There were a couple times where she set there two views in contrast to each other. Her characterization also stood above others to me, especial with Cordelia and Aral. Plenty of action, adventure, and romance ensue.īujold doesn't shy away from serious topics, but she's also got a good sense of balance and humor. Here we're introduced to Cordelia Naismith-Miles' mother-as she meets Aral Vorkosigan.
Those already had me convinced Bujold knew what she was doing, but I was a little surprised to see that she had it all the way back at her first novel. This is the third (or fourth?) time I'm re-reading Shards of Honor and though it doesn't hold up as well as Bujold's later books (especially its chronological sequel Barrayar), I absolutely adore the Aral/Cordelia build-up, which is somehow made even more precious in retrospect.īefore this, I've read a couple random selections from the Vorkosigan universe (a couple Miles novellas and ). I actually already have this marked as read because my copy of Shards of Honor is part of an omnibus. The care Bujold takes in crafting these characters and navigating these though questions is just stunning. This is some really hard-hitting sci-fi that asks a lot of difficult questions about the right thing to do and the meaning and value of a life. Everything is grey and everything hurts. Despite her obvious distaste for a lot of Barrayan customs she is also incredibly and believably empathetic in everything she does she tries to understand and to be kind (while also being absolutely bad-ass). Interestingly, being principled doesn't mean that Cordelia is incapable of understanding where other people are coming from. The reason for that is that the book is still about Cordelia struggling to be true to her principles and to be a good person- it's her care for Ensign Dubauer through the first act, her forgiveness of Bothari in the second, her compassion for near-strangers (Koudelka, Elena) and her love and trust for Aral that is what makes Cordelia one of my favourite characters ever. The plot itself focuses on Aral's honor but recall what Aral says about Cordelia, and also remember that the omnibus is titled Cordelia's honor. In a perfect echo of Aral's speech on unforgiveable acts most of Shards seems pretty bloodless, especially in contrast with a lot of contemporary fantasy/science-fiction, but it really isn't- the consequences of each decision is carefully laid out in the book, and these often take the form of irreparable scars, both physically (Koudelka) and mentally (Bothari, Aral), and sometimes even reach far beyond the book itself (baby Elena) Near the end of the book Aral says that honor flows from Cordelia like a fountain, which is clearly the highest compliment to his mind There are no grand speeches of love or irrational acts of passion but the basis of their courtship has to do with the thing that they're both struggling and searching for, and here Cordelia cuts through the bullcrap to lay out why and how it is possible for them to fall in love, and to build a relationship despite their stark differences
#Shards of war personajes how to
We both come up empty, mostly." I've seen lots of reviewers hesitate over how to describe the central romance of Shards of Honor because it's both downplayed and overtly romantic all at the same time, and I think it has to do with precisely this. We call it by different names and look in different places. Cordelia's answer is that she sees someone like herself. One of my favourite quotes from Cordelia is when she meets Emperor Ezar Vorbarra and he asks her what she sees in Aral. I've always taken the title to be an allusion to the major plot point of the book, which is omitted here because it's a pretty major plot point, but it dawned on me during this particular re-read that the WHOLE DAMN BOOK is about honor, if only I cared to look for it This is a placeholder for some incoherent thoughts about honor and about the book as a whole:
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