Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Lois McMaster Bujold's Shards of Honor.

The Short of It

Plot: After getting stranded on an uncharted planet, Commander Cordelia Naismith's only hope is Lord Aral Vorkosigan, a notorious military leader. The closer she grows to Lord Vorkosigan, the more she becomes a target for his enemies.

Page Count: 313

Award: Prequel to Barrayar, which won a Hugo and Locus in 1992

Worth a read: Yes
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: Moderate.
Review: Ah, that's some sweet, sweet, SF. A space opera/romance. Excellent lead characters with their own complexities - and probably one of the strongest and most compelling female protagonists yet. Good balance of action and drama with world building. Pacing is excellent - a generally tight package. A superb entry point to the Vorkosigan Saga. 

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

As the blurb of Shards of Honor on both Goodreads (and Amazon) notes that "mutual admiration and even stronger feelings emerge," I feel comfortable with the tiny spoiler that a male and a female protagonist in a novel fall in love. Also, the cover of the book has two people on it, so, ya know, it's basically a done deal.

Through unfortunate happenstance, Cordelia Naismith ends up stuck on an unexplored planet with Lord Aral Vorkosigan - known to most as "The Butcher of Komarr." The two are from different planets with diametrically opposed societies: one a more peaceful, technological society, the other militant and patriarchal. Any guess which one The Butcher is from?

As their only hope of surviving the planet is to help one another, they form an uneasy alliance, which evolves, as noted earlier, into a romance. While I am more than happy to poke fun at the seeming inevitability of romance in books of this sort, Bujold truly does elevate it. The back and forth between Naismith and Vorkosigan are well written and the subtle changes in tone as the relationship develops make the relationship itself feel more real. It helps that both leads are themselves compelling. Both have strong personalities, but it is the hints of hidden depth that bring them to life.

Shards of Honor's best writing is its dialogue. Though it improves significantly in later books, there is a fair bit of clunky writing throughout. There are the first five sentences:

A sea of mist drifted through the cloud forest: soft, grey, luminescent. On the high ridges the fog showed brighter as the morning sun began to warm and lift the moisture, although in the ravine a cool, soundless dimness still counterfeited a pre-dawn twilight.

Commander Cordelia Naismith glanced at her team botanist and adjusted the straps of her biological collecting equipment a bit more comfortably before continuing her breathless climb. She pushed a long tendril of fog-dampened copper hair out of her eyes, clawing it impatiently toward the clasp at the nape of her neck. Their next survey area would definitely be at a lower altitude. 

It is not that this is terrible writing, but it is a bit cumbersome. Every sentence has too much crammed into it, without actually telling us very much. The first sentence establishes that it is foggy. The second that it is foggy and that it's the morning. The third that she exerting herself on a climb, and this in two different ways, both that she is out of breath and adjusting her pack. The fourth one again establishes that it's foggy, but now we know she has copper hair. And the fifth once again shows us that she's exerting herself on a climb.

I went back and forth on whether or not to say that plot was a selling point for Shards of Honor and Barrayar, and ultimately decided no - though it is a close thing. Plot here is used as a way of showing us different facets of society and placing Naismith and Vorkosigan in whatever situation is needed for their relationship to evolve. On top of that, the actual stakes that matter in any given scene are intimately character related. 

World building is well done, though does feel a bit heavy handed at times. In context this is unsurprising - this is the first book published in the series and has to do some heavy lifting to set up a universe. It would be easy to depict Barrayar - Vorkosigan's planet - as a totally backwards and barbaric place, with no redeeming qualities. And equally so to show Beta - Cordelia's home - as a technological utopia, with no issues. Bujold works to show that both have their problems and their perks. It's a harder line to walk, but it pays off, allowing the reader to support or despise characters from either planet. Effectively, it makes it so that characters end up being judged for who they are and how they act, as opposed to easily pigeonholed based upon origin. 

One other big thing: Shards of Honor is short. Having slogged through a bunch of 700 page books here, it is hard to overstate how pleasant it is to have a compelling story in a lean package. Everything that this book accomplishes - offering a compelling adventure, introducing one of the best couples in SF, and setting up a new universe for a sprawling series - it handles in less than half the pages of Dune.

This is not the best Vorkosigan book, but it is the best one to begin the series. It is enjoyable on its own and it sets up everything well. Even without the rest of the series, this and Barrayar, its direct sequel, would be worth a read.

If you've decided to check out the Vorkosigan Saga, consider using the link below! I'll get a few cents at no extra cost to you.

Links of Honor

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

Can we first note how terrible the cover for the Kindle edition looks on the Amazon page?

Just awful. Alright, moving on.

This story can be divided into three segments. First, Cordelia and Aral marooned. Second, Cordelia the prisoner, and third, the aftermath.

The largest missed opportunity in the first part is that the planet itself never seems like a real threat. The whole point is that this is a new planet fresh for exploration. While not the point of the book, it would be nice to feel like this was actually an alien planet in a meaningful way. We don't need to watch them run from a xenomorph, but making it so terrestrial leaves it feeling a bit flat.

The middle portion of the book introduces two fantastic characters: Bothari and Illyan. Do things work out too conveniently through much of this? Probably. But I was rooting for Cordelia and Aral, and can forgive such things. 

And then the aftermath. Everyone assumes that Cordelia has been tortured, abused, and brainwashed. Anything she says to the contrary confirms this further, and her progressive technological world grows narrower and narrower, trapping her. 

Put slightly differently, the three sections work as follows:

1) Establish what both planets think of the other, then show that this might not be the case.

2) Show the good and bad of Barrayarans.

3) Show the good and bad of Betans.

It's a simple formula and it works well. The conclusion is also satisfying, and it does stand on its own - even though Barrayar is a direct sequel, it was not the next book published, so this ties up its own loose ends.

That's it for now!

Try not to commit any war crimes, Stranger.

And don't forget to read a book!