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Miles Vorkosigan--SHARDS OF HONOR - favorite/least favorite characters
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Well, that horrible man who raped and tortured the women and Cordelia was easy to hate. I guess he would be my least favorite character.My favorite character? That's a harder one because the likable characters were all so well-drawn in my opinion. I liked both main characters immensely, but for different reasons. Cordelia, because she was sassy, followed her heart while doing her duty, which came completely naturally to her. Aral, because he always endeavored to "do the right thing". It was a conscious effort on his part, which cost him a lot most of the time. He could have chosen the easy path and perhaps benefitted "more" from it.
Bothari (sp?) was one of my favorite & least favorite characters through out the series & it started here. I'd probably hate him if I had to deal with him in person, but he was such a well done, tortured personality - over all the books. Depending on the situation, he could be both the best & worst of Barrayar. This book really doesn't get a grasp on any of the characters, IMO. Everyone is a bit of a cardboard cut out, but they're well filled in later.
In some ways, I felt that Aral was the better realized character - even if this book's writing felt a bit thin, and could have benefited from a lot more fleshing out, his evident conflicts of interest -- with the honorable route, the loyal route, and the humanly moral choice -- gave him consistency.While Cordelia seemed more immediate, throughout, I felt she was also presented with better care in the opening shots of this book. To me, she fell short toward the ending. She was portrayed as smart enough to keep thinking through the whole survival march, and through out her various bouts of imprisonment. She always managed to think forward and respond under pressure, and used every instinct and skill she possessed to outmaneuver a sticky situation. But when she arrives back at Beta, suddenly she starts acting naiive to the point of stupidity.
From her fanfare reception at the landing with the president, and throughout the period where the "system" is mishandling her case, she totally lost my respect. Yes, she had been under the gun, and was traumatically stressed - but, as reader, I didn't buy that she could become so utterly blind to her fate. Paranoia alone should have made her suspect traps - the reader could see the traps - and she just walked into them like a string puppet with no head.
Even if she had been through a complete mental breakdown, her innate intelligence would not have evaporated. The resourcefulness she showed earlier - I'd have bought it, that it could be misdirected or blind-sided by her superiors - but not that it ceased to exist. If they thought her a brainwashed spy, she would have been a dangerous one - the handling seemed too simplistic, and the conclusions, a bit too pat.
She was, at this point, (to me) walking through a plot without the sense of a living human reaction. Shown with a bit more depth, the same idea would have played with a neat, taut suspense.
The fact that the later books in this series never lost my credibility in this way - I wonder what the "rush" was to finish this volume, or what other factors may have been in play for the author - because one of Bujold's capital trade marks is the ingenious solution and the unpredictable route to the finish. Miles never stops thinking and reacting. Never marches to the system's drummer. Neither does the problem confronting him feel shallow or ring short of credibility. He is well matched, as protagonist, to his challenges.
Without the (apparent) over-simplification, this book had the hard blueprint for the same kind of brilliance. Although I don't think it was published first out for the author's debut, (if I remember correctly) it may have been written much earlier on.
Past question, it is the insights from the later volumes that shore up this one. This is not a careless author, just possibily, here, inexperienced?
Just my thought. (I am an admirer)
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I also thought the contrast between Bothari and Vorrutyer was really well done. Bothari used/needed the structure of the military to control his darkest urges - whereas Vorrutyer used that structure to fulfill those urges. The scene where Bothari turns on Vorrutyer was the pivotal point of the story for me.
Janny - I agree that Cordelia lost some consistency in the second half of the novel, when she returns to Beta Colony. I guess she needed to lose some of her customary composure for the plot, but you're absolutely right - Bujold usually doesn't need such tricks. That's one of the reasons why I always considered this the weakest novel in the series (aside from Falling Free - which isn't really part of the series anyway).
No votes for the Emperor? It's just a walk-on part, but the old guy is brilliant. His political acumen is unmatched, and uncluttered by considerations like morality or honour (look at his assessment of his own son--he would let the monster live if only he thought he would be an effective emperor, but the boy is useless as well as corrupt); in realpolitik he can't afford such illusions. His solution to the problems that his own approaching death will cause is creative, effective and completely thought out, even if it is also horrifically bloody and uses up the few people he respects. It even gives the Prince some measure of glory in death, which simple assassination wouldn't accomplish, and which will be useful for the later transfer of power.
The Emperor was on the fence for me. I agree with everything Ron said, but I think I placed the emphasis differently. He was brilliant, but not smart enough to kill off his son without using up a LOT of people, both friend & foe, through a war of aggression that didn't turn out so well. I just found him a sad figure, a man so entangled in political power that he lost his humanity.
"Although I don't think it was published first out for the author's debut, (if I remember correctly) it may have been written much earlier on."Apparently Shards of Honor, Warrior's Apprentice and Ethan of Athos were all published in the same year. I seem to remember hearing that Shards was the first to be written.
I agree that Cordelia's return to Beta Colony was one of the weaker bits of the book. I can understand Cordelia not behaving the same as in the rest of the series, because she is still in shock after her traumatic experience, but even considering that she didn't really feel like Cordelia. It is an unusual example of Bujold's characterisation being unconvincing since it is normally one of her strengths, I can't immediately think of any other examples in the series where the characterisation was so weak.
I have to agree with Ron on this one, the Emperor is a fabulous character.Jim, I understand what you mean, but I think the Emperor sacrificed those people deliberately, to the greater glory of his son's reputation - and thus the reflection on him [the Emperor:] as his progenitor. Sure, he could have had him quietly die of some 'accident' at a country estate or something, but the way he planned it, his son goes out as something of a hero, with a huge PR machine to paint it the way the Emperor wanted it remembered.
The moral thing to do? No, but definitely in character for this Emperor.
(I'll save my own answer for later!)