Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold

*From the back cover:* Leo Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: mind your own business, fix what's wrong and move on to the next job. Everything neat and according to spec, just the way he liked it. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat. Could you just stand there and allow the exploitation of hundreds of helpless children merely to enhance the bottom line of a heartless mega-corporation?

Leo Graf adopted 1000 quaddies--now all he had to do was teach them to be free.

2.5 out of 5 stars

After starting Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion series, I'm now dipping my toe into her Vorkosigan Saga. Falling Free is the first book in the series when reading in internal-chronological order.

Even though it was written thirty years ago, it still holds up and doesn't show its age. I was never hooked by the story, but it moves quickly enough and I was consistently amused by the idea of genetically engineered humans with four arms floating around a space station. This is one of the lower rated entries of the series, and the next book is fairly short, so I think I will see how I like that one before making a decision about whether to commit to the rest of the series.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

Zo. Eindelijk begonnen aan Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan-saga. Of eigenlijk toch niet: dit is het vierde boek dat ze schreef in de reeks, maar volgens interne chronologie is het het eerste. En ik weet niet meer hoe of waarom, maar ik heb besloten om ze in volgorde van interne chronologie te lezen, dus bij deze: een Vorkosigan-boek zonder Vorkosigan.

Het speelt zich bijna allemaal af op een ruimtestation waar een aantal wetenschappers een ras mensen hebben gemaakt dat perfect geschikt is voor leven in gewichtloosheid. De quaddies hebben vier armen, in de plaats van twee armen en twee benen. De oudste ervan is ondertussen 20 en ze zijn met een stuk of duizend, grotendeels kinderen. De oorspronkelijke leidinggevende wetenschapper is ondertussen ook gestorven, er is een ambtenaar (denk Eichmann was een ambtenaar) aan de macht, en die bekijkt de quaddies als niet meer dan inzetbare assets van zijn bedrijf.

Komt Leo Graf, een sympathieke ingenieur, aan boord om les te geven. Trekt die zich het lot van de kinderen aan. Volgt een spannende jeugdroman, met zeer slechte slechteriken en veel goede mensen, een beetje romantiek, gevechten, onwaarschijnlijke situaties: zeer leutig allemaal, op een zware ondergrond van suspension of disbelief, en zonder veel échte verrassingen.

I think this was the first book I ever read by Lois McMaster Bujold. I read it in 1990 and evidently didn't take to it, because I sold it to a bookshop in 1993 and didn't try anything more by her until 2000. Eventually I became a fan of some of her later books, and in 2023 I bought this one again in order to give it another try—having forgotten everything about it.This was bold and innovative science fiction when published in 1988, it won the Nebula Award, and perhaps deserved to win it. But it's not the sort of book I enjoy. I tend to empathize with the characters I'm reading about, and the characters in this story are kept in fear and distress all the way through, which makes me very uncomfortable.I can tolerate some bad things happening in a story, for the sake of the story, but I think there should be ups and downs: the bad times should be balanced by the good times. In her early years as a novelist, at least, Bujold obviously didn't agree with me, and her novel [b:Barrayar 61905 Barrayar (Vorkosigan Saga, #7) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397151220l/61905.SY75.jpg 3036422] is also underappreciated by me because it keeps the characters suffering for almost its entire length.Bujold usually provides her stories with a happy ending (even [b:Barrayar 61905 Barrayar (Vorkosigan Saga, #7) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397151220l/61905.SY75.jpg 3036422] has a relatively happy ending), and this one gives us something that feels like a happy ending; but in fact it's illusory, because the characters haven't solved their problems yet, they haven't really found safety. Apparently Bujold originally intended to write a sequel telling the rest of the story, but it never got written. A much later novel, [b:Diplomatic Immunity 61901 Diplomatic Immunity (Vorkosigan Saga, #13) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1297832355l/61901.SY75.jpg 2511259], confirms that they did find safety at last, without detailing how it was done.This story contains a few sections explaining engineering problems involving future technology, and exactly how they were solved. The young Bujold was doubtless proud of herself for being able to do this kind of thing, but I'm not an engineer, and don't tend to be fascinated by engineering problems. She explains it well enough that I could probably understand the problem and the solution; but I'm afraid I'm not really interested. There are other sf writers who do this, and I can sometimes take an interest if the problem and the solution are sufficiently bizarre (for example, [b:The Unorthodox Engineers 6101984 The Unorthodox Engineers Colin Kapp https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1286398594l/6101984.SY75.jpg 6279247]), but in most cases I skim over the details until the main plot resumes.

Executive Summary: Much like [b:Ethan of Athos 990093 Ethan of Athos (Vorkosigan Saga, #3) Lois McMaster Bujold https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1365244555s/990093.jpg 2030693] this one had a very strange premise. I thought it was alright, but I'm hoping the series focuses on Miles again soon.Audiobook: Grover Gardner does another good job. When you're not sure about a book, having a good narrator can be a big help.Full ReviewI had issues with this book. It wasn't the idea of Quaddies themselves, but the idea of genetically engineering what are essentially slaves. Leo was a pretty good character, but the book felt like a sort of White Savior story at times. Leo wasn't as bad about this as some of the others. He seemed more about helping them help themselves than being their savior.The quaddies themselves weren't so much there to be saved as they were people born into a bad situation that wasn't of their own making. I don't remember the names of any of the other characters at this point, but the main antagonist was an awful human being who treated the quaddies like property instead of people.I read this book a few months ago now, so some of the details aren't as clear, but I remember one of the main female quaddies was my favorite.I struggled with this book at times, but there are some interesting ideas explored here. I'd probably have preferred something a bit more light and fun. I'll continue the series as it looks like the next one finally returns to Miles. The one book I've read where he's been the focus is the one I've enjoyed the most of the series so far.