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april_does_feral_sometimes's review against another edition
4.0
'Shards of Honor' is the first novel in the Vorkosigan series. At this point some of the starring characters in the following books in the series, especially future main character Miles Vorkosigan, are but a glimmer in this introduction to Bujold's and Mile's science-fiction universe.
Barrayaran Captain Aral Vorkosigan, from an aristocratic warrior planet, and the Betan Commander Cordelia Naismith, from a progressive scientific world, begin the saga with a Romeo/Juliet pairing. It is clear such a couple are fated to have interesting adventures, as most certainly will anybody connected with them!
As the novel begins, the two main protagonists are about to meet cute. Sort of. Barrayaran politics being what they are - vicious and murderous - the two seasoned commanders meet fighting on opposite sides in the middle of a war AND a mutiny.
The Barrayaran Emperor Ezar Vorbarra is dying, but he inexplicably decides to begin a number of hostile military activities. He sends out various military troops to different planets, including to the nameless one the Betan Astronomical Survey is exploring.
Cordelia is leading the survey expedition to the newly discovered planet. Her team consists of all scientists and non-combatants. Cordelia is an Astrocartographer as well as the commander. They innocently explore the verdant world, full of excitement at being the first sentients to land there. Pleasantly tired from collecting plant samples in the forest, she and her botanist Ensign Dubauer are horrified to discover the base camp has been slagged. The rest of her team was there!
Captain Vorkosigan is not only a really great leader, his family is close to Emperor Ezar Vorbarra. A group of jealous Barrayaran warriors hate Captain Vorkosigan for his honorable family and connections but they have been assigned under his command. So when Vorkosigan is ordered to the planet to intern Cordelia's expedition for violation of Barrayaran space, the dissident soldiers go rogue and attack Vorkosigan. He gets away for the moment, and while escaping, he captures Cordelia. Although they are enemies, unless they decide to work together neither of them might survive. This becomes the pattern for the rest of the book. Cordelia and Vorkosigan continuously need to work together while working against each other.
Gentle reader, their frenemy dance of attraction and strategy is fraught and fun! I enjoyed the book very much. The plot is intricate and suspenseful. However, since politics shares star billing with the war the Barrayaran emperor ultimately wages against the planet Escobar in order to apparently shut down their wormhole, an important trade route for the Betans, I think some readers will find the story less of a military adventure or love story than they expected. The book is written in the style popular among writers with a 1970's/1980’s baby boomer audience, so it is complex and it has more dialogue than to which younger 21st-century science fiction readers are accustomed. Just saying.
Barrayaran Captain Aral Vorkosigan, from an aristocratic warrior planet, and the Betan Commander Cordelia Naismith, from a progressive scientific world, begin the saga with a Romeo/Juliet pairing. It is clear such a couple are fated to have interesting adventures, as most certainly will anybody connected with them!
As the novel begins, the two main protagonists are about to meet cute. Sort of. Barrayaran politics being what they are - vicious and murderous - the two seasoned commanders meet fighting on opposite sides in the middle of a war AND a mutiny.
The Barrayaran Emperor Ezar Vorbarra is dying, but he inexplicably decides to begin a number of hostile military activities. He sends out various military troops to different planets, including to the nameless one the Betan Astronomical Survey is exploring.
Cordelia is leading the survey expedition to the newly discovered planet. Her team consists of all scientists and non-combatants. Cordelia is an Astrocartographer as well as the commander. They innocently explore the verdant world, full of excitement at being the first sentients to land there. Pleasantly tired from collecting plant samples in the forest, she and her botanist Ensign Dubauer are horrified to discover the base camp has been slagged. The rest of her team was there!
Captain Vorkosigan is not only a really great leader, his family is close to Emperor Ezar Vorbarra. A group of jealous Barrayaran warriors hate Captain Vorkosigan for his honorable family and connections but they have been assigned under his command. So when Vorkosigan is ordered to the planet to intern Cordelia's expedition for violation of Barrayaran space, the dissident soldiers go rogue and attack Vorkosigan. He gets away for the moment, and while escaping, he captures Cordelia. Although they are enemies, unless they decide to work together neither of them might survive. This becomes the pattern for the rest of the book. Cordelia and Vorkosigan continuously need to work together while working against each other.
