I also highly recommend the Honor Harrington books by David Weber.

Honor has a machiavellian turn of mind somewhat reminiscent of Cordelia/Miles when solving problems.

David Weber’s “The Apocalypse Troll” also contains a strong and awesome heroine.

I also recommend the lyra books by Patricia C. Wrede if you can find em.

I second the recommendations for Barbara Hambly, Wen Spencer, and Diane Duane.

http://womenwriters.net/june09/paladin_interview.html

The old model of “maid, matron, crone” for women’s lives was based on a much shorter average life-span. Modern technology, over the past 150 years, has literally doubled the life expectancy of women in industrial societies (from 40 to 45 years to 80 to 90 years). With lower birth rates, “matron” takes less of a bite than ever out of the prime years, and the debilitation of old age is pushed off for decades. This gives instead a life structure of “maid, matron, 20-or-30-year-blank, crone.” There are no historical social models for that second-maturity period.

She is a very smart lady. :)

I also tried ‘Elantris’ which was recommended here, but found it not as easy to get into. The feisty, intelligent princess is an appealing character, but the evangelical priest just bored me.

Twelve Houses series by Sharon Shinn: Yes, if you liked Bujold’s fantasy. No, if you prefer the Vorkosigan universe.

The Honor Harrington books: No, sorry. It’s got a similar light touch to the Vorkosigan universe but it lack heart.

The Liaden universe: I liked it even less than the Honour Harrington books. Space opera for sure, but the heart of the story is very forgettable. Strangely, reminded me of Anne McCaffery’s book Killashandra.

Jaran by Kate Elliot: I found it hard to get into. Maybe it’s the aliens. The writing was clear enough, but everything just felt a little contrived. Doesn’t have the sparkle I love in Bujold’s writing. Maybe I should try the Crown of Swords series.

Sherwood Smith: Fun if you enjoyed Civil Campaign, as the Crown Duel series is a homage to Austen too I think.

I’m trying to read Heyer and Sayers, but have not found the magical connection everyone talks about? Granted, Wimsey is pretty funny. I do like a hero in control of his environment. But I sold my copy of Cottillon after I read it, the hero and heroine just annoyed me.

The two recommendations that I REALLY enjoyed: The Amelia Peabody books, and Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. They really have HUMOUR, which I realise is what I prize most in Bujold’s writing, which I also why I vastly prefer her sci-fi work (considered low sci-fi I think, although I think she redifined space opera) to her fantasy works (high fantasy takes itself soooo seriously).

Anyway, will continue working through the list, and post further responses. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who made recommendations. It’s been really fun working through it.

It would have never occurred to me that it has anything in common with Dag and Fawn except for being road books.

Different strokes and all that. :) Btw, can I brag and mention that I got the Horizon ARC via the Harper Collins First Look program? :) Yummy!

I’ll plug away again for Carla Kelly as being the epitome of what I’d call good romance. If you liked the relationship between Dag and Fawn I think you’d appreciate Kelly’s couples as well. Kelly wrote quite a few Regency Romances set in and around the Penninsular Wars, and many of her road romances feature two people struggling through tough times together and growing closer as they see the best (and the worst) the other has to offer.

I’ll put in an extra special plug for “The Wedding Journey” as being a fantastic road romance a la Dag and Fawn. The hero is a shy Scottish surgeon who turns out to be a fantastic leader, and the heroine is a sturdy survivor of years following the drum with her no-good parents. The slow growth of a romance between the two is absolutely fantastic. This is also one of the easier Carla Kelly books to find, as it’s still in print.

I know who Jane, Georgette, and Dorothy are, but can’t figure out Charlotte.

Charlotte Bronte.

A Civil Campaign is dedicated to ‘Jane, Charlotte, Georgette, and Dorothy, long may they rule’. I had Jane, Charlotte, and Georgette covered but it took forever to find my way to Dorothy Sayers.

Interesting – I know who Jane, Georgette, and Dorothy are, but can’t figure out Charlotte.

One other author I love but haven’t seen mentioned in this thread yet is Jane Lindskold – I can’t really put a finger on what they have in common other than character and plot not being an either/or decision, though.

It seems like most of these recommendations (including mine, I admit) are for other SF/fantasy, not for other romance. (Except Heyer.) Does that mean that most of the people here are mostly SF/fantasy readers so that’s what they recommend, or what? For me personally, Bujold was the one who lured me over the line (such as it is) between the genres, and it was about the time I was reading Dag’s speech to Fawn’s family (quoted above) that I realized I liked romance if it was well done.

But I don’t really have much of a map to tell the well-done romance from the poorly-done romance… there’s a couple other authors I’m looking at based on their contributions to Irresistible Forces and that’s about it so far.

FWIW

I second many of the recs above, especially McKinley, but must specifically say this:

In these discussions I rarely see LMB fans recommending Ursula K. LeGuin, but I think she is a great fit for us. She also writes a range from SF to high-magic fantasy, although she rarely gets as far toward techno-SF as some of the Vorkosigan series does.

