Shards of Honor 
asked by rafit on November 9, 2006 9:19 AM
Cordelia Naismith, Betan Survey Captain, was expecting the unexpected: hexapods, floating creatures, odd parasites... She was not, however, expecting to find hostile humans on an uninhabited planet. And she wasn't really expecting to fall in love with a 40-plus barbarian known to cosmopolitan galactics as the Butcher of Komarr. Will Mother ever understand? And can such an odd beast as love survive an interplanetary war?
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I was introduced to Lois McMaster Bujold's work through her fantasy novels "The Curse of Chalion" and "Paladin Of Souls", both of which deserve ten stars at least. Having devoured those books (not literally) I decided to read some other stuff by her - this time in the Science Fiction genre. My library kindly offered up "Shards of Honour" and what a brilliant read it was.
Most fortuitously, I now discover I happened upon the initial instalment of what has become a whole series of books (16 to date) in the Miles Vorkosigan series (I've bought the rest and am working my way through them. I liked this first one that much!) But don't worry that this book is incomplete on its own - it isn't. Although it's the scene-setter for a lot of other books it works on its own as a story of politics, war, human nature, personality and love.
Cordelia Naismith is the captain of a Survey ship that is checking out a new planet. She's off in the undergrowth with her botanist when her base camp is attacked and her colleagues flee in the shuttle. When going back to investigate Cordelia and her companion are attacked and she loses consciousness. When she wakes up, there is a soldier guarding her.
And from this point the story diverges from a basic "heroine rescues herself from tricky situation" type story. Cordelia and her 'captor', who says he is Captain Aral Vorkosigan, have to make a journey 200kms across this unknown and, as it turns out, rather dangerous planet in order to find a cache of stores and a way for Vorkosigan to communicate with his ship. It appears that there has been a mutiny in his command and he was knocked out and left on the surface of the planet. Cordelia has to accept his help in making their way to the cache and also with her botanist who was badly injured in the attack by Vorkosigan's colleagues, the Barrayarans. The Barrayarans are known as a warlike and rather uncivilised planet compared to Cordelia's Betans and she knows that Vorkosigan has the nickname "The Butcher of Komarr" from the story that he killed all the prisoners of another planet, Komarr, after they surrendered.
But nothing is as it seems - for Cordelia, and especially not in Barrayaran politics. In their six day journey they come to understand something of each other, and the fact that they both have a sense of honour that, although different, is complementary. Cordelia is eventually rescued from her prisoner status on Vorkosigan's ship by some of her Betan colleagues, but the dividing line of "goodies" and "baddies" is no longer clear. Especially after Vorkosigan proposes marriage to her.
The story continues with them meeting again - in the middle of a war - and Cordelia's brush with the evil side of Barrayaran culture. Once again she is returned to Beta Colony, but now she no longer fits there, and in fact discovers the bad side of her planet that cannot understand the Barrayarans and cannot allow them redeeming features. Cordelia has to escape her own people to be reunited with Vorkosigan. The enemy has become her home.
What's so powerful about this book is that although the writing is light and the story moves on with pace, there is great depth to the characters. You feel like you really get to know them, understand them, understand what they see in each other, and understand why neither of them is at home with their planet because they are intelligent enough to see beyond the obvious to the disadvantages of both of their ways of life. The love affair side is understated but very well done at that, and the politics is explained in such a way that it works well in the story and is actually interesting. No mean feat!
Some of the characters in this story appear in the others, particularly Cordelia and Vorkosigan, and the book "Barrayar" is the direct sequel to this and deals further with Cordelia, Aral Vorkosigan and their son Miles (the rest of the books are mostly set 20-30 years after the events in this book).
It's a great start to an excellent series, and yet worth reading in its own right - over and over again.
Most fortuitously, I now discover I happened upon the initial instalment of what has become a whole series of books (16 to date) in the Miles Vorkosigan series (I've bought the rest and am working my way through them. I liked this first one that much!) But don't worry that this book is incomplete on its own - it isn't. Although it's the scene-setter for a lot of other books it works on its own as a story of politics, war, human nature, personality and love.
Cordelia Naismith is the captain of a Survey ship that is checking out a new planet. She's off in the undergrowth with her botanist when her base camp is attacked and her colleagues flee in the shuttle. When going back to investigate Cordelia and her companion are attacked and she loses consciousness. When she wakes up, there is a soldier guarding her.
And from this point the story diverges from a basic "heroine rescues herself from tricky situation" type story. Cordelia and her 'captor', who says he is Captain Aral Vorkosigan, have to make a journey 200kms across this unknown and, as it turns out, rather dangerous planet in order to find a cache of stores and a way for Vorkosigan to communicate with his ship. It appears that there has been a mutiny in his command and he was knocked out and left on the surface of the planet. Cordelia has to accept his help in making their way to the cache and also with her botanist who was badly injured in the attack by Vorkosigan's colleagues, the Barrayarans. The Barrayarans are known as a warlike and rather uncivilised planet compared to Cordelia's Betans and she knows that Vorkosigan has the nickname "The Butcher of Komarr" from the story that he killed all the prisoners of another planet, Komarr, after they surrendered.
But nothing is as it seems - for Cordelia, and especially not in Barrayaran politics. In their six day journey they come to understand something of each other, and the fact that they both have a sense of honour that, although different, is complementary. Cordelia is eventually rescued from her prisoner status on Vorkosigan's ship by some of her Betan colleagues, but the dividing line of "goodies" and "baddies" is no longer clear. Especially after Vorkosigan proposes marriage to her.
The story continues with them meeting again - in the middle of a war - and Cordelia's brush with the evil side of Barrayaran culture. Once again she is returned to Beta Colony, but now she no longer fits there, and in fact discovers the bad side of her planet that cannot understand the Barrayarans and cannot allow them redeeming features. Cordelia has to escape her own people to be reunited with Vorkosigan. The enemy has become her home.
What's so powerful about this book is that although the writing is light and the story moves on with pace, there is great depth to the characters. You feel like you really get to know them, understand them, understand what they see in each other, and understand why neither of them is at home with their planet because they are intelligent enough to see beyond the obvious to the disadvantages of both of their ways of life. The love affair side is understated but very well done at that, and the politics is explained in such a way that it works well in the story and is actually interesting. No mean feat!
Some of the characters in this story appear in the others, particularly Cordelia and Vorkosigan, and the book "Barrayar" is the direct sequel to this and deals further with Cordelia, Aral Vorkosigan and their son Miles (the rest of the books are mostly set 20-30 years after the events in this book).
It's a great start to an excellent series, and yet worth reading in its own right - over and over again.
reviewed by siriusfanboy on November 17, 2006 5:59 PM
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Series fiction has requirements very different from the single novel, or even multiple books forming one long story such as Tolkien's Ring Trilogy. The multi-book single storyline can be - probably is - so self-referential you have to read every book in the series, in order, to understand what's happening in later books. But the author of a true open-ended series like Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan novels knows readers may start with any book in the series, and read them in utterly random order. Thus, while each book must build on, and ideally add to and enrich what's come before, it must also be self-contained and not require having read any other book in the series to enjoy. Bujold has always been aware of this, thus for new readers interested in her tales of Miles Vorkosigan, it's not really necessary to begin with Shards of Honor. On the other hand, if you are a brand-new reader to this series, why NOT start at the beginning? (Bujold's novel Falling Free takes place within the same fictional universe but, being set approximately 200 years before Miles' birth, features none of the series' familiar characters. Eventually you'll want to read Falling Free, but it doesn't matter when; you can insert it into your Bujold reading experience anytime.)
Shards of Honor is Bujold's first novel (not merely the first novel she ever sold, but the first she ever wrote, thus disproving the axiom, "All first novels are unsaleable trash"). She begins writing it in December 1982. In mid-'83, having worked through the Shards material and about a third into what would eventually become Barrayar, Bujold realizes her manuscript is becoming too long to submit as one book (the "wisdom" at the time being a thin manuscript is more likely to be picked off the slush pile than a thick one). Bujold finds a logical breaking point for her tale (Cordelia's arrival on Barrayar), puts it in final draft form, and mothballs the partially finished "rest of the story."
Bujold submits Shards and begins working on another book, The Warrior's Apprentice. She's about halfway through that when Shards comes back rejected with an editorial suggestion she tighten it up. She finishes Warrior's, then cuts about 80 pages out of Shards, giving her two good unpublished novels. In 1985, around the time she finishes her third novel, Ethan of Athos, Warrior's makes it over the transom at Baen, and suddenly she goes from unpublished wannabe to successful novelist with three books (Shards, Warrior's, Ethan) SOLD. Shards is published in 1986.
