Vorkosigan 12--A Civil Campaign--note--numbers are OUR reading order only

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

comments for A Civil Campaign

[Allan]

Just finished this today. 19+ hours on audio, it was a long haul for me. This one was unique and refreshing, fully taking place on Barrayar with domestic issues providing the intrigue. Basically a rom com, which is not usually my bag, but it was entertaining throughout and Bujold at least tries to an edge on it. Very good though, a solid four stars for me.

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

I know that there is a big plot about (view spoiler)[Miles and Ekatarin (hide spoiler)] but I would not call it a rom com, or only a small amount of it is a rom com. All of the interesting subplots stemming from stuff that happened in Komarr did not seem romcom-like to me. Also there were all the other subplots about politics and stuff.

Now, I think that Bellwether, which I just finished--now THAT's a rom com

[Allan]

Amen to that! The typical rom com is meet cute, fall in love, break up over some misunderstanding, then get back together & live happily ever after. Well, they didn’t exactly meet cute, and that was the previous book. The conflict was mainly provided by external forces, but still the potential for misunderstanding. Yes, it didn’t quite go that way, and puts enough edge on the story to keep it from being “cute”. Kudos for that.

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

That's OK, Allen, I just couldn't let one of my favorite books in the world get described as "basically a rom com." Sometimes I like rom coms if they are extremely well done, but not very often.

[Allan]

It was not meant as derogatory, but you have to admit, it has many rom com elements. And it was extremely well done. I am not out to bash anyone's favorite books, everyone has different tastes and no one is "right".

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

well, it has Miles being funny/stupid, and it has romance.

[Nick]

I think it definitely counts as a rom com, especially since the dedication at the beginning is to: Jane, Charlotte, Georgette, and Dorothy and this reads exactly like a Georgette Heyer romance. Heyer's romances are about aristocrats navigating the difficulty of love and marriage, just like this, she often has more than one romance going on, just like this, and subplots that are not about romance, just like this. Admittedly, Heyer's subplots are more likely to be about a younger brother's gambling problem than genetically engineered insects, and her subplots about men taking up a seat in the House of Lord's are less convoluted and exciting that the Vorrutyer suplot!

Romantic comedy is a genre with some great books in it; I don't think it's an insult to recognise this as one.

[Antti]

The scene with Miles' dinner party was perfect rom-com stuff: all that anxious preparation was very obviously leading Miles to a fall, but despite all this foreshadowing the dinner still managed to be an even bigger disaster I anticipated. It was great: I don't know how long it's been since I had a book that kept me up until the wee hours, since I just *couldn't* stop turning the pages!

Re Georgette Heyer: in the Afterword to the omnibus LMB says she deliberately tried to write a homage to Heyer, all the way to the name of the book, which is a riff on Heyer's A Civil Contract.

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

Antti wrote: "I don't know how long it's been since I had a book that kept me up until the wee hours, since I just *couldn't* stop turning the pages!"

Yup! That's why A Civil Campaign is my favorite on the days when Memory is not!

And that is what I am always looking for, a book that keeps me up all night. And who isn't?!!

[Kalin]

Help, she's gone full Jane Austen in this one and it's boring as hell. It's also one of the longest in the series. Sigh...

[Allan]

Yeah, Kalin, but this book is the crest of the hill, you’re nearing the finish line!

[Lee at ReadWriteWish]

Loved this one. I was expecting a bit of a romcom actually but I thought it was quite different and much more.

I've loved LMB's humour in all the books but she outdid herself here. The dinner party!!!!! LMAO!!!!

Forget Austen and Heyer, Miles and Ekaterin's entire storyline is pretty much just a homage to Sayers’s Lord Peter and Harriet Vane (who are probably my favourite book couple evah) was probably the biggest reason I was swooning over this book, and Ekaterin and Miles’s scenes in particular.

From my review regarding this:

I feel like I need to write a thesis to explain how a couple in a scifi book, set on another planet and in the future, are almost exactly the same as a couple who solve mysteries in a series of novels set in England in the 1920s.

Both Miles and Peter are considered less attractive than the women they’ve fallen for, leaving all and sundry to assume they’ve somehow used their peerage to trick their respective leading ladies into a relationship; Ekaterin and Harriet are both victims of domestic abuse where their past partners have not hit them but belittled them constantly; Miles and Peter are both mindful of the abuse and are incredibly honorable in wanting to fiercely protect Ekaterin and Harriet from slander and character assassination; instead of the typical alpha male protection though, Miles/Peter [perhaps unknowingly] give the girls a chance to recognise their inner strength and ability to fight misogyny and injustice in their own dignified and intelligent way; Miles/Peter’s wit and intelligence are what attracts these (outwardly seemingly) more attractive women; and, in the end, whilst Miles and Peter are plotting, it’s Ekaterin and Harriet who end up rescuing their beaus.

