Falling Free

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.