Customer Reviews

A Civil Campaign: A Comedy of Biology and Manners

5 star:		(169)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Being a long time reader of Ms. Bujolds work I was very excited when the book came out..not having expected another for some time. So I was somewhat disappointed with the slow start of the novel. But confident that Ms. Bujold would continue in her habit of writing excellent books with a lavish touch of humor and a wry sensible wisdom I bent my eyes to the page and continued...

What a MISTAKE! Shortly afterwards..perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 of the way into the novel it did the usual trick that Miles Vorkosigan books perform...it grabbed hold and wouldnt let go for love, money, or lack of sleep. Needless to say...I finished it in one night.

The book picks up perhaps 3-6 months after the last book left off..at this point while the novel *might* be understandble from a stand-alone point I wouldnt count on it..go back and read the others..starting from Shards of Honor...or if you're pressed for time from Warriors Apprentice...trust me..you wont be sorry you did. Whee! Run-on sentences are so much fun! At any rate Miles is preparing for two distinctly different campaigns..the wooing of Ekaterin Vorsoisson, a young widow introduced in the previous book, Komarr, and plotting his assault on the bastions of power..namely inserting himself into the political process of Barrayar. Taking on either of these tasks might be considered foolhardy for your average human being..and taking them both together sheer hubris..but if there is one thing Miles posesses it is hubris.

The book then wends its way through the slow build-up..starting to pick up speed as Miles attemps to woo Ekaterin..without telling her about it. This tactic brings about a crashing defeat..ushering in the second half of the book. At this point the action begins to pick up..Mile's courtship of a widow whose husband's death he was involved in having attracted the notice of those he is politicking against. This..combined with two very touchy subjects for the upcoming Council of Counts brings matters to a head. Ivan..Mile's cousin..always before portrayed as a less than stellar officer in the Emperor's service is fleshed out a bit more in this book...giving you a closer look at Ivan's inner self..with some surprising results. Mile's clone-brother also returns and adds some of the necessary levity the yarn..lightening the mood and adding another thread to the plot.

Readers who have read the entire series including Shards of Honor and Barrayar will be particularly amused by one scene involving Mark and his intended..Kareen Koudelka. All in all A Civil Campaign was an excellent book with the sole complaint that it was a little bit slow in starting..but the ending is emminently satisfying for those who have been following Miles throughout the series. As usual a must read by Ms. Bujold.

Bujold does it again, absoluotly priceless.

Haveing read Warrior's Apprentice when first published I have to say that Bujold is one of three authors I would reccomend as must read SF. (Harry Harrison's Stailess Steel Rat series and C J Cherryh's Company , Chanur, and Foriegner series are the others).

I loved Warrior's Apprentice. I fell in love with the series at the epilouge of Shards of Honor. (made me cry, no BS... and me a { now former}soldier ). Fans of swashbuckling space opera may be a bit put off by the lack of violence but it's a nice change of pace from so much of the tripe that is out there. The dinner scene was priceless. "should prove popular with the...Miles, WHAT has that animal got in it's mouth..." had me in tears. I should have known better than to take a Bujold book to work. How does Bujold do it? How does a mom of two in MN write so damn convincinyly in the mind of not only a certain pint sized Imperial Auditor but all the other charactors in this book and the past ones? (Mark on Jackson's Whole..) To the detractors of this book: All I can say is please go out immediately and buy up Cordelia's Honor (Shards of Honor and Barrayar all in one) and Young Miles (first three Miles books) and get back to me. Better yet, finish up with Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, ( how did she get the multiple personality part so right?) Memory and Komarr. Then get back to me. This book is so rich with bits from the past books I could have died.

"Her parents looked nothing so much like, hmmm... like two teenagers caught screwing on the living room couch." Priceless.

One worrysome note, I hope Bujold doesn't end the Vorkosigan series here. One thing I'd like to see is stories of the "history" of Barrayar. these teasing bits of history in the story like "Lord Midnight, who always voted Neigh..." are soooo tempting. Might we see a young Count General Piotyr during the Cetagadan Occupation or possibly Young Aral during Mad Emperor Yuri's rein? Vorkosigans of the time of Isolation? Dorca the Just? It all beggs for futher detail. A few volumes of short stoies from leading Authors would be welcome. Something on the line of the Bolo short story series first created then edited by Laumer.

Please, Ms Bujold. Don't leave me hanging for my fix...

Let me first explain that I am a great lover of Miles Vorkosigan books. And a great fan of Bujold's, even when she's not writing about him. But I think this is one of the better books in the series, showing more about him than those that spend more time with his point of view.

If you have read Komarr (and you really SHOULD), you know what one story thread is going to be. But this hardly prepares you for all the twists and turns of what, to a Barryarran biographer, would be one of the calm, safe, boring parts of Miles' life. As if he was going to have any.

It's hard to know what to say about this book; a LOT of people find the person of their dreams, Miles holds down a REAL job, Kareen finds her path in life, Mark is more Mark-like than ever, Aral and Cordelia use their parenting skills, and Barrayar as a whole gets dragged kicking and screaming another step towards enlightenment.

There are 3 spots where I cry, 4 spots where I laugh, and I enjoyed the whole thing. This probably isn't a good book to start the series with, but it's a good book. Start with _Warrior's_Apprentice_ or _Brothers_in_Arms_, which are out in paperback.

What happens when a hyperactive, self-obsessed, results-oriented genius, who is also a bit dwarfish, the son of the ex-regent of his planet, and former commander for a group of galactic mercenaries decides to court a widow that is sour on marriage? Well, it has to be comedy, there is just no other choice.

A Civil Campaign (A Comedy of Biology and Manners) is all about Miles Vorkosigan, and his somewhat inept efforts at courtship. Add to the mix, his brother's newest business endeavor, butterbugs (bugs that produce food), combine a dash of political intrigue, a sex change operation and some dense relatives, and the results are hilarious.

I found this book vastly entertaining. It made me laugh. It made my heart ache. It made me cry. I loved it.

If you don't know Miles Vorkosigan already, this book probably isn't the best one to start with. But if you know him, and love him, read it. If you haven't experienced the Vorkosiverse, do it now, as this series is fabulous. Start with Shards of Honor, Barrayer, The Warrier's Apprentice, etc. and read them all. It will be a treat.

These books are so well written, I read them over and over again, and am always entertained. In some ways I envy those who have not read these books, because the experience is fabulous. I've introduced several folks, and they are now confirmed addicts.

Miles Vorkosigan has got to be one of the most brilliant characters ever unleashed on the unsuspecting reading public. Dwarfed before birth by an assassination attempt upon his pregnant mother, Miles has every reason to shun public life and duty; instead he drives his crippled body mercilessly through a career as a military secret agent. Medically discharged before thirty due to seizures, Miles has become a special Auditor for his cousin the Emperor, prying into suspicious cases and hunting trouble. This brought him into the life of lovely Vor widow Ekaterina in the last book, KOMARR. Miles at war is an unstoppable force, or almost. Miles in love is a different story. Perhaps someone should have advised him that laