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Entry tags:
Transition State
May 2012
Memory - Lois McMaster Bujold - Baen Books, 1996
* * * *
Most of the Miles Vorkosigan books have been collected into compendia, but this one, rather oddly, has not. As a result it is relatively difficult to get hold of and had been sitting rather forlornly on my wishlist for several years. Having read it, I can see why, because it is something of a one-off. Bujold evidently came to the conclusion that the time had come to move Miles on from his previous role as leader of the Dendarii mercenaries and wrote this book to manage the transition. Needless to say she pulls it off with consumate skill, but the requirement to develop the overall series does result in a plot that is less focused than usual.
As usual, this book starts with a consequence of the previous one, when a by-product of the Bad Thing that happened to Miles in Mirror Dance results in his almost killing the ImpSec courier that he is supposed to be rescuing. Miles then does something that is unusually stupid even for him - he fakes a report to his cyber-enhanced boss (and, in the Barrayaran way of things, uncle) Simon Illyan, an action which will cause any engaged reader to go "No, don't do it! This cannot end well!" Inevitably, Miles is summoned back to Barrayar to report.
It is here that things start to go astray, as Bujold spends some 200 pages reintroducing Barrayaran characters and locations from previous books while the main plot goes into suspended animation. The story gets going again with trouble for Simon Illyan, which Miles gets to investigate in his own unique and entertaining way, and the reason for the long digression eventually becomes clear. Bujold has been paving the way for a refocusing of the series on Barrayar itself.
I am in two minds about this development. Obviously I enjoy the company of Gregor, Ivan, Cordelia and the other Barrayaran characters and it's good that future novels will (presumably) feature them more heavily. But as a place, Barrayar is a little too conservative for my taste. With its ready-made source of inspiration in European culture, it feels like a safe authorial choice compared to the more interesting social thought experiments that we know Bujold is capable of, such as the uterine replicators, the genetic manipulations of the Cetagandans and the all-male world of Ethan of Athos. And it's a pity that we will be seeing less of Elly Quinn, Sergeant Taura and the other characters that represent them. Like Britain, Barrayar needs the challenges that other societies pose to its settled way of doing things to make it interesting, and I only hope that Bujold can continue to provide them.
Memory - Lois McMaster Bujold - Baen Books, 1996
* * * *
Most of the Miles Vorkosigan books have been collected into compendia, but this one, rather oddly, has not. As a result it is relatively difficult to get hold of and had been sitting rather forlornly on my wishlist for several years. Having read it, I can see why, because it is something of a one-off. Bujold evidently came to the conclusion that the time had come to move Miles on from his previous role as leader of the Dendarii mercenaries and wrote this book to manage the transition. Needless to say she pulls it off with consumate skill, but the requirement to develop the overall series does result in a plot that is less focused than usual.
As usual, this book starts with a consequence of the previous one, when a by-product of the Bad Thing that happened to Miles in Mirror Dance results in his almost killing the ImpSec courier that he is supposed to be rescuing. Miles then does something that is unusually stupid even for him - he fakes a report to his cyber-enhanced boss (and, in the Barrayaran way of things, uncle) Simon Illyan, an action which will cause any engaged reader to go "No, don't do it! This cannot end well!" Inevitably, Miles is summoned back to Barrayar to report.
It is here that things start to go astray, as Bujold spends some 200 pages reintroducing Barrayaran characters and locations from previous books while the main plot goes into suspended animation. The story gets going again with trouble for Simon Illyan, which Miles gets to investigate in his own unique and entertaining way, and the reason for the long digression eventually becomes clear. Bujold has been paving the way for a refocusing of the series on Barrayar itself.
I am in two minds about this development. Obviously I enjoy the company of Gregor, Ivan, Cordelia and the other Barrayaran characters and it's good that future novels will (presumably) feature them more heavily. But as a place, Barrayar is a little too conservative for my taste. With its ready-made source of inspiration in European culture, it feels like a safe authorial choice compared to the more interesting social thought experiments that we know Bujold is capable of, such as the uterine replicators, the genetic manipulations of the Cetagandans and the all-male world of Ethan of Athos. And it's a pity that we will be seeing less of Elly Quinn, Sergeant Taura and the other characters that represent them. Like Britain, Barrayar needs the challenges that other societies pose to its settled way of doing things to make it interesting, and I only hope that Bujold can continue to provide them.