# About the Vorkosigan books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [November 16, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913 "2025-11-16T23:01:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/181 "2026-05-01T02:22:29Z")
> [@susan](#): > > New Penric! [Amazon.com: Darksight Dare (Penric & Desdemona) eBook : Bujold, Lois McMaster: Kindle Store](https://www.amazon.com/Darksight-Penric-Desdemona-McMaster-Bujold-ebook/dp/B0GX2TBF7L/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=CDD5UFCWYOFM&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8Ex-wdiM3VcSn2VF7bK6kw.7L37d7Fn9F8-hdf32qh-N_lJI71WkgSlpP5BFtXrDi4&dib_tag=se&keywords=darkside+dare+bujold&qid=1777427374&sbo=QS21L9be7oZFAGyl4IXR%2Bw%3D%3D&sprefix=darkside+dare%2Caps%2C220&sr=8-1) Woo-hoo! Thanks for the alert, just went and bought it! ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/182 "2026-05-01T02:32:04Z")
You’re welcome. For some reason, I never get the Bujold new publication alerts, though I get all the others I’m signed up for. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/183 "2026-05-01T10:20:25Z")
Is there any chance Bujold will publish her more recent stuff in real books? I don’t care for ebooks, but that’s all she publishes in anymore. Well, some are in extremely limited (i.e. expensive) books, but I’m looking for MMPB. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/184 "2026-05-01T10:51:21Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I’m looking for MMPB I’m afraid you may be looking in vain. > [@RIP to the mass market paperback](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-to-the-mass-market-paperback/1025726): > > [Last Call for Mass Market Paperbacks](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/99293-last-call-for-mass-market-paperbacks.html) They were already moribund - see the stats in the attached article - but their main distributor has said they’re done with them at the end of this year. It hits with a nostalgic pain, as I became attached as a kid/teenager to the Bantam logo…so much good fiction was (re)issued under that imprimatur and format, and I could afford it. Publishers will go to more trade paperbacks, but realistically it’s the e-books that are already the likely culprit for this, … ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/185 "2026-05-02T14:35:22Z")
Oh, and after I finished Falling Free, I faced a dilemma. It was published in the same volume as Diplomatic Immunity. On the one hand, I’d be reading all of them eventually anyway, and it came from the less-convenient library system, that I have to go out of my way to pick things up and wait for inter-library loans, so I didn’t want to have to return the book and then pick it up again sometime later. On the other hand, though, Diplomatic Immunity isn’t even remotely close to the next book, in either internal chronological nor publication order. Eventually, expediency won, and I read it, but yow, that was a lot of spoilers. Like, Miles is now happily married. And he apparently spent some time dead for tax purposes. And it sounds like it might have been Bel Thorne who did it, for some reason? I did, though, like seeing a view of what Quaddie society had evolved into. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/186 "2026-05-02T14:48:09Z")
Boy did you spoil yourself. It doesn’t matter though, the books are good enough that it will not affect your experience of them the slightest bit. Anyway I guess we are all old enough to remember the time when you read series books in the order you could get them. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/187 "2026-05-02T15:06:56Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Is there any chance Bujold will publish her more recent stuff in real books? I’d be fine with a mass market hardcover. Why has Bujold apparently decided that her new works will only be sold via Kindle? I understand why Amazon pushes Kindle; it’s more profits than they get selling books. Does Bujold get a similar money bump from keeping her works out of physical media? I realize that her new stuff is sometimes sold in a very limited edition hardcover. Those are always bought up by resellers, who then charge outrageous prices. In this Ticketmaster is the business model. As publishers lament the death of the print industry, have they consider it’s a self-inflicted wound? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/188 "2026-05-02T15:09:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Eventually, expediency won, and I read it, but yow, that was a lot of spoilers. This is why I recommend reading the books in publication order. In my case, it was a necessity as I read them as they were published. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/189 "2026-05-02T15:33:46Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > This is why I recommend reading the books in publication order. When in doubt, always read _anything_ in publication order. That’s always been my guiding principle, and it’s never let me down. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/190 "2026-05-02T16:44:23Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’d be fine with a mass market hardcover. Which my local libraries might actually get. > [@Chronos](#): > > And he apparently spent some time dead for tax purposes. And it sounds like it might have been Bel Thorne who did it, for some reason? Not really what happened. That is, some portions did, but not in that fashion. So you’re not quite as spoilered as you think. That said — while I can see why someone not thinking of that issue might have put them together, it’s a really unfortunate combination for somebody trying to read all the books in that universe, but who hasn’t read the other Miles ones up to that point. It would be useful for someone who had read the Vorkosigan books to that point, but hadn’t read Falling Free. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/191 "2026-05-02T16:55:33Z")
