Shards of Honor
When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, she is taken prisoner by Aral Vorkosigan, commander of the Barrayan ship that has been taken over by an ambitious and ruthless crew member. Aral and Cordelia survive countless mishaps while their mutual admiration and even stronger feelings emerge.
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2recommend
9mentions
4people
2014–2026years
22% recommend78% neutral
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- Not forgotten, but not well known either, Lois McMaster Bujold's science fiction series, the Vorkosigan Saga is one of the best reads I ever found.
The first couple of books, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, are a superb mixture of futuristic technology, society, and humanity. The protagonist, Cordelia deals with a number of situations that would bring the best of us to our knees, with strength and compassion.
Unlike most "aseptic" or cold SciFi out there, including Star Trek, these works put the human element up front. I cannot recommend them highly enough. The rest of the saga follows different characters and is worthy in itself (I'm especially fond of Falling Free and a couple of the later books) but the first two books shine in my opinion.
She won several Nebula and Hugo awards, but she remains not well known. Several sci-fi friends of mine had never heard of her.
- She's a very sad individual. I feel sorry for her more than any sort of ire.
She cherry-picked right past Cordelia Naismith (later Vorkosigan) and her mother, both from "Beta Colony" where genders swap like day and night ("Shards of Honor," Vorkosigan Saga, Book One). You won't find any simpering females in any of Lois McMaster Bujold's novels unless they are a plot device there to serve as a victim and you won't run into gender discrimination from any primary characters (except for the old people ;-)).
- To quote something from a favorite fiction-series, where someone is visiting a relatively backwards planet:
> "Poor?" said Cordelia, bewildered. "No electricity? How can it be on the comm network?"
> "It's not, of course," answered Vorkosigan.
> "Then how can anybody get their schooling?"
> "They don't."
> Cordelia stared. "I don't understand. How do they get their jobs?"
> "A few escape to the Service. The rest prey on each other, mostly." Vorkosigan regarded her face uneasily. "Have you no poverty on Beta Colony?"
> "Poverty? Well, some people have more money than others, of course, but... no comconsoles?"
> Vorkosigan was diverted from his interrogation. "Is not owning a comconsole the lowest standard of living you can imagine?" he said in wonder.
> "It's the first article in the constitution. 'Access to information shall not be abridged.' "
-- Shards of Honor (1986) by Lois McMaster Bujold
- That reminds me of a sci-fi quote, where one of the main characters is discussing a murderous antagonist, putting their evil into a broader context:
> "He was just a little villain. An old-fashioned craftsman, making crimes one-off. The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present--they are real."
-- Shards of Honor (1986) by Lois McMaster Bujold
- For everybody else:
> "He was just a little villain. An old-fashioned craftsman, making crimes one-off. The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present--they are real."
-- Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
- To quote something from a favorite fiction-series, where someone has traveled to a relatively backwards planet:
> "Poor?" said Cordelia, bewildered. "No electricity? How can it be on the comm network?"
> "It's not, of course," answered Vorkosigan.
> "Then how can anybody get their schooling?"
> "They don't."
> Cordelia stared. "I don't understand. How do they get their jobs?"
> "A few escape to the Service. The rest prey on each other, mostly." Vorkosigan regarded her face uneasily. "Have you no poverty on Beta Colony?"
> "Poverty? Well, some people have more money than others, of course, but... no comconsoles?"
> Vorkosigan was diverted from his interrogation. "Is not owning a comconsole the lowest standard of living you can imagine?" he said in wonder.
> "It's the first article in the constitution. 'Access to information shall not be abridged.' "
-- Shards of Honor (1986) by Lois McMaster Bujold
In the 39 years since this was published, I would have hoped our real society would have advanced a bit more in that direction.
