Bujold recs
Vorkosigan picks from Bujold Fests 2011 & 2012, Winterfair 2012 & Rarewomen 2013, plus a bonus Chalion rec from Yuletides Past.
Chalion series
A clear glass window, at a sea dawn, by Lionpyh
'It is a perpetual irritation to divines of the Bastard that it is not possible to blaspheme against him. He has already thought of all the rude things one might instruct him to do. He would cheerfully do them. He minces one's oaths before one has got to them. He reduces one to the depths of decency.' Luscious prose & deliciously detailed world-building characterise this satisfying Umegat-centric novelette. Lovely!
Vorkosigan series
Aletheia, by Elvaron
'Glass, Illyan thought, and his chip helpfully pulled up a list of fifty-six ways in which a glass building could be compromised using tools that you could obtain from your nearest D.I.Y. store.' Simon encounters another person with a memory chip. A beautifully characterised story with a well-drawn OC that feels like a missing prequel to Memory
Kindred Instruments, by Ollipop
'They know just as much about Lotus as she knows about herself. They know her aptitudes, her weaknesses. They have tweaked the neurochemical bath on her copies, for maximum effect. They are her, improved. She is them, unedited. She hates them.' A chilling piece that unpacks Lotus's defection to House Bharaputra, and broadens to explore the ethics of Jackson's Whole in a more nuanced fashion than canon
Playing Yenaro in Vorbarr Sultana, by Minutia R
'René was a pleasure to watch as well as to hear, length of arm and finger, movements of the wrist that seemed almost accidental, as if he were being moved by the current of the music instead of producing it.' An unusual & powerful vignette, which gives insight into both Cetagandan & Barrayaran cultures
Vorkosigan series/Narnian Chronicles fusion
Further Up and Further In, by Hedda62
'Britta's consciousness had hurtled through tunnels of fire, spread like a net of twanging sensory receptors across the stars, exploded in blue-green ecstasy of cinnamon and fireflies, heard symphonies played by gods.' This surprisingly successful fusion (no Vorkosigan canon knowledge required) assumes Betan survey ships that enter wormholes & never reappear end up in Narnia. The interaction of the incomers with Narnian history is fascinating, and Hedda uses a cast of OCs to provide interesting outsider perspectives
Crossposted from Dreamwidth (with
replies). Reply wherever you prefer
Chalion series
A clear glass window, at a sea dawn, by Lionpyh
'It is a perpetual irritation to divines of the Bastard that it is not possible to blaspheme against him. He has already thought of all the rude things one might instruct him to do. He would cheerfully do them. He minces one's oaths before one has got to them. He reduces one to the depths of decency.' Luscious prose & deliciously detailed world-building characterise this satisfying Umegat-centric novelette. Lovely!
Vorkosigan series
Aletheia, by Elvaron
'Glass, Illyan thought, and his chip helpfully pulled up a list of fifty-six ways in which a glass building could be compromised using tools that you could obtain from your nearest D.I.Y. store.' Simon encounters another person with a memory chip. A beautifully characterised story with a well-drawn OC that feels like a missing prequel to Memory
Kindred Instruments, by Ollipop
'They know just as much about Lotus as she knows about herself. They know her aptitudes, her weaknesses. They have tweaked the neurochemical bath on her copies, for maximum effect. They are her, improved. She is them, unedited. She hates them.' A chilling piece that unpacks Lotus's defection to House Bharaputra, and broadens to explore the ethics of Jackson's Whole in a more nuanced fashion than canon
Playing Yenaro in Vorbarr Sultana, by Minutia R
'René was a pleasure to watch as well as to hear, length of arm and finger, movements of the wrist that seemed almost accidental, as if he were being moved by the current of the music instead of producing it.' An unusual & powerful vignette, which gives insight into both Cetagandan & Barrayaran cultures
Vorkosigan series/Narnian Chronicles fusion
Further Up and Further In, by Hedda62
'Britta's consciousness had hurtled through tunnels of fire, spread like a net of twanging sensory receptors across the stars, exploded in blue-green ecstasy of cinnamon and fireflies, heard symphonies played by gods.' This surprisingly successful fusion (no Vorkosigan canon knowledge required) assumes Betan survey ships that enter wormholes & never reappear end up in Narnia. The interaction of the incomers with Narnian history is fascinating, and Hedda uses a cast of OCs to provide interesting outsider perspectives
Crossposted from Dreamwidth (with
replies). Reply wherever you prefer