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Bujold
I picked up a copy of Cryoburn Friday at the reading, but I didn't start it Saturday for fear it would eat up the entire day which I needed to spend working on my el-wire jumpsuit. So instead I started it Sunday, and it ate up that entire day. What a glorious way to spend a Sunday!
The thing I most admire about Bujold is how easily I internalize her settings. Let's be honest, the Vorkosigan universe isn't particularly special when it comes to SF ideas. It's very, very well done space opera -- but it's still just space opera. Its power comes entirely from its characters, and the societies they live in.
A Civil Campaign, beyond delicious comfort reading, is one of my favorites for this very reason. In it is a dinner party -- The Worst Dinner Party Ever. Every social norm that you've spent the last dozen or so books absorbing is violated, like it was building up just to that scene. It's also quite funny and poignant, but I love it for the mastery of its use of cultural details alone.
The new book mostly deals with a new planet, so we don't get so much of that. But there are two amazing moments, all the more powerful for their brevity. In the first, the existence of Gregor and Laisa's children is referenced offhand. Which just made me stop and gasp, the impact of knowing that there is a line of succession beyond Miles was so much.
NO SERIOUSLY SPOILERS COMING UP NOW
But more so, having the last line of the (proper) book be Miles being addressed as Count Vorkosigan just left me pole-axed. It still does, writing about it now. The economy and simplicity of letting us know that Aral has died that way -- to experience learning it exactly as Miles did -- is just breathtaking. There are very few authors who could pull that off, much less those who could do it without the setting feeling turgid and overworked.
I hadn't heard anything about the CD contained in the book, so I was very surprised when I stuck it in and found the entire Vorkosigan corpus, all in just about every etext format, along with a mass of related essays, blog posts and interviews. All under some unnamed Creative-Commons-esque license! I mean, it's Baen, so it's not completely out of the blue, but this is pretty crazy. And I haven't seen anyone talking about it. So, yeah, yay for people being surprisingly sensible!
The thing I most admire about Bujold is how easily I internalize her settings. Let's be honest, the Vorkosigan universe isn't particularly special when it comes to SF ideas. It's very, very well done space opera -- but it's still just space opera. Its power comes entirely from its characters, and the societies they live in.
A Civil Campaign, beyond delicious comfort reading, is one of my favorites for this very reason. In it is a dinner party -- The Worst Dinner Party Ever. Every social norm that you've spent the last dozen or so books absorbing is violated, like it was building up just to that scene. It's also quite funny and poignant, but I love it for the mastery of its use of cultural details alone.
The new book mostly deals with a new planet, so we don't get so much of that. But there are two amazing moments, all the more powerful for their brevity. In the first, the existence of Gregor and Laisa's children is referenced offhand. Which just made me stop and gasp, the impact of knowing that there is a line of succession beyond Miles was so much.
NO SERIOUSLY SPOILERS COMING UP NOW
But more so, having the last line of the (proper) book be Miles being addressed as Count Vorkosigan just left me pole-axed. It still does, writing about it now. The economy and simplicity of letting us know that Aral has died that way -- to experience learning it exactly as Miles did -- is just breathtaking. There are very few authors who could pull that off, much less those who could do it without the setting feeling turgid and overworked.
I hadn't heard anything about the CD contained in the book, so I was very surprised when I stuck it in and found the entire Vorkosigan corpus, all in just about every etext format, along with a mass of related essays, blog posts and interviews. All under some unnamed Creative-Commons-esque license! I mean, it's Baen, so it's not completely out of the blue, but this is pretty crazy. And I haven't seen anyone talking about it. So, yeah, yay for people being surprisingly sensible!
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I'm just finishing up the Aubrey/Maturin series, which doesn't seem to be available in e-format. This is somehow fitting for a series that takes place during the Napoleonic Wars.
Now I'm thinking that re-reading all of Vorkosigan is gonna be my next epic obsession. That or Neal Stephenson again, and I really shouldn't re-read Cryptonomicon more than once a year.
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So I had a full 5 seconds to prepare for what he was going to say.
...and the drabbles at the end... caught each of the characters so well.
Typical Cordelia more concerned for the poor person who found him.
...and Gregor...Gregor I so want to be a real person...made me cry.
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And yeah, the one with Gregor really knocked me down.
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I thought the drabbles were brilliant vignettes, a fascinating way to "wrap up" the story after the final chapter's shocking ending.
I frankly hope that this isn't the last Vorkosiverse book; because even if Miles is relegated to a background character, there's so much else that could be explored.
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Also of interest, look at number 20:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/books/bestseller/besthardfiction.html?_r=1&ref=books
:)
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The book's page on Amazon doesn't say anything about the included CD. Do I need to worry about accidentally getting a copy that doesn't include it, ir is it definitely in there?
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