Sorry to be pushy, I thought you’d be done by now, and I wanted to know if you liked it.
StG
No worries. I delayed starting it because I really was a bit shell-shocked by *Mirror Dance. *It was kind of an unexpected sucker punch.
I’ve also been focused on my own writing.
Yay insomnia!
I finished Memory and got a fair start on Komarr.
Miles being permanently made Imperial Auditor was predictable but satisfying nonetheless. His self-redemption was perhaps perfect; he did the right thing and never expected any credit for it. I nearly spit when he was asked to be Chief of ImpSec. And cheered when he said no. I liked that the Imperial Auditor’s had all this input and can see Miles on his own merit.
As far as that, I was thinking last night that this future, a mutie Imperial Auditor, would never have happened in Piotr’s world. You can really begin to see social change happen on Barrayar, and it is in a very real way the legacy of Aral and Cordelia. Because they did, in fact, help create this Emperor in their own image.
Credit to me for figuring out Illyan was boinking Alys. Kind of sad the Imperial Auditor somehow managed to miss this despite the glaringly obvious clues. I hope Illyan enjoys retirement.
I’m glad he and Quinn finally had their heart to heart, the end of that was inevitable. I was starting to get really annoyed with Quinn for begrudging Miles his Vorkosigan identity.
Overall I thought Memory was great. Mirror Dance is still my favorite so far.
As for Komarr, so far I’m loving that. I enjoy seeing Miles from the perspective of a complete stranger. Madam Vorsoisson’s husband is an emotionally abusive asshole. Usually I chafe at the ‘‘asshole partner’’ trope but I find him an utterly believable asshole. I feel Ekaterin’s pain acutely.
Back a few posts I mentioned a place in “Memory” where Cordelia makes a mistake in predicting someone’s actions - it was that she expected Miles, after being fired from ImpSec, to “choose the little admiral.” Cordelia understands a lot - but not how Vor duty has sunk into her son.
I kind of like that she made an appearance without showering him with wisdom. Nobody really offered Miles any solutions. It was something he had to work out for himself.
“Wrestling with temptation”. Ha!
StG
i finished Komarr. I found it pretty gripping. It would be wonderful if Miles could find a martial situation that works.
Having read the first chapter of A Civil Campaign, however, I’m a bit concerned for Etkatarin. I kind of feel like Miles is already losing his grip on the notion that she needs to grow into herself. I’m afraid for her, and for Miles, because I don’t much want to see him fuck this up.
Life from Ivan’s perspective? That had to be a first. Delightful. Every time I think I want to punch him, he’s nice to a kitten. 
How did you like that last scene with the list of Miles’ previous loves, and the current lives?
Heh. Heh heh heh.
You’re good at this.
I’m perhaps a bit weird as “Vorkosiverse” fans go – am less taken up than are many, with character development and Miles’s or anyone’s love-life; and more interested than many, in the milieu in which it all takes place. Some among the fanhood seem to me almost to feel that the action’s “space / Nexus” theatre of action is irrelevant, and that they’d be as happy for the whole thing to be taking place on a “rearranged” Earth. Perhaps it is indeed to do with the gender difference, and my being male – women tend to be fascinated by people, men tend to cotton to other stuff.
At all events: although one can’t reasonably complain about the variety of places in the Nexus to which the novel series takes one, I always find myself wishing for more. Get just a little weary of the strong predominance in the middle parts of the series, of Jackson’s Whole: though I understand that the action of the plot dictates so; and that a rogue planet run by various powerful criminals and their pretty well the-sky’s-the-limit assorted criminal enterprises, where anything and everything are for sale – will be more interesting than stable, virtuous, humane, well-run polities.
Nice anyway, in Komarr, to visit first-hand for the first time, that planet – it and its situation vis-a-vis Barrayar, hitherto known of only second-hand, and via various Komarrans “displaced” on other planets. Good to read about Komarrans – with assorted attitudes to Barrayar’s being in charge – on their home ground. It seems an uninviting world, uninhabitable outside the domes and with widespread terraforming only a very distant prospect; but, interestingly different, and for sure dynamic.
I feel frustrated at the lack of first-hand action in the series, on Sergyar (post-colonisation), and Escobar; but one should count one’s blessings.
If she ends up with Ivan, I’ll eat my hat.
Really? I think most of the places, as places, are pretty boring. It’s always the cultures and the people that make them interesting, and Sergyar and Escobar don’t really seem to HAVE distinct cultures.
Has anyone ever figured out the political system on Barrayar? We know a few facts but they seem to contradict each other.
It’s implied that Gregor, as Emperor, is pretty much in charge. His word is Law.
But there’s a Council of sixty counts who are shown voting on laws and doing all of the normal government business. So how is the power divided between the Emperor and the Counts? If they enact conflicting laws, who gets overruled?
