Cryoburn (Bujold)

Yeah, so, I thought i had things to say about Cryoburn, and then I went and read my LJ friends' reviews and found lightreads had said all of them already. And somehow managed to do this without spoiling. So go read that review at DW if you want to know pretty much exactly what I think (well, okay, I'm not a lawyer, but I also did laugh at the commodified cryo contract swaps, because so true, and also so true about roving POV showing Miles' entitlement, and the title, and -- oh, just go read it before I quote the entire thing, I agree with it all).

I do think that the Miles books fall into two categories: the character-building ones (Memory, Barrayar, Mirror Dance, Civil Campaign) and the idea ones (Ceteganda, Diplomatic Immunity-- and Cryoburn). (Of course, all have elements of the other -- all have ideas and characters.) That is, I really kind of feel like Ceteganda came out of Bujold saying "Hey, I'm interested in exploring what a society with total control on reproduction would be like!" and that being the focus, rather than Miles. This book seems similar in a lot of ways -- Miles is the substrate, like a tortilla chip, whereby the guacamole or cheese dip of a cryogenics-based society is eaten -- perhaps tasty in himself, but there's so much more that's not about him. (Uh, yes, I'm hungry right now. :P)

But, of course, it's also about Miles.

And in that context, I respectfully disagree with julianyap(  in a cut for massive, massive spoilers )

But of course I'm being somewhat hypocritical here -- if she had written the book that julianyap wanted, I would have been excited to read that as well. I wonder also if she just wasn't equipped to write that book, which I would also totally respect. I can't imagine that would be an easy book to write.

And I do agree I would love to see an Ekaterin-as-hero-mom book. It's totally hard to do. Connie Willis did manage it in a short story, "And Come from Miles Around," which I love.