Legacy (LM Bujold)

[charlie_ego]

My homework for last weekend was reading Legacy. (Next weekend it will be to start looking up all these fabulous book recs I keep getting, yay, thanks!) I... didn't hate it. Probably from the Magic of Low Expectations-- I knew not to expect much, and, well, I wasn't disappointed

Comments

[ase]

Although I loved ACC, the actual romances were not its strength; the comedy of errors and the tight plotting and the weaving of romance together with ruminations on biology and politics were its strengths.

World of yes. I find Mark and Kareen impossibly cute, but I think a lot of their romance had to do with growing up and finding out who they were in the context of their families. The Miles/Ekaterin romance had problems for me.

Re: Totally!Smart!Fawn: it may be my perspective betraying me. Have you ever read Rosemary Kirstein's Steerswoman series? It features a very smart protagonist logicking her way through the world in a way that rings true to me. There are passing superficial similarities in the worldbuilding that make me think that if Kirstein had written SK, Fawn would actually feel as smart as Dag says she is.

I was so afraid that MarySue!Fawn would walk all over Dag's mother By Teh Power Of Her RightnessWhile I do not like some of Dag's relatives as people, I am mad about them as characters

[almeda]

I have had the chance to have several long discussions about her books with Lois at cons (she's good friends with a guy who runs a dealer's table I help staff), and, um, she thinks she's been writing romance novels all along.

She likes romance.

A lot.

Um, yeah.

[charlie_ego]

Yeah... I get that impression, that she likes romance a lot. And that's fine. But it was always "romance and politics and universe-smashing and psychological examinations and sociology and characters and rational exploration and worldbuilding," which meant I could ignore the romance parts that I didn't like.

SK is, well, just the romance and the worldbuilding and some characters, with everything else toned down a LOT, and it makes it a lot harder to ignore the romance. Plus which my definition of "romance" includes "some things, like personal honor, are more important than romance," and this book... didn't go that way.

[charlie_ego]

Argh, I just deleted the comment I was writing for this. That was smart. So sorry, this comment won't be as expansive as it might have been.

Fawn would actually feel as smart as Dag says she is.

Yeah, maybe it's because I was so firmly convinced Fawn was not so smart in Beguilement, but I was always taken a little aback when Dag was all, "Fawn's so smart and mature!" and I'd be, "Wait, this is the same girl who thought it would be a good idea to get knocked up by Sunny?"

I thought that SK was Bujold experimenting with non-book-larned characters, which I think is done well, though it's not really my thing, and with romance as the primary focus, which, I hope she stops very very soon. Chalion was her experimenting with high-fantasy-ish world and with theology, and because one of her strengths is careful craftmanship of these sorts of things, I thought her theology was really a resounding success.

[ase]

Argh, I just deleted the comment I was writing for this.

Oh, I love when that happens. For values of "love" that include frantic clickback attempts.

I was always taken a little aback when Dag was all, "Fawn's so smart and mature!" and I'd be, "Wait, this is the same girl who thought it would be a good idea to get knocked up by Sunny?"

In Fawn's defense, it seems to have been less "get knocked up by Sunny" and more "have sex with Sunny, with a poor understanding of the consequences". In other words, perfect recipe for bad teenage motherdom.

with romance as the primary focus, which, I hope she stops very very soon

You and I both. Romance is not so much my thing, unless something plotty is blowing up but good in the background.

I'm not enormously fond of the Chalion books, but I think that has a lot to do with my complete lack of religion. Unitarian religious ed does not a strong connection to faith - or organized religion - make. I liked The Hallowed Hunt because Horseriver is one of my favorite Bujold villains, thanks to his

[charlie_ego]

In Fawn's defense, it seems to have been less "get knocked up by Sunny" and more "have sex with Sunny, with a poor understanding of the consequences".Well, that's exactly it... I mean, the girl lives on a farm, right? Doesn't that automatically give one a fairly decent understanding of mating and consequences thereof

[ase]

Well, that's exactly it... I mean, the girl lives on a farm, right? Doesn't that automatically give one a fairly decent understanding of mating and consequences thereof?

It should. However, I'm assumpting that teenagers are universally stupid about sex, are perfectly willing to believe whatever their feckless peers tell them, and that she's - yes - not paying attention to details. I think what I'm trying to say here is that Fawn is that stupid, but has intellectual smarts. I am unimpressed with her street smarts to date.

I think the Chalion books might speak more strongly to people who have greater religious background than me. They read as adequate novels to me, but I don't feel a deep resonance. Does that make sense? One could write a novel about Cazaril's adventures as Iselle's Prime Minister (for lack of a better term) and ex-saint, but it would be a very different book, with a very different tone. I liked the sense of chance and inevitability in Curse: the long unwinding of how Caz got to be in a place to help break the curse

[almeda]

Reading this post, I just realized something: Fawn and Dag are some of her first non-extremely-mentally-messed-up-then-fixed characters (with a possible pass for Dag from widower trauma).

Fawn's too healthy to be a Bujold character, and it makes her head feel funny, to me.

I love Mark/Kareen because Mark is SO VERY BROKEN and yet he's doing his best to act like a Real Boy for Kareen. Ekaterin is getting glimpses of just how nuts (though functional) Miles is, and she's not running screaming. Cordelia is almost aggressively, thoughtfully sane, by *choice*, and she deals with great aplomb with the madness that is Barrayar, and with her family's particular madnesses.

And if anyone thinks any of the Chalion protagonists are 'normal', I'd like to hear about it. :->

[charlie_ego]

errmm. You have a bit of a point there. Though Aral is rather less messed-up mentally than Dag, I think. Also, he is not running after teenagers, which I approve of. (Aral, not Dag.)

Yeah, I think that was what drove me nuts about Fawn in Beguilement particularly-- she had not undergone anything but normal teenage angst, but I felt like we were being asked to treat that teenage angst with the same gravity that we treat LMB's totally-messed-up-character's angst. And that didn't work for me.

And if anyone thinks any of the Chalion protagonists are 'normal', I'd like to hear about it. :-> Iselle and what's-his-name are not particularly messed up internally (yeah, he did get kidnapped by pirates paid by his brother, but he seems to have bounced back all right, and he did seem to have a loving childhood), but externally they do have this curse thingie and all. On the other hand, they're not really protagonists. Beatriz seems pretty much perfectly normal, though going through some tough times as a teenager/young woman. (And I really want

[almeda]

I realized after hitting 'post' that I'd skipped Ethan and Elli, as viewpoint main-characters of Bujold books, but Elli's definitely a grownup, and Ethan gets tossed so far out of the water in his book that it keeps it interesting. Plus, by Galactic standards he's nuts, even if by Athosian standards he's completely well-adjusted and upstanding.