Title Shards of Honor Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art Gary Ruddell Publisher Baen Publishing - 1996 First Printing 1986
	Title The Warrior's Apprentice Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art Gary Ruddell Publisher Baen - 2003 First Printing 1986
	Title Ethan of Athos Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art Patrick Turner Publisher Baen - 2006 First Printing 1986
	Title Falling Free Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Brothers in Arms Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title The Vor Game Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Barrayar Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art Gary Ruddell Publisher Baen Publishing - 1996 First Printing 1991
	Title Mirror Dance Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Cetaganda Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art Patrick Turner Publisher Baen - 2006 First Printing 1996
	Title Memory Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Komarr Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title A Civil Campaign Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Diplomatic Immunity Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title CryoBurn Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Captain Vorpatril's Alliance Author Lois McMaster Bujold Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Category Space Opera Warnings Rape, torture Main Characters Cordelia Naismith, Aral/Piotr/Miles Vorkosigan, Bothari, Koudelka, Droushnakovi, Ivan Vorpatril, Ethan, Taura Main Elements Military SF Website dendarii.com

Shards of Honor #1 & Barrayar #7 (Cordelia's Honor)

The Warrior's Apprentice

Ethan of Athos #3 & Cetaganda #9 (Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem)

Normally I try to read books in their publishing order, after all that's how the author wrote them, such that prequels are designed to fill in intentional gaps in earlier books, but in this case, since it was a library book and an omnibus, it seemed too much hassle to read the first, return the book until I read the five stories in between and then try to get the book again, so I decided to break with my usual custom.

My first reaction to the first book, Shards of Honor, is that this is a Young Adult science fiction romance, only with 30+ year olds as the main characters. After all Aral admits to falling in love with Cordelia the first time he set eyes on her (and this was while she was lying on the ground unconcious). Now he's her enemy and her captor, and he has also been named the "Butcher of Kamarr", but see, he's handsome and his a nice grin, so she clearly has to fall in love with him too. But of course he's a bad guy with a good side (though even right up till the end he goes along with sacrificing thousands to achieve a political goal so how "good" he is is questionable, maybe he was just a lesser evil than the sadistic rape/torture fixated commanding officer...)

Now if you get over the eye-rolling insta-love and keep going, it does get into some interesting bits, like where Cordelia has to deal with the possibility that while she was captured (twice) she might have had her memories altered. I thought this was very interesting, kind of like in Blade Runner, where officer Deckler who hunts androids has to consider the very real possibility that he himself may be an android. However this interesting mind manipulation thread is not pursued, in fact Cordelia is so sure she's not modified it's just an excuse for psychologist to try to trick her into revealing secrets about her dear Vorkosigan and for her to run away and into his arms. I know I'm giving some major spoilers here but the core of this series is about their son Miles so not a big surprise she ends up marrying Aral.

I was a little shocked that this book earned an Hugo...then breathed a sigh of relief when it turned out the sticker on the omnibus is actually for Barrayar. Maybe with six more books under her belt Bujold got a little more realistic and didn't demand so much suspension of belief from her readers!

Now Barrayar was more interesting, less a YA SF love story and more a battle for political power and the consequences that holds for the innocents (and not so innocent) caught in between. In the end, I started enjoying it so much, I will definitely continue with the next ominibus in the series, the character of Miles has so much potential and Bujold clearly got better at writing as she went along.

I really enjoyed The Warrior's Apprentice. Miles is a fascinating characters, a disabled young man suffering from a disease that makes his bone so brittle that he's constantly breaking them. He struggles to find his place on Barrayar, a world where strenght rules and children that are born with defects are not suffered to live. But Miles has something going for him, he has a quick mind and an impetous nature and a need to prove himself, but deep within a kind heart. Here we start off with him trying to help a pilot who is contemplating suicided. One thing leads to another and next thing you know he's leading a successful mercenary army! It's a little absurd, and a lot of the bad guys are either two-dimensional evil or turn out to be good guys that just needed a little understanding. But I like that these stories, while going over serious topics (disability, rape, etc) can also avoid taking itself too seriously. Now normally The Warrior's Apprentice is paired with The Vor Game, but after waiting for 6 months on reserve, my library decided to just give up on it, so I'm still looking for that one. On the other hand, I did have by complete fluke chance, a copy of the Analog magazine that had Hugo Award winning novella, "The Mountains of Mourning", which was a critical (and yet like all books, humourous) look at the Barrayan tradition of discarding damaged children, and Miles' struggle to prove himself worthy of one day taking over from his father.

April 2020

Ah, what with us all in coronavirus lockdown, what is better than a fun piece of escapism? I read the next omnibus containing Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos and Labrynth. The first, seriously, was just Miles looking for an excuse to prove himself, you know how in YA novels where the problem could be solved if you just mentioned it to your parents (but being YA or middle grade you have to have the kid save the day) this one kind of came off that way. Basically Miles got himself in trouble just so he could prove how smart he was getting himself back out again and without relying on his cousin's physical strength and good looks which Miles of course doesn't have. Actually, while reading this it occurred to me how rare it is to have a protagonist with a true disability (or at least one that isn't blind/deaf). And as each of her books tend to explore an interesting subject, here we have the Cetagandans treating reproduction as a kind of genetic art. Next was Ethan of Athos, where we are given an interesting concept of a world without women (an extension of what one could do once uterine replicators are invented), but eventually you need to renew your stocks of ovarian tissue so poor Ethan is sent to get more and chaos of course ensues. At least one can't blame him for wanting to be in the mess he's in, but like Miles, he's reasonably smart (he's a doctor after all) although painfully naive and ultimately gets himself out of the problems he got himself into. And finally Labrynth where Bujold explores genetic manipulation to create super soldier "monster", and Miles gets to have sex with a teenage werewolf while being hit on my a hermaphrodite. These books are an off mix of exploring very serious topic of genetics, ethics, sexuality and other complex issues, while at the same time being a while adventurous and occasionally ridiculous romp. It's hard to see how you can mix laugh out loud moments with dealing with the consequences of rape, but somehow Bujold does it. I must admit I love these books, and that's why I'm reading one omnibus a year, I don't want to run out too fast!