Cryoburn
Remember in my last post when I kvetched about Feed being the first in a trilogy, and that not being listed on the cover? Annoying, right? Well, this book tops that. It's the 20th (not a typo) in a series. When I found out I was furious. Nowhere is this noted on the cover. I had to go online to discover it once I had the realization that characters had a deeper understanding of one another than they should. I was able to fill in some of the blanks via Wikipedia and Amazon reviews, but I kept having the lagging notion that I was missing something.
Writing up this kind of book is unfair. On Twitter I've met people who absolutely love the Vorkosigan Saga. I can see why, Miles Vorkosigan is a fun character. He's part James Bond and part Malcolm Reynolds. It's easy to get attached to his sense of humor, his style, and his past. However, it takes time to do this, book 20 is not the place to start. This isn't to say that Lois McMaster Bujold is terrible author. She's got talent. The book whizzes by at a nice clip, she puts twists and turns in all the right places, and she makes her characters very likable. And yet, this book couldn't keep my interest. I didn't care for it, but that doesn't mean it's bad it just means that I can't commit to something this large and time consuming.
If this book wins best novel at the Hugo Awards it will be because McMaster Bujold has created a world that everyone loves. She's spent a huge amount of her life writing and living with Miles. However, my main criticism with this work is that it doesn't do anything new. Epic space operas have their time and place, but the content seems to always be the same. In comparison to Grant's Feed it falls far behind. Grant spends time creating a world out of firmly established rules. McMaster Bujold spends time filling in back story. To me, science fiction has always been about pushing boundaries. McMaster Bujold doesn't do that. She writes novels that exist with in a well worn template.
My next novel is Blackout. Apparently, and I know this walking in, this is half a novel. The second half is All Clear. Want to know how I knew that? It was on the cover. Like it should have been.
Remember in my last post when I kvetched about Feed being the first in a trilogy, and that not being listed on the cover? Annoying, right? Well, this book tops that. It's the 20th (not a typo) in a series. When I found out I was furious. Nowhere is this noted on the cover. I had to go online to discover it once I had the realization that characters had a deeper understanding of one another than they should. I was able to fill in some of the blanks via Wikipedia and Amazon reviews, but I kept having the lagging notion that I was missing something.
Writing up this kind of book is unfair. On Twitter I've met people who absolutely love the Vorkosigan Saga. I can see why, Miles Vorkosigan is a fun character. He's part James Bond and part Malcolm Reynolds. It's easy to get attached to his sense of humor, his style, and his past. However, it takes time to do this, book 20 is not the place to start. This isn't to say that Lois McMaster Bujold is terrible author. She's got talent. The book whizzes by at a nice clip, she puts twists and turns in all the right places, and she makes her characters very likable. And yet, this book couldn't keep my interest. I didn't care for it, but that doesn't mean it's bad it just means that I can't commit to something this large and time consuming.
If this book wins best novel at the Hugo Awards it will be because McMaster Bujold has created a world that everyone loves. She's spent a huge amount of her life writing and living with Miles. However, my main criticism with this work is that it doesn't do anything new. Epic space operas have their time and place, but the content seems to always be the same. In comparison to Grant's Feed it falls far behind. Grant spends time creating a world out of firmly established rules. McMaster Bujold spends time filling in back story. To me, science fiction has always been about pushing boundaries. McMaster Bujold doesn't do that. She writes novels that exist with in a well worn template.
My next novel is Blackout. Apparently, and I know this walking in, this is half a novel. The second half is All Clear. Want to know how I knew that? It was on the cover. Like it should have been.
(Image brought to you by: tigershavefoundme)
No comments:
Post a Comment