WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?
• What are you currently reading?
I’m re-reading Shards of Honor (1986) by Lois McMaster Bujold, the first book in the Vorkosigan/Barrayar books. It’s a funny thing about reviews. Look at the contemporaneous reviews for this book which launched a career, thousands of diehard fands, hundreds of thousands (if not more) readers, and a vast amount of fan-created material:
“[Bujold] gives [her] characters enough emotional depth, and enough sense, to raise their story beyond cliché.” –Locus
”Bujold has a nice hand with the complications . . . All in all, Shards is a worthy effort, and worth reading for any fan of SF romance.” –Analog
These little tidbits could be best-described as “lukewarm.” Anyone with a remote clue could see this is a great book. Its fast pace and constant twists remind me of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books, but instead of Jersey, it’s deep space.
I think that’s “Worldmaster Grey” and the Space Witch on that cover … the actual characters are Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan, who look little to nothing like these attractive (not) images. One of Cordelia’s crew dies in Chapter 1, and Aral proposes marriage to his captive, Cordelia, in Chapter 4 or 5 or so. Then all hell breaks loose.
By the way, Cordelia and Aral fit the criteria I requested of the Baycon Romance panel and audience: Name me a romantic pair in SF/F where the female has more power than the male – Cordelia doesn’t exactly have more power than Aral but she is a Commander and a professional and calls her own shots. And he needs her. If you haven’t read these, you’ll eat these babies like popcorn …
• What did you recently finish reading?
I read several books about the Vikings, including The Vikings by Robert Wernick, and The Vikings by Else Roesdahl. I read this type of thing while I’m working out or at the pool.
• What do you think you’ll read next?
I’ve only read two of the Barrayar books books by Lois McMaster Bujold. It’s awfully tempting to keep reading! Other “notable books” in SF/F published in 1986 include William Gibson’s Burning Chrome. The prior year, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game were published. Now that I am re-reading Shards of Honor, guess which one I think tagged what it should be between men and women and was most future-looking?
Gee, I guess the one where the fully-realized, sophisticated future world spanning the galaxy has many different societies and political systems, where an independent man and woman can fall in love and blend cultures, where people actually care about each other and have some sense of honor that is self-derived … time really does tell, doesn’t it? Ender’s Game is, of course, about a little boy who is tricked into killing for the benefit of humanity and he’s mad-crazy great at it. If you haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale, it will depress you. In this future world, the few women who can have children are forced to have babies with wealthy, powerful men whose wives aren’t too fond of the concept but who go along with it anyway.
What about you? What are you reading, have you been reading, wanting to read next?
