Romance Done Right
May. 8th, 2013 12:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtvesselSep-Nov 2012
Miles in Love - Lois McMaster Bujold - Baen Books,2008
* * * * *
I needn't have worried. Even without a galaxy-spanning setting, Bujold can still craft compelling science fiction with something interesting to say. Though it helps that this compendium of novels have as their overriding theme that old reliable standby of the screwball romance. Strange as it may seem given my generally emotionally muted demeanour, I am a sucker for such stories. As long, that is, as the protagonists are equally strong personalities, for example Beatrice and Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing, my favourite Shakespeare.
And the characters here are certainly strong. He, of course, is Miles Vorkosigan, the (sometimes) brilliant but stunted military commander of several previous books. She is Ekaterin (Kat) Vorsoisson, the unhappy wife of a minor official on the icy planet of Komarr, a world conquered by the Vor because of its strategic importance as a gateway to the wormhole nexus that connects the galaxy. They meet when Miles is sent to investigate a space freighter that has crashed into the soletta array that is warming the planet. Was it an accident, or was something more sinister afoot? And could it be connected to the impending nuptials of Emperor Gregor and his Komarran bride Laisa?
Komarr is a spare, tense novel with a noticeably darker tone than the ones that preceded it. There is Bujold's characteristic (and very welcome) love of engineering detail, which is an important element in the story. I wouldn't have tried quite so hard to humanise the baddies - their foolishness lessens the peril somewhat, though there is still tension where it is needed - but the choice to tell the story alternately from Miles' and Kat's points of view works brilliantly and the plot makes clear that Kat is just as much the hero of the tale as Miles is. Indeed, in many ways she is reminiscent of Bujold's other major heroine in the series, Miles' mother Cordelia. Which makes Miles' attraction to her amusingly Oedipal.
A Civil Campaign is dedicated to Georgette Heyer, an author whom I have not read. But if her books are anything like as good as this one, I definitely should. It is set in the run-up to Gregor's and Laisa's wedding, an event being organised by Miles' formidable aunt Alys, much to the dismay of her son Ivan. Miles, however, is more concerned with his courtship of Kat, which consists of a plan to entice her into designing a garden for Vorkosigan House. But other plots are afoot, with the political ramifications of a series of challenges to Barrayan laws and the (welcome) return of Miles' clone-brother Mark with a mad money-making scheme complicating the situation.
Realism is in short supply, but this is more than made up for by the utterly brilliant way in which the plots and themes intermesh and the light and humorous dialogue. I also loved the theme of the subversion of established unjust practices by unorthodox use of new technologies, which was the perfect foil for the more traditional nature of the various romances. Georgette Heyer would have been extremely proud to have written this book.
Winterfair Gifts is a novella that is also set during a wedding and features the solid Armsman Roic, a minor character in A Civil Campaign. It is another romance, but to say who the other character is would probably be a bit of a spoiler. Let's just say that I was extremely glad to see them again and the ending is just right.
A true science fiction fan will probably not like these books - the talk to action ratio is high and the rom-com formula is followed pretty closely. But I have to say that I have not enjoyed a series of books so much in a very long time. When romance is done right, as it is here, it is the most satisfying story form of all.
Miles in Love - Lois McMaster Bujold - Baen Books,2008
* * * * *
I needn't have worried. Even without a galaxy-spanning setting, Bujold can still craft compelling science fiction with something interesting to say. Though it helps that this compendium of novels have as their overriding theme that old reliable standby of the screwball romance. Strange as it may seem given my generally emotionally muted demeanour, I am a sucker for such stories. As long, that is, as the protagonists are equally strong personalities, for example Beatrice and Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing, my favourite Shakespeare.
And the characters here are certainly strong. He, of course, is Miles Vorkosigan, the (sometimes) brilliant but stunted military commander of several previous books. She is Ekaterin (Kat) Vorsoisson, the unhappy wife of a minor official on the icy planet of Komarr, a world conquered by the Vor because of its strategic importance as a gateway to the wormhole nexus that connects the galaxy. They meet when Miles is sent to investigate a space freighter that has crashed into the soletta array that is warming the planet. Was it an accident, or was something more sinister afoot? And could it be connected to the impending nuptials of Emperor Gregor and his Komarran bride Laisa?
Komarr is a spare, tense novel with a noticeably darker tone than the ones that preceded it. There is Bujold's characteristic (and very welcome) love of engineering detail, which is an important element in the story. I wouldn't have tried quite so hard to humanise the baddies - their foolishness lessens the peril somewhat, though there is still tension where it is needed - but the choice to tell the story alternately from Miles' and Kat's points of view works brilliantly and the plot makes clear that Kat is just as much the hero of the tale as Miles is. Indeed, in many ways she is reminiscent of Bujold's other major heroine in the series, Miles' mother Cordelia. Which makes Miles' attraction to her amusingly Oedipal.
A Civil Campaign is dedicated to Georgette Heyer, an author whom I have not read. But if her books are anything like as good as this one, I definitely should. It is set in the run-up to Gregor's and Laisa's wedding, an event being organised by Miles' formidable aunt Alys, much to the dismay of her son Ivan. Miles, however, is more concerned with his courtship of Kat, which consists of a plan to entice her into designing a garden for Vorkosigan House. But other plots are afoot, with the political ramifications of a series of challenges to Barrayan laws and the (welcome) return of Miles' clone-brother Mark with a mad money-making scheme complicating the situation.
Realism is in short supply, but this is more than made up for by the utterly brilliant way in which the plots and themes intermesh and the light and humorous dialogue. I also loved the theme of the subversion of established unjust practices by unorthodox use of new technologies, which was the perfect foil for the more traditional nature of the various romances. Georgette Heyer would have been extremely proud to have written this book.
Winterfair Gifts is a novella that is also set during a wedding and features the solid Armsman Roic, a minor character in A Civil Campaign. It is another romance, but to say who the other character is would probably be a bit of a spoiler. Let's just say that I was extremely glad to see them again and the ending is just right.
A true science fiction fan will probably not like these books - the talk to action ratio is high and the rom-com formula is followed pretty closely. But I have to say that I have not enjoyed a series of books so much in a very long time. When romance is done right, as it is here, it is the most satisfying story form of all.