Yeah, I could talk about this for a long time... LOL

I've got to mention Ivan too. Love him and his realisation of just who the Impsec contact is in the end. LOL!!!

5 stars obviously!!!

[Kalin]

So I don't usually post before completing a book, because I'm avoiding spoilers from these threads so I want to finish before reading any comments (which I didn't do earlier). I guess I was just frustrated by the very slow opening of this book (like Memory, tbh), and its length compared to others in the series despite what felt like low stakes and an obvious outcome.

The dinner scene turned everything around for me. That was by far the funniest scene in the entire series, and from there on out I loved the book, so many lines had me full-on grinning or cackling. The second half was definitely more of a page turner.

I actually think part of the reason I felt the first half dragged on was because Miles' actions were making me so uncomfortable in his plotting to win Ekaterin through subterfuge. It struck me as creepy and invasive but it was presented through Miles' rationalization, as if it was normal and acceptable, so it seemed like LMB didn't have a problem with it -- well, it turned out she just had Miles manipulating *me* the reader into thinking this was being treated as acceptable, when in fact he was making creepy mistakes the whole time, and had to account for them later.

I'd never even heard of Georgette Hayer before this thread so what LMB was trying to do in homage did not click with me -- I also read this in the "Miles in Love" omnibus so there was no epigraph or afterward or anything like that to contextualize.

[Lee at ReadWriteWish]

You know, I think the slowness in the beginning of the book was due to the multiple point of views. Usually LMB gives us Miles's point of view only and there was almost too many characters' thoughts for me at one stage.

[Kaa]

Kalin, I agree with you 100%. I LIKE Austen, Heyer, et al., but Miles's choices in this book made me so uncomfortable and unhappy right up until the dinner party. And then that scene was so hilarious, and the second half of the book actually held him accountable for how creepy he'd been. I found the reversal even more impressive than if I'd been sympathizing with Miles the whole time.

[Joe]

I have no idea who Georgette Heyer is... Romance is not my genre. In fact, I actively dislike and avoid anything that smacks of it.

This book, while it did have a bit of those elements, I don't think I'd call a rom com. It felt more like a early 70s Marvel comic, where, between big stories that have an interlude issue or two that focus on sub plots an character moments.

I feel like in a more typical series that was written by the author in chronological order, this wouldn't be a book.. the bits would be interspersing among the adventures and play out over several books.

I still don't like Eketerin... while I get this this book is a much more upbeat series than most, did LMB really have to create Miles the perfect spouse? A little too much. OTOH, his planning to treat courtship as a Undercover op was mostly hilarious.. I laughed out loud more than once.

I DO love Nikki... I'd be fine with this being the last Miles story, and doing another 15 year time skip to follow his adventures and an ImpSec courier or something.

The minor characters were the ones that really had the spotlight, which was nice. That definitely worked... it might be that spending 2 chapters on Kareen during a typical Miles adventure might have been annoying, but doing it here in a book full of sub plots worked pretty well.

I think I'm most looking forward to 'Captain Vorpatril's Alliance' now... Ivan was super fun in this book (though I would have preferred if he actually saved the day instead of being manipulated into it).. I'm very tempted to skip to that one.

[Lee at ReadWriteWish]

Joe wrote: "I have no idea who Georgette Heyer is... Romance is not my genre. In fact, I actively dislike and avoid anything that smacks of it.

This book, while it did have a bit of those elements, I don't th..."

I've never read any Heyer either but I'm still astounded by the similarities between this and Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter/Harriet books.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

First of all, thanks for suggesting an author for my mom, she likes old mystery stories, but Sayers hasn't been translated like say Doyle or Christie during the Soviet period (due to her Christianity I presume), so I just found out about her

Secondly, the audiobook has a sub-title A Comedy of Biology and Manners, so rom-com or sit-com, but comedy nevertheless, according to the author

[Kalin]

"Comedy of Manners" is a distinct subgenre to rom-com and sit-com:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_...

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Kalin wrote: ""Comedy of Manners" is a distinct subgenre to rom-com and sit-com:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_..."

True, but there were definitely elements of both sit-com and rom-com

[Kalin]

Yep. I interpreted this one as a striaght up rom-com with Miles-Ekaterin as the central focus, and LMB adding additional plotlines to fill out the rest of the story (the butter bugs, and two Count succession conflicts).