sentimental tears coming to my eyes at times, and Bujold has written a fair number of them. A Civil Campaign is the weepiest one for me, but Shards did a pretty good number on me, too, and as I mentioned before, I began grieving for Aral all over again while reading Gentleman Jole. Crazy thing is, Shards used to be my least favorite story in the series. But I began by reading The Warrior's Apprentice when I was in my twenties, and now I'm in Cordelia's demographic. Odd, that.

This is, at the moment, the true beginning of the story. Captain Naismith is in charge of a peaceful survey expedition on an uninhabited planet (later named Sergyar), which is attacked by a small Barrayaran force which has arrived to garrison the planet and prepare a stockpile for their invasion of Escobar (we find this out over the course of the first half of the book). Also caught up in the scuffle is Captain Aral Vorkosigan, a man of strong personal integrity who has run afoul of the secret political police, and who is assaulted by one of his own crew and assumed to be dead, though  it turns out the conspirators really didn't truly understand the motivations of the man they picked to murder him.

Cordelia is left with one crew member dead and another nerve-damaged, when Aral arrives on the scene to make her his prisoner, technically, though the relationship soon develops into something far different. Together they journey for a week or so, facing the dangers of an untamed planet, followed by the dangers of untamed Barrayaran soldiers. Aral retakes command of his ship, but is forced to fight against another round of mutineers, and Cordelia manages to flee to freedom in the confusion.

Intermission.

Cordelia is now the commander of a top secret mission to supply the Escobaran forces with a secret weapon, a force shield which will reflect the Barrayaran (space) navy's weapons straight back at their own ships. The mission is successful, but she and her crew are captured by the Barrayarans and she is taken aboard the flagship as a prisoner - again. The fleet is commanded by Admiral Vorrutyer and Prince Serg, heir to the Imperium. These two are well suited to partner up, as they are both sexual sadists, and Cordelia is dismayed to learn that Vorrutyer has taken a personal interest in her, but she is rescued in a surprising manner, and then encounters Aral again on the same ship.

I don't want to say too much more, cause there's plenty of spoilers, but I think we all know the end of the story, if we've been reading Bujold for a while.

One little note that made me laugh out loud was when Cordelia bamboozles a pilot officer into smuggling her off of Beta Colony, one step ahead of the authorities. The pilot officer's name will be very familiar to anyone who has read The Warrior's Apprentice, and we wonder why the man didn't run screaming the minute he heard the name, Naismith.




Great story. Barrayar to follow.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

I needed my Vorkosigan fix way too much by the time this book came out. It had been long enough since the last one that I had completely forgotten the death of Aral Vorkosigan, Miles' father, and found myself grieving once again with Cordelia, three years later in book time. Cordelia, herself, and Aral's long time protege, Oliver Jole, now an admiral in his own right, and as we learn fairly early in the story, Aral's lover.

The menage a trois evidently worked quite well when Aral was alive, but Oliver and Cordelia were unable to kindle any fire between the two of them when Aral was gone, so they simply lapsed into being friends, and Jole ended up in charge of the Sergyar fleet, while Cordelia continued to serve as Vicereine of the colony.

These chapters of their lives are drawing to a close, as Oliver approaches his "twice-twenty" years of service to the Emperor in the fleet, and Cordelia considers turning over the reins of power to a younger person as the colony matures. She has also decided to quicken some of the fertilized eggs that she and Aral put in cryogenic storage back before Miles was born, and to raise a number of sisters for the new Count and his wife, Ekaterina's children to play with.

Always even-handed, she also gifts Oliver with some of the embryos, leaving the choice up to him of whether and when to start a family of his own, with the children of the man he loved.

So, this book isn't filled with all of the danger and frying pan to fire goodness that we've come to enjoy from our old friend Miles and his cousin Ivan (who doesn't even put in a cameo here), but at least we get to spend a bit of time with some old friends and to see the man whom Miles has become, now that he's not off derring and do-ing.

Penric's Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold

This story is a bit like the rhyme regarding the fellow journeying to St. Ives, who met a man with seven wives. A minor nobleman, Penric, is on his way to his wedding, when he meets a party traveling with a sorceress whose demon has somewhat more than seven lives. When the woman is stricken with a heart attack suddenly, our well-meaning bumbler tries to assist her, and ends up with the demon jumping in to inhabit his body, as the sorceress passes away.

