Vorkosigan 8 -- Brothers in Arms--note--numbers are OUR reading order only

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Here's where to talk about Brothers in Arms

[Allan]

Just finished it today. One of her weaker efforts; it’s not as good as Shards of Honor, but right in there with The Warrior’s Apprentice. Ethan of Athos was better. It’s not a bad book, though, it’s short and it does have a definite lead-in to Mirror Dance, which was written later and is apparently one of the better ones.

[Antti]

I liked BiA much better than Warrior's Apprentice, not to mention Vor Game: if I don't count the novellas, this is tied with Cetaganda as my favourite Miles novel so far.

I'm a bit surprised I feel that way, since this is once again such an opera, with an (view spoiler)[evil twin brother (hide spoiler)]and everything - but this time it's flawless opera. All the other Miles books have had some flaws that have made me annoyed, but here the execution is just perfect. There is tension, great banter with Ivan, romance, audacious use of cliches, fast-paced plot and unexpected turns. This story also had a solid theme: finding out who you are and where your loyalties lay, and it was explored on multiple directions.

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

This one was really better than I remembered it. I had thought it was a little silly with the (view spoiler)[running back and forth in the big dike/dams, but I ended up liking that part, also. (hide spoiler)] I'm starting Mirror Dance now.

One thing that is really amazing about Bujold is the way she creates characters with such seeming ease. Galeni and Mark seem so real, immediately. Or maybe it's (view spoiler)[ the fact that we meet them both again, later, (hide spoiler)] that is coloring my mind. But I don't think so.

[Gabi]

I decided to jump books since I could not get invested in the first two Miles books, and I'm glad I did. I had the feeling that this one was better in ways of plot, wit and team of characters. I stayed a lot more focused while listening to it.

[Nick]

Antti wrote: "This story also had a solid theme: finding out who you are and where your loyalties lay, and it was explored on multiple directions."

Yeah, I agree the theme does give this book more depth than previous Miles books - and I'm just in awe of the way that Bujold manages to address these quite deep themes without ever getting bogged down in them. The book is still a rip-roaring adventure! You don't get much more melodramatic than (view spoiler)[a previously unknown evil twin brother (hide spoiler)] - but somehow it all pulls together without dropping into farce.

I also really appreciate the long shadow that Cordelia Naismith casts over the story - would Miles have acted differently to Mark if he hadn't had his mother's voice in the back of his mind: (view spoiler)[ Miles, what have you done with your baby brother? (hide spoiler)]

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Yes, Nick. Thank you for pointing out underlying structure and characterization that I have just totally incorporated and therefore not noticed. When I reread this book (often, though not as often as some installments in this series) I always smile when I read (view spoiler)[ Miles, what have you done with your baby brother? (hide spoiler)]

[Lee at ReadWriteWish]

Just finished. I really enjoyed this one. I did have an issue with how many spoilers I'd inadvertently stumbled upon about Mark's existence before reading this. (And I really do try so hard to avoid spoilers, so they're pretty much everywhere; even the book covers and blurbs are guilty of pretty much giving the game away.) I thought it would have been a better read if I'd not known until he was actually introduced into the plot.

I loved Galeni. As Kate said above, I could so easily picture him immediately.

I sometimes roll my eyes at Miles's internal struggles (I have zero patience IRL!) but I enjoyed his thoughts regarding turning his back on being Lord Vorkosigan and just being Admiral Naismith completely this time round. I loved that he decided to remain loyal to Barrayar and his family in the end. It reminded me a lot of his father in the earlier books.

I enjoyed Ivan's inclusion once again and loved that, in the end, Miles does class Ivan as more of a brother than cousin and is fiercely protective of him, despite the fact that Ivan tries his patience and fuels his jealousy on occasion.

I actually thought the title was quite clever too and thought it was a lot more to do with the loyalty theme than Mark, the actual brother.

I know most people say that you can begin this series anywhere but I now think the series has reached the point that you really would have to read some of the earlier books to make sense/get the most out of the books. I really think I would have struggled without a lot of the background when reading this one.

I'm not sure how I feel about Elli now. I really quite liked the sweet little crush she had on Miles in the earlier books but now that it's gone somewhere I'm unsure if I like its direction. Maybe it's because I much prefer Lord Vorkosigan over Admiral Naismith and she's vice versa.

The cat blanket was hilarious but, as it's winter here, I kinda want one now. (Although, you'd all say a winter in the Australian tropics is hardly worthy! LOL)

[Antti]

Lee: I actually had no idea there was going to be a clone in this book: I hadn't read the back cover, any reviews or even synopses of the other Miles books. I didn't even notice there were two Mileses in the cover, since the covers are so hideous I try to avoid looking at them!

