#cara reads the vorkosigan saga

[agardenandlibrary]

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

"God save me from another such victory."

Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold

[agardenandlibrary]

For me, with knowing that he'd survive, I mostly looked forward to seeing what absolutely wild thing Cordelia would do to save him.

Also, I didn't know you were also reading these for the first time!! *Waves* same new book series!

I will say that spending years seeing people talk about Miles's exploits on here does remove a certain amount of narrative tension from Barrayar.

[clonerightsagenda]

#recently read March 24

Dead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn. After discovering her brother's suicide, Coral takes his phone and pretends to be him as her grief sends her spiraling. *Very experimental. Includes excerpts of Coral's in-universe novel to reinforce the theme that humans always want More (more money, more power, more of your loved one's life) and destroy themselves.

The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush. Exactly what the title says. As someone who's read a lot of astronaut memoirs I didn't find much of this to be untold, but there were a few new tidbits. Includes the Sally Ride tampon story.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Parallel narratives follow the last refugees from collapsing human civilization and a dawning civilization of genetically engineered spiders, until the two come into conflict. *Kept getting distracted bc I did not expect the prose in the giant space spider book to be as good as it was.

Exordia by Seth Dickinson. Aliens come to Earth seeking a powerful weapon and drag several people - including a Kurdish community, an international group of scientists, and two American men clashing over right and wrong - into a struggle over the planet and their souls. *It's Seth Dickinson. It's big and unexpected and now that there's free reign to make pop culture references, extremely weird.

Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson. When people start dying after their doubles appear from thin air, runner to the emperor Scales has to work with disgraced scientist Adam Bosch and famed world walker Cara to find out how to stop it. *Scales has a very different perspective than Cara which makes her narration an interesting alternative take on Ashtown culture.

Short post this month because Dungeon Meshi and Vorkosigan Saga are ongoing.

[agardenandlibrary]

oh, we're so back, baby

[agardenandlibrary]

I think Bujold knew the hottest thing a guy could be is obsessed with his wife

[agardenandlibrary]

The old Vor: that woman is to have no influence over the young emperor

Cordelia: cowards, but okay

The old Vor: you get women's responsibilities! Like choosing his household staff, the people he will see every day, and overseeing his education for the next 8 years!

Cordelia, later, to Aral: do they understand what they just did?

Aral: lmao absolutely not. Have fun, Captain.

[agardenandlibrary]

Somebody kidnaps my wife, and they'll find the Imperium's boundaries can stretch a hell of a long way, Ivan found himself thinking with unexpected fierceness.

Wifeguy Vor-genes continue to be the dominant trait

[agardenandlibrary]

Ekaterin, to herself: is it stalking if it's your husband?

Me: girl, GET OUT. SOMEONE GET CORDELIA. CORDELIA, HELP

[agardenandlibrary]

me, living my life, doin nothing:

me, remembers the existence of Ekaterin Nile Vorvayne Vorsoisson Vorkosigan: 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[agardenandlibrary]

Ivan, after being tazed and called "you idiot" by a beautiful woman: is this love?

[agardenandlibrary]

Miles, what have you done with your baby brother?

[agardenandlibrary]

new episode of my podcast Backlog Books out now (link in pinned post)

Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold

Over the last few Vorkosigan Saga books, I have been wondering how Miles’ ongoing identity crisis was going to resolve itself. He has been bouncing between Admiral Naismith, debonair roguish commander of a mercenary fleet, secretly under the command of the Barrayaran empire, and Lt. Vorkosigan, a quiet and purposefully unremarkable yet dutiful cog in the wheel of Imperial service, who just happens to be the heir to one of the most powerful men on Barrayar. Miles has been running full-speed through life since he could walk. So it makes sense that  eventually he’s going to hit a wall, an obstacle, that he cannot break down, climb over, or go around. In typical Miles fashion, he brings about his own downfall. Who else could do it?

Next time: New Spring!

[agardenandlibrary]

I just read the cover for A Civil Campaign and I gotta say. Hearing that both Miles AND Mark have "a cunning plan" to get the women in their lives to marry them. Fills me with foreboding

[agardenandlibrary]

Mark, pretending to be Miles and getting more and more stressed the more people he meets who seem to have either a) slept with Miles or b) want to sleep with him: how is this man sleeping his way through the entire galaxy

[agardenandlibrary]

Cordelia, rearranging furniture: and the couch goes to the attic, thank you.

Aral: do we need to keep the couch?

Cordelia: yes, dear.

[agardenandlibrary]

book mail book mail book mail

Yes I picked the terrible cover for Ivan's book on purpose.