His wedding plans in sudden turmoil, his future in doubt, Penric is dispatched quickly to a temple of The Bastard in Martensbridge, where the Learned Tigney is in charge. It is hoped that the Learned will have some idea what to do about Penric's demon. On the journey there, however, Penric, always a curious fellow, begins to make the acquaintance of his inhabitant in perhaps a deeper way than any of its previous...owners?...have done, and actually gives it a name, speaks to it kindly, and asks for stories of its past lives.

Various adventures in the temple and town ensue, as Penric simply tries to survive and find out what path his new life should take, and the more politically minded folks in the story either try to get control of the demon for themselves, for its powers, or to banish it from the land of the Five Gods forever.

A nice little novella my favorite Bujold fantasy realm.

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

 Sequel to Curse of Chalion, this story picks up about three years after those events. The Provincara of Valenda has died, and her daughter, the dowager royina, Ista, finally decides she must throw off the chains that have bound her to that place and go on a pilgrimage. She gathers "by chance" an interesting crew to accompany her - the brothers Foix and Ferda of the Daughter's Order, the Learned dy Cabon, a priest of The Bastard, a young woman courier named Liss, and a miscellaneous troupe of men at arms acccompanying Foix and Ferda. Her path is indeterminate at first, and they wander from holy site to shrine casually, but when they encounter a Jokonan force on a scouting expedition gone astray in one of the northern provinces where war with the Roknari is about to break out, things get hairy in a hurry.

Ista sends Liss off to warn the countryside and summon help, instructs Foix, who was recently "infested" by a demon, and dy Cabon, who will be tortured by the Jokonans for his faith, to hide in a culvert until the force has passed, and flees like a wounded mother bird to lure the force away from her young companions. She is capture by the Jokonans and will be held for ransom, a tasty prize due to her close connection with the ruling couple of Chalion. She is rescued after a short time by Arhys dy Lutez, a bastard son of the same dy Lutez who was her husband Ias' best friend, and who died in a misconceived ritual to rid the kingdom of the curse in the previous book's title.

Arhys rules a small but strong keep called Porifors, which contains an interesting mystery in and of itself, and which turns out to be the key to stopping a Roknari plot to invade Chalion. Ista finds that the gods have plans for her which do not include her settling down and acting the part of an aging spinster, and finds that the work they hold for her has rewards beyond her expectations.

Great stuff, and the only bad thing is that it appears to be the final book in this cycle, aside from the vaguely related The Hallowed Hunt.

I leave you with a marvelous Bujold quote:

"I am too old to start over."

"You have more years ahead of you than Pejar, half your age, whom we buried outside these walls these two days past. Stand before his grave and use your gift of breath to complain of your limited time. If you dare."

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold

I had a spot of bother obtaining this book. I first went to the publisher's site, and couldn't seem to find an electronic version, nor was I able to find it at Amazon. Bending with the wind, I headed to a nearby Hastings, and hunted for it on the new releases shelf without success, so I had to ask the manager to look it up - turned out they weren't ordering any copies in. What?? Back to the Baen web site, trying a different path, and found the ebook for sale - so I downloaded it before anything else could delay my gratification. I have been eagerly awaiting this book for soooo long, and Bujold did not disappoint me.

We (sorta) get away from the Vorkosigan saga here, in that the protagonist is actually a Vorpatril, Miles' cousin, Ivan Xav. We've seen this a couple of times before from Bujold, such as when Ellie Quinn or Cordelia told their tales, which wove into the overall history. I hope she's not done with Miles, though seeing him appear in this one as a peripheral character, leaning on his cane, dandling children on his knee, makes me wonder.

Ivan is on assignment with Barrayaran military's Operations department on Komarr, blithely going about his business, when he is visited abruptly by Byerly Vorrutyer, best known as a wastrel disowned heir of a noble house, but known by Ivan and his cousin to actually be an ImpSec agent. By enlists Ivan to keep an eye on (translation - attempt to seduce) a subject of one of his investigations, the lovely shop girl (looks can be deceiving) Tej. When Ivan's pickup attempt doesn't go as smoothly as he hopes - Tej's sister stuns him and ties him to a chair in their flat - he finds himself involved in something far more dangerous than a casual fling.

