Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Cryoburn
The latest Miles Vorkosigan book, Cryoburn, is out. I have it on order from Amazon, but it hasn't arrived yet, so I read the first hundred pages at Borders.
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"It looked coherent to me..."
Chris DeBoe, a.k.a. Laserlight
on government, religion, books, games, and life in Virginia Beach
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12 comments:
Are the Miles' stories any good? I haven't actually read any.
I will, temporarily, assume that you haven't read it only because you're in the Great White North, squatting in a cave, gnawing raw marmoset and trying to avoid the polar bears. Even if you are, as it appears, an irredeemable Godless unlettered barbarian, you owe it to your family to strap on the snowshoes, hike to civilization and bring back some Vorkosigan books. There's no reason your kids should grow up as deprived as you were.
Start off with The Warrior's Apprentice, which is #2 on my Must Read list.
"an irredeemable Godless unlettered barbarian" - Hey, you've met Derek!
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Now, let's talk about Vorkosigan. I enjoyed the first book or two in this series, but then the publisher burned me and I've never really forgiven them since. I've made several attempts at considering forgiveness, but I always end up back in the same spot.
They did the same thing Drake's publisher did...
Part way through the series, they started re-releasing old stuff with new covers and/or names. I immediately rebought some material accidentally and then lost track of the timeline of the story sufficiently that attempts to re-engage have left me with only one sentiment 'meh'.
The first couple of books I read were pretty interesting, but even then, I thought the characters reminded me of some of Heinlein's worst; They seemed capable of pulling things together in ways that were rather fantastic for my taste.
Maybe part of it is my dislike for 90% of the epics out there, and approximately 110% of the high fantasy, but I get rather tired of protagonists who can rally together from untenable situations in unlikely fashions.
I found the first books enjoyable, but I rather categorize them as fluff. Hence another reason my desire to re-engage with the series has been low enough to have been thwarted by story-packaging antics of the publisher.
So, you may have it on your most read list. I have it on my 'it would beat a thermodynamics textbook if I were stranded on a desert island list'.
Note, before responding about what questionable tastes (genes, whatever I have) the following facts: 1) I do not suggest that my taste should apply to anyone else and 2) Bugbear's perverse nature will require that if I pan it, he read it and probably like it so that he can locate sufficient material to fabricate an argument where he may assume a contrary position to mine own.
I'm actually forcing Bugbear into a moment of cognitive dissonance where his brain will resolve the dissonance by forcing him to like the book for no other reason than that I have eschewed it....
So, you're saying that if one likes Heinlein, and one can read the back cover where it says "This was previously published as PreviousBook1 and PreviousBook2", then one will probably like Bujold? Seems fair enough.
I have no complaint with Baen keeping stuff in print by putting two or three books in one set of covers.
Your gripe with the publisher is foolish and largely your own fault and I shall leave it at that.
Regarding your complaints of "They seemed capable of pulling things together in ways that were rather fantastic for my taste." and "I get rather tired of protagonists who can rally together from untenable situations in unlikely fashions"
That's why they're the protagonist. A book about Joe Goon the space station security officer sitting around drinking coffee and checking the vid-feeds is boring. A story about Joe Protagonist the space station security officer who sits around drinking coffee until he notices someone acting suspicious or aliens sneaking through the air ducts or whatever is headed in the right direction.
If you don't get this I don't now why you're reading fiction.
In fact, Cryoburn has this exact problem. Spends too much time on the kid and Roic and other not-Miles characters. Also, needed some more action. Seemed like a poor man's follow up to Diplomatic Immunity.
Which isn't to say it was bad, a Vorkosigan book is still better than anything else on the market I can think of.
That may, in fact, be the case. But the habit of doing this under different names, with repackaging, and with sometimes subtle indicators (I'm pretty sure the version I have of the Vorkosigan book didn't have any such thing on the cover) is off-putting.
If I see a book with a new title, I sort of expect it to be a new book. Sure, obviously they can repackage whatever they like to try to wring a few more $$$ out of the fan base, but ultimately, it has turned me off at least two series.
Call that unfair, I'm a consumer. That's how I roll.
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I suppose if you liked Heinlien's worst examples (super people), then you may well enjoy Vorkosigan. You'd probably enjoy Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison for much the same reason.
I just find these stories lack much in the way of a real feeling that they'll be solved by any sort of internal fortitude, moral courage, etc. becuase the protagonists will just pull something out of their hat.
Weber has fallen into the same trap and he doesn't even redeem himsself as he did in prior days by arbitrarily killing enough of them off to at least convey some sense of hazard.
YMMV.
This reminds me of the joke about the two drunk guys taking a piss off of a bridge late at night;
Drunk guy #1: " damn, that water sure is cold"
Drunk guy #2: "... and deep"
lol
Given what you've said, I don't think you've read any Vorkosigan books. The prequels involving his parents are clearly driven by moral decisions by the characters, Warrior's Apprentice has his friend and bodyguard die because of a choice he made, he has big moral issues with actions taken by a subordinate on his behalf, Miles and company are on the edge of defeat and only win because Miles is too stubborn to quit, etc. If you're complaining about things like "Suddenly Tung goes over to Miles' side" well, things like that happen in real life as well. And the seeds of that change were planted well in advance and come from the characters and not writer fiat. Obviously she can't kill Miles off because he's the protagonist, but lots of people around him are hurt or killed and often as a result of choices he made. Thus I am forced to the conclusion that you either haven't read the books or really suck as a critical reader.
*pops popcorn, sits back to watch*
Ooooooooooooo, I hope its one of those long, drawn out, 'intellectual' fights your friends tend to have. I love all them big words and stuff.
::goosebumps::
Not likely.
I simply stated my opinion. Therefore it requires no defence; it may be ill-informed (or not, that's for individuals to judge).
Whenver it comes to fights on the Internet, or arguments with Bugbears or anyone else, I recall the old adage:
Such things are like wrestling with a pig. You'll both get dirty and the pig likes it.
I may well suck as a critical reader (whatever that would be exactly, since I have never aspired to be any sort of critical analyst). Ultimately, I had my experience of the books and that's all I can go by.
The Anonymous you're debating isn't a Bugbear.
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