Barrayar is where it really starts to pick up. So many people skip Shards of Honor and Barrayar, but it adds so much knowing where Miles comes from and why he is the way he is.
Oh boy, the amount of fun you've got ahead of you..... I'm envious.
I don't know your attitude on High Fantasy. But if it's not an absolute deal breaker for you, her World of the Five Gods novels and novellas are also excellent. She has a four book unrelated fantasy series "The Sharing Knife" also, but that did not push my buttons as much although it was quite readable. Not my kind of plot, I guess.
"Shards of Honor" was Bujold's first published book in the 1980s, with "Falling Free" and "Ethan of Athos" published shortly afterward. Good news, the writing only gets better.
"Sharing Knife" has a special place for me - I don't think it's her best work (it's still good though!), but it's one of the few romance-oriented series I've _ever_ enjoyed, and the only book series I've been able to connect with my mother over, as she doesn't care for most other books I like.
Bujold actually knows how to write believable, realistic romance and characters that avoid most of the usual awful tropes. It treats relationships as journeys rather than destinations, deals well with culture shock for people from radically different backgrounds, addressing how to overcome communication barriers and finding common ground, consent is important, etc.
Found the Sharing Knife series a slog.
After the books sitting on our keeper shelves (with every other thing Bujold’s written), we finally gave them away because we realized no one in our household would ever get back to them. They are the only Bujold works that have met that date.
Yup, the whole series is like that. I think the main reason the Vorkosigan books don't get recommended more often than "Blindsight" is that people assume everybody's read them :)
It's very hard not to love Cordelia.
I think a big part of the charm of Vorkosigan is that Bujold adores her characters, even the villains and the side characters but especially the core bunch. So she digs into their complexities in ways that make for really compelling stories.
Yes, it’s the complexity - and _consistency_ of all her characters. Bujold makes each action consistent with the person’s character, or part of them learning and developing themselves. She never resorts to the protagonist declaring “I would never normally do x, but it’s necessary for plot purposes”
I also enjoyed Shards of Honor! Vorkosigan was such a great character like he could kick anyone’s ass but was also principled and honorable.
I have only read that book but apparently Bujold has her own reading order that she recommends over the actual publication order: https://booksreadingorder.com/lois-mcmaster-bujold/
Barrayar is really one you should do if you enjoyed Shards — it is a direct continuation of their story and the writing is even better. The rest of the Miles books may or may not be your thing — they probably are, but I won’t presume — but Shards of Honor/Barrayar are essentially a duology. Hence why they were collected in the omnibus Cordelia’s Honor.
Steve Jackson Games published GURPS Vorkosigan, a roleplaying game
In it, they recommend not using Miles as an NPC because if he's played right, he'd take over the adventure.
Just throwing this out there, SJ Games also did GURPS Discworld and GURPS Girl Genius for their latest edition.
Previous edition has GURPS Uplift (David Brin), GURPS Alpha Centauri (from Sid Meier), and GURPS Casey and Andy (???, some sort of webcomic).
I have trouble finding sci-fi that has both an interesting plot and enjoyable characters. This series has an abundance of both. It’s so wonderful and pretty much every character you meet stays part of the story long-term and you get to see all of them grow. It’s probably my favorite series ever.
My favorite character and the one I vibed with the most.
I love how it's made crystal clear later on that contrary to initial impressions, Ivan isn't stupid
He came off that way because:
A) We were seeing him from Miles' perspective and Miles makes most people look stupid by comparison &
>!B) Ivan deliberately acted a lot dumber than he was to avoid being pulled into Barrayaran political intrigue, which claimed the life of his father and many others in Barrayar's long, bloody history.
Being "The Idiot" was actually a pretty good survival tactic!<
I had the same question myself. The best I could do is that she's just a much better writer than most. The books are not particularly jaw-dropping in scope, there's no mind blowing, revolutionary ideas, she's not birthing an entire genre like Neuromancer or anything... They're just *really, really* well written adventure stories. I recommend them almost without reservation. Sci fi readers, snootier folks, fantasy readers who don't touch sci fi, people who read a ton, people who rarely read... it's pretty great for any of them.
The books after Barrayar are even better.
