Lois McMaster Bujold: The Curse of Chalion (2001)

Edition: Voyager, 2002
Review number: 1131

With The Curse of Chalion, Bujold takes a break not just from her long-running and acclaimed Vorkosigan series, but also from futuristic science fiction; it is a fantasy novel with a background more or less traditional for the genre.

The novel begins with Chalion aristocrat Cazilar returning to the land of his birth; betrayed into slavery by a corrupt general, he has recently escaped from the galleys of Roknari, and now his only ambition is to see if he can persuade an old patron to take him on in a menial position in her household. Instead, he is made tutor-secretary to her granddaughter, and becomes involed in the complex politics of the Chalionian court - where he has to meet the enemy who betrayed him.

The Vorkosigan series has already shown that Bujold excels at the creation of political thrillers, and she uses the same skills here, with different characters and background. She is just as interesting and convincing writing about magic as she is discussing cloning. This particularly story is very self-contained, not only unusual in a genre which runs to trilogies and series, but also in contrast to Bujold's other work. A sequel seems unlikely, but maybe we can hope for more stories set in this world.

A lot of science fiction and fantasy contains depictions of political intrigue, an inevitable part of writing about fictional societies. The problem tends to be that it is easy enough to invent and describe institutions, but rather more difficult to portray plotting and machination convincingly. This actual human interaction behind the scenes is really what politics is about. (This is partly because real world equivalents are usually kept as secret as possible, so that it requires considerable insight to recreate convincingly, particularly in an alien setting.) One fairly common mistake that writers make is to continually describe a character as some kind of political genius, while making them achieve coups which are comparatively simple minded; this may flatter the reader but is not really very impressive when they reflect on what has been described. (Frank Herbert, who is particularly associated with the introduction of politics into science fiction, is sometimes guilty of this error.) Bujold's politicians are much more believable and her strengths in characterisation mean that she doesn't have any need to resort to this spurious trick.

Her novels also always have an exciting plot to draw the reader in. In other words, her novels are top rank political thrillers, and The Curse of Chalion is no exception. Once again, Bujold has produced a novel which tempted me into staying up into the night to finish it.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Cetaganda (1996)

Edition: Baen, 1996
Review number: 990

The central idea of this Miles Vorkosigan novel can be summed up in a sentence from it (also quoted on the back of this edition): "Miles had always dreamed about saving the Empire. He just never expected it to be the Cetagandan Empire." Although currently at peace with his native Barrayar, Cetaganda has long been a traditional enemy, having at one time been an occupying power Miles is a member of the Barrayan delegation to the mourning ceremonies for the Dowager Empress, but the reader will not be very surprised when things go wrong right from the start, when his spaceship is attacked when it docks with a space station orbiting the capital planet of the Empire.

The main aspect of Cetaganda which differentiates it from the other Miles Vorkosigan novels is its portrayal of the bizarre imperial culture. This is clearly modelled around ideas from imperial China - aristocratic, secretive, delicately artistic and at the same time brutal; incomprehensible to outsiders, providing endless opportunities to offend against obscure protocol. Reflecting Bujold's interest in the biological sciences, the Cetagandans have spent decades enhancing the genome of their senior aristocrats, ending up seeming to be hardly human - impossibly beautiful and long lived, committed to incomprehensible goals.

As a well written, exciting and occasionally humorous science fiction thriller, Cetaganda is typical of the series, if less thought provoking than some; and the series is one of the most enjoyable in modern science fiction.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Borders of Infinity (1989)

Edition: Pan, 1992 (Buy from Amazon)
Review number: 908

Though this book is described as a novel, it is a collection of three previously published novellas with linking passages which amount to the thinnest of narratives and which can only total about ten pages. The three stories are of a far higher standard, particularly Borders of Infinity itself.

The first story, The Mountains of Mourning, set early in Miles' career, is a murder investigation, complicated by the backwoods Barrayan attitude to mutations - a baby has been killed because it has a hare lip. This is not just a whodunit, but a story which highlights some of Bujold's interests, including genetics and politics. Oddly enough, it was this story which won the 1990 Hugo award for best novella.

Genetics also plays a part in the second story, Labyrinth, which, like several other Miles Vorkosigan adventures, is set at the amoral biological laboratories of Jackson's Hole, but politics alone dominate Borders of Infinity.

The reason that the title story impresses so much is because of its setting. This is a futuristic prisonor of war camp, basically a forcefield dome containing the minimum requirements for the survival of its inhabitants - a totally featureless place. Miles manages to get himself interred there, as part of a mission to help a high ranking officer escape to lead a resistance movement; with nothing, he has to improvise an uprising of the demoralised, anarchic prisoners. Bujold makes what seems to be a minimalist background fascinating.

In the end, though, the three stories leave the reader with the feeling that her true talent is for the novel. Not reflecting the best of Bujold, and certainly improved by acquaintance with the series in general, Borders of Infinity remains inventive and enjoyable.

