skygiants | (no subject)

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!

Threaded | Flat

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.