So.

[telophase]

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. What? You didn't know it was out? It's not, yet, but you can buy the eARC from Baen for $15.

So anyway, I just finished it.



I think my major impression is: My God, people stand around talking a lot. I didn't bother to try to follow the machinations of what was going on. Also, the moment where I had to keep reading to know how it was going to turn out didn't happen until over halfway through the book.

It pretty much, like Cryoburn, read as Contractual Obligation Book. Also, it took place before the final 500 words of Cryoburn, although I didn't figure that out until part of the way in. And now I can't recall if there was any mention in passing of Ivan being married in Cryoburn or if Bujold Had a Better Idea, as she says.

Anyway, there you have it. I'm not sad I bought and read it, but it pretty much just another book to me, now. My 15-year-younger self would have been shocked to hear me say that about any Vorkosigan-related book, so that feels kinda sad (although I've been dealing with that feeling since Cryoburn).

ETA: I should point out that ellen_fremedon had a more positive reaction than I did. :)

Comments

[ellen_fremedon]

It takes place before all of Cryoburn, not just the last 500 words-- several years earlier. (I believe Miles is 39 in Cryoburn; he's 35 in this one, or 36 in the Epilogue.)

There's no mention of Ivan at all in Cryoburn until the epilogue, that I recall-- I don't think he's even namechecked.

And I think how much you like the book might depend on how much you like Ivan going in. He's one of my very favorites, so I was predisposed to like any book that gave me lots of Ivan POV.

[telophase]

I like Ivan a lot, and liked him better as my infatuation with Miles waned over the past...dear god has it been over 20 years since I started reading them?! I'm happy he got his book! However ... there was just something missing for me and I'm not really sure what.

[mme_hardy]

IMHO, emotional depth and stakes.

[telophase]

That may be it.

[mme_hardy]

Here's my rant.

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

From what we see of Miles, the story is about two years after Diplomatic Immunity. And honestly Ivan has been rather absent from the story since A Civil Campaign, except for that small drabble at the end of Cryoburn, and there's no mention of the marriage.

Though I must admit I was giggling hysterically at what happened to Cockroach Central.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Possibly it's a C O book. But I enjoyed the heck of it anyway. Mostly because Bujold managed to smack my funnybone dead on. I was laughing out loud repeatedly. Someone with a different sense of humor wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I thought it was amusing, but for some reason wasn't laughing out loud. (I think I was going, "...wait, buildings don't hold together like that! It should be collapsing! Oh, right, it's The Future and it's built of Future Stuff. So it may be reinforced not to shake apart." So, if it was mentioned that the building was built not to shake apart in earthquakes, for example, then I missed it.)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

There were a couple of points I laughed, but I didn't find it as amusing as that. It might just be that I'm no longer the person I was when I loved her earlier books, so that the bits I'd have loved and laughed over just don't hit me in the same spots anymore.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Huh. I have been on the fence about buying it, because Ivan is my favorite character. I didn't read Cryoburn because I've been so increasingly disappointed with the later books, which have felt either disappointing or in some cases something of a character betrayal. I dunno. *is still torn*

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I thought it was better than Cryoburn--I think her last few books suffered from being written after Miles' driving theme (acceptance) was done. He just didn't have anything more to really prove.

You will get plenty of Ivan, and more Ivan character depth, I grant you that! However, I just realized one thing that I didn't like about it, which would be somewhat of a spoiler, so I shall refrain from mentioning it

[selenite.livejournal.com]

There's some bits in Memory where Miles discovers how well-designed the building is for paranoia. Presumably it would've been sturdier than your average skyscraper. But this seems to be mostly Rule of Funny, yes.

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

Well, there was the bit in the Imperial Inquest that mentioned the triple reinforcement on the beams or something along those lines. Throughout the series it's been mentioned about Mad Yuri's architect was just as crazy and paranoid as his benefactor, but he knew his engineering.

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

At which point did the series loose you?

[alicebentley]

I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it certainly fits in the ranks of the "lighter" Vorkosigan books. Less Universe-In-Peril and more Does She Like Me?.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was pretty much Romance Novel Escapades. Which isn't a bad thing, mind you!

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Edited to warn for mild spoiler about Byerly, sorry!