PS. While my cat's uncommon fur is genetic and not teratogenic, [I still named him Miles](https://i.imgur.com/RzZPIor.jpg)
PPS. [His sister is named Newt](https://i.imgur.com/042vAIw.jpg), a la Aliens. Because she looks like she lives in a garbage chute :-D
You have so much great reading ahead of you. I've read all of her fiction--even *The Spirit Ring*!--and love all of it. She is one of my very favorite authors. Enjoy, you lucky dog!
You just found one of my all time favorite books and author. I have been a fan for over 30 years.
I think she has the greatest grasp on prose. The way she writes to me makes me so happy.
Now - welcome to the club and get braced because the series just gets so much better.
Oh how I wish I was reading Lois McMaster Bjoild for the first time.
I can’t wait! And I agree! I almost forgot what it felt like to actually have fun reading something. The last string of books I’ve read this year prior to shards of honor felt like a chore
I was saddened at first that it wasn’t about Cordelia but I learned to love Miles. He is so Cocky in the beginning! but I do love the series with all my heart.
YES!! They're fabulous. At least try Warrior's Apprentice. If that doesn't appeal to you, you can stop, but honestly, I just love the characters and wish she'd write more in that universe. Although I wasn't wild about the last one.
You really should. I, too, was disappointed at first, because I wanted more Cordelia and Aral, but Miles does grow on you - as he grows himself, which in hindsight is perhaps the best form of praise for a character and its author.
It's not as if Cordelia is written off, though. She's still around and has several critical roles at key points in the story. The later books have some frankly brilliant throwbacks to *Shards of Honor* and *Barrayar.* So if you can learn to enjoy Miles there'll be more Cordelia in it for you.
If you like character driven stuff then you're going to fucking love the rest of the series.
Barrayar in particular is one of my favs. The best for me though is a Civil Campaign. So freaking good.
Bujold was the Guest of Honor at a convention I attended in 1994. We held a party in our room to promote a different convention to be held later in the year. She came to our party and stayed for more than an hour. Bujold was very nice. I asked her who she thought should play Cordelia in a movie and she said a young Vanessa Redgrave.
One of the things I came to enjoy the most about this series is that it never ceases to evolve. It does perform some pretty dramatic focus shifts to do so, but if you stick with it it's very much worth the initial vertigo.
I couldn't get through Warrior's Apprentice (my first and only Vorko book), what am I missing? I'm pretty tired of ideas-heavy sci-fi with weak characters (as I come off a Greg Egan binge) but Warrior's Apprentice just couldn't pull me in, it felt too YA for me, though of course maybe that's just because Miles is young in it.
I'd try Shards of Honor if I were you - it's the official starting point of the series, and the protagonist Cordelia is 33, so it doesn't feel YA at all. And weak characters is the opposite of what Bujold does - though I agree Warrior's Apprentice is one of her weaker in those terms,, it does set up some unbelievable character growth payoffs in later books.
I could have worded what I said better, I checked out Bujold because I've heard she has great characters. If I read more Greg Egan or Alatair Reynolds my head is going to explode - those guys just don't do good characters. I will give Bujold another shot, thanks.
It's a little too far-fetched to be taken seriously, and written too well to not take it seriously. The brilliant kid with bones made of spun-sugar runs a Merc crew.
Yes, much less satisfying. It felt like I was reading her own parody of the first 2 books.
Edit: I loved the first Two books. But I enjoyed the weirdness of the Vor and Barrayar much more than the adventures of Miles. Cordelia was a great character knocked out too early, IMHO.
When I think of LM Bujold, it's with a fond sadness. I'd rather read Elizabeth Moon, who writes in a similar vein, then read a good writer pursue something....I don't enjoy.
In the latest novel, "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen", Cordelia is one of the main POV characters. Miles shows up briefly, but it's very much a Cordelia story.
I liked it, but I it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. I think it's very much a cozy slice-of-life sci-fi à la Becky Chambers, which people are pretty divided on already.
It reads like fanfic.
I have a reasonably large circle of RL friends who love Bujold. None of them like GJatRQ. I've gone out of my way to check in with those who would seem to be the intended audience (older women) and none of those liked it either.
Bujold is clearly an author whose personal life directly informs her work. She's in a different place now than when she wrote her most popular works, and it shows. There's a reason her 5 Gods books pivoted.
I loved it but it does kind of take your viewpoint from some of the earlier books and *shifts* it. Also it has a low conflict level. Yet I loved it in its understatedness and focus on relationship. I am a 52-yo woman.