Bujold said on goodreads: > Not sure what’s going on with Baen these days. The first Penric collection, _Penric’s Progress_, came out in January 2020 and did well, but the second, _Penric’s Travels_ came out in May 2020 when all the bookstores were closing for Covid, and so suffered in sales. It’s hard to tell how the somewhat more recent 3rd, _Penric’s Labors_ has done, as paper royalties run so very late. Then some stuff about how publishes decide how many books to print, and then > And Baen hasn’t chosen to reprint the mmpbs of the first two. Which suggests they calculate it wouldn’t be profitable. One can’t ask one’s publisher to _lose_ money on one’s book, after all. And > For foreign rights submissions we did devise a 4th collection, which we called _Penric’s Intrigues_ and contained the novel _The Assassins of Thasalon_ and the novella “Knot of Shadows”, which made up about the same word count as the prior volumes. I’d need one more novella to make up a 5th volume at this point (2024). No promises… Also, you asked why they are only sold on Kindle. They aren’t. They are also available in other e-book formats. (Like Kobo, which matters to me, as that’s what I’m using, now.) But they aren’t very available in hardcopy, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/192 "2026-05-02T21:42:39Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > That said — while I can see why someone not thinking of that issue might have put them together, it’s a really unfortunate combination for somebody trying to read all the books in that universe, but who hasn’t read the other Miles ones up to that point. It would be useful for someone who had read the Vorkosigan books to that point, but hadn’t read Falling Free. I gather that it was Bujold herself who chose to bundle those three stories together, and yes, the thematic connection is obvious. Given that they’re bundled together that way, though, it would have made sense for someone attempting to read the series in order (any sort of order) to put off reading Falling Free until they were ready for Diplomatic Immunity. Which probably would have occurred to me, had I thought about the issue before ordering that book from the library. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/193 "2026-05-02T21:47:18Z")
Bujold has published a recommended reading order, and she puts off the first quaddie book until quite late, probably so you can read the others immediately after. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/194 "2026-05-03T02:27:05Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > When in doubt, always read _anything_ in publication order. That’s always been my guiding principle, and it’s never let me down. I was cheated by the publisher of the Narnia books. And there are still box sets with the “chronological” volume numbers [Amazon.com.au : the chronicles of narnia box set](https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=the+chronicles+of+narnia+box+set). Faugh. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/195 "2026-05-03T11:54:07Z")
I think that was the fault of Lewis’ heirs. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/196 "2026-05-03T12:31:50Z")
Thank you for reposting this. Now that I have a title to search for, I was able to find that _Penric’s Intrigues_ is on the way. In fact, it’s scheduled to be released this week. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/197 "2026-05-03T12:46:39Z")
This is good news! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/198 "2026-06-11T23:25:31Z")
OK, just finished Brothers in Arms, and a couple of chapters into Mirror Dance. First thought: Mirror Dance was apparently her first Hugo, and so it might have been the first Vorkosigan book a lot of them read. I feel sorry for them: They’d be absolutely lost without having first read at least Brothers and Labyrinth. And ay! Taura and Thorne within ten wormhole-jumps of Jackson’s Whole, indeed! This is going to be Trouble with a capital T, and that rhymes with C, and that stands for Clone. I will mention that I had come across the spoiler that Miles has a clone, before, but at the time, I had assumed that it was the result of someone (probably the Cetagandans) trying to “get it right”, to achieve the full potential if he hadn’t been poisoned in utero. I hadn’t expect that the clone would be deliberately deformed to match him, for a Byzantine replacement-plot. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2026, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/199 "2026-06-12T00:03:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, just finished Brothers in Arms, and a couple of chapters into Mirror Dance. _Mirror Dance_ is one of my top ten favorite books of all time. I won’t spoil it for you. But I’m very interested in your take after you finish. And then you can listen to me rave about it. (You’re also at peak Bujold. _Memory,_ which comes after, is objectively just as good. And it just keeps being awesome. That was the part in the series where it felt like she could do no wrong.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2026, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913/200 "2026-06-12T00:30:22Z")
I mean, I can already tell that she has all the ingredients here for either a cheesy pulp or for High Literature… and I’m pretty confident that she’s not writing a cheesy pulp. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-vorkosigan-books/1024913.md?page=11)