(no subject)
Dec. 7th, 2012 08:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretCaptain Vorpatril's Alliance is the newest Vorkosigan novel. As a longtime fan of the series, I'm always pleased to see more of these characters that Bujold has made us love.
CVA is the notorious, long-rumored 'Ivan's Book'. It is as indulgent as that makes it sound, an unabashed homage to a supporting character from the series that Bujold clearly adores insupportably.
It is also Bujold writing A Civil Campaign for Ivan instead of Miles, and... that is kind of problematic because Ivan doesn't need A Civil Campaign the way Miles does. If Miles is going to find love (and Miles needs to find love, because he is incredibly desperate for family), he needs to learn how to be a husband. ACC is Miles learning how to submerge himself in a marriage without losing himself, as Ekaterin learns to do the same thing. Ivan is just a really good potential husband who decides he ought to get married eventually. And then he does, and all of society cheers because everyone thinks he ought to get married.
To a woman. Because boys are definitely gross. Oh yeah, the other problem with CVA is that there's this weird counterpoint underneath the extremely heterosexual narrative which is about Byerly wanting to sleep with Ivan, and Ivan being totally revolted, only instead Byerly ends up forced to marry a girl by order of the Emperor. Stay classy, LMB.
Um... I suppose there were things I liked? I really loved the one scene we got of Miles and Ekaterin being parents. I loved this version of Illyan, and I liked that we got to see Illyan from perspectives other than just Miles's. I loved when [spoiler] happened because it was so [spoiler]. I liked that the ending had meaningful consequences for the characters, and I like how much that contrasted the way Gregor and Illyan and Aral inevitably tried to shield Miles from the consequences at the end of all his adventures, and how it ultimately backfired. But mostly I think CVA stacks with Cryoburn and Diplomatic Immunity as disappointing later books in the Vorkosigan series, nowhere near the brilliant bar set by the Mirror Dance/Memory/Komarr/A Civil Campaign run.
CVA is the notorious, long-rumored 'Ivan's Book'. It is as indulgent as that makes it sound, an unabashed homage to a supporting character from the series that Bujold clearly adores insupportably.
It is also Bujold writing A Civil Campaign for Ivan instead of Miles, and... that is kind of problematic because Ivan doesn't need A Civil Campaign the way Miles does. If Miles is going to find love (and Miles needs to find love, because he is incredibly desperate for family), he needs to learn how to be a husband. ACC is Miles learning how to submerge himself in a marriage without losing himself, as Ekaterin learns to do the same thing. Ivan is just a really good potential husband who decides he ought to get married eventually. And then he does, and all of society cheers because everyone thinks he ought to get married.
To a woman. Because boys are definitely gross. Oh yeah, the other problem with CVA is that there's this weird counterpoint underneath the extremely heterosexual narrative which is about Byerly wanting to sleep with Ivan, and Ivan being totally revolted, only instead Byerly ends up forced to marry a girl by order of the Emperor. Stay classy, LMB.
Um... I suppose there were things I liked? I really loved the one scene we got of Miles and Ekaterin being parents. I loved this version of Illyan, and I liked that we got to see Illyan from perspectives other than just Miles's. I loved when [spoiler] happened because it was so [spoiler]. I liked that the ending had meaningful consequences for the characters, and I like how much that contrasted the way Gregor and Illyan and Aral inevitably tried to shield Miles from the consequences at the end of all his adventures, and how it ultimately backfired. But mostly I think CVA stacks with Cryoburn and Diplomatic Immunity as disappointing later books in the Vorkosigan series, nowhere near the brilliant bar set by the Mirror Dance/Memory/Komarr/A Civil Campaign run.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-12-07 08:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-12-07 09:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-12-07 11:04 pm (UTC)I don't even like Ivan/Byerly (I mean, it's not so much that I dislike it as that, like you say, the canon vibe is really weird) but TYM sold me on it.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-12-10 03:49 pm (UTC)