Gentle reader, their frenemy dance of attraction and strategy is fraught and fun! I enjoyed the book very much. The plot is intricate and suspenseful. However, since politics shares star billing with the war the Barrayaran emperor ultimately wages against the planet Escobar in order to apparently shut down their wormhole, an important trade route for the Betans, I think some readers will find the story less of a military adventure or love story than they expected. The book is written in the style popular among writers with a 1970's/1980’s baby boomer audience, so it is complex and it has more dialogue than to which younger 21st-century science fiction readers are accustomed. Just saying.
danielles_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Wow, I am honestly flabbergasted by what this book turned out to be. All I'd ever heard of the Vorkosigan saga is how amazing and fun it is, so while I figured going into it that it might be slightly outdated, I had never expected it to be this terrible. The entire romance is instalove and SO MUCH of the plot is driven by sexual assault! WHAT!
I was having fun in the beginning though, with Cordelia stranded on a planet that her team was doing a scientific survey of. I knew her relationship with Vorkosigan would turn into a romance eventually, but their interactions in the beginning were casual and fun. I liked seeing them explore and meet more creatures on the planet, like the vampire balloons?! It felt like an episode of Star Trek, with the away team crew.
My interest started going downhill when Vorkosigan proposed marriage in the most abrupt and unromantic way possible SO EARLY into the book! Cordelia's response actually made sense (mostly confusion) but she soon did a complete 180 and became obsessed with him in a way that felt so fake. But the biggest nail in the coffin for me was the scene whenCordelia is stripped naked and tied to a bed and almost raped by that admiral (idk anyone's names because they all sound the same), who then tried to force Bolthari to rape her. SHE WAS LITERALLY NAKED AND POWERLESS in front of TWO MEN and her reaction after Bolthari killed the dude was basically just, "phew, I’m glad Vorkosigan is here!" Like WHAT? There was no terror from her either during or after. She seemed completely unaffected by that revolting scenario?!?! She was more angry at Vorkosigan supposedly drugging her in her sleep for intel (though it was revealed he actually didn't and she didn't care much about him pretending he did). Cordelia seemed so unbothered by everything that happened to her... how am I supposed to root for a character like that?!
Not to mention all the other mentions of rape...That one prisoner who casually said that the Barrayaran men were "shopping for rapees" with no reaction either, Bolthari being revealed to have saved a woman from evil rapist's clutches who was so traumatized and then ended up raping her and IMPREGNATING HER and then allowed to keep her child?! And then that whole scene with the placentas of raped prisoner women (presumed dead??) that Cordelia told Vorkosigan he should keep alive because "some cultures value life" or whatever , like this is some kind of pro-life propaganda? Why? What's the relevance?? Like seriously, what the fuck is this shit?
I haven't even gone into all the things that annoyed me about Cordelia and Aral's relationship, and my entire confusion over the plot and all the politics that I couldn't care less about. Not sure why every important Barrayaran man had to have a name that started with "Vor." Every name started to sound like gibberish and blended together, especially listening to this via audiobook. I also really hated that Cordelia immediately believed everything Aral told her, despite it contradicting all the history she'd been taught (I found myself agreeing with the other prisoners over Cordelia... the dude is known as the butcher of Komarr! ).
I don't know man. I'm really annoyed that I went into this expecting a fun jolly time and then had to listen to so much rape. It's really disgusting. If I squint and think back to the beginning of the book, I can see the potential for a fun story and world, which is why this gets 2 stars and not less (and the epilogue was hauntingly beautiful and a nice break from the awfulness before it. plus I enjoyed the "I didn't even vote for him" jokes about the Betan president). But I had such a terrible time with this that I can't see myself continuing on in the series for a while. I need a break from this disappointment. If I do continue, I think I'll skip to Miles' story in The Warrior's Apprentice, because I really don't want to spend any more time with Cordelia and Aral (or Bolthari), yuck.
