I thought, perhaps, when we arrive on Barrayar, and you are free, you might consider staying.” “To visit— where you said, Bonsanklar, and so on? I don’t know how much leave I’ll have, but— sure, I like to see new places. I’d like to see your planet.” “Not a visit. Permanently. As— as Lady Vorkosigan.” His face brightened with a wry smile. “I’m making a hash of this….
How long have you been thinking along these lines?” “It first occurred to me when I saw you in the ravine.” “What, throwing up in the mud?” He grinned at that. “With great composure. By the time we finished burying your officer, I knew.” She rubbed her lips. “Anybody ever tell you you’re a lunatic?”…
“It wouldn’t be an easy life….It would be more dangerous than soldiering— chances of betrayal, false charges, assassination, maybe exile, poverty, death….”You sure know how to show a girl a good time,” she said helplessly, rubbing her chin and smiling.
–Shards of Honor–
“Officers. I recommend that when this conference resumes, you surrender unconditionally upon Lord Vorkosigan’s mercy. He may still have some.” I certainly don’t, was the unspoken cap to that. “I’m tired of your stupid war. End it.” Piotr edged past her. She smiled bitterly at him. He grimaced uneasily back. “It appears I underestimated you,” he murmured. “Don’t you ever . . . cross me again. And stay away from my son.”
–Barrayar–
**spoilers**
I enjoyed this a lot. I have heard for years and years what a great character Miles Vorkosigan was and this is the story of how his parents, Captain Cordelia Naismith and Lord Aral Vorkosigan, two people from different and unfriendly planets came to be a couple. It is an action/adventure/political intrigue story which also sets the scene and begins the world building of the 16 main volumes of The Vorkosigan Saga. Also, a little bit of a love story. Cordelia’s Honor is actually 2 books published years apart but reading as one novel, Part 1 (Shards of Honor)and Part 2 (Barrayar). Barrayar picks up seamlessly where Shards of Honor leaves off: Cordelia and Miles married on Barrayar and Cordelia trying to become acclimatized to a culture so different from her own: militaristic, patriarchal, and old-fashioned. This is complicated by Miles having been maneuvered to accept the regency for the child emperor upon the death of the current emperor, his grandfather, Ezar Vorbarra. This makes the pair powerful and very public figures in the empire. One of the storylines in Shards of Honor is the fate of Ezar’s son, Gregor’s father, the weak and depraved Prince Serg. Gregor will be in the best of hands being raised by Aral and Cordelia.
Cordelia is the main focus of Barrayar as well as Shards of Honor. When she and her unborn child are caught in the crossfire of an assassination attempt on her husband’s life, it results in the antidote for the poison causing permanent damage to the fetus. She has to fight for the life of her son because in the warrior culture of Barrayar anything less than being able-bodied is considered a shame and catastrophe. She even has to fight her former ally and admirer, Piotr, her father-in-law, who wants to kill Miles, his own grandson, for now secure and guarded in his Uterine Replicator. As if things could not get any worse, a right wing faction of Aral’s party stages a successful coup and attempts to kidnap the 5 year old emperor. He escapes but his mother Kareem does not. Cordelia goes on the run with Gregor while her husband fights to wrest the government back from the traitors. It is thrilling adventure of the highest order, made even more intense by Cordelia’s unborn son’s replicator being housed in the captured palace. It is in danger of being held hostage if discovered, or just shutting off without the proper maintenance. With her unborn son’s life a pawn in the battle between the traitors and the resistance, Cordelia will not be daunted from a daring “Mission Impossible,” aided by a small group of loyal attendants.
I loved the humor, I loved the action, I loved the complex political machinations, I loved the details of the culture and the history of Beta Colony (where Cordelia is from) and Barrayar. They are opposites in every way and the good and the bad of each are laid bare. There are some tough things to read in this book. The character building of primary and secondary players is phenomenal be they heroes or villains or something in between. Most of all I loved the relationship between Aral and Cordelia. Despite their differences, I felt no doubt that their loyalty to and esteem for each other would never be shaken. It was the peaceful constant in a sea of unpredictable and unremitting peril coming from all sides.
I am currently well over half-way into The Warriors Apprentice, the first book in the omnibus Young Miles which is the first in the series in which Miles is the main character. It takes place 17 years after The Hugo Award winning Barrayar comes to its rousing climax and hopeful conclusion. I can’t imagine how one could start out with this first book about Miles and really “get it” without first reading Cordelia’s Honor. I really can’t.