It seems that Tej and Rish are from Jackson's Whole, the daughters of a Baron and Baronne who have recently been removed from power and forced to flee for their lives. Somehow, the ladies have gotten separated from the rest of the family, and are being pursued by kidnappers hoping to return them to Jacksonian space for the bounty on their heads. Ivan helps them foil the plans of one set of kidnappers, then offers them sanctuary at his own apartment (a bit more upscale than the fugitives').

When the local cops and customs officials put in an appearance later, Ivan (whether out of genius or desperation - he's more like Miles than he likes to admit) offers Tej the protection of the Barrayaran Empire through becoming his wife - temporarily, of course. Heh.

The rest of the story goes some unexpected places, as well as our old familiar haunts. Though Bujold claims she writes all the stories in the Vorkosiverse to be stand-alone, the whole middle section of this book is just one long, huge inside joke for Miles' fans. Sure, there's just enough explanation of all the dramatis personae to keep the newbie from choking, but there are far more "in" references for the illuminati.

You can imagine the scene when Ivan's mother, Lady Alys, gets to meet his new bride, and the amusing competitive intrigue that develops between his step-father, Simon Ilyan, and his new father-in-law, Baron Cordonah. We get to drop in on Miles and Ekaterin, briefly, catch a bit of family gossip about clone-brother Mark, and devour a couple of meals prepared by the marvelous Ma Kosti, including some maple ambrosia for dessert which is definitely an insider's joy.

This one is worth whatever you have to endure to grab a copy.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

Some months ago my daughter, who has never been terribly interested in science fiction or fantasy, asked me if I could recommend a couple of good books in the genres. I loaned her a copy of Crystal Singer and The Curse of Chalion. She never read either one, and I retrieved them on my way home from Florida through Salt Lake after Thanksgiving. Just had the urge to read (for at least the third time) Bujold's novel, so here's my thoughts:

I've mentioned before that there are some authors whose newest novels I don't dare start reading at bedtime, such as Orson Scott Card. Bujold is another one who consistently turns out engrossing and wonderful stories that just demand to be finished - even on a third read.
Lupe dy Cazaril was once a page to the Provincar of Valenda,next a courtier, a disappointed poet, and a soldier. While commanding the fortress of Gortoget during the most recent war with the Roknari, he and his men endured a long siege, which left them with a fine appreciation of recipes for roasted rat. When Caz was finally ordered to surrender his post to the Roknari, all of his men were ransomed by the commander of the Chalionese forces, but his name was omitted from the list - by the brother of a man whose cowardice he had once witnessed.

So, after being creatively tortured for a while by the Roknari, he was sold into slavery on a war galleon, and spent months enduring the hardships of rowing and the cruelty of the oarmasters. When things appeared most dire, he and the rest of the slaves were freed by an Ibran ship which captured the galleon, and executed its crew for their crimes. He was released in the port of Ibra and spent several months having a nervous and physical breakdown at one of the temples there. The clerics nursed him back to a semblance of health, fitted him with some castoff clothing, and sent him on his way.

As the story begins, we find Caz on the road "home" to Valenda, hoping to beg a spot as a scullery worker, in the household of the Provincar's widow. He is granted an audience when he arrives, and she offers him refuge for a time, with food, new clothes (still hand-me-downs, but of a better quality) and a roof over his head. The Provincar's daughter, Ista was once wed to the chief ruler - the Roya - of the land of Chalion, but after his death, she apparently went mad, and has been sheltering at her mother's home in Valenda ever since.

Her children, the royce Tiedez and royess Iselle, are heirs to the throne of Chalion, after their half-brother Orico, the current Roya. Orica and his wife, Sara, have been unable to produce heirs of their own, due to - as you can gather from the title of the book - a curse upon the royal house, which clings like some sort of dark miasma to the royal house and all who are born or marry into it. When Iselle and her younger brother are summoned to court, the Dowager Provincara needs a man she can trust to watch over Iselle, and she charges Caz with being her hands and eyes in the palace.