Shards of Honor stars Captain Cordelia Naismith, commander of a survey team for the Betan Expeditionary Force, and Captain Aral Vorkosigan, victim of a mutiny on his Barrayaran warship. Both stranded on an unexplored alien planet, officers on opposite sides of the Betan-Barrayaran War, they reach an agreement of honor: they will trust and rely on each other for survival as they travel across a planet seemingly intent on throwing all its resources into killing them before they can reach Aral's ship. And then there's the little problem of overcoming the mutineers.... In the process of their adventures, Cordelia and Aral fall in love.
This story is told from Cordelia's viewpoint (as is the novel completing this particular story arc, Barrayar). Thereafter in the series Miles, with very few exceptions, takes center stage. Never again will Cordelia be the main character. But for these two books she emerges as one of the most well-realized, loving and vulnerable but still tough-as-nails female SF protagonists ever.
The next book in the series you'll want to read is Barrayar, or you can read Cordelia's Honor, which collects the entire story arc, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, between the same covers.
Shards of Honor is Bujold's first novel (not merely the first novel she ever sold, but the first she ever wrote, thus disproving the axiom, "All first novels are unsaleable trash"). She begins writing it in December 1982. In mid-'83, having worked through the Shards material and about a third into what would eventually become Barrayar, Bujold realizes her manuscript is becoming too long to submit as one book (the "wisdom" at the time being a thin manuscript is more likely to be picked off the slush pile than a thick one). Bujold finds a logical breaking point for her tale (Cordelia's arrival on Barrayar), puts it in final draft form, and mothballs the partially finished "rest of the story."
Bujold submits Shards and begins working on another book, The Warrior's Apprentice. She's about halfway through that when Shards comes back rejected with an editorial suggestion she tighten it up. She finishes Warrior's, then cuts about 80 pages out of Shards, giving her two good unpublished novels. In 1985, around the time she finishes her third novel, Ethan of Athos, Warrior's makes it over the transom at Baen, and suddenly she goes from unpublished wannabe to successful novelist with three books (Shards, Warrior's, Ethan) SOLD. Shards is published in 1986.
Shards of Honor stars Captain Cordelia Naismith, commander of a survey team for the Betan Expeditionary Force, and Captain Aral Vorkosigan, victim of a mutiny on his Barrayaran warship. Both stranded on an unexplored alien planet, officers on opposite sides of the Betan-Barrayaran War, they reach an agreement of honor: they will trust and rely on each other for survival as they travel across a planet seemingly intent on throwing all its resources into killing them before they can reach Aral's ship. And then there's the little problem of overcoming the mutineers.... In the process of their adventures, Cordelia and Aral fall in love.
This story is told from Cordelia's viewpoint (as is the novel completing this particular story arc, Barrayar). Thereafter in the series Miles, with very few exceptions, takes center stage. Never again will Cordelia be the main character. But for these two books she emerges as one of the most well-realized, loving and vulnerable but still tough-as-nails female SF protagonists ever.
The next book in the series you'll want to read is Barrayar, or you can read Cordelia's Honor, which collects the entire story arc, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, between the same covers.
reviewed by alec on November 26, 2006 5:11 AM
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Set in a colorful universe which seems to be filled with as many governments and empires as sand on the beach, Captain Cordelia Naismith, of the Betan Expeditionary Force, must find her way through a series of battles, to protect herself and her planet. But what happens when the enemy seems to be more honest and honorable than her own people? What happens when Lord Vorkosigan shows more understanding towards her than her own planet?
Easy to read in only a day or two, yet a strong, witty book. Full of great military tactics and real humans. One of those you reread every few years. Also the beginning of a series, as this book and the second allow us to get to know the parents of Miles Vorkosigan before he's even in the picture!
Easy to read in only a day or two, yet a strong, witty book. Full of great military tactics and real humans. One of those you reread every few years. Also the beginning of a series, as this book and the second allow us to get to know the parents of Miles Vorkosigan before he's even in the picture!
reviewed by scanner on November 27, 2006 3:03 PM