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mburnamfink 's review for:
Barrayar
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Barrayar picks up right after Shards of Honor, in much the same way that a JATO-powered VW bug picks up after a horsedrawn wagon. Cordelia has one a few months to enjoy her marriage before Aral Vorkosigan becomes Regent of Barrrayar and she's thrust back into the fatal whirl of Barrayaran politics. Aral has to hold the planet together for 15 years, until Prince Gregor comes of age, and Cordelia has to hold Aral together. Meanwhile, she's dealing with medieval culture shock, the confused love-lives of her favorite staffers, and Sergeant Bothari's brittle sanity.
The action kicks off almost immediately with a Soltoxin gas assassination attempt that she and Aral survive by the thinnest of margins, but which grievously maims her unborn child. Immediately after, Lord Vondarian launches a military coup against the Vorkosigans, and Cordelia has to flee to the hills with the Child-Emperor until Aral can organize the resistance. And even though this book is over 20 years old, I hesitate to spoil the final third, which has some of the best raiding and most satisfying comeuppances I've read.
I said in my review of Shards of Honor that I didn't buy Cordelia as a lover, but I absolutely believe in her here as a fiercely protective wife and mother, as a clever and capable leader, and above all, as a fount of honor. Barrayar won the Hugo, and is everything that a great sci-fi novel should be.
*****
Updated from August 2014, for the Hugo read-through project.
In the final third, Cordelia takes her personal retainers into the palace on a desperate raid to end the rebellion before the embryonic Miles' uterine replicator tank fails. This is some of the most intense, heart-stopping action that I've encountered, because the personal and political stakes are so high. In the end, Cordelia confronts Vondarian and has Bothari kill him with a sword in the burning palace. It's an incredible moment, one where a very capable person takes a step into the realm of mythic archetypes. It makes me wonder a little bit about what Miles was told growing up. "Yeah, mom and Bothari killed a crown prince and a man who wanted be emperor."
As always, Bujold's talents are in characterization, and there are three major focuses here. Cordelia herself and her journey into motherhood, feels a little like one of those author-insert moments, but I don't mind because Bujold has some genuine humanistic wisdom to share about the responsibility of bringing life into the world. In a lot of ways, Cordelia is what Jubal Harshaw from Stranger in a Strange Land wishes he could be. The second are Kou and Drou, respectively one of Aral's officers maimed by disruptor fire and now trying to rebuild his life in a world that hates cripples, and the Crown Princess's bodyguard, a female commando officer from a society where war is a strictly masculine pursuit. The awkward young-adult romance is both cringe-worthy, and a lot more fun from the outside. Finally, there's Bothari. The psychopathic killer, war criminal and rapist, and mind-wiped for his sins. A man with barely any personality of his own, Bothari becomes what those around him need him to be, and Cordelia needs a hero. It's an interesting look at the kind of limited redemption a monster can achieve.
The action kicks off almost immediately with a Soltoxin gas assassination attempt that she and Aral survive by the thinnest of margins, but which grievously maims her unborn child. Immediately after, Lord Vondarian launches a military coup against the Vorkosigans, and Cordelia has to flee to the hills with the Child-Emperor until Aral can organize the resistance. And even though this book is over 20 years old, I hesitate to spoil the final third, which has some of the best raiding and most satisfying comeuppances I've read.
I said in my review of Shards of Honor that I didn't buy Cordelia as a lover, but I absolutely believe in her here as a fiercely protective wife and mother, as a clever and capable leader, and above all, as a fount of honor. Barrayar won the Hugo, and is everything that a great sci-fi novel should be.
*****
Updated from August 2014, for the Hugo read-through project.
In the final third, Cordelia takes her personal retainers into the palace on a desperate raid to end the rebellion before the embryonic Miles' uterine replicator tank fails. This is some of the most intense, heart-stopping action that I've encountered, because the personal and political stakes are so high. In the end, Cordelia confronts Vondarian and has Bothari kill him with a sword in the burning palace. It's an incredible moment, one where a very capable person takes a step into the realm of mythic archetypes. It makes me wonder a little bit about what Miles was told growing up. "Yeah, mom and Bothari killed a crown prince and a man who wanted be emperor."
As always, Bujold's talents are in characterization, and there are three major focuses here. Cordelia herself and her journey into motherhood, feels a little like one of those author-insert moments, but I don't mind because Bujold has some genuine humanistic wisdom to share about the responsibility of bringing life into the world. In a lot of ways, Cordelia is what Jubal Harshaw from Stranger in a Strange Land wishes he could be. The second are Kou and Drou, respectively one of Aral's officers maimed by disruptor fire and now trying to rebuild his life in a world that hates cripples, and the Crown Princess's bodyguard, a female commando officer from a society where war is a strictly masculine pursuit. The awkward young-adult romance is both cringe-worthy, and a lot more fun from the outside. Finally, there's Bothari. The psychopathic killer, war criminal and rapist, and mind-wiped for his sins. A man with barely any personality of his own, Bothari becomes what those around him need him to be, and Cordelia needs a hero. It's an interesting look at the kind of limited redemption a monster can achieve.