I was having fun in the beginning though, with Cordelia stranded on a planet that her team was doing a scientific survey of. I knew her relationship with Vorkosigan would turn into a romance eventually, but their interactions in the beginning were casual and fun. I liked seeing them explore and meet more creatures on the planet, like the vampire balloons?! It felt like an episode of Star Trek, with the away team crew.
My interest started going downhill when Vorkosigan proposed marriage in the most abrupt and unromantic way possible SO EARLY into the book! Cordelia's response actually made sense (mostly confusion) but she soon did a complete 180 and became obsessed with him in a way that felt so fake. But the biggest nail in the coffin for me was the scene when
Not to mention all the other mentions of rape...
I haven't even gone into all the things that annoyed me about Cordelia and Aral's relationship, and my entire confusion over the plot and all the politics that I couldn't care less about. Not sure why every important Barrayaran man had to have a name that started with "Vor." Every name started to sound like gibberish and blended together, especially listening to this via audiobook. I also really hated that Cordelia immediately believed everything Aral told her, despite it contradicting all the history she'd been taught (
I don't know man. I'm really annoyed that I went into this expecting a fun jolly time and then had to listen to so much rape. It's really disgusting. If I squint and think back to the beginning of the book, I can see the potential for a fun story and world, which is why this gets 2 stars and not less (and the epilogue was hauntingly beautiful and a nice break from the awfulness before it. plus I enjoyed the "I didn't even vote for him" jokes about the Betan president). But I had such a terrible time with this that I can't see myself continuing on in the series for a while. I need a break from this disappointment. If I do continue, I think I'll skip to Miles' story in The Warrior's Apprentice, because I really don't want to spend any more time with Cordelia and Aral (or Bolthari), yuck.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
ufowitch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
seanhatesnamerestrictions's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars. A bonus of "reading" the Warrior's Apprentice first is that I recognized Pilot Officer Mayhew when he had a cameo near the end of this book.
missy_evanko's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A good old sci fi read with a romantic subplot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
bioniclib's review against another edition
3.0
A tale of star crossed lovers may be a plot older than even "Billy Shakes" and his Romeo and Juliet, but it's a winning formula.
Cordelia and Arel are soldiers from opposing sides who must throw in together to survive and then once they do they begin to see the other side for the complex culture it really is and not the stereotyped propaganda'd.
The romance seems a little forced and the theme of honor is a little worn. However, this is a rare breed of book: a sci-fi book by a woman. Being her first book, it's bound to be a little rough. There was enough interesting investigations, such as what's done with the babies begot through rape, to keep my interest. I wasn't captured by the tale but it was solid enough that I'm going to read another. If you read this one and want to move on (like me) the next book in the series isn't clear cut: https://www.goodreads.com/series/98254-vorkosigan-internal-chronology
Cordelia and Arel are soldiers from opposing sides who must throw in together to survive and then once they do they begin to see the other side for the complex culture it really is and not the stereotyped propaganda'd.
The romance seems a little forced and the theme of honor is a little worn. However, this is a rare breed of book: a sci-fi book by a woman. Being her first book, it's bound to be a little rough. There was enough interesting investigations, such as what's done with the babies begot through rape, to keep my interest. I wasn't captured by the tale but it was solid enough that I'm going to read another. If you read this one and want to move on (like me) the next book in the series isn't clear cut: https://www.goodreads.com/series/98254-vorkosigan-internal-chronology
arttuamigo's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Pretty good overall. Love Cordelia for sure and I think her relationship with Vorkosigan is nice. Plot isn't anything mindbowing but the worldbuilding is excellent. Lots of quatables as well. I certainly think it's a clear product of it's time and its very clear this is a book from the 80s.
lifeonline's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0