/lit/ - Literature

I'm well into the Vorkosigan Saga now. And it's pretty fun. I'm glad I read in publication order rather than the recommended order. Because while each book can stand on its own, each new book references the previous books in some manner. So it's nice to have a working knowledge of the world starting the the cornerstone.

The first book, Shards of Honor, isn't the best one. Amateurish for sure. But you can already tell from the start that Lois McMaster Bujold has some kind of talent. Which probably comes from the fact that she was already in her mid thirties when she wrote it. Her characters come across as authentic..

I will say this though: One thing she's not getting better at, is character exposition.(or whatever it's called, I don't know the term) Basically, she'll do this thing where characters are talking one on one. One character will ask about another, and then the other character answers with what feels like a biography. Rattling off need-to-know facts about themselves. That part feels very forced. And she always does this. But that is also kind of helpful at pushing the story along at a quick pace. You endure a short biography, and then you get back to the story.

Also, it's pretty funny how this lusty broad's first book was pretty much just her romantic fantasies, tamed. It hit all of her fetishes: An experienced older affluent man, who is as smart as he is dangerous, and he's very dangerous. The man coming from a breed of essentially alpha supermen who still have royalty and lords and vassals. The woman, coming from a breed of betas, nerd and technocrats. But she herself has an alpha like demeanor, as she's not weak herself. The only man who can handle a girl like her is of course the ultimate alpha male from the alpha planet.

The second book is a lot better. There was a big step up in quality.