And the cat blanket - I just now realized it was a device to prepare the reader for since ethically weird genetics/cloning stuff. Got to give it to LMB: that was pretty subtle.

(I found the cat blanket creepy as hell, bit then again I'm not very found of real cats, either)

[Nick]

Yes, the cat blanket was horrifying. How would you throw it away if you didn't like it? Imagine the cat blankets crawling out of the municipal dump, slithering home at night to return to their owners!

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

I like the cat blankets, myself. But I would probably be allergic

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

I finished the story and it was ice. I like how the author uses extremely ubiquitous tropes but still manages to shine a new light on them. If I only knew this book but its general plot idea, I'd refuse to read it but now I a glad I did

[Joe]

It seems I liked this one alot less than most... I thought this was my least favorite so far... or close anyway.

The intro to Mark was just plain silly, and I really would rather he didn't exist, but at the same time, I can't wait until Cordelia finds out he's around.

I was hoping for more with the Dendariis, and less Quinn (who I don't like nearly as much as the author does). Great send off for [spoiler]Tung [/spoiler] though, that made me pretty happy.

This felt like the middle book of a short series, where it's all set up... I'm sure Mark is back soon (Mirror Dance, if I was to wager).. clearly, there's a Komarr book coming up, so that'll sure feature Galeni in some way.

I find myself more interested in seeing the Dendariis missions that we just get told about, rather than the stories that are actually featured. Can someone write those please?

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Joe wrote: "The intro to Mark was just plain silly, and I really would rather he didn't exist, but at the same time, I can't wait until Cordelia finds out he's around.."

Yes to all that. This was written earlier than many, while she was still writing them out of order.

And yes to everything else you wrote. Or maybe . . .

[Nick]

Joe wrote: "The intro to Mark was just plain silly, and I really would rather he didn't exist"

I felt the same way when he first arrive like: 'Oh no! It's going to be like when they added Dawn to Buffy! but I did come to appreciate him a lot more when I got to know him!

[Lee at ReadWriteWish]

Joe wrote: "I was hoping for more with the Dendariis, and less Quinn (who I don't like nearly as much as the author does)."

I thought about why I don't like Quinn as much as some of the other characters and I think it's because she's quite two dimensional compared to other characters. I remember in Ethan of Athos how Ethan was such a fully fleshed out character compared to Elli. It's almost like *she's* the clone and Elana is the original that LMB can't use for certain plot points anymore. She's a good supporting character but I just don't think she should be one of the main ones/leads.

[Nick]

Yes, Elli is fun, but her character is pretty much: Badass space chick!. Every other character is growing and changing but Elli's only real difficulty is that she loves Miles too much.

I never thought to compare her to Elena but now you've shown it to me I can't unsee it! Elena could easily have filled this role in the plot if she hadn't already been used for the (view spoiler)[learning to accept the girl you love wants someone else plot. (hide spoiler)]

[Art, Stay home, stay safe.]

Thanks to reading some of the comments in this thread I feel very much encouraged in finishing this read, even though about a quarter of the book in I felt so gobsmacked by how poorly it was written.

Honestly had I known that the initial appearance of the mercenary fleet was not a one-off plot line but the core of all the Miles stories I would never have continued on with the series.

What I disliked instantly is the same old trope that persists through the Dendari. Miles and the whole thinking on his charade becomes offensively ridiculous. There are numerous instances where he comes up with a solution to the most obvious problem, something that should have been thought through by him and the entire intelligence community before he was allowed to set foot outside the safety of his home planet. The scene where a reporter is being fed the clone story was especially cringe worthy.

[Antti]

Art wrote: "about a quarter of the book in I felt so gobsmacked by how poorly it was written."

I remember that feeling - BiA didn't feel very promising at the start, but luckily it got better.

"Honestly had I known that the initial appearance of the mercenary fleet was not a one-off plot line but the core of all the Miles stories I would never have continued on with the series."

Yes, I too like them the least. Brothers in Arms is the only decent Dendarii book, not counting the novellas.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Art wrote: "The scene where a reporter is being fed the clone story was especially cringe worthy."

I agree, but this novel is more "go with a flow" I think it is even intentionally so, parodying SF adventures

[Joe]

See, I liked these alot more than the Miles stories so far... they're fun. I totally get the coincidence meter is set at 11, and there are some cringe worthy moments where the rest of the universe has to look dumb for Miles to be properly clever enough, but overall they're great space opera.. I only wish there was a bit more world building.