Self-medication

[semperfiona]

...of the literary sort. Cordelia's Honor, by Lois McMaster Bujold (an omnibus edition comprising Shards of Honor and Barrayar.

I love her books, I do I do.

Comments

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I'm just finishing "Diplomatic Immunity". Thanks to wcg, I've read my way through "Cordelia's Honor" and the entire Miles Vorkosigan series, including the short stories. Wonderful!

[semperfiona]

::nodnodnod:: This was a re-read. I needed something I knew would be an enjoyable distraction, and I'm feeling much less mopey now, too.

Re:

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Oh, I figured you must have read them before. I was sharing my joy of discovery :):).

[semperfiona]

They *are* wonderful. I envy people who haven't read them yet, because they can read them for the first time, and I can never do that again. But at least she's still writing (unlike my other favorite, Roger Zelazny, who is dead), and I get a new one every so often.

A few days ago I read her new book, The Curse of Chalion, which is very different from the Vorkosigan Saga, but still very good: very much character-driven and alive with background. But Miles and Barrayar are special.

[jingoro.livejournal.com]

I swear, I loved every moment of Cordelia's Honor. It was delicious yummy science-fiction-romance each and every page. I'm such a sucker for that.

Excuse me while I indulge...

yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy book.

...thank you, I think I'm done now. Must re-read that, after I finish my re-read of the Honor Harrington series.

Yummy. (Okay, guess I wasn't done.)

[(Anonymous)]

I haven't read The Curse of Chalion yet, but I've read all of her other stuff that I've been able to find. The whole Vorkosigan saga is pretty darn good! While the tone of the books has lightened a little, she's still a very compelling writer. I do miss some of the flawed characters from earlier in the series (Aral Vorkosigan, Sgt. Bothari, and even Mark--though it seems like he'll probably be reappearing again).

I've also read The Spirit Ring, and it was OK (primarily because she's a good writer), but I didn't enjoy it as much as the Vor books (but I personally tend to prefer the "hard SF" more than fantasy anyway).

Normally I don't care too much for military-themed books, but I've also enjoyed David Weber's Honor Harrington series; if you've enjoyed the Vor books, you may want to give these a try also. Both of the series are very similar in the plotting style, and there are many very similar events and themes. At first, I suspected Weber of ripping off some of Bujold's ideas, but I found out that they both claim a common inspiration--the Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forester; Weber even gives a bit of a nod to the Hornblower books in his title Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington.

Since I've read all the extant material in both series (Vor and Harrington), I've since picked up the first two Hornblower books, but I have yet to read them.

(niemandofchaos)

[(Anonymous)]

Oh yeah, as an afterthought...the Science Fiction Book Club Thanksgiving 2002 flier that just came out has a new Honor Harrington novel--War of Honor. The cover art to the flier is OK, too; it has an interesting piece of Amber art that I haven't seen before.

(niemandofchaos)

[semperfiona]

Hehehehe. I think I am going to indulge myself in a full reread from start to finish (or up-to-date, anyway).

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

So come sing her praises in Bookwhores. :) We've got to get this thing off the ground, don't we...?

[semperfiona]

Okaaaay...Sometime tomorrow I'll write something. :-)

I'm really lucky

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

because I'm in Lois' writing group, and so I get to read them a year ahead of everyone else. She's just shipped off the sequel to The Curse of Chalion.

I periodically go on jags of re-reading her stuff, bang, bang, bang. Oddly enough, the first book of hers that I read was Memory, because that was the book she was writing when she joined our group. She didn't want me to read her other books first, because she wanted to get a critique from a "cold" reader, one who hadn't encountered her work before. It drove me crazy, the whole time we were critiquing Memory because during critique discussions everyone was talking about the backstory, ("No, no, this is what Cordelia would have said, because in Mirror Dance she said . . . !") and I didn't know what the hell they were talking about. Lois finally gave me permission to read everything when we were halfway through critiquing Komarr, and I gulped 'em all down in about three weeks.

Cheers,
Peg

Re: I'm really lucky

[semperfiona]

I recognize your name from the dedication of one of her books, now that you mention it.

Hi and welcome :-)