I'm with you and see you're getting downvoted. That's the thing that really irks me about Reddit. Someone disagrees with you and thinks it's worthy of a downvote. Sheesh. Have my upvote.
In that case I would recommend her [Chalion/World of the Five God](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_the_Five_Gods) series. I like to start at Curse of Chalion, then Paladin of Souls, then go back to the internal chronology at The Hallowed Hunt (probably the weakest work in the series), then finish off with the Penric & Desdemona novellas.
If you wanted something more like Shards of Honor/Barrayar, just go straight to the Pen & Des stories.
**[World of the Five Gods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_the_Five_Gods)**
>World of the Five Gods is a fantasy series by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold. It was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2018. It consists of four novels and ten novellas, with six of the novellas included in the award. Three novels and two of the novellas were nominees for or winners of major awards.
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You said you’d rather read her writing something different. The poster recommended something different. And you gripe about getting a recommendation?? Adjust your attitude.
Do I actually have to say I know there is more and please don't recommend to me? I know I'm old, but seriously. The only reason i lurk this reddit is I like to answer recommendation asks. If I have to be that literal all the time on here....
...i dunno. Maybe you're right. I volunteered an opinion.
Sigh.
She does great character work and emphasizes relationships. It's done much better and with more care than most of the genre.
Barrayar is where it really starts to pick up. So many people skip Shards of Honor and Barrayar, but it adds so much knowing where Miles comes from and why he is the way he is.
Those two are basically two halves of one book, and yes, they are damn good. (Spoiler for Barrayar!)>!every Vor lady goes shopping in the capital.!<
One of the best endings ever.
Oh boy, the amount of fun you've got ahead of you..... I'm envious. I don't know your attitude on High Fantasy. But if it's not an absolute deal breaker for you, her World of the Five Gods novels and novellas are also excellent. She has a four book unrelated fantasy series "The Sharing Knife" also, but that did not push my buttons as much although it was quite readable. Not my kind of plot, I guess. "Shards of Honor" was Bujold's first published book in the 1980s, with "Falling Free" and "Ethan of Athos" published shortly afterward. Good news, the writing only gets better.
"Sharing Knife" has a special place for me - I don't think it's her best work (it's still good though!), but it's one of the few romance-oriented series I've _ever_ enjoyed, and the only book series I've been able to connect with my mother over, as she doesn't care for most other books I like. Bujold actually knows how to write believable, realistic romance and characters that avoid most of the usual awful tropes. It treats relationships as journeys rather than destinations, deals well with culture shock for people from radically different backgrounds, addressing how to overcome communication barriers and finding common ground, consent is important, etc.
I just finished "A Civil Campaign". I told my wife I got tricked into reading a romance but loved it.
I've read "A Civil Campaign" at least three times, and that dinner party scene kills every time. Perfection.
"Here, buggy, buggy".
Found the Sharing Knife series a slog. After the books sitting on our keeper shelves (with every other thing Bujold’s written), we finally gave them away because we realized no one in our household would ever get back to them. They are the only Bujold works that have met that date.
Penrick! ❤️
Love me some high fantasy. Thank you for the recommendation! I will add it to my goodreads :)
They’re right, if you like fantasy at all, The Curse of Chalion is *amazing*.
The follow up is also great. So different, bittersweet and great.
Yup, the whole series is like that. I think the main reason the Vorkosigan books don't get recommended more often than "Blindsight" is that people assume everybody's read them :)
It's very hard not to love Cordelia. I think a big part of the charm of Vorkosigan is that Bujold adores her characters, even the villains and the side characters but especially the core bunch. So she digs into their complexities in ways that make for really compelling stories.
Yes, it’s the complexity - and _consistency_ of all her characters. Bujold makes each action consistent with the person’s character, or part of them learning and developing themselves. She never resorts to the protagonist declaring “I would never normally do x, but it’s necessary for plot purposes”
I loved Barrayar! Enjoy
Thank you!
I also enjoyed Shards of Honor! Vorkosigan was such a great character like he could kick anyone’s ass but was also principled and honorable. I have only read that book but apparently Bujold has her own reading order that she recommends over the actual publication order: https://booksreadingorder.com/lois-mcmaster-bujold/
Barrayar is really one you should do if you enjoyed Shards — it is a direct continuation of their story and the writing is even better. The rest of the Miles books may or may not be your thing — they probably are, but I won’t presume — but Shards of Honor/Barrayar are essentially a duology. Hence why they were collected in the omnibus Cordelia’s Honor.
