Shards of Honour

I've been gradually reading Bujold's works in the wrong order, which eventually brings me to this one. Knowing that this was her first novel, I wasn't expecting too much, but in fact it makes a pretty good start to the Vorkosigan saga, and I read the whole thing in one afternoon, which I did routinely when I was younger but don't tend to do these days. It's a good story.

The one criticism that occurs to me at this point is that it features a case of mutual love-at-first-sight, which I suppose must happen to some people, but I still find it rather implausible. The non-mutual kind is easier to believe.

Although Aral and Cordelia make a good hero/heroine pair, with some weaknesses to make them more believable, this story makes neither of their home worlds (Barrayar and Beta Colony respectively) seem attractive. It wasn't written to encourage tourism.