The Eight Worst Bujold Books

[jeriendhal]

I have come to praise, Bujold, not to bury her.Okay, almost every sci-fi fan loves Lois McMaster Bujold, but with a publishing history going back thirty years there's going to be some clunkers even in her bibliography. And I'll admit some of her books just didn't grab me. In publishing order, not order of annoyance, here are the ones that you'd

Comments

[siderea]

This list doesn't contain anything from The Sharing Knife saga. Is that because you disagree it[*] was terrible, or because you have blotted it out from your consciousness?

[* I can't speak to the latter two books; I made it through the first and a wee bit into the second (IIRC), and gave up.]

[jeriendhal]

Disagree. I actually like the first two books, and while the second two weren't quite as tightly written I find them quite re-readable. What was your problem with them?

[jeriendhal]

There are two thoughts on this, Published and Chronological order. Published starts with Shards of Honor (or the short story "Dreamkeeper's Dilemma" if you want to get picky). Chronological starts with Falling Free which is set two hundred years before Shards and has nothing to do with the Vorkosigan clan and is more of a classic Analog "Problems With New Technology" story.

Personally I'd skip to Barrayar, which is the direct sequel to Shards but published after Lois had several more books under her belt for experience. It's the second half of the collection Cordelia's Honor which gathers both books in one collection.

If you want to start with Miles' adventures, technically The Warrior's Apprentice is the first of his adult adventures, but I'd either begin at The Vor Game which is its sequel, or Borders of Infinity which is a collection of three novellas.

ORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR... if you're more interested in fantasy, Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls is a fine pair of novels in her Five Gods universe, and so is the novella "

[jeriendhal]

Yeah, I came into her fandom just after her fourth novel was published. At this point the archive dive into her works can be intimidating without some research, though she does work hard to make each book a standalone for new readers.