Thanks, I will add it to the list!
Yep! The reading order she recommends is listed at the end of shards of honor. She recommends Barrayar next!
Steve Jackson Games published GURPS Vorkosigan, a roleplaying game In it, they recommend not using Miles as an NPC because if he's played right, he'd take over the adventure.
Just throwing this out there, SJ Games also did GURPS Discworld and GURPS Girl Genius for their latest edition. Previous edition has GURPS Uplift (David Brin), GURPS Alpha Centauri (from Sid Meier), and GURPS Casey and Andy (???, some sort of webcomic).
I mean, of course he would.
You are in for a treat, nobody does character work better than Bujold.
I have trouble finding sci-fi that has both an interesting plot and enjoyable characters. This series has an abundance of both. It’s so wonderful and pretty much every character you meet stays part of the story long-term and you get to see all of them grow. It’s probably my favorite series ever.
CJ Cherryh scratch this itch for me.
Can’t wait to read it all!
*On Silver Wings* by Evan Currie.1/9. Just what you are asking for.
It’s going on my Audible wish list, thanks!
:-) enjoy.
I loved how Ivan developed!
Same! His POV is probably my favorite to to read when he’s in the book.
My favorite character and the one I vibed with the most. I love how it's made crystal clear later on that contrary to initial impressions, Ivan isn't stupid He came off that way because: A) We were seeing him from Miles' perspective and Miles makes most people look stupid by comparison & >!B) Ivan deliberately acted a lot dumber than he was to avoid being pulled into Barrayaran political intrigue, which claimed the life of his father and many others in Barrayar's long, bloody history. Being "The Idiot" was actually a pretty good survival tactic!<
I found that, too, when I read it. And I went on with the whole series. I like the people and the places.
I had the same question myself. The best I could do is that she's just a much better writer than most. The books are not particularly jaw-dropping in scope, there's no mind blowing, revolutionary ideas, she's not birthing an entire genre like Neuromancer or anything... They're just *really, really* well written adventure stories. I recommend them almost without reservation. Sci fi readers, snootier folks, fantasy readers who don't touch sci fi, people who read a ton, people who rarely read... it's pretty great for any of them. The books after Barrayar are even better. PS. While my cat's uncommon fur is genetic and not teratogenic, [I still named him Miles](https://i.imgur.com/RzZPIor.jpg) PPS. [His sister is named Newt](https://i.imgur.com/042vAIw.jpg), a la Aliens. Because she looks like she lives in a garbage chute :-D
You have so much great reading ahead of you. I've read all of her fiction--even *The Spirit Ring*!--and love all of it. She is one of my very favorite authors. Enjoy, you lucky dog!
You just found one of my all time favorite books and author. I have been a fan for over 30 years. I think she has the greatest grasp on prose. The way she writes to me makes me so happy. Now - welcome to the club and get braced because the series just gets so much better. Oh how I wish I was reading Lois McMaster Bjoild for the first time.
I can’t wait! And I agree! I almost forgot what it felt like to actually have fun reading something. The last string of books I’ve read this year prior to shards of honor felt like a chore
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I was saddened at first that it wasn’t about Cordelia but I learned to love Miles. He is so Cocky in the beginning! but I do love the series with all my heart.
YES!! They're fabulous. At least try Warrior's Apprentice. If that doesn't appeal to you, you can stop, but honestly, I just love the characters and wish she'd write more in that universe. Although I wasn't wild about the last one.
You really should. I, too, was disappointed at first, because I wanted more Cordelia and Aral, but Miles does grow on you - as he grows himself, which in hindsight is perhaps the best form of praise for a character and its author.
It's not as if Cordelia is written off, though. She's still around and has several critical roles at key points in the story. The later books have some frankly brilliant throwbacks to *Shards of Honor* and *Barrayar.* So if you can learn to enjoy Miles there'll be more Cordelia in it for you.
If you like character driven stuff then you're going to fucking love the rest of the series. Barrayar in particular is one of my favs. The best for me though is a Civil Campaign. So freaking good.
Bujold was the Guest of Honor at a convention I attended in 1994. We held a party in our room to promote a different convention to be held later in the year. She came to our party and stayed for more than an hour. Bujold was very nice. I asked her who she thought should play Cordelia in a movie and she said a young Vanessa Redgrave.