The story of what happens after they arrive at the castle is filled with wonderfully twisty political and personal motivations, and Caz must not only defend his charge from false friends and suitors, but from the dark urgings of the curse, which takes the virtues of the people it chokes in its grasp and exaggerates them into vices.

Richly detailed, gloriously fun, and filled with the usual well-developed characters and plotting that are Bujold's signature.

Short Takes

(4/5/09) Started reading Bujold's latest in the Sharing Knife series, Horizon. Had to stop myself at bedtime, or I'd have stayed up way too late finishing it.

(4/6/09) Finished Horizon, by Bujold. I suspect she's reached a bit of a stopping point in that series now. Perhaps we'll see Miles again, soon.

(4/9/09) Finished Blood Drive, by Stein, by staying up way past my bedtime. The first novel in that series wasn't that encouraging, but I think she's getting better. Starting to like the series pretty well.

(4/25/09) Read Surviving Financial Meltdown, by Ron Blue ... contained nothing I haven't seen before.

Short Takes

(10/22/08) Regarding the Zelazny stuff in Manna from Heaven, there's a reason it wasn't previously published. Most of it was unfinished/unpolished/disconnected. The Amber stuff at the end seemed to be going somewhere, but he must have passed before he could finish it, which is a real pity.

(11/12/08) Finished reading the chronicle of Lavan Firestorm (Brightly Burning) last night. I really used to like Mercedes Lackey's stuff, and it's still good for some semi-amusing light reading.

(11/13/08) Started re-reading Beguilement, by Bujold. I don't like this fantasy series as well as the Chalion stuff, but it's still Bujold.

Short Takes

8/17/07 I finished Bujold's latest in the afternoon (in the Sharing Knife series), Legacy. It was delicious.

8/21/07 Been re-reading the old Blood Lines, Blood Pact, etc. series by Tanya Huff. It's been fifteen years or so, so it's all new to me now. Pretty fair stuff. Need to hit a couple of the used bookstores and see if I can find #s five and six in the series, as I sorta tapered off of her stuff for a while in the collection.

8/23/07 Reading Quantico, by Greg Bear. It's classified as SF, but is really more of a very near future scenario with terrorists. If Michael Crichton had written it, they would have just called it a thriller.

Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold

In her Miles Vorkosigan series, Bujold has often explored - in the Campbellian tradition - the effects of a particular piece of future technology or political philosophy on the human race. In Ethan of Athos, she shows us the societal effects of uterine replicator technology on a planet populated entirely by males. In Komarr, we see folks adapting to life in domes on a planet that is slowly being terraformed. In Cetaganda, we see the effects of long term genetic manipulation on the human race. In Diplomatic Immunity (and Falling Free, which is not part of this series, per se)  we see the how humans who have been adapted to free fall live, love and entertain themselves.

In Brothers in Arms, we find out how people on Earth have built tidal barriers to survive the slow rising of the seas. In Mirror Dance, on Jackson's Whole, we see what might happen on a world run entirely by unfettered corporate greed and criminal "Barons". In Memory, we explore the possibilities of human brain enhancement through cybernetic implants. And now, in Cryoburn, we look at what might happen when an entire society on the planet Kibou-daini takes advantage of cryogenic technology to postpone death.

Things start out innocently enough when Miles is sent by Gregor to a conference on cryogenic technology to investigate what the expansion of the cryo-corporations into the Empire might mean. As one might expect from all that has gone before, Miles just can't stay out of trouble, and is first kidnapped by a half-assed terrorist organization that wants to tear down the cryo corps hold on power, and, when he starts pursuing the threads of corruption after one of the cryo executives attempts to bribe him, he really stirs things up.

I'm afraid, after all of my eager anticipation of this book, that it's a little disappointing. First, this just doesn't seem to have the old "magic" that Bujold has always brought to Miles' madcap mishaps. There's really no sense of "out of the frying pan" in this book, and the people that Miles gathers around him in this book don't have that fully fleshed out feel of earlier sidekicks. Roic is still around, of course, and Lord Mark makes an appearance about two thirds of the way through, with Kareen in tow, but even the most developed characters in the book, like the waif Jin who rescues Miles and is rescued in return, are just missing that certain something. If you're a Vorkosigan fan, you're going to have to read it, because it is, after all, Bujold writing about Miles, and there are some key events, but don't expect too much, ok?

