Women in Space!

 As I wanted to do after finishing Barrayar, I finally got my hands on Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, which is the book preceding the former. 

While many of the events contained within are discussed in that volume, it really was better fleshed out reading this. 

Cordelia Naismith, a Beta Colony officer is on a survey mission when the team gets attacked by Barrayans. One of whom happens to be Aral Vorkosigan, who got abandoned on the planet due to political backstabbing. She, Aral, and one of her subordinates who is severely injured wind up making their way to a supply depot where they eventually do get back to space, after clearing up some political murders. 

They meet again during Barrayar's attempted invasion of Escobar, as Cordelia gets captured again by crazy Barrayans while running weaponry to Escobar. 

After the war is settled, Cordelia attempts to return to Beta Colony, only to find that politics there, while not quite as murderous, are just as treacherous. We eventually end as Cordelia marries Aral, and Aral becomes regent to the young prince of Barrayar as the Emperor lies dying. 

I mean, most of this story is known when the actual saga begins, but her three Cordelia books are wonderful reads.

Young Cordelia

 I should have written this up a few days ago, but work has been nuts.

At a long ago library sale, I picked up Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar, which is another chapter in her Vorkosigan Saga, focused on Miles's mother, Cordelia. (As I mention when I review books in the saga, I have yet to read a Miles book. However, Cordelia, Ethan, and her World of Five Gods series are some of the best books I've read. So, eventually....)

Cordelia Naismith-Vorkosigan has newly married Aral Vorkosigan, following some events that evidently happen in a prior book. As the current Emperor of Barrayar is dying, he appoints Aral to be Regent for his son, who is 5ish as the story opens. Cordelia is gravid with child, and Aral is trying hard to find a balance between the Vor class (Aristocrats, usually with the title of Count) and much more socialist plebes. 

Aral's attempts at progress (at this point, a new continent is being terraformed, and a new colony being built on Sergyar) are being resisted by hardline counts, who have some control over the military. This leads to a few assassination attempts, including a gas attack on him and Cordelia, which threatens her foetus. Cordelia, coming from Beta Colony, has no issues putting her son in a Uterine Replicator with an experimental treatment to try to prevent the side effects the poison and the antidote from killing Miles. 

Of course, one Count in particular tries to stage a coup; however, the young Emperor escapes to the Vorkosigan estate and Aral makes arrangements to get him somewhere safe. Cordelia also escapes, and winds up leading a small raid on the capital to save her baby. 

As I keep saying, McMaster Bujold is a fantastic author, and her Sci-fi, while not hard core tech, is some of the best I've ever read. Well worth the read.

Queen to Knight Two

Well, thanks to a new work schedule and a lot less free time, it took me nearly a month to finish Lois McMaster Bujold's Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. which really should not be considered a judgement on the novel or the writing, since it winds up being a VERY good book, most just me running low on reading time. (If I miss my 40 book goal for the year, I'll blame this one.)

The title refers to Admiral Oliver Jole and Vicereine Cordelia Vorkosigan, who are on Sergyar, a fairly recently colonized planet in the Barrayarian Empire. (Cordelia is the mother [and heroine of her own set of novels] of Miles Vorkosigan, whom most of the series is about.)

As we join the Admiral and the Vicereine, we hear about the one thing they share intimately: Cordelia's deceased husband, Aral. While the three were never particularly a triad (or thruple, if you feel like annoying a portion of the poly community), both shared a sexual relationship with Aral, who dies some months prior to thie opening of this book. Cordelia and Aral, prior to several novels ago, froze some of their genetic material with the idea of being able to have children later on. (Given the "fun" surrounding Miles birth....) Cordelia plans on having a few daughters via Uterine Replicator, and offers some of Aral's genetic material to Jole so that he could mix his gametes with Aral's to have sons.

Most of the first half of the book centers on Jole's coming to terms with the idea of having sons of his own, as well as a budding romance with Cordelia. (One thing I love about Bujold's writing is that she presents a wide variety of human sexuality, even as the explicit details are never presented.)

In the second half, Jole gets offered a huge promotion that would affect his romance with his lovers ex-wife as well as his own chances at fatherhood. Also, Cordelia's son Miles shows up, trying to figure out what's going on.

There are no epic space battles to be found in here, nor are there that many physical conflicts happening. The conflict here could be be described as middle aged humans trying to find their way through life's forks.

And it works. It works well. And the resolution is beautiful.

Honestly, while the Vorkosigan Saga is not hard sci-fi, it goes well beyond the rather fluffy "space opera" descriptor. One could do much worse than picking up a volume and enjoying the ride.

Spending time with old Sci-Fi

Many many years ago when I started coming out, there wasn't quite the amount of gay fiction available as there is today. And a good majority of what was available wasn't readily available to me. (Given I couldn't go to an adult store to get one of the "Adults Only" novels, and the book stores where I grew up didn't have a Gay and Lesbian interest section as of yet.)

These days, that isn't so much of an issue. Thanks to the internet, gay men are a click away, bookstores on-line and in storefronts have gay and lesbian interest sections, and the variety of fiction is much less limited.

But, back in the very early 90's...not so much.

I was blessed to meet a lesbian named Dakota when I really started coming out. Dakota was a councilor at a camp I was at, and was the first person I met who ever came out to me. She had a workshop one night on gays and gay issues, which I attended, and it was there that she passed out a wonderful list of books of interest for gay men and lesbians. Mind you, it was only about 7 pages, and about 4 of those pages were non fiction (mostly under the old Allyson imprint), but still, it gave me things to read that my small town library might actually have in stock. (Let's see. I remember Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles being on that list, The Front Runner (which I've still never read), and a little book called Ethan of Athos by Lois McMasters Bujold. I found that particular book on a school field trip to Dayton, OH, in a large book superstore that is no longer there.

I remember the terror in buying the book, and hiding my purchase from my classmates. And reading it furtively in my room. I was kind of disappointed at the lack of Jackie Collins-type literary smut, but I also wound up engrossed in the book, which was a very quick read. (Years later, I met the author at a book signing at the very same store I bought the book at in the first place and had her sign it for me.) 

Anyway, my roommate also got a Nook for Xmas, and I've been giving him a hand downloading audiobooks via the library. (He listens to books at work, since he has a desk job.) A few days ago, I found him Ethan of Athos while looking for one of her other series. I got it for him, and wound up re-reading my copy in the course of a few hours.

Ethan is a reproductive specialist on a planet of all men. He runs one of the many facilities with uterine replicators allowing men to reproduce without the aid of "uterine replicators on legs." However, given that the planet's society was founded with only 8 different uterii, it's not surprising that they wear out after 200 years. It comes as kind of a shock, though, when replacement uterine cultures show up that aren't human, boxes empty, etc. Thus how Ethan manages to get delegated to travel off world to find out what happened to those uteri. He leaves his rather flighty sometimes lover behind, and manages to engage in a wonderful adventure aboard Klein Station.

Well, I enjoyed the adventure. Ethan... not so much. He grows quite a bit, but remains true to his character throughout. There's no sudden discovery of latent heterosexuality by the end, he doesn't die... Which is a better fate than most gay characters get. While none of her other books feature a gay main character, she does have several supporting characters who are sexual minorities, none of which are stereotypes. When I started coming out, this was something I very much needed. As such, I highly recommend this and the rest of her work to anyone who likes Space Opera and Fantasy.