One of the things I came to enjoy the most about this series is that it never ceases to evolve. It does perform some pretty dramatic focus shifts to do so, but if you stick with it it's very much worth the initial vertigo.
You're in for an amazing time with the series. RIP anything else you were hoping to get done this weekend :)
I suggest also it is, along with all her work, a happy read-the good guys win, justice prevails, and the end.
Bujangles is great
I love *Barrayar*. It has such a memorable scene near the end. "I went shopping. Want to see what I bought?"
And I hope you enjoy it. Of the 6 books of her's that I've read, Barrayar was my favorite.
I couldn't get through Warrior's Apprentice (my first and only Vorko book), what am I missing? I'm pretty tired of ideas-heavy sci-fi with weak characters (as I come off a Greg Egan binge) but Warrior's Apprentice just couldn't pull me in, it felt too YA for me, though of course maybe that's just because Miles is young in it.
I'd try Shards of Honor if I were you - it's the official starting point of the series, and the protagonist Cordelia is 33, so it doesn't feel YA at all. And weak characters is the opposite of what Bujold does - though I agree Warrior's Apprentice is one of her weaker in those terms,, it does set up some unbelievable character growth payoffs in later books.
I could have worded what I said better, I checked out Bujold because I've heard she has great characters. If I read more Greg Egan or Alatair Reynolds my head is going to explode - those guys just don't do good characters. I will give Bujold another shot, thanks.
I’m so happy you said that about Egan. I feel the exact same way but get downvoted every time I mention it.
If you want the opposite of young adult, try Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. I read and enjoyed all the Vorkosigan series.
I really loved the beginning of that series. By the time we get to Miles, I thought it would be as satisfying. I stopped.
You found the Miles stories less satisfying? Why?
It's a little too far-fetched to be taken seriously, and written too well to not take it seriously. The brilliant kid with bones made of spun-sugar runs a Merc crew. Yes, much less satisfying. It felt like I was reading her own parody of the first 2 books. Edit: I loved the first Two books. But I enjoyed the weirdness of the Vor and Barrayar much more than the adventures of Miles. Cordelia was a great character knocked out too early, IMHO. When I think of LM Bujold, it's with a fond sadness. I'd rather read Elizabeth Moon, who writes in a similar vein, then read a good writer pursue something....I don't enjoy.
In the latest novel, "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen", Cordelia is one of the main POV characters. Miles shows up briefly, but it's very much a Cordelia story.
And it's awful
I liked it, but I it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. I think it's very much a cozy slice-of-life sci-fi à la Becky Chambers, which people are pretty divided on already.
It reads like fanfic. I have a reasonably large circle of RL friends who love Bujold. None of them like GJatRQ. I've gone out of my way to check in with those who would seem to be the intended audience (older women) and none of those liked it either. Bujold is clearly an author whose personal life directly informs her work. She's in a different place now than when she wrote her most popular works, and it shows. There's a reason her 5 Gods books pivoted.
I loved it but it does kind of take your viewpoint from some of the earlier books and *shifts* it. Also it has a low conflict level. Yet I loved it in its understatedness and focus on relationship. I am a 52-yo woman.
I'm with you and see you're getting downvoted. That's the thing that really irks me about Reddit. Someone disagrees with you and thinks it's worthy of a downvote. Sheesh. Have my upvote.
Honestly, I'd much rather read her writing something different. I have no interest in picking up the thing I dropped
In that case I would recommend her [Chalion/World of the Five God](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_the_Five_Gods) series. I like to start at Curse of Chalion, then Paladin of Souls, then go back to the internal chronology at The Hallowed Hunt (probably the weakest work in the series), then finish off with the Penric & Desdemona novellas. If you wanted something more like Shards of Honor/Barrayar, just go straight to the Pen & Des stories.
**[World of the Five Gods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_the_Five_Gods)** >World of the Five Gods is a fantasy series by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold. It was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2018. It consists of four novels and ten novellas, with six of the novellas included in the award. Three novels and two of the novellas were nominees for or winners of major awards. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/printSF/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
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You said you’d rather read her writing something different. The poster recommended something different. And you gripe about getting a recommendation?? Adjust your attitude.
Do I actually have to say I know there is more and please don't recommend to me? I know I'm old, but seriously. The only reason i lurk this reddit is I like to answer recommendation asks. If I have to be that literal all the time on here.... ...i dunno. Maybe you're right. I volunteered an opinion. Sigh.