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Title: Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold ISBN: 0-671-57828-6 Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.53 (45 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Maybe she should try "shopping" over the Net next time.
Comment: This is an interesting book to read early on if you are just getting into the Vorkosigan books. I came to CORDELIA'S HONOR, with some prodding from my wife, after finishing the most recent entry, A CIVIL CAMPAIGN, and it provides some much needed background to the history of the troubled planet Barrayar.
Focusing on Cordelia Naismith, this dual-novel covers her introduction to/capture by "The Butcher of Komarr," Aral Vorkosigan. Aral may have a terrible reputation, only partially deserved, but he sees the strength and intelligence in his prisoner, and they ally against his formidable internal enemies.
The first novel follows Aral and Cordelia as they meet and separate repeatedly. It isn't paced especially well, but the conclusion exemplifies the devious but draconian nature of the political world facing our heroes. The second book concludes Cordelia's saga as more Barrayaran turmoil threatens the new family that she is trying to build.
Cordelia is a joy to read about because the reader is allowed to see everything in her that Aral does. Though Bujold does put her through the wringer, her weary triumph is moving and hopeful. Wry humor punctuates even some of the most grim and horrific events, making this a read that is easy to swallow.
This is a political novel, with very little to interest those interested in hard scientific speculation. Intrigues abound, personalities and agendas drive the plot. Some of the situations are a little clichéd, or preposterous (including a near-rape by an arch-villain, sort of), but each are given a melancholy touch. Triumphs rarely lack their collateral damage in these stories.
My chief regret about Cordelia, though, is that for all the differences between her and her son Miles (the focus of the other Vorkosigan books), they both speak from the same voice. I was hoping for something a bit more distinct. Still, this flaw does very little to detract from the fun.
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic
Comment: A friend of mine loaned me separate copies of Shards of Honor and Barrayar, then ended up buying me the two-in-one edition because I was so reluctant to give them back. Since then I have re-read it until it is falling apart. There's no higher praise I can give a book than that. Cordelia's Honor is one of those books that alters your worldview, changes your life, and sits on your top shelf forevermore. It's a love story but it's a lot more than that. It's the story of how two determined people from very different backgrounds meet, fall in love and go on to change their worlds for the better. Cordelia and Aral become like real people you actually know--better still, they become your friends. If you haven't read this story, you don't know what you're missing--it is INCREDIBLE.
Rating: 2
Summary: Space Soap Opera
Comment: I know that Lois McMaster Bujold has many fans and nothing I can say here would remotely change their opinion. "Cordelia's Honor" is a trade paperback combo of her books "Shards of Honor" ('86) and "Barrayar" ('91); the latter being a Hugo Award winner.
Of the two books, "Shards of Honor" is considerably better although both books are badly flawed. For readers under 40, it's helpful to know than in the late 70s/early 80s, there was a real push for more feminism in Sci Fi, women starship captains, active women characters, political correctness...all of which was needed to counteract the old Sci Fi of the 50s and 60s which was written by, for and about men. And don't think I wasn't in favor of all this...I was as rabid on this issue as a Women's Studies professor at Berkeley, LOL! But most books that came out of this political/feminist agenda are just not very good and these two by Lois Bujold are an excellent example of why.
For starters, this just barely qualifies as Sci Fi due to the presence of other planets, starships, faster than light travel and so on. Clearly the thrust of the books is the conflict between the modern sterile society of Beta Colony (Cordelia's home planet -- read as "USA") and the backwards, violant society of Barrayar (Vorkosigan's home planet -- read as Russia, pre-Soviet). There is next to nothing about other worlds in this imaginary universe or even how far in the future it is supposed to be taking place. Ms. Bujold is stolidly uninterested in sci fi technology, science or gadgetry (even though Cordelia is nominally a scientist), so there is virtually nothing here that is speculative about a possible future society. In fact, the whole thing reads as more of a New World/Old World clash, and by that I don't mean planets, I mean the words as they define America vs. Europe.
Barrayar is impossible to see as anything but a conventional, Old World European society (circa pre-WWI), what with its Emperor, castles, courtiers, and nobility. The WORST thing I feel Ms. Bujold does in this whole series is the adaptation of the pre-fix "Vor" to all the noble Barrayaran surnames. It is all too painfully obvious that this reads as the word "War" as pronounced by someone with a very heavy Eastern European accent -- you know, someone who prounces all the "w's" like "v's". It's just plain embarassing. Furthermore, it makes sorting out the characters -- at least half have "Vor-" names -- unusally difficult.
While a good love story in a Sci Fi setting would be very welcome, and Cordelia and Vorkosigan are appealingly written, their romance comes off as a standard Harlequin model. Vorkosigan in particular seems cut from a very familar bolt of cloth...the one marked "Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre". He's gruff but deeply romantic, and falls in love with the heroine (who is a plain Jane) almost instantly, asking for her hand in marriage before they ever make love or even kiss. Don't forget his flashing grey eyes because they are mentioned every few chapters.
While the first book is so clean and non-sexual (with one exception I will get to later) it is suitable for 12 year old readers, in the second book Ms. Bujold attempts to tackle more adult relationships with very weak results. The worst of it is a romance between two servants, called improbably Drou (DROO) and Kou (KOO)...just try saying that aloud. It's full of all kinds of cute misunderstandings right out of a TV sitcom. (And ends happily in a wedding of course.)
The descriptions of artificial wombs -- very critical to the plot -- is handled so poorly that you can hardly imagine how they work...and how would you end up having something that sophisticated in a universe where the 33 year old heroine is seriously worried about having a baby because she feels she's "getting too old"? Lots of reproductive tech on one hand...none on the other.
That brings me to the factor that annoyed me the most. Ms. Bujold, working in every hip, PC plot thread she could, has the hero Vorkosigan being bisexual...sort of. He has an early arranged marriage, and when his wife cheats on him with two lovers, he challenges the two lovers to duels and kills them. Subsequently, his wife commits suicide (?). But then, very inexplicably, he enters into a long term homosexual relationship with an older, powerful man. Because of his grief over his wife's suicide or his upset over her infidelity or both. Then when he meets the heroine, it's back to heterosexuality for him, without a look back!
I can only think that the author felt she was being very cool, sophisticated and up-to-the-minute (in '86) with this detail. It's referenced once in each book and then not really gone into, although I think in REAL LIFE, this would be AWFULLY important. Trust me, people who flip back and forth between sexual preferences are usually confused and very troubled. And there is nothing romantic about that. We hear nothing at all to explain why Vorkosigan wanted a male lover, or what the heck made him decide he liked women better after all (besides how terrific Cordelia is). It also plays into a dangerous and untrue stereotype that homosexuality isn't "real" and all it takes it the "right" woman to put a guy back on the track. Just very, very disturbing and I see that none of the other reviewers here even mention it.
Beyond that, despite some decent adventure scenes, you are in familar territory here that has been well mined (one might say "strip mined) by Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. Lots of ball gowns, dinner dances, horseback riding, swords that sounds like light sabers and gibberish about politics. Whenever anyone in any Sci Fi starts talking about "emperors" or "high council meetings", my eyelids get very heavy.
I find these books just terribly overrated. There are some good stories still to be told about strong women in Sci Fi -- and these are NOT them. In a couple of decades, this kind of writing will be very dated to the 80s period because of the tired references and sexual attitudes.
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Title: Young Miles by Lois Bujold ISBN: 0743436164 Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Miles Errant by Lois McMaster Bujold ISBN: 0743435583 Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Komarr: A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure by Lois McMaster Bujold ISBN: 0671578081 Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold ISBN: 067187845X Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold ISBN: 0671578855 Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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