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jaceyThe management apologises for this breakdown in sanity. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
I manged to completely ignore NaNoWriMo and the real world yesterday because... well... I was going to do some real day-job work but I made a Big Mistake. I started to read the Miles in Love Omnibus by Lois McMaster Bujold. It's the one with Komarr, A Civil Affair and Winterfair Gifts. (The latter a novella). I had only intended to read Komarr, but I finished it at four in the morning and couldn't stop - I galloped straight on to Civil Affair. Finished that at two the next morning (having done no bloody work to speak of all day) and if that wasn't stupid enough I immediately turned the page to Winterfair Gifts, getting halfway thrugh before I couldn't keep my eyes open another minute, whereupon I staggered to bed at five a.m. so tird I was bouncing off walls.
The good news is that Winterfair Gifts is a novella and I should be able to finish it SOON - like tonight. After that I've only got one more Miles Vorkosigan omnibus to read - Miles, Mutants and Microbes - and there's really only one proper full length Miles book within that: Diplomatic Immunity. What am I going to do when there's no more Miles to read? Am I going to have to go back and start from the beginning?
Yes I probably am because what I have to do is figure out how Bujold keeps me reading past the point of exhaustion and commonsense. (That's enough, Go to bed. No just one more chapter. Just one more page. Just one more paragraph...) It's a real neat trick if you can do it. So HOW does she do it?
She's not afraid to take her time and throw in long passages (a page or more at a time) about the society and the way it works that I'd be scared to leave in lest I be accused of infodumping.The Vor and Vor traditions take centre stage as a character or as a plot bunny more than once.
She gives her characters very human failings as well as redeeming features. Sometimes she makes it seem as if their failings are their redeeming features. No one really likes Miles, (not even his mother I suspect), he's bloody exhausting and infuriating to be around, yet they all love him and admire him while being shit-scared of what he'll do next. That's a fascinating contradiction but it's not just Miles. All her characters are important, Drou and Kou; the toothsome Sergeant Taura; Bothari, Gregor, as well as Aral and Cordelia and 'Ivan You Idiot' who actually saves the day more than once. Her characters have painfully real emotions. Most of the time Miles seems to run on an adrenaline-fuelled mixture of stark determination; ambition; optimism, shame, flashes of brilliance; sick fear, hopeless love, patriotism and manic energy. She's also great with descriptions such as the little giveaway twitch of the mouth or the brief flash or [some emotion] in the eyes.
But... she does some things which I would have thought were risky - for instance when the resolution of the action happens without Miles. (Ivan being the action-hero in 'A Civil Affair' though Miles gets to do the 'courtroom drama' smack-down, and of course, in that one, he gets the girl - at last.)
I take my hat off to you Ms Bujold.
I realise that I've come late to Miles Vorkosigan and that most of you are sitting there nodding and saying 'We knew that!' Better late than never, though. The omnibus editions are great except... Miles in Love is a trade paperback that's almost too heavy for its own binding. Reading it in bed is well night impossible because it won't stand up for itself unless you clutch it firmly in two hands and support its weight on the end of the spine somehow. Sheesh.
I manged to completely ignore NaNoWriMo and the real world yesterday because... well... I was going to do some real day-job work but I made a Big Mistake. I started to read the Miles in Love Omnibus by Lois McMaster Bujold. It's the one with Komarr, A Civil Affair and Winterfair Gifts. (The latter a novella). I had only intended to read Komarr, but I finished it at four in the morning and couldn't stop - I galloped straight on to Civil Affair. Finished that at two the next morning (having done no bloody work to speak of all day) and if that wasn't stupid enough I immediately turned the page to Winterfair Gifts, getting halfway thrugh before I couldn't keep my eyes open another minute, whereupon I staggered to bed at five a.m. so tird I was bouncing off walls.
The good news is that Winterfair Gifts is a novella and I should be able to finish it SOON - like tonight. After that I've only got one more Miles Vorkosigan omnibus to read - Miles, Mutants and Microbes - and there's really only one proper full length Miles book within that: Diplomatic Immunity. What am I going to do when there's no more Miles to read? Am I going to have to go back and start from the beginning?
Yes I probably am because what I have to do is figure out how Bujold keeps me reading past the point of exhaustion and commonsense. (That's enough, Go to bed. No just one more chapter. Just one more page. Just one more paragraph...) It's a real neat trick if you can do it. So HOW does she do it?
She's not afraid to take her time and throw in long passages (a page or more at a time) about the society and the way it works that I'd be scared to leave in lest I be accused of infodumping.The Vor and Vor traditions take centre stage as a character or as a plot bunny more than once.
She gives her characters very human failings as well as redeeming features. Sometimes she makes it seem as if their failings are their redeeming features. No one really likes Miles, (not even his mother I suspect), he's bloody exhausting and infuriating to be around, yet they all love him and admire him while being shit-scared of what he'll do next. That's a fascinating contradiction but it's not just Miles. All her characters are important, Drou and Kou; the toothsome Sergeant Taura; Bothari, Gregor, as well as Aral and Cordelia and 'Ivan You Idiot' who actually saves the day more than once. Her characters have painfully real emotions. Most of the time Miles seems to run on an adrenaline-fuelled mixture of stark determination; ambition; optimism, shame, flashes of brilliance; sick fear, hopeless love, patriotism and manic energy. She's also great with descriptions such as the little giveaway twitch of the mouth or the brief flash or [some emotion] in the eyes.
But... she does some things which I would have thought were risky - for instance when the resolution of the action happens without Miles. (Ivan being the action-hero in 'A Civil Affair' though Miles gets to do the 'courtroom drama' smack-down, and of course, in that one, he gets the girl - at last.)
I take my hat off to you Ms Bujold.
I realise that I've come late to Miles Vorkosigan and that most of you are sitting there nodding and saying 'We knew that!' Better late than never, though. The omnibus editions are great except... Miles in Love is a trade paperback that's almost too heavy for its own binding. Reading it in bed is well night impossible because it won't stand up for itself unless you clutch it firmly in two hands and support its weight on the end of the spine somehow. Sheesh.
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no subject
Date: Nov. 7th, 2008 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 8th, 2008 02:35 am (UTC)But since I fell in love with Caz on page one and he remains my favourite fictional hero of all time, I figured I'd give her a chance. I'm a habitual chronological order person so I started at the beginning (excluding the non-Vorkosigan standalones). I was a bit underwhelmed with Shards of Honour, though I'd like to read it again now that I know how all the characters turn out, but the characters started to build and I liked Barrayar well enough. That little glimpse of infant Miles at the end of it (the one with Grandfather Piotr) was enough to make me order the Young Miles omnibus and - that was it. Hooked. From the moment Miles breaks his legs on the obstacle course though being stupidly pig-headed I just loved him for _trying_.
no subject
Date: Nov. 8th, 2008 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 8th, 2008 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 8th, 2008 05:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 8th, 2008 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 7th, 2008 09:43 pm (UTC)Aral and Cordelia continue to be written as a couple. They have their problems and they cope with them, and their steadfast affection and understanding of one another is one of the things that makes me keep reading and re-reading Bujold.
no subject
Date: Nov. 8th, 2008 02:48 am (UTC)I was desperately anxious when Aral had his heart thing. I thought Bujold was going to kill him off. So glad she didn't.
I only have one more to read - and from the blurb Aral doesn't really feature. Don't tell me if she kills him off...