Cordelia's Honour

[danieldwilliam]

I have recently finished Cordelia’s Honour, an omnibus of two Lois McMaster Bujold science fiction books. The omnibus contains Shards of Honour and Barrayar. These are the first two “space ship books” as MLW calls them that I’ve read in a while that actually involve space ships. Galaxy spanning space opera ahoy. I enjoyed both books very much. Both books are part of the LMB Vorkosigan series but as a pair they stand alone. The books are about the relationship Cordelia Naismith, an explorer and scientist from a Greenish social democracy and Aral Vorkosigan, an aristocratic politician and soldier from a militaristic feudal monarchy. They follow this relationship from their first meeting through their marriage and the birth of their child. I’d forgotten how much I like space opera. I like the clever, clever socio-economic stuff that crops up in near future sci-fi like Accelerando but I will always love a good romp with hyper drives and ion canons. I’d like to see something that contains them both but I guess I’ll have to write that myself. I think these are chronologically the first books in the Vorkosigan series and Shards of Honour was the first that LMB wrote. I found the books arch and sexy and full of ripping adventure and very enjoyable. I think these are also the first sci-fi books that I’ve read that touch on rape and rape culture, which makes them interesting. Very grateful to star_tourmaline for giving them to me for my birthday. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of them in order. .