Cordelia's Honor

I mentioned on twitter a little while ago that I'd never read any of the Vorkosigan books, and had a few friends admonish me over the fact. One of them was kind enough to include a link to a free ebook of this volume, so I was encouraged to give it a read.

I LOVED IT.

At first it seemed like it was going to be the typical “two radically different people are thrown together in an unlikely situation that causes them to fall in love” story. I usually hate that kind of story, with the two exceptions of The African Queen and Speed. Bujold manages to make it work, though - the romance between Cordelia and Aral feels realistic and a logical consequence of their personalities, rather than something just slapped onto the story.

Another thing that I really liked about this book was the attention given to the sociopolitical realities of the novel. A lot of the time that's something that's glossed over in SF, but here it forms a large part of the narrative. If anything I was reminded of Martin's Game of Thrones for that aspect (although admittedly it's less gory and convoluted as that book gets).

I'm really glad I checked this one out and I look forward to reading the rest of the series!