I love them, they are so engaging and the different cultures are distinct in understandable ways, the plot hangs together, they are good books. Not like hard sci fi but effortless placement of a dramatic story in a different universe.
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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They're great stories with some interesting sci-fi ideas tossed in here and there. Her Chalion series is fantastic too.
Oh, the plots are ever as cheesy as the covers, but she does know how to spin a good yarn.
They are definitely not literary or hard sci-fi, but I can't deny they are very fun to read. Reminds me of watching Firefly in a way when it first released.
Judging books by their cover? Tsk tsk tsk. 😜
And no, I haven't actually read the books or heard of the series. But I'll check it out now! 🙃
Dang. I think I'm going to judge these books by the website now.
Website last updated in 2016 should tell you all you need to know..
I don't know... I've been developing websites for decades and, at least from my phone, that's pretty youch even for 2016. Haha.
I think the person who made the page, made it in the late 90's when they registered the domain, they probably only update the links and text 😅
I should revert all my websites back to v1 style, animated gifs and all.
Haha yes I know. The books get recommended a lot over on r/printsf ( I really wish we had a community like this on lemmy), but I couldn't get over the horrible romance novel type covers for a long time. Let us know what you think if you do read them!
Totally influenced me.
May have slightly corrupted my morals too, but totally ok
"Chow time!"
If you know, you know.
I liked the first two (about Cordelia) better than the Miles books in some ways. He's just a kid, she's more interesting in a lot of ways.
That said, I think the best bit of the whole series is the Miles-focused novella The Mountains of Mourning.
I did like The Mountains of Mourning, but it felt a bit too local? It had a nice mystery/detective aspect to it
I liked the first two (about Cordelia) better than the Miles books in some ways.
Ooh, if you missed it, be sure to pick up "Gentleman Joel and the Red Queen". It returns the focus to Cordelia.
Oh, I have not, thanks for the recommendation!
Okay, I picked it up and blitzed through Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, and it was a deep disappointment. The personal and romantic stakes and themes of the earlier books with Cordelia Naismith were coupled with other adventures or plots, and the combination of the personal and the galactic plots was part of what made them work. I felt like Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen utterly lost the broader plot, and it was just a book about two people getting together and retiring. Which, to be fair, is a perfectly fine plot and there are multiple genres and sub-genres built around that plot, but in the context of the Vorkossigan Saga, it was a nothing-burger of a story. There are some revelations about things long-past, which I think Bujold did to try to flesh out the story, but hardly anything happens. Seriously, the stakes are so low. What a baffling addition to this series.
Okay, I picked it up and blitzed through Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, and it was a deep disappointment. The personal and romantic stakes and themes of the earlier books with Cordelia Naismith were coupled with other adventures or plots, and the combination of the personal and the galactic stakes was part of what made them work. I felt like Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen utterly lost the broader plot, and it was just a book about two people getting together and retiring. (Which, to be fair, is a perfectly fine plot and there are multiple genres and sub-genres built around that plot, but in the context of the Vorkossigan Saga, it was a nothing-burger of a story.) There are some revelations about things long-past, which I think Bujold did to try to flesh out the story and maybe give Cornelia's take on some of the events that happened around her in the intervening ~30 years since she had a book from her perspective, but in this book, hardly anything happens. Seriously, the stakes are so low. It's pleasant, but scarcely needs to exist for the rest of the characters or novels. What a baffling addition to this series.
in the context of the Vorkossigan Saga, it was a nothing-burger of a story.
Yep. It's just a cozy story set after the saga.
What a baffling addition to this series.
Lol. I guess I wasn't surprised - it felt like a continuation of the one with the generically engineered designer bugs running loose.
But yeah, other than that, it's big tone shift from the rest of the saga.