Lois McMaster Bujold: A Civil Campaign (1999)

Edition: Earthlight, 2000
Review number: 706

The latest Vorkosigan novel is in a completely different genre from the others. They were thrillers with a science fiction setting, while A Civil Campaign is a comedy of manners with a science fiction setting. There have always been humorous elements in Bujold's writing, but this novel is very funny indeed.

Miles Vorkosigan has returned to the imperial capital on Barrayar to take his part in the preparations for the Emperor's wedding (at which he is to be best man). He also wants to pursue his courtship of widow Ekaterine Vorsoisson, but it too shy to make his purpose at all clear to her. At the same time, he becomes rather reluctantly involved in two political causes involving the right to hold titles.

The whole plot, combined with a new business venture for Miles' brother Mark, is a recipe for disaster, which duly happens about half way through with a set piece dinner party at which everything which could go wrong does go wrong. The rest of the novel is basically about sorting out the mess.

Bujold has shown that she can write interesting science fiction, exciting and humorous thrillers. A Civil Campaign is evidence of mastery of a very different type of writing, with almost its only common features with her earlier work being the setting and the consistently well drawn characters.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Komarr (1998)

Edition: Earthlight, 1998
Review number: 687

Following Miles Vorkosigan's surprise appointment as an Imperial Auditor at the end of Memory - they have the full power of the Emperor behind their investigations, amounting to a completely free hand - Komarr recounts his first case. Komarr is a recently conquered planet in the Barrayan Empire, important strategically because its planetary system contains the only wormhole linking Barrayar to the rest of the galaxy. However, it is barely habitable and the Empire is currently putting a large amount of its resources into a terraforming project. Now, though, a strange space accident has seriously damaged the orbiting system of mirrors which are designed to increase the amounts of light and heat reaching the planet from Komarr's sun. The bizarre aspects are the reason for the interest of the Auditors - why did a freighter on a standard trajectory suddenly change course and smash into the soletta (as arrays of mirrors for this purpose are called)? The investigation is not helped by the attitude of many of the Komarrans, who still remember a massacre carried out in the name of Miles' father though against his wishes.

While not quite as exciting as Memory, Komarr is still an excellent novel. In this paperback edition, though, Earthlight's designers seem to have gone out of their way to make it appear as trashy as they possibly could.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Memory (1998)

Edition: Earthlight, 1998
Review number: 586

It's rare to pick up a book which is exciting enough that I end up staying up until 1am to finish it, even though I know I need to get up at 7 to go to work. Memory is just that sort of novel. It's really a thriller turned into science fiction. The plot is that of a secret service maverick finally dismissed after falsifying a report - cutting out the medical problems which nearly caused a mission to end in disaster and which would have seen him removed from active service - only to suspect and investigate a major plot at his former employers. This is a little gruesome: a memory chip has been implanted into the brain of the head of Imperial Security, and now he has been infected with an artificial virus which eats into the chip, causing his memory to malfunction bizarrely.

Having a ready made maverick in series character Miles Vorkosigan helps Bujold write an engrossing novel. Almost all the characters occur earlier in the series, and the familiarity is heavily used without being abused - while it may help to read earlier instalments, it is not necessary.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Mirror Dance (1994)

Edition: Pan, 1995
Review number: 531

Bujold's Vorkosigan series is very well done, rather old fashioned science fiction, with echoes of many classics of the genre from Poul Anderson's Flandry stories to George Dickson's Dorsai novels. Miles Vorkosigan, hero of the series, has previously been revealed as having a clone, created by an enemy to impersonate him for an assassination attempt on his father. In this novel, the clone (named Mark) impersonates the famous mercenary Admiral Naismith - an alter ego created by the bored Miles - to lead an expedition to free a group of clones being raised to become donors of bodies for brain transplants ordered by the super rich but morally bankrupt. Since Mark does not have the same talents as his original, the rescue fails, and leaves Miles with the task of rescuing his "brother" and his subordinates.

Like much traditional science fiction, Mirror Dance is centred around an issue, exploring aspects of the possible relationships between normally conceived individuals and clones. By extension, this relates to any individual who is seen as a chattel, and so any treatment of the subject resonates with ideas from civil rights campaigns of almost every sort - anti-slavery, anti-child labour, racial equality, feminism. Other interesting questions are raised, such as inheritance rights of clones, their relationship to the parents of the cloned individual, but these are less important to Mirror Dance than the morality of creating clones to be used as organ donors. Living in a world in which mammalian clones are already possible, such issues as these begin to seem more immediate concerns.

Though these issues are important, they are never allowed to dominate the story. Their presence is there as motivation for the characters as well as the author, but the novel is never preachy. It is suspense filled - indeed, it is almost as strongly influenced by the thriller genre as by science fiction. It may not be ground breaking or original, but it is an excellent inheritor of the traditions of the genre.