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Mar. 5th, 2010 11:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI just started trying to write up a review of Lois McMaster Bujold's Mirror Dance, and realized it's kind of impossible without massive spoilers for the entire Vorkosigan series. So instead, I will just say that Wednesday was a very frustrating day for me, because I was halfway through the book and thought I had no post-work plans and instead got surprise work-related event sprung on me when all I wanted to do was be curled up on my couch tearing through the rest of the pages.
The Good:
I loved getting back to Barrayar and the focus on Cordelia and Aral, as seen through someone else's eyes; I loved their complex and believable reactions to Mark and his own difficulties with adjusting into Barrayaran society; and I loved the emphasis on becoming your own person, rather than just a double or echo of somebody else. Basically everything with the Vorkosigan family was amazing. And Gregor! And Ivan! Ivan crying at the party might have been the most actually heartbreaking part of the book, for me, and not just because Ivan is my favorite, although I won't deny it had something to do with it.
I also thought it was kind of awesome getting to see Miles being so Miles, and so clearly a completely different kind of person from Mark, even when he doesn't actually know who he is. (And oh, the web of lies that bites him in the ass: "You could be clone!Naismith or clone!Mark!" Miles: ". . . wait, what? NEITHER OF THESE SOUNDS ACCURATE.") And the flow of Jacksonian politics was actually really interesting. One of my favorite parts is when Miles reminds himself that the (apparently-sympathetic) Durona group has nonetheless been surviving on Jackson's Whole for many, many years, and warm and fuzzy altruism is nooot really in the picture - which doesn't make them the bad guys either. And as usual, the prose and plot is incredibly and compulsively readable and very hard to put down!
The Uncomfortable:
Okay. So. Thing one: I had a very hard time forgiving Mark for the near-rape incident with the clone.
Thing two: I would have been much happier if Elena hadn't forgiven him. I will be honest: I kind of hated that all it took was Cordelia explaining Mark's Tragic Backstory (which is legitimately tragic, and understandable that it makes him messed up, BUT STILL) for Elena to come in and apologize for misjudging him. No, she didn't misjudge him; that was a heinous thing that he did, and I really appreciated that Elena didn't condone it, and that the narrative was acknowledging how heinous it was - and then Elena forgave him, and I felt like I as the reader was being told that I had to forgive him for it too. And, no. I can recognize Mark as a fascinating and sympathetic and messed-up character, but that does not make it okay.
Thing three: even accepting Mark as a fascinating and sympathetic character, which he certainly is - OH MY GOD I do not trust him near girls and I don't want him dating anyone EVER. I mean, I would not really want Miles dating a friend of mine either, because fond as I am of Miles he is packed full of issues and is kind of a horrible boyfriend ("well Elli Quinn won't marry me so I'LL JUST ASK ROWAN DURONA! Surely someday someone will say yes!"). But that I could deal with! But Mark is a WHOLE DIFFERENT ORDER of desperately in need of therapy and I find myself wanting to shriek NO KAREEN GET AWAY!
I am worried this is going to cause problems with my reread of Civil Campaign. The first time I read it I could sympathize with Mark and Kareen wanting their independence, but now, man, I would be extremely concerned about my daugther dating Mark Vorkosigan also!
The Good:
I loved getting back to Barrayar and the focus on Cordelia and Aral, as seen through someone else's eyes; I loved their complex and believable reactions to Mark and his own difficulties with adjusting into Barrayaran society; and I loved the emphasis on becoming your own person, rather than just a double or echo of somebody else. Basically everything with the Vorkosigan family was amazing. And Gregor! And Ivan! Ivan crying at the party might have been the most actually heartbreaking part of the book, for me, and not just because Ivan is my favorite, although I won't deny it had something to do with it.
I also thought it was kind of awesome getting to see Miles being so Miles, and so clearly a completely different kind of person from Mark, even when he doesn't actually know who he is. (And oh, the web of lies that bites him in the ass: "You could be clone!Naismith or clone!Mark!" Miles: ". . . wait, what? NEITHER OF THESE SOUNDS ACCURATE.") And the flow of Jacksonian politics was actually really interesting. One of my favorite parts is when Miles reminds himself that the (apparently-sympathetic) Durona group has nonetheless been surviving on Jackson's Whole for many, many years, and warm and fuzzy altruism is nooot really in the picture - which doesn't make them the bad guys either. And as usual, the prose and plot is incredibly and compulsively readable and very hard to put down!
The Uncomfortable:
Okay. So. Thing one: I had a very hard time forgiving Mark for the near-rape incident with the clone.
Thing two: I would have been much happier if Elena hadn't forgiven him. I will be honest: I kind of hated that all it took was Cordelia explaining Mark's Tragic Backstory (which is legitimately tragic, and understandable that it makes him messed up, BUT STILL) for Elena to come in and apologize for misjudging him. No, she didn't misjudge him; that was a heinous thing that he did, and I really appreciated that Elena didn't condone it, and that the narrative was acknowledging how heinous it was - and then Elena forgave him, and I felt like I as the reader was being told that I had to forgive him for it too. And, no. I can recognize Mark as a fascinating and sympathetic and messed-up character, but that does not make it okay.
Thing three: even accepting Mark as a fascinating and sympathetic character, which he certainly is - OH MY GOD I do not trust him near girls and I don't want him dating anyone EVER. I mean, I would not really want Miles dating a friend of mine either, because fond as I am of Miles he is packed full of issues and is kind of a horrible boyfriend ("well Elli Quinn won't marry me so I'LL JUST ASK ROWAN DURONA! Surely someday someone will say yes!"). But that I could deal with! But Mark is a WHOLE DIFFERENT ORDER of desperately in need of therapy and I find myself wanting to shriek NO KAREEN GET AWAY!
I am worried this is going to cause problems with my reread of Civil Campaign. The first time I read it I could sympathize with Mark and Kareen wanting their independence, but now, man, I would be extremely concerned about my daugther dating Mark Vorkosigan also!
