my tl;dr thoughts on the Vorkosigan Saga and the upcoming book
Everyone is so excited about the new Vorkosigan book, and I feel like I am the only one who is worried.
Bujold used to be my very favorite author; nowadays I cringe when I hear a new book of hers is out, because the last several were so heartbreakingly disappointing. I wanted to love them! I want to love everything she ever writes! But she used to write great books, and now…
(Structural/thematic spoilers for Diplomatic Immunity, Cryoburn, and Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance follow. If critical comments about these books would harsh anyone's squee, feel free to skip! The fact that I am sad about the state of the Vorkosigan saga does not mean I want to rain on other peoples' parades.)
Diplomatic Immunity was half of a great book. It needed the Ekaterin POV (which Lois even admitted that it could have used, but she didn’t want to rewrite the book; that’s her prerogative, but it would have been a much better book, and I suspect Baen would have been willing to extend deadlines for Lois McMaster Bujold), and without that alternate POV, the climax of the book happens offscreen. That’s a really serious structural flaw.
Cryoburn should not have been Miles’s book. It was an interesting world, but Miles was a tourist there, and had no stake in its struggles. Either it needed a protagonist who was actually invested in the future of Kibou-daini, like one of the Satos (Lisa Sato, we hardly knew you!), or Miles needed to show some serious personal development, which he didn’t. He didn’t have to learn to operate as head of an Auditorial team, which was hinted at in previous books and I was really excited to see; he went solo even when that made no sense. (Where’s Tuomonen from Komarr? Where’s the whole staff he was planning to assemble?)
He wasn’t operating as a team in his marriage to Ekaterin, which was frankly horrifying in the brief glimpse we got; he seems to have dumped both child-raising and District oversight on her so that he could gad about the universe pretending to be 15 years younger and not taking backup with him. This is character regression, not character growth.
Also, Cryoburn had no female characters who got to do anything except the little girl, who I think carried one important message(?). I can easily think of half a dozen ways to change that and get some women in there - either Bujold couldn’t, or didn’t bother. I expected so much better from her.
The entire emotional weight of Cryoburn rested on the last 500 words. They were a great 500 words, but they highlighted how little Miles (or I) cared about the entire rest of the novel.
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance… almost had character development for Ivan. Almost. There was setup for Ivan having to make difficult choices and have to sacrifice some part of his identity or betray one loyalty to serve another… and then the book backed off, and everything was fine, and Ivan didn’t actually have to make any hard choices at all. The universe arranged itself so he got everything he wanted without having to give anything up. Same for Tej, who could have been a fascinating character if Bujold had been willing to push her instead of letting her coast.
Overall, there has been a pattern of Lois Bujold backing away from her old plot generator: “What’s the worst thing I can do to this character?” She doesn’t seem to want to make her characters face any real trials anymore. They don’t struggle, they don’t have to make choices that matter, and they don’t grow.
I’m not thrilled that she’s writing a Cordelia book. I’m terrified that she’s writing a bad Cordelia book.
(Also I expect that whatever she’s done with Jole will be a lot less interesting than Dira’s fanfic version. Arkady Jole forever!)
This entry was originally posted at http://kiezh.dreamwidth.org/8857.html. There are
comments there.
Bujold used to be my very favorite author; nowadays I cringe when I hear a new book of hers is out, because the last several were so heartbreakingly disappointing. I wanted to love them! I want to love everything she ever writes! But she used to write great books, and now…
(Structural/thematic spoilers for Diplomatic Immunity, Cryoburn, and Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance follow. If critical comments about these books would harsh anyone's squee, feel free to skip! The fact that I am sad about the state of the Vorkosigan saga does not mean I want to rain on other peoples' parades.)
Diplomatic Immunity was half of a great book. It needed the Ekaterin POV (which Lois even admitted that it could have used, but she didn’t want to rewrite the book; that’s her prerogative, but it would have been a much better book, and I suspect Baen would have been willing to extend deadlines for Lois McMaster Bujold), and without that alternate POV, the climax of the book happens offscreen. That’s a really serious structural flaw.
Cryoburn should not have been Miles’s book. It was an interesting world, but Miles was a tourist there, and had no stake in its struggles. Either it needed a protagonist who was actually invested in the future of Kibou-daini, like one of the Satos (Lisa Sato, we hardly knew you!), or Miles needed to show some serious personal development, which he didn’t. He didn’t have to learn to operate as head of an Auditorial team, which was hinted at in previous books and I was really excited to see; he went solo even when that made no sense. (Where’s Tuomonen from Komarr? Where’s the whole staff he was planning to assemble?)
He wasn’t operating as a team in his marriage to Ekaterin, which was frankly horrifying in the brief glimpse we got; he seems to have dumped both child-raising and District oversight on her so that he could gad about the universe pretending to be 15 years younger and not taking backup with him. This is character regression, not character growth.
Also, Cryoburn had no female characters who got to do anything except the little girl, who I think carried one important message(?). I can easily think of half a dozen ways to change that and get some women in there - either Bujold couldn’t, or didn’t bother. I expected so much better from her.
The entire emotional weight of Cryoburn rested on the last 500 words. They were a great 500 words, but they highlighted how little Miles (or I) cared about the entire rest of the novel.
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance… almost had character development for Ivan. Almost. There was setup for Ivan having to make difficult choices and have to sacrifice some part of his identity or betray one loyalty to serve another… and then the book backed off, and everything was fine, and Ivan didn’t actually have to make any hard choices at all. The universe arranged itself so he got everything he wanted without having to give anything up. Same for Tej, who could have been a fascinating character if Bujold had been willing to push her instead of letting her coast.
Overall, there has been a pattern of Lois Bujold backing away from her old plot generator: “What’s the worst thing I can do to this character?” She doesn’t seem to want to make her characters face any real trials anymore. They don’t struggle, they don’t have to make choices that matter, and they don’t grow.
I’m not thrilled that she’s writing a Cordelia book. I’m terrified that she’s writing a bad Cordelia book.
(Also I expect that whatever she’s done with Jole will be a lot less interesting than Dira’s fanfic version. Arkady Jole forever!)
This entry was originally posted at http://kiezh.dreamwidth.org/8857.html. There are
comments there.