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Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (Bujold)
4/5. I HAVE MISSED YOU, LMB! AND YOUR PLOTS TOO!
I wasn't intending to read this until the hardback came out, but then![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
julianyap intervened. So.
So this review really boils down to SQUEE! This was an incredibly indulgent book -- and I don't care, I wanted it to be indulgent, and so (I suspect) did LMB. For this reason, it read a lot like extremely well-written fanfic, with a nice plot, from someone who really likes Ivan! Which I'm all for! (Interestingly, I just requested something almost exactly like this in a fic exchange, which amused me no end while reading it.)
It's most like Civil Campaign in feel -- not so surprisingly, as it's a slightly tongue-in-cheek romance (oh, come on, that's not a spoiler, is there anyone, anyone at all reading this book, that didn't know Ivan was going to get hooked up in this one?), but without either the Barrayan politicking or the Milesian tendency to get himself, um, hoist on his own petard. Because if there's anything that would be out of character for Ivan, it is getting himself hoist on his own petard. It's really kind of refreshing. Though I looooved the politicking of ACC and would have preferred more of that.
It isn't deep. It isn't serious. It isn't even super-plot-heavy (this disappointed D, actually; he was sort of hoping that there would be some sort of super-plot-twist at the end tying it up really nicely, but there wasn't). It doesn't tell us anything about life we didn't already know (as was true with Mirror Dance, Memory in spades, and even Civil Campaign). It's just a rollicking adventure with an old friend who gets some of the happiness we all always hoped he would get.
Some reactions I had to the characters:
Byerly: HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Regarding Ivan: "And call your mother." HAHAHAHAHA. Ivan is surely the only citizen of the Vorkosiverse who has to be told by his boss to call his mother!
Miles: so pleased he only showed up for a brief cameo -- because Ivan can't really shine when he's around, can he?
Ekaterin: WHERE WAS EKATERIN??
Illyan: Not a secret how much I adore Illyan. ILLYAN! Stepdaddy issues! Being sad that Ivan says "um" so much around him! Cackling! "What the hell, Simon?" HA.
A couple of things that mildly bothered me: I did keep feeling as if Tej's reactions weren't quite... right, for a scion of Jackson's Whole. For example, early in the book she is impressed by Miles being able to order summary executions. Umm... any Baron or Baronne of JW would be able to do the same, no? I mean, I'd expect her to respect that power, but not necessarily to be impressed by it. Several other similar examples I can't think of right now -- I know we've heard of JW mostly from the more corrupt denizens of the place, but still I'd expect any kid growing up as a Baron's child to have a working knowledge/cynicism of the more corrupt aspects which Tej was just lacking. And indeed the rest of her family feels that way -- but there's not really any explanation given as to why she thinks about things differnently, except oh, she's the youngest. Or something. I'd really have liked a little more amplification here... it would have been so easy to do, just point out gently that she was the only one with Betan tutors, or something? So Tej didn't really ring true to me. I mean, as a character she was great! But as a character given her backstory... not so much.
Another thing: The Koudelkas are the only females in the Vorkosiverse I can think of who actually manage to have friends whom they don't meet through their husbands or father. I was kind of psyched to see an actual female character in the Vorkosiverse have a female friend whom she doesn't inherit from her husband! But then it ends by her... saying goodbye to all her friends and family, so now she's dependent on people Ivan knows again! Whee. Sigh.
In general things seemed a little, um, simplified? But I still loved it.
I wasn't intending to read this until the hardback came out, but then
julianyap intervened. So.So this review really boils down to SQUEE! This was an incredibly indulgent book -- and I don't care, I wanted it to be indulgent, and so (I suspect) did LMB. For this reason, it read a lot like extremely well-written fanfic, with a nice plot, from someone who really likes Ivan! Which I'm all for! (Interestingly, I just requested something almost exactly like this in a fic exchange, which amused me no end while reading it.)
