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[skygiants]

Brothers in Arms has the distinction of being the first of the Vorkosigan books that I had not read before. (Well, unless Ethan of Athos counts. But I think it only half-counts.)

I think my favorite thing about Bujold is her ability to combine high-stakes dramatic tension with super space slapstick - this book contains some of the funniest fight scenes I've read, not to mention a very high pitch of dramatic irony. Converging secret identities! Lies twisting around so far that they actually become true again! I knew about the existence of [spoiler character] from reading A Civil Campaign, so I saw the dramatic irony coming a mile away, but possibly that made it even better. (I also love the bit where Elli Quinn ends up accidentally rescuing Miles based on a complete coincidence.) And after the way the ending of this book plays out, I am now even more curious than I was before to see what happens with [spoiler character] in Mirror Dance and Memory. (Okay, mostly I just really want to see [spoiler character] meet Cordelia.)

I do have to say, though, I found myself twitching at the way that the book casts the Resistance Against An Occupying Power as absolutely, one hundred percent the bad guys. I mean, yes, I get that there are practical reasons why violent resistance does not always work, and also that the whole premise of the series centers on offering the Barrayaran perspective, but . . . it would be really, really nice to have it recognized that the decision to rebel rather than assimilate is an understandable and moral choice. I spent a lot of time closing my eyes and telling myself that this was Miles' biased viewpoint and not Word Of God, but it did not always help. (I also find myself having to do this every time the Vorkosigan books stop to remark on how the hermaphrodites are a bizarre failed experiment of a culture. I love Bel Thorne! He's an awesome character! Why is it then necessary to constantly diss his identity and origins ;_;)

One last comment: David, with his aunt Rebecca, dealing with themes of being from an outsider culture and trying to assimilate and having to change his name and work twice as hard as everyone else to get ahead within the system while facing accusations of thievery and being involved in labyrinthine conspiracies? Three guesses what my mental canon on the Galens is!

Comments

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Miles, being his father's and mother's son, has a very particular, and particularly biased, political perspective on Komarran-Barrayaran relations. He is a progressive (left-centrist) Barrayaran and works actively for Komarran assimilationism; that's certainly not a neutral position, and canon acknowledges Miles's lack of neutrality.

Note that Duv Galeni (and I am totally convinced by Jewish Galens!), Miles's closest ally among the Komarrans, can quite justifiably be called a collaborator. So can most other important Komarran characters, including, later, Laisa Toscane. I look forward to hearing what you think of the politics in Komarr.

I always thought the hermaphrodites were a failed experiment because their creators wanted everyone to become hermaphroditic in the future, or at the very least, for herms to become societally normalized. Instead, the herms are a small minority within Beta Colony, and, despite Betan proclamations of universal tolerance, herms are viewed by other Betans as people to be tolerated. Their neighborhood of Quartz is the Betan equivalent of the queer ghetto -- trendy yet still outre by Betan standards. Besides Bel, the other herms we hear about in canon are LPSTs or in careers that otherwise emphasize their sexual oddity. Bel Thorne itself is an outlier, a misfit who leaves its home to join a mercenary troop and never comes back. If Bel had been able to fit in back on Beta, the hermaphrodite social experiment might have been a success. But I really think the inventors of herms wanted hermaphrodite social integration, and Beta hasn't got that.

[skygiants]

I think my problem is that, while Miles is totally not neutral and canon acknowledges that, it also doesn't controvert it - Duv Galeni is very sympathetic (and I like him very much! but the narrative odds are weighted on his side) while Papa Galen is presented as completely ruthless, lacking any moral compunctions and willing to trade anyone and everything for presented-as-crazy goals. As of Brothers in Arms, at least, we haven't been presented any spokesperson for the other side who is not RAGING EVIL (or a faceless goon). That may change! And if so I will withdraw some of my complaings. :D I am looking forward to seeing how it plays out in later books for sure.

(Anyway, the idea of Jewish Galens makes me happy, so.)

Hmmm. I like your reading of the hermaphrodites, but I'm not convinced that's the canon one (or, at least, Miles') - you get phrasing like "an experiment every bit as bizarre as anything rumored to be done for money by House Royal's ethics-free surgeons," "a fringe effort of the original egalitarianism run amok," "hapless heirs of a century-past genetic project of dubious merit . . ." All of which is phrasing I really don't love.

[ceitfianna]

I love reading your thoughts on these books and that's one that I haven't read in a book, but spoiler character is one of my favorites.

Along with Duv, there are just so many complicated things going on and I love how she just keeps them all still real people. *flops*

Once I send off my cards, I will be completely done.

[skygiants]

Hee! I am glad my ramblings amuse someone.

Aside from the slapstick, Bujold is definitely amazing at drawing character. [spoiler] and Duv are both fabulous additions to the cast! (But Ivan is shockingly still my favorite.)

YAY! I . . . haha am a long way from being done with everything I have to do. But at least I don't have any more presents to take care of! Or work, after today. :D

[batyatoon]

*giggling* Why am I not surprised that Ivan is your favorite.

