#Lois Mcmaster Bujold

[summersofsalt]

cordelia, shards of honor era

[shannoneichorn]

"What do you see in that Barrayaran boy, anyway?" the girl's mother asks about Ivan.

"Hot Summer Nights" starts playing.

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[crowns-of-violets-and-roses]

"The real unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, without anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present - they are real."

Aral Vorkosigan, The Vorkosigan Saga, Lois Mcmaster Bujold

[perfectfeelings]

It's never too late while you're breathing.

Lois McMaster Bujold, The Warrior’s Apprentice

[agardenandlibrary]

"I'd have mistrusted my memory chip before I mistrusted you."

"God save me from another such victory."

Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold

[tinsnip]

Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.

—Lois McMaster Bujold

[beartrice-inn-unnir]

10. What is your favorite genre book to recommend to someone who doesn’t usually like that genre?

Usually when people ask me for a rec for a genre they don’t usually like, they are asking for sci-fi, and I start by trying to figure out different access points based on what they already like. I’m not much of a hard sci-fi person, tending more to the space opera and political thrillers, so here’s a few “if you like x, maybe try y”:

If you like romance, give Everina Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit a try. It’s definitely sci-fi in setting and plot, but it also hits nicely in the formulaic patterns of a arranged-marriage, strangers-to-lovers story that will help you through it even if the sci-fi elements are throwing you off. The author has another similar book that increases the sci-fi elements and is enemies-to-lovers as well, so if you like Winter’s Orbit, Ocean’s Echo is a good next step.

If you like non-fiction, The Martian by Andy Weir is a great pick. I have multiple friends who got into reading again as adults via The Martian. It’s well-written, well-grounded, funny, and very sci-fi. If you’ve already read it, then maybe give To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers a try. It can be described with all the same adjectives, plus it’s a short novella, so if you’re hesitant, it’s less intimidating.

If you like mysteries or political thrillers, boy is there a lot of great sci-fi out there for you. The crux of a lot of sci-fi is space or high-tech settings with a plot that asks questions about personhood, and that mixes really well with detectives and spies wandering around trying to solve problems and find truths. Try Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells (it’s partway through a series of great books and novellas, but that one’s the most traditional mystery plot) or A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (ambassador solving her predecessor’s mysterious death while trying to do his job)(I’d also recommend this one if you read a lot of classics) EDIT: just realized I mistyped - book 1 by Arkady Martine is A Memory Called Empire.

If YA/ Bildungsromanen/ New Adult figuring the world out through trial and error is often your jam, try Provenance by Ann Leckie (for the kid who really wants to do things right) or The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (for another kid who wants to do things right, but is also a high-energy chaos gremlin).

If you like fantasy, you probably already have read some sci-fi; it’s all under the speculative fiction umbrella and genres are vague anyway. All the same, I know this is the Locked Tomb Website, but give Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir a shot (it’s got magic and mayhem and an epic locked-room whodunnit mystery). The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord is also good - it has a team of people traveling together and thinking about morals and discovering new abilities, plus some romance.

I’m sure there’s lots of genres I’m forgetting right now, but feel free to send me another ask for any specific one!

[elena1701a]

Turns out Lord Midnight may have been perfectly capable of being the next Count Vortala 😀🐴

[everina-maxwell-updates]

In a rare instance of getting myself organized enough to do an interview, the Plot Trysts podcast invited me to guest on their miniseries about the Vorkosigan Saga and I triumphed over several other potential guests in a cage match in order to was delighted to coincidentally get the episode that discusses Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Meg and Alexandra have beautiful podcast voices, great opinions, and wonderful skills at shaping a discussion. I, for some reason, have the exact energy of someone who has arrived on In Our Time to enthusiastically recap an obscure controversy in 19th-century ethnography for the benefit of Melvyn Bragg. No, I don't know why I sound like that either. We had a super interesting discussion on one of my very favorite books and, it will not surprise many people to hear, I have so many thoughts and feelings about Miles and Ekaterin.

I am not actually sure how to link to a podcast, so if this sounds like your thing I suggest putting in "My Word As Vorkosigan Komarr" in whatever podcast app you use! (I also got some weird blank space at the start but the talking starts at about 00:30.)

[cookie-nom-nom]

Lois McMaster Bujold: okay so the A plot is an intense political romance dealing with slander and healing from abuse

me: cool cool and the B plot?

Lois: bugs

me: sorry, what?

Lois: B U G S

[thirdwifeofriversong]

y’all please pray for me i just finished cryoburn

[thebookquotes]

It's never too late while you're breathing.

Lois McMaster Bujold, The Warrior’s Apprentice

[mytly4]

I'm currently rereading Barrayar, and flipped back to Shards to check on a bit of dialogue, and came across this little line:

"Why can't you just lose your temper with subordinates, like normal men, instead of with superiors, like a lunatic?"

This is said by Rulf Vorhalas to Aral, right after his conversation with Prince Serg in his cabin during the Escobar war. Now, there's a valid reason why Aral speaks to the Prince so disrepectfully - it's a part of the ruse to goad Serg to fight on the frontlines in the war and get annihilated. Nonethless, something tells me that this wasn't in the least bit out of character for Aral, especially as Vorhalas frames it as something that Aral has done before. Which of course, reminds me of this exchange, from The Vor Game:

Cecil flashed a grin. "Quite. Plus your rather irritating habit of treating your superior officers as your, ah . . ." Cecil paused, apparently groping again for just the right word.

