{"id":744,"date":"2012-12-19T21:35:42","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T21:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog-test\/?p=744"},"modified":"2024-01-21T11:36:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T16:36:32","slug":"bujold_116","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2012\/12\/bujold_116\/","title":{"rendered":"Bujold, Lois McMaster: (116) Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance<\/cite>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance<\/cite> is the most recent Vorkosigan book by Lois McMaster Bujold<\/strong>. It’s set between Diplomatic Immunity<\/cite> and Cryoburn<\/cite>, it alternates between Ivan POV’s and a new character, and it is very, very fluffy.<\/p>\n

I wanted to like this, I did, and mostly it was pleasant. There’s a great late set-piece, and some terrific Simon stuff, and Ivan is enjoyable company. But twice I was mentally tapping my fingers, waiting for the plot to happen, for much longer than was optimal, and once I said, “Uh, we’re going to be happy and fluffy about this<\/em>?” I also continue to side-eye the way that same-sex relationships apparently only exist on Athos in this universe, a pattern that becomes particularly conspicuous in this book. And in the end, it felt like Ivan changed and grew more in A Civil Campaign<\/cite>, where he was one viewpoint character of five, than here, which is nominally “his book.” <\/p>\n

I don’t know what Bujold’s plans for this universe are (I don’t know if she<\/em> knows). But this feels very much like a deliberate wrapping-up—there is, no kidding, an epilogue where the characters read each other letters from all their family members—and I confess to very mixed feelings about this. As I said with regard to Cryoburn<\/cite><\/a>, and also in a journal post about my issues with the later Vorkosigan books<\/a>, Bujold and I are clearly no longer interested in the same things in this universe. And of course that’s her right as an author and my right as a reader, and no blame is implied or should be inferred. But I don’t know what to wish for, that our Vorkosigan-related interests come back into alignment or that she leaves the series as it stands to let me imagine things going more to my taste.<\/p>\n

Anyway. If you don’t mind a fluffy leisurely Ivan-centric story, then Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance<\/cite> is probably worth a read. If you were hoping for more than that, you’ll probably be disappointed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance is the most recent Vorkosigan book by Lois McMaster Bujold. It’s set between Diplomatic Immunity and Cryoburn, it alternates between Ivan POV’s and a new character, and it is very, very fluffy. I wanted to like this, I did, and mostly it was pleasant. There’s a great late set-piece, and some terrific … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Bujold, Lois McMaster: (116) Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance<\/cite>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,15,32],"tags":[147],"class_list":["post-744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-sf-and-fantasy","category-vorkosigan-series","tag-bujold-lois-mcmaster"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2479,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions\/2479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}