I think lots of people read one or two of Le Guin’s books, don’t fall in love with her because they pick the wrong books for their particular preferences, and never realize that in the spectrum of her writing there are probably some, or many, other books they would like.

She also, like LMB, went from strong to stronger to incredible! as she aged. She is in her eighties? now, and sadly I found her last book a bit disappointing: she got obsessed with a minor character out of Virgil and wrote a novel from her perspective, which is cool but I thought it fell a bit flat. But others of her works of the last few decades are as stunning as the best of LMB.

So: if you like Chalion & The Spirit Ring, try the EarthSea trilogy and especially its 3 follow-ups written decades later. The follow-up novels and short stories re-visit the one strong female protagonist from the original trilogy and make her central, then bring in more new strong females. Fantastic! Also try The Wind’s 12 Quarters, short stories.

If you love Miles & the Vorkoverse, try The Left Hand of Darkness, and any of her books in the Hainish group (though I found Worlds of Exile and Illusion kind of depressing.)

If you love The Sharing Knife, try Always Coming Home (not the same type of romance, but a wonderful imagining of a far-future but not high-tech Pacific Northwest civilization.)

Ok, wow, I’ll stop now. Thanks to all the recs above, I’m going to the library!

another few books that I’ve liked:
Crown Duel/Court Duel by Sherwood Smith (I read your discussion above–these are the only books I’ve really liked from her)

The Blue Sword by McKinley (already mentioned above)

Dealing with Dragons (Patricia Wrede is awesome–and this series is funny!)

Pride and Prejudice (classics are awesome)

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (urban fantasy)

Illusion by Paula Volsky (an alternate reality version of the French Revolution)

Recluce books by L E Modesitt Jr (start with Magic of Recluce) —awesome world building

I have to go but I hope that you’ll give some of these authors a try. Again, so glad to hear from you all and know there are others out there who really love Miles et al too!! (I knew there had to be some!)

cheers!

I cannot tell you how delighted I am to have found this post and this group of readers. I was despairing of EVER finding anyone who could appreciate LMB. (outside of my family, that is).

LMB’s books are part of the fabric of our family–or our lives even, although you might not believe it, its true. We’ve all read them, shared them, quoted them verbatim, and refer to them with glances and jokes. Cordelia, Aral, Miles, Ivan, Ekaterine… they’re all old friends.

its so awesome that y’all have read them too!

ok, for recommendations (I’m sorry but nothing comes close for me) but one must find other things to read between LMB re-readings….

for complex world-building
Deeds of Paksenarrion (the 3 books in one) by Elizabeth Moon is excellent. High-fantasy and a strong female heroine.
A Man Rides Through/Mirror of her Dreams by Stephen R Donaldson ( i couldn’t get into his other books, but liked these 2)

for great characters
Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward has some great characters

for space opera
Stardoc (at least the first three or four I really liked)

someone already mentioned Sharon Shinn. I’m not a huge fan but I did really like Summers at Castle Auburn (its young adult fantasy)

Carrie Vaughn, whose Kitty the Werewolf Urban fantasy series has the same kind of clear-eyed, honorable heroine as Cordelia Naismith, with a more complicated romantic story and a really good grip on fantasy vs real life troubles.

Charlaine Harris, hopefully even more famous now since True Blood has been made an HBO series. Like Dorothy Sayers, she has written many mysteries, and for her the South as a setting is as much a character as the people. Besides her several mystery series, and the Southern Vampire Series, she also has a series about a woman who finds dead people. Her main characters have complicated, violent pasts and get into complicated romances and really violent situations, but they don’t lose hope.

And some authors whose world-building comes close to Bujold’s:

Carol Berg, fantasy author of several series. Her most recent, Flesh and Spirit, Breath and Bone is a lyrical story of a seemingly-doomed world whose hero goes through more changes…

Kristine Smith, whose heroine starts out as a Super-Admin, super-soldier in hiding and goes from there to… And the series is complete, which I know is an issue for some readers.

I could go on: repeating recommendations for Martha Wells, Kate Elliott, Robin Hobb, Elizabeth Moon, Terry Pratchett, Carla Kelly, Miller and Lee (their Web site has a “Friends of Liad Congruent Authors List” for more ‘if you like them, you’ll like…’ books.)

Adding Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden series. Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series…

So many books. Why do I wish there were more?

I’m glad others have mentioned the Liaden Universe series. I’ve worn out two copies of Scout’s Progress, and Local Custom isn’t looking too healthy either. Fortunately Ace is reissuing the whole series next year.

Selene, I had a hard time getting into Inda as well, but I’m so glad I stuck with it, because it did pick up toward the end, and The Fox (book 2) is stunning. My only concern about the third book is that it was so satisfying, I can’t imagine the fourth topping it! I really love these books, although I do admit the abundance of nicknames and interchangeable titles makes it hard to follow who’s who. I finally resorted to keeping the character list handy.