Teaser

The months leading up to the birth of the legendary Miles Vorkosigan were anything but peaceful, for his pregnant moth found herself at the heart of a political, and personal, crisis . . .

Review

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series is basically unheard of here in the UK. I’ve never seen a new copy in the shops, and it was only this year that I encountered a used copy floating around. The same is true of many series, for the UK and US have markedly different publishing trends in spite of a shared language. What sets Bujold apart is just how well regarded her works are across the pond. Three of her novels, including Barrayar, have won the Hugo for best novel, and the series as a whole won the Best Series award in 2017, beating out The Expanse among others. This kind of reception speaks of two things: An underlying quality, and an overwhelming popularity. How could I possibly resist?

The reading order for the Vorkosigan saga is a little confused. The publication and chronological orders do not match up at all, with Barrayar being the seventh published, but the second chronologically. Most people will argue that publication order is the best way to go for any given series, and that argument makes a lot of sense. I have a personal preference for reading chronologically. In the case of Vorkosigan, the novel Shards of Honor comes first in either order. However, Barrayar is the only one I’ve found in the wild, so I have little choice of where to start.

Barrayar is a fairly typical space opera. There are epic battles, galactic empires, royal families, forbidden romances, and more weird technology than you can shake a blaster at. The book follows Cordelia (soon to be mother of Miles Vorkosigan) as she adapts to life on a new world, and when she inevitably runs into a coup and other troubles. readers familiar with David Weber’s Honor Harrington will find a lot to enjoy here, albeit with a focus on the political and social side of things rather than being straight military fiction. Obviuously the book is now three decades old, and that has to be considered, but I’m surprised at how little novelty there is here. Everything in Barrayar is something I’ve seen before. That’s not a bad thing. I love space opera, but there’s not enough here to keep me interested.

Given the awards and the fanbase, I had expected a lot more from Barrayar. Historically, the Hugo Awards have gone to books that offered something new or innovative, a book that offered a new idea or a new way of thinking about something. Pure space operas rarely trouble the top spots. I think what Barrayar does differently is its protagonist. There are no dark and brooding heroes, no square-jawed protagonists. Instead there’s a pregnant woman. The book centres traditionally feminine issues such as motherhood, love, pregnancy, and marriage. These are all old ideas, but putting them front and centre of a space opera was innovative in 1991. This, I think, is how Barrayar marched to victory in the Hugos.

It’s also the reason the book leaves me cold. These are all important issues, I don’t deny that, but they’re issues I’m not particularly interested in reading about. I read for intellectual stimulation, not for emotional investment. This is a book that demands emotional investment. The clash is unavoidable. The simple fact of the matter is that I don’t care about of the people in this book. Not because of Bujold’s writing, but because of my reading.

Barrayar is another Hugo winner ticked off my list, but I won’t be adding the rest of Bujold’s work to my wishlist. Life is too short to read books that don’t interest me.

Book Stats

• The Vorkosigan Saga (#7)
• Published in 1991 by Baen
• 386 Pages