I thought it was somewhat of a return to form. Not a patch on the truly great Vorkosigan books like Memory, but after the bland Cryoburn and the Sharing Knife books, which I found so deadly dull that I gave up up even skimmming in the middle of the third one, it was comparatively entertaining and compelling to read. Definitely more in the Civil Campaign mode, romance with a large dose of politics and only tiny bits of adventure, but fun.

My only real irritation was Byerly. I know she's relatively old and has always had somewhat of a fixation on het-pairing people off anyway, but at least in previous books there had been acknowledgement of other possibilities. It was pretty unconvincing in itself, and in combination the past history of people like Aral, it felt very much like it was saying "People who claim to be bi are really just fucking the occasion guy/girl while waiting to find their True Hetrosexual Life Mate."

[estara.livejournal.com]

SPOILEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERS

I just finished it myself and I really enjoyed it ^^ . It's not a Miles book, but I did think after the exploration of death and old age and inheritance that happened in Cryoburn, she wanted to go a breather route again (she's done it before) and that meant it had a slightly A Civil Campaign sort of tone (complete to crazy critters being responsible for a lovely set piece of slapstick - nothing can top the butter bugs, but the earth dissolving fungus did well with an eyesore, and I loved Mark getting in the last word on that).

I enjoyed getting a view on the usual main characters from Ivan and the fact that his wife values him for not being an overachiever in a family of them.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Spoil me!

I'm feeling cranky that By gets heterosexually married--so far as I can tell, Bujold has het married off all the bisexuals, so I'm not sure I'm up for reading it....

[telophase.livejournal.com]

In that case: Ivan doesn't really get to be a hero in his own book - he doesn't really have an active hand in solving the main problems of the plot. And while he's put into a situation that he has an understandable phobias about, it doesn't really affect him so he doesn't get the big getting-over-it payoff. It's made a point of that his partner is attracted to him in part because he's unremarkable (in comparison to the rest of his family and acquaintances!)...but that shouldn't mean he can't get a chance to shine in *some* way!

Yup, By gets het-paired-off and even though, as someone pointed out in another post I came across, he ends up with a seriously queer partner by Barrayaran standards, she's still By's het partner by our standards. I dislike that Bujold wants to pair everyone off and start making babies--it's obviously a theme she likes to signify happily-ever-after and life-goes-on, but it's kind of tiresome by now.

And I'm getting tired of her verbal tics: everybody opens their hands to signify stuff, and people trail after others a lot. I've been reading those for twenty years now!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, probably right around Diplomatic Immunity.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the pairing-off-and-making-babies thing (not that By appears to be doing that, but everyone else seems to want to!) signifies Happily Ever After to her, and it's getting a bit tiresome.

Also ... Ivan does't get to be the hero in his own story! It took me reflecting on it afterward to realize he's mostly an observer along for the ride by the end. He doesn't even get to actively overcome his phobias.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I've been explicating my objections a bit more in comments above, so I'll just say: the short version is that Ivan doesn't get to DO anything really active in producing the resolution to the book, not even actively overcome his phobia of dark enclosed spaces with rushing water. I like Ivan, and he grew on me more and more as I realized through the series that it's not that he was an idiot, it's that he was merely intelligent in a family of super-geniuses. But I wanted him to shine, and he didn't get the chance.

[estara.livejournal.com]

I guess the shiny bits for me were the way that it was understatedly shown that he's incredibly efficient at his job and the way he organised that planet they were exiled to at the end, but if you're talking of a Miles-level of shine and save the day, you're totally correct.
I didn't have the impression that Ivan wanted to shine at that level, though.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Shining doesn't mean Miles-level coming out on top, it means being the hero of his own book: doing something that resolves the plot. He was mostly along for the ride.

Organizing the planet at the end would have been nice if it were part of the plot, but instead it was a tell-not-show moment at the end.

[estara.livejournal.com]

I can see your point. It may be I won't be able to overlook that on a reread.

[trobadora]

It pretty much, like Cryoburn, read as Contractual Obligation Book.

...seriously? To me it reads as a love letter to the Vorkosiverse. There were parts of the book I disliked, and parts I loved to itty bitty pieces, but it seemed to me it showed a massive amount of affection and love for all the characters and details.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

That might be what you got out of it, but what I got out of it was name-checking: every previous character had to be mentioned in passing at least once, because that's what the readers would want. And Ivan wasn't an active character in the resolution of the plot, but I've discussed that in other comment where so won't retype it again. :)