It's most like Civil Campaign in feel -- not so surprisingly, as it's a slightly tongue-in-cheek romance (oh, come on, that's not a spoiler, is there anyone, anyone at all reading this book, that didn't know Ivan was going to get hooked up in this one?), but without either the Barrayan politicking or the Milesian tendency to get himself, um, hoist on his own petard. Because if there's anything that would be out of character for Ivan, it is getting himself hoist on his own petard. It's really kind of refreshing. Though I looooved the politicking of ACC and would have preferred more of that.
It isn't deep. It isn't serious. It isn't even super-plot-heavy (this disappointed D, actually; he was sort of hoping that there would be some sort of super-plot-twist at the end tying it up really nicely, but there wasn't). It doesn't tell us anything about life we didn't already know (as was true with Mirror Dance, Memory in spades, and even Civil Campaign). It's just a rollicking adventure with an old friend who gets some of the happiness we all always hoped he would get.
Some reactions I had to the characters:
Byerly: HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Regarding Ivan: "And call your mother." HAHAHAHAHA. Ivan is surely the only citizen of the Vorkosiverse who has to be told by his boss to call his mother!
Miles: so pleased he only showed up for a brief cameo -- because Ivan can't really shine when he's around, can he?
Ekaterin: WHERE WAS EKATERIN??
Illyan: Not a secret how much I adore Illyan. ILLYAN! Stepdaddy issues! Being sad that Ivan says "um" so much around him! Cackling! "What the hell, Simon?" HA.
A couple of things that mildly bothered me: I did keep feeling as if Tej's reactions weren't quite... right, for a scion of Jackson's Whole. For example, early in the book she is impressed by Miles being able to order summary executions. Umm... any Baron or Baronne of JW would be able to do the same, no? I mean, I'd expect her to respect that power, but not necessarily to be impressed by it. Several other similar examples I can't think of right now -- I know we've heard of JW mostly from the more corrupt denizens of the place, but still I'd expect any kid growing up as a Baron's child to have a working knowledge/cynicism of the more corrupt aspects which Tej was just lacking. And indeed the rest of her family feels that way -- but there's not really any explanation given as to why she thinks about things differnently, except oh, she's the youngest. Or something. I'd really have liked a little more amplification here... it would have been so easy to do, just point out gently that she was the only one with Betan tutors, or something? So Tej didn't really ring true to me. I mean, as a character she was great! But as a character given her backstory... not so much.
Another thing: The Koudelkas are the only females in the Vorkosiverse I can think of who actually manage to have friends whom they don't meet through their husbands or father. I was kind of psyched to see an actual female character in the Vorkosiverse have a female friend whom she doesn't inherit from her husband! But then it ends by her... saying goodbye to all her friends and family, so now she's dependent on people Ivan knows again! Whee. Sigh.
In general things seemed a little, um, simplified? But I still loved it.
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This, exactly. Can you imagine Tej and Mark's first meeting? Also 100% with you on Ekaterin's presence (ha): Kareen in ACC said, "notice how the stories end when women get married" and despite the lampshade? Ekaterin hasn't been a PoV character since... she got married.
But good things! Ivan and Tej are ambitious, in their own way: ambitious to not get dragged into their family's plans. The annual death-offering wasn't new information, but its re-introduction reminded me that Ivan has had the blood price of Barrayaran politics hammered into his consciousness every birthday of his life.
Simon and Alys were awesome, no surprise; the, ah, unintended consequences of the mycoborer were definitely best witnessed through ex-ImpSec eyes.
The By/Rish interaction felt too neat - I don't like my romances like dominoes, knock one down and cascade the rest, even if (as I check facebook) life is sometimes exactly like that - I wanted Rish to be awesome on her own. And not simplified.
The implications about Jackson's Whole biochemistry / genetics are, again, not new, but are extremely unsettling to contemplate at any length.
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What Connie Willis story?
(Anonymous) 2012-10-15 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)Re: What Connie Willis story?