Maybe someone can clue me in if there's a short story I missed, but I always thought we'd see something thoroughly describing the passing of Sargent Taura in this latest novel, and Miles and Roic merely muse about the funeral, in passing.

SPOILERS BELOW!

Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold

After turning a friend of mine on to the rest of the Vorkosigan saga, I decided to re-read them all, myself. After finishing the "core" novels, I figured I ought to read the peripheral ones, as well. Ethan of Athos is sort of a sidelight to the main storyline, about Dr. Ethan Urqhart, director of a reproductive center for a planet populated entirely by men.

We've all seen a number of SF novels about planets populated solely by women, and somehow are more comfortable with that concept than the all-male variety. Of course, the only way this works is because of the Galactic technology base of the uterine replicator. The replicators figure so prominently in Cordelia and Miles' stories, and Bujold seems to have explored the "what if?" implications of this technology on society, in the spirit of John W. Campbell's editorial tenure.

Bujold has previously explored the difference between cultures, such as Beta Colony, which heavily use replicators, and Barrayar, which didn't, as well as the cultural revolution occurring through the introduction of replicator technology after it's introduction on Barrayar. The replicators figure heavily in the life extension techniques available on Jackson's Whole (creating a clone and having your brain transplanted into it). In Ethan of Athos, she explores the idea of a monosexual culture which is allowed to survive over the long haul because of the availability of uterine replicators and cultured ovaries.

However, when our story begins, the viability of Athos is threatened by the slow deterioration of the ovarian cultures upon which the planet depends. The Council had ordered, from House Bharaputra on Jackson's Whole, 50 new ovarian cultures to replace the ones that were dying, but when the package arrives, it's filled with non-viable ovaries, from various sources, human and animal. Dr. Urquart - Ethan - is sent to investigate and to negotiate with some other commercial firm to buy more cultures, and to ensure their safe delivery this time.

Ethan, of course, has never been off planet (Athos is quite isolated, intentionally), and in the early part of the story is quite terrified by Galactic culture and the unknown, especially women, who are held to be the source of all evil in the Athosian religion. When he arrives on Kline Station he makes the acquaintance of Ellie Quinn, presently detached on leave from the Dendarii Mercenaries, or so she claims. There's a plot afoot, involving Cetagandan agents, and he lands right smack dab in the middle of things.

He's picked up for interrogation by Ghem Colonel Millisore and Ghem Captain Rau, and when they find he has no useful knowledge for them after a seven hour chemical interrogation, they decide to dispose of him. Quinn intervenes at the last moment, killing their agent, and then uses Ethan as a stalking goat to draw out Millisore and his minions.

It seems that the Cetagandans were having some human genetic research done on Jackson's Whole. One of the results of that experiment, Terrance Cee, revolted against his "masters" and stashed the gene complexes in the shipment of ovaries bound for Athos.

The action and intrigue revolve around Ethan's, Quinn's, Terrance's and Millisore's search for the missing gene complexes.

The overall effect of the book is to round out some aspects of Galactic culture, flesh out some facets of Ellie Quinn's character, and bounce a few new cultural and philosophical ideas off of Bujold's reading audience. Bujold raises some interesting points about the hidden costs of childbearing and child rearing, that most Earthly cultures "write off" through the "free" labor of women and wives, but which must be strictly accounted for and paid for in a totally male society. Interesting and entertaining reading all the way round.


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The Hallowed Hunt, by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Hallowed Hunt takes place in the same fantasy realm as Bujold's earlier fantasy novels, Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, but in a different part of the countryside. In the earlier novels, there is a source of conflict between the nations that follow the doctrine of the five gods, and those who only acknowledge four. In The Hallowed Hunt, we encounter another nation that worships the five Gods (Daughter of Spring, Mother of Summer, Son of Fall, Father of Winter and The Bastard), which long ago conquered a group of tribes who seem to have a more druidic tradition, allying themselves with nature spirits by taking the souls of animals into themselves with ritual sacrifice.