And Aral Vorkosigan was the Prime Minister for a long period. But the Prime Minister of what? The counts don’t seem to have a Prime Minister in their Council. And I don’t recall any mention of any other parliamentary body.
There’s mention of a Council of Ministers but it appears to be a strictly advisory body of men appointed by the Emperor. They have no separate power base of their own.
I’m most interested in the sociopolitical and cultural details, and how they impact individuals. The concept of Vor is fascinating to me, and how Barryarans strain under their own history. I don’t think the ‘‘space/Nexus’’ thing is irrelevant at all, it’s frickin’ cool, and I love how each book seems to add a new dimension to the system they inhabit. I would not be half as interested in this series if it weren’t space opera, and infinite possibilities contained therein.
That really made me laugh. I’d never realized the pattern of his past relationships until it was all laid out like that.
I guess our mileage varies here. Escobar could potentially interest me – seems a competently and humanely run place, spiced with a degree of Latin excitability – with the polity’s strongly Hispanic / Portuguese origins. Sergyar could be potentially fascinating, not least because of its interesting and varied native fauna: I’m a wildlife fan, and regret that most of the Nexus seems to be decidedly wildlife-poor. Plus, Sergyar is a virgin world, with settlement under Barrayaran aegis, as in the books, being the first instance of sapient beings trying to live there permanently – and I recall from one of the more recent books, that immigration thereto, is not restricted to the peoples of the Barrayaran Imperium. I’d love to see a Sergyar-set novel in the series.
I didn’t mean to single you out particularly; and realise that I may be off-beam in my distinction of tendencies along gender lines. I have, though, received the impression that some participants on the LMB-specific discussion board which has been mentioned upthread (which I find regretfully that because of computer-difficulties issues, I can’t access nowadays), do feel that “it’s all about the people”, and that the setting is of little or no importance. I doubt whether I could hold that sentiment about any work(s) of fiction. I was never able to get keen on Asimov, one reason for that being that he seemed to me interested very much first and foremost in human interaction and politicking, which could have taken place anywhere – with the interplanetary stuff as perfunctory window-dressing which he didn’t really care about.
Oh, I wasn’t taking it personally. Just giving my 2c. And I cannot lie, it’s definitely all about the people to me, too. I just think the context is important. Science fiction is great because it can take very abstract philosophical ideas and apply them to the human condition in novel or heretofore unexplored ways. I admit I don’t have a ton of sci-fi reading experience. My favorite (arguably my favorite writer, period) is Bradbury. I’ve never read Asimov. I think Bujold is a bit off the beaten path for a sci-fi writer, based on what I’ve encountered. She does make relationships central to her stories, and that’s one of the reasons I like her so much.
Speaking of relationships in the Vorkosiverse, A Civil Campaign. Weirdest damned thing, but I realized Ivan seems to have a firmer grasp on female autonomy than Miles does, just now. He had to point out that Etkatarin or the rest of the women in the universe weren’t his to take or give. I never really realized how possessive Miles was, and not just with women - his father, his brother, his mercenaries…
[QUOTE=Der Trihs]
That really made me laugh. I’d never realized the pattern of his past relationships until it was all laid out like that.
[/QUOTE]
‘‘Just a joke,’’ Etkatarin said. Oh, man.
In a way, Miles is kind of screwed. He must have a strong, independent, highly ambitious woman or, as Pym rightly noted, she’ll be trampled under his feet. OTOH, it’s the strong, independent, highly ambitious women who would not be inclined to sacrifice everything for him and move to Barrayar.
And, I leave you with two words: butter bugs. :eek:
Spice Weasel: By the way, remember: “Falling Free” comes before “Diplomatic Immunity”
Yeah, it does make a pattern, doesn’t it?
We see the Council of Counts dealing with a subset of issues: trying cases where the accused is a member of the Council (as when Miles, a named heir to Aral, is accused of treason), determining who may be seated in the Council, and determining relationships between the Count Districts (as when Aral pushed through a law allowing easier transfer of citizens from one District to another or when there is a property dispute between counts). I don’t recall the counts dealing with other issues, leaving room for Aral to be Prime Minister of a lower house that handles other governmental issues like taxes, military policy, interstellar relations, etc.
Gregor seems to have a great deal of power - but it’s somewhat abstract (and becoming more so as he moves Barrayar towards being a constitutional monarchy). In the Council of Counts, dealing with inter-district issues, he’s simply first among equals, as Count of the Vorbarra District - but the military swears allegiance directly to Gregor, the highest officials of the Imperium (the Auditors) report directly to Gregor, and Impsec likewise reports directly to Gregor.
Or at least that’s how I see it.