Reading Wednesday meme

[firecat]

What are you currently reading?

Ebook on my iPad: Still picking my way through Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold. It's unusual for me to pick my way through a Vorkosigan novel instead of gobbling it. Before starting this book I didn't much care for Captain Vorpatril. I like him a little better now, but not a lot better

Comments

[xiphias]

The useful thing about Captain Vorpatril's Alliance is that there really aren't that many more adventure stories to tell about any of the other characters. Miles and Mark are grownups who have figured out responsible ways to deal with their problems -- one thing that Cryoburn made clear was that stories where Miles goes off and does Miles-ing really are kind of lame once he's Lord Auditor Miles, and ESPECIALLY now that he's Lord Auditor Count Vorkosigan

[submarine_bells]

I dunno. Wasn't it Bujold who once memorably said that the way she writes stories is to figure out what the worst thing possible is that she could do to her characters, and then explore how they cope with that? I don't see that happening in the most recent books. They're enjoyable romps, certainly; but I can see plenty of scope for "bad things" to happen to mature, settled characters as well as young unsettled ones. I personally suspect that she's gotten so fond of her characters that she just can't bear to put them through the really tough stuff any more. And that's how we get books like Cryoburn and CVA - enjoyable as they are to read, there's not a lot of real depth or darkness to them that can compare to the best of some of her older books in that series (such as Mirror Dance, Memory and the like).

[firecat]

I kind of prefer the romps, but mainly the ones with more of Miles, I guess.

I think there's room for adventure stories with the other characters, or new characters.

[hitchhiker]

i enjoyed captain vorpatril's alliance! i did find myself kind of slogging through the second and third chalion books, though, which was a bit of a surprise because i devoured the first one.

[firecat]

Yeah, I felt the same about the Chalion books, and I hated the first Sharing Knife book so I didn't keep reading that series.

[semperfiona]

The Susan Matthews books...I read several in the series, and had bought the rest, but I had to give them all away. It's not that they aren't good, they are, but I couldn't handle the headspace they put me in.

[firecat]

Well I must have gotten your copy then :)