"Equals?" Miles hazarded.

"Cattle," Cecil corrected judiciously. "To be driven to your will."

So looks like insubordination runs in the family. 😉 Granted, Miles would never think of "being disrespectful to superiors" as something he has in common with his father (especially as during his lifetime, his father had no superiors, except Gregor), but it's interesting to see that Miles follows in his Da's footsteps in a way that he never intended.

[iliiuan]

Mothers in fiction are usually treated as objects. How refreshing, then, for Lois McMaster Bujold to write mothers as subjects.

[odoroussavourssweet]

Perfumes for Vorkosigan Saga Characters

There are enough offhand references to fragrance in the Vorkosigan books that I strongly suspect Lois McMaster Bujold of being a perfume enthusiast. Also it's fun to imagine what the characters would wear.

Aral and Miles Vorkosigan

Miles is sometimes noted to wear a traditional masculine cologne, and he strikes me as the sort to wear the same thing his father does, as a sort of default grooming routine. You don't get much more traditional and correct than Chanel Monsieur, a mossy, bone-dry cologne/chypre hybrid.

Cordelia Vorkosigan

As the author-insert character, I think Cordelia enjoys perfume and knows exactly what she wants. I picture her in my beloved vintage Rochas Mystere, an earthy, outdoorsy, yet elegant chypre, with lots of brisk cypress and a rusty warm carnation heart to match her auburn hair.

Alys Vorpatril

Alys is a lady of a certain age with excellent taste, and therefore appreciates the formal, embellished perfection of Divine, a classical aldehydic floral weighted towards tuberose.

Ivan Vorpatril

Ivan has no taste of his own; once he got old enough to try dousing himself in body spray as a teen, his mother bought him a bottle of Divine L'Etre Aime Homme, a classically French masculine with a warm, smoky immortelle note, which sets off his darkly athletic good looks.

Elena Bothari-Jesek

Elena, I think, came to perfume later in life, finding a balm in a private feminine pleasure that wasn't part of her rigidly militaristic youth. She'd appreciate something delicate and poignant, like YSL Paris, a rose-violet powder-puff scent.

Bel Thorne

Bel was once mentioned wearing "floral perfume" to emphasize its feminine side. The adventurous Betan mercenary strikes me as a tuberose fan, and I imagine it wearing something like Frederic Malle Carnal Flower -- bold, sleek, streamlined, stylish but not too obscure. (Bel is, at heart, a bit of a normie.)

Elli Quinn

Space-station-born Elli is used to being in confined spaces with strangers, so she never wears perfume -- she even insists on unscented soaps. But she might have picked up a bottle of Etat Libre d'Orange Secretions Magnifiques as a vile practical joke (it smells, very realistically, like vomit.)

Taura

Taura's genetic enhancements gave her an exceptional sense of smell, and her lust for life and enthusiastic experiments in feminine presentation suggest she would absolutely try out perfume, but she's not analytical enough to get super into it. Somebody gives her Narciso Rodriguez For Her, a basic sweet floral musk, and she sticks with that.

Cavilo

The sociopathic mercenary Cavilo is described as wearing a very sharp green floral perfume that gives Miles allergies. I imagine this as Tom Ford Vert Boheme, a clean, contemporary take on the classic 1970s green florals, which smells exactly like a crisp green leaf before opening out into a ladylike magnolia.

Pel Navarr

The Cetagandans are perfume-lovers, so the aristocratic haut Pel would certainly wear perfume. Given her restrained, elevated tastes, I picture her in Parfums MDCI Le Cri De La Lumiere, a barely-there, sparkling-white iris-rose concoction of surpassing purity.

Lilly Durona

I have a soft spot for the Durona Group -- rogue ancap bioengineering clone family of my heart. In her artificially extended lifespan, the matriarch Lilly must have tried her hand at perfuming at some point, and probably invented a few new aromachemicals of her own. All the Durona women have flower names, and I imagine Lilly wears her namesake via something similar to Serge Lutens Un Lys, the most realistic, narcotic, honey-dripping lily scent ever.

Mark Vorkosigan

We know Mark's visual aesthetic tends towards the dark and gloomy, his gustatory tastes run towards the sweet and indulgent, and his erotic tastes are, um, both. There's only one right answer here and it's Bvlgari Black: fetishy black rubber up top, birthday-cake sweet vanilla below.

Enrique Borgos

Enrique is a nerd, and in his own way an aesthetic soul. I guarantee you he is interested in perfume, and he'd gravitate to the perfumer's perfumer, the chemist Christophe Laudamiel. He would be fascinated by the strange "neon-hologram" effect in The Zoo Spacewood.

Kareen Koudelka

Kareen's adventurous nature probably took her to try some perfumes on Beta Colony, and she'd invariably gravitate to warm, cozy ambers and gourmands. I can see her in the unpretentious burnt-caramel smell of Kerosene Broken Theories.

Ekaterin Vorsoisson

The reserved, introverted Ekaterin has "unerring taste". Which means, in an olfactory context, she's probably figured out that Liz Moores is one of the best living perfumers. I have Ekaterin pegged for an iris lover, so she wears Papillon Angelique, a delicate, rustic spring iris with subtle, velvety layers of texture.