Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Lois McMaster Bujold's Falling Free.

The Short of It

Plot: Quaddies were genetically engineered to thrive in null gravity. Too bad they're basically kept as slaves.
Page Count: 320
Award: 1988 Nebula
Worth a read: For a Vorkosigan Saga completionist: Yes. But can be skipped.
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: Yes.
Review: One of the weaker stories in the Vorkosigan Saga. Characters lack depth - and the childlike state in which the quaddies are kept becomes grating. Pacing is decent and the story is somewhat engaging. Leo Graf, the main "standard" human character, is far more compelling than any of the quaddies. Corporate greed is a believable but underwhelming bad guy, because [gestures vaguely at everything].


The Medium of It
Spoiler Free!

This is the first book in the Vorkosigan Saga chronologically, but should actually be read later. It is a prequel that examines the origins of a specific group in the Vorkosiverse. It was not the first book written, and the author's recommended reading order places it somewhere towards the middle of the Vorkosigan read.

This book is totally fine. I've read dozens of worse books over the course of this journey. It is just not particularly great either. Also, quaddies: they've got two more arms instead of legs. Like a starfish but a person. 

There are a number of things done well here. The first chapter is excellent: it establishes the mood:
“Welcome to Rodeo, the armpit of the universe.”

as well as the core reason for creating quaddies: 

“Speaking of rotation—how are you handling null-gee de-conditioning in your people? I don’t—” his eyes inventoried the enormous structure, “I don’t even see an exercise wheel. No spinning gym?”
“There’s a null-gee gym. The rotating personnel get a month downside after every three-month shift.”
“Expensive.”
“But we put the Habitat up there for less than a quarter of the cost of the same volume of living quarters in one-gee spinners.”
“But surely you’ll lose what you’ve saved in construction costs over time in personnel transportation and medical expenses,” argued Leo. “The extra shuttle trips, the long leaves—every retiree who breaks an arm or a leg until the day he dies will be suing GalacTech for the cost of it plus mental anguish, whether he had significant bone demineralization or not.”
“We’ve solved that problem too,” said Van Atta. “Whether the solution is cost-effective—well, that’s what you and I are here to try and prove.”

 One of the best exchanges is very early on. Tony, one of the quaddies, is chatting with Leo Graf, the new tech. 

“Hello, sir. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.” Tony’s handshake was shy but sincere, his hand dry and strong.
“Um…” Leo stumbled, “um, what’s your last name, uh, Tony?”
“Oh, Tony’s just my nickname, sir. My full designation is TY-776-424-XG.”
“I, uh—guess I’ll call you Tony, then,” Leo murmured, increasingly stunned. Van Atta, most unhelpfully, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying Leo’s discomforture.
“Everybody does,” said Tony agreeably.

It's an excellent exchange. Tony and thus the rest of the quaddies are set up as human. They are normal folks, kind enough, affable. All the same, they have completely dehumanizing alpha-numeric identifiers. Barely into the first chapter and it is already clear that the central tension of this book will be a question of identity: are the quaddies humans, who have value as such, or a product? It is some remarkably deft storytelling. A masterclass in "show don't tell" just casually tossed in for us peons. 

Unfortunately, characters are pretty flat. Leo is concerned, the corporate folks are bastards, the quaddies are a spectrum of innocent through inquisitive. Think pre-apple Eve. Or not, my biblical literacy is not great. 

The issue, then, is that the answer is yeah, they're people, and we like them, and corporations are bad. In pretty much any case where there is a conflict and one side wishes to treat a group as less than human, we're going to be pro-human. What could be a much more complex question becomes: "Hey, do you like the dehumanizing nature of capitalism?" Some very clear comparisons could be drawn to the Uplift series. To their credit, members of different groups that are aiming to achieve full "personhood" sometimes do ask bestial - and thus raise the question, are they really people? Nothing is inherently wrong with the approach taken in Falling Free, but it does remove the moral and philosophical aspect in favor of a good vs. evil story.

Again, nothing inherently wrong with this - except that the story itself is not that engaging. It feels like this story began with a beginning and an end. This was not long enough, so arbitrary obstacles had to come into play. Something happens, it goes well, then it does not, and then we return to a status that is quo-ish (status quo or so, you know). It's like watching hurdles at the Olympics. Sure would be a lot faster if you just got those things out of the way. A circuitous way of saying that pacing is not great. 

Worldbuilding! That's a thing! Let's get into it! It's... fine. There's nothing that revolutionary here going on. This is mostly a small-world world building, a floating habitat and a spaceport, but not much more. The broader Vorkosigan Universe does not play much of a role here. This is just the origin story for the quaddies. 

Everything about this book is totally okay. It's enjoyable enough - it just is one of the weakest parts of the Vorkosigan Saga. If completion of the saga is the goal, well, you gotta read this, don't you? If not, this one can be passed by.

The Long of It
Spoilers Ahead! But only briefly, and only for this book.

Not too much spoiler-ish to say! Everything turns out in the end, more or less. It's a cute ending, very sweet. The guy gets the girl and they get away from the worst parts of big evil corporate baddies. Hooray. Stuff generally follows the trajectory that any normal reader would assume it would. It's a warm and fuzzy but nonetheless tepid conclusion.
Leo shook his head. A jubilant grin still kept crooking up the comer of his mouth. He took one of her upper hands. “Our troubles would have been over if Brucie-baby had scored a hit. Or if the vortex mirror had blown up in the middle of the Jump, or if—don’t be afraid of troubles, Silver. They’re a sign of life. We’ll deal with them together—tomorrow.”
She breathed a long sigh, the tension draining from her face, her body, her arms. An answering smile at last lighted her eyes, making them bright like stars. She turned her face expectantly toward his.
He found himself grinning quite foolishly, for a man pushing forty. He tried to twitch his face into more dignified lines. There was a pause.
“Leo,” said Silver in a tone of sudden insight, “are you shy?”
“Who, me?” said Leo.
The blue stars squeezed for a moment into quite predatory glitters. She kissed him. Leo, indignant at her accusation, kissed her back more thoroughly. Now it was her turn to grin foolishly. A lifetime with the quaddies, Leo reflected, could be all right…
They turned their faces to the new sun.
What makes so much of the Vorkosigan Saga work are the characters. Even when things follow genre tropes or a predictable arc, it's easy to stay invested because the characters matter. Here, even when things went poorly for someone, it was easy to forget about. Many of the quaddies also act very similar - which undercuts the humanity of them. If they're interchangeable, they're just more set dressing, and their deaths lack impact. 

Not much more to say on this one.

Would you want to have a couple extra hands, Stranger?

And don't forget to read a book!

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