Bujold continues to live up to her reputation as the mistress of tale-telling. She has well developed characters, realistic scenery, and enough adventure and intrigue to keep you turning pages till well into the night. The story begins when Ingrey, a servant to one of the high counselors of the Hallowed King, arrives at a country estate where a prince of the blood has been murdered, to investigate matters. It gets complex quickly, as the prince was killed by a woman he was raping as part of performing a dark ritual attempting to gain the soul of a leopard for himself. It seems an obvious case of self defense to Ingrey, but the political aspect quickly spins out of control, and a romantic relationship begins to develop between Ingrey and Ijada, the prince's victim - or was he hers?

I believe it was John W. Campbell, noted SF editor, who defined science fiction as being stories about the effect upon people of new technologies (I paraphrase badly). If that's the case, then fantasy should be stories about the effects upon people of magical environments. Bujold demonstrates once again that she understands the necessary consequences of magical and divine activity for ordinary folks.

Bujold's fantasy doesn't have that sort of out-of-the-frying-pan feel found in her earlier Vorkosigan SF tales, but I give all of it a two thumbs up.

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Diplomatic Immunity, by Lois McMaster Bujold

It may just be a reaction to finishing Bujold's best book in the series, A Civil Campaign, but Diplomatic Immunity just falls flat in some way. A happily-married Miles is a good thing, but he's lost some of the frenetic energy and forward momentum at all costs that made the earlier novels so fun. I suspect Bujold felt the same way after writing this one, leading to her long hiatus from Miles' milieu, which hasn't necessarily been a bad thing, she's written some awesome fantasy novels in that time.
Miles and Ekaterin are at the end of their honeymoon tour, about to become parents when their children are "hatched" out of their uterine replicators when they return to Barrayar. Miles gets a message from the Emperor, directing him to get his Auditorial presence to an out of the way space habitat where a Komarran merchant fleet, escorted by Barrayaran military ships, has run into a bit of trouble with the local authorities.
We end up with a reprising return to QuaddieSpace, from Bujold's earlier novel, Falling Free. On arriving there, Miles is surprised to find an old friend, the hermaphrodite Bel Thorne, serving as Portmaster, and an old rescuee, Nicole the quaddie (human genetically altered for free fall conditions with all four limbs being arms) dulcimer player whom Miles and Bel stole out from under Baron Ryoval in an earlier adventure on Jackson's Whole.
One of the Barrayaran security officers has disappeared under suspicious circumstances while in port, and a near riot caused when another man goes AWOL and the security squad sent to return him to the ship gets a little carried away has landed the squad in the quaddies' brig. It will take what diplomatic skills Miles possesses to get them released without costing the Empire too much, and his tenacious investigative skills to figure out the case of the missing officer. All of this turns out to be much more than he expects, but not, perhaps what we've come to expect from a Vorkosigan adventure.
It's a must read from a completeness point of view, but just not as good as most of the rest of the series.

A Civil Campaign, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Bujold's recent novel in the Miles Vorkosigan saga has just about everything a man could ask for: laugh-out-loud comedy, minor tragedy, high drama and low punning. If you haven't been keeping up with the Vorkosigan adventures, you better get with the program. I recommend this entire series highly. While they're not strictly science fiction in some senses - some are military fiction, spy novels or political intrigue - each and every one will provide hours of entertainment.

In A Civil Campaign, Miles has returned from his latest mission to Komarr as an Imperial Auditor with a major crush on a young Vor widow, Ekatarin Vorsoisson. His clone brother, Mark has returned home to Barrayar from his Betan studies for a while, with love affair problems of his own and a new business partner. And, in the immediate environs of Barrayar, Emperor Greg's wedding is rapidly approaching and the Council of Counts is filled with cutthroat political games.

In matters of war, Miles has known few masters, but in matters of love, he proves to be a little out of his depth. His best-laid plans to court the widow Vorsoisson go curiously awry, and there's a climactic dinner party scene which could have been written by James Thurber on one of his better days.

In some ways, this novel is like a big family reunion. All of the characters we've come to know and love are present. Aral and Cordelia, Simon Illyan, Ivan and Lady Alys, Emperor Greg, Kou and Drou, Mark and the Koudelka sisters, Armsman Pym (think of Jeeves with a pulse cannon)... and the list goes on.

I must confess, I broke one of my cardinal rules and bought this one in hardback, and it was definitely worth the price. Enjoy.