Comments on: GUEST REVIEW: Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:37:53 +0000

Just wanted to come back and say THANK YOU for the recommendation of Cordelia’s Honor as the one to start with in the Vorkosigan series. I’m about to start “Memory” now, and have been highly recommending Lois McMaster Bujold to everyone who asks what I’ve been reading lately.

By: My First Sale by Lois McMaster Bujold, She Got By with a Little Help From Her Friends | Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:00:35 +0000

[...] finally broke down and bought Cordelia’s Honor after the wonderful guest review by Elizabeth and was converted. When Ned came nosing around for something to read, I gave him the [...]

By: J

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:16:17 +0000

I’m sorry to intrude, ladies, but I just found this link on one of Ms. Bujold’s publisher’s web pages and had to check it out. :)

And I’m also one of the contributors to that Wikipedia debate about order.

Hand’s down, I would recommend either starting with Cordelia’s Honor, or with the Komarr - A Civil Campaign pair (which is finally coming out in reprint format as a omnibus novel in the next couple of months.

The former is well represented in the discussions here already. The latter … well, I have bit of a tale to tell. Though I cared for her deeply, my marriage to my late wife was less than perfect, due to competition with a fellow named Mr. Beer, and occasionally his friends Mr. Wine and Mr. Bourbon, not to mention their cousin Cigarette. Nothing during that period captured my frustration better than Komarr, and particularly the scene where Ekaterin is interrogated by the police. Conversely, I was never able to convince my wife to read the novels unti A Civil Campaign, when I handed her the dinner party scene…she immediately took the book and went and read the whole thing.

Aral’s honor speech. “Naked” in the attic. Miles’s apologetic letter after insulting Ekaterin. THE couch. Pym’s dry sense of humor, and Ivan’s “hidden depths.”

I believe that four hundred years from now, Lois Bujold will be honored as the Shakespeare of the early space age for her turn of phrase.

By: Rose W.

Rose W. — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:37:45 +0000

I read this book on your recommendation and loved it! Thank you.

Both the male and female leads are flawed human beings, but I instead of wanting to slap one of them out of frustration, I was cheering them on.

By: Gary Jordan

Gary Jordan — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:07:25 +0000

If anyone is trying an all-inclusive list, they have to add Bujold’s “Dreamweaver’s Dilemma” from the NESFA Press. It takes place on Earth after Beta Colony is established and before “Falling Free”.

Also, “Winterfair Gifts” was published as part of an anthology called “Irresistable Forces” with Jo Beverly, Catherine Asaro and three others… and is now available in one of those omnibus editions, called “Miles in Love”, which contains “Komarr” (Miles meets his true love while investigating a disaster), “A Civil Campaign” (Miles courts his intended, but forgets to mention it to her?) and “Winterfair Gifts” (The tale of Miles’ wedding - but that isn’t the main plot!)

By: Morgan R.

Morgan R. — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:02:39 +0000

Somebody recommended this book to me and I just finished - it definitely lived up to the recommendation. I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author, but I hope they’re just as good.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:30:43 +0000

Thanks for the advice, ladies. I’ve wanted to dig into this series for months now. I put myself in the library’s queue for Cordelia’s Honor today.

By: LesleyW

LesleyW — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:41:05 +0000

Amanda,

In Borders of Infinity it lists the books in chronological order according to Mile’s age. As Nicole said, this is the way I chose to read them. Some of the short stories from BOI fit in at different times. Below is my reading order. (BOI meaning short story from Borders of Infinity)

Cordelia’s Honor, The Warrior’s Apprentice, Mountains of Mourning (BOI), The Vor Game, Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos (Ellie Quinn is the protagonist not Miles), Labyrinth (BOI), Borders of Infinity (BOI), Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Memory, Komarr, A Civil Campaign, Winterfair Gifts (short story in Irresistible Forces anthology), Diplomatic Immunity.

There’s also another novel Falling Free which takes place 200 years before Miles is born, but set in the same universe.

Probably my favourite arc of the series is from Brothers in Arms to A Civil Campaign. With ACC being my favourite book of the series.

Lesley

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:04:18 +0000

Amanda, I just started with Cordelia’s Honor and then went into reading the stories in chronological order as the omnibuses have been. So far it’s worked just fine. Young Miles is the one after CH.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:45:00 +0000

I have been digging through Bujold’s backlist ever since reading The Sharing Knife: Beguilement. She is one of those rare authors who make me want to read everything they’ve ever written. I haven’t yet tackled the Vorkosigan series just because I don’t know where to begin. It didn’t help that her wikipedia entry just said, “There is considerable debate among readers as the best order to read the Vorkosigan series.”