[skygiants]

Oh, like it was even ever a secret. *laughing* I AM NEVER PREDICTABLE.

[the_croupier]

*also member of 'Ivan Rules' club*

One of the rare few who can sit through several minutes of Miles at his most brilliantly manipulative and then go, "Uh huh. So what are you really up to?"

Of course, then poor Ivan gets suckered into the scheme anyway, somehow, but then nobody's perfect. =)

[skygiants]

It's because he's such a good-hearted person with a strong sense of family feeling. *serene* AKA, because he's awesome!

[batyatoon]

I think you will be pleased at what happens when [spoiler character] meets Cordelia. *serene*

Also:
I do have to say, though, I found myself twitching at the way that the book casts the Resistance Against An Occupying Power as absolutely, one hundred percent the bad guys.

I hear you on this, but -- Miles's non-neutrality aside, it was such a refreshing change from casting the Resistance Against An Occupying Power as absolutely one hundred percent the good guys. Which is what we almost always get.

[skygiants]

Oh, I do not doubt that I will be. >:D

Heh - I see that also, and I totally love the idea of complicating the idea that the Resistance Is Always Noble And Right! I love nuanced and complicated and morally gray revolutions a lot. But on the other hand, my ideals still sit very much on the side of the occupied rather than the occupiers, and so it was very uncomfortable not to see those ideals even acknowledged as worthwhile, you know?

(Also it's a bit ironic, seeing as the Big Bad at this point is the occupying Cetagandans. OH NOES! NOT A COLONIZING EMPIRE! . . . wait . . .)

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

David, with his aunt Rebecca, dealing with themes of being from an outsider culture and trying to assimilate and having to change his name and work twice as hard as everyone else to get ahead within the system while facing accusations of thievery and being involved in labyrinthine conspiracies?

That had been my first thought when I heard the names too.

Add in that Komarrans as a whole were rich, and their allies didn't help because of that wealth. (Aral explains that Barrayar offered to undercut Komarr's transit fees, and Komarr's allies hung it out to dry.)

[skygiants]

Aheh, I had forgotten about that part!

Yeah, David or Rebecca as names by themselves would not perk my ears up, but combined they do seem to form a pattern. (I have to admit I pay closer attention when I come across fictional namesakes. >.>)

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

David or Rebecca as names by themselves would not perk my ears up, but combined they do seem to form a pattern.

Exactly.

The question: are only the Galens Jewish, or is the whole planet?

The backstory/deuterocanon suggests that after Alpha and Beta Colonies, the only US colonization missions before it got blasted to oblivion (I'm not spoiling anything; that's deuterocanon, as I said, and doesn't show up in any novels you haven't read, it's in interviews), the later colonization missions were a bit more monocultural: Escobar, for example, is Spanish/Hispanic (witness the names and the court's name in A Civil Campaign); Barrayar is mostly Russian; Cetaganda is heavily Japanese-flavored...is Komarr the Jewish colony?

(Oh, add in: no natural resources--the equivalent of "may not own land," maybe?)

[skygiants]

It's certainly possible, and your reading probably makes the most sense, but I actually kind of prefer it the other way - that Komarr is a multicultural planet, and the settlers happen to include some Jews - and that being Jewish forms part of Duv/David's unique backstory, rather than a planetwide one. But that's probably just my bias against monoculture planets in general.

Although my other argument is that a Jewish colonization group seems likely to name their planet something way more symbolic than 'Komarr'. *grins*

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Good point. Who knows. At any rate, the Galens are, as the tropers say, Ambiguously Jewish.

[skygiants]

And once again, the answers to all of life's questions can be found in TVTropes. :D

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Actually, I just added Galen to Ambiguously Jewish. And someone immediately responded saying "glad it wasn't just me. Actually, I think the entire planet is Jewish."

So...yeah. *grin*

[skygiants]

Hah! I actually just went to go see if they were on there and you beat me to it.

So . . . yeah indeed.

[rabidfangurl.livejournal.com]

You haven't read Mirror Dance yet? O.o Is so good!

Actually, I think Mirror Dance might just be my favorite, despite all the hilarity of A Civil Campaign. Mostly because it's [spoiler]'s book, not Miles's. Of course, being [spoiler]'s book, it's darker and sharper than Miles's would be. Watching [spoiler] come into his own, though, is worth the price of admission.

As for Ser Galen, well, he's bugfuck nuts. He's fighting a war thirty years gone and it's driven him over the edge. It's not the Opposition that's crazy, it's just him.

[skygiants]

I know! Well, my original plan was to read Brothers in Arms and Mirror Dance in the omnibus together, but then the library failed to deliver on that, so singly it will have to be. I am looking forward to it, though! (The ones I had not read, as of starting this read through the series, were Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Memory and Komarr.)

True, but the fact that we haven't seen anyone else on his side as a contrast kind of undermines that - it's like saying "women aren't evil, it's just [character]" when an evil woman is the only female character in the story. It may be true, but it doesn't mean the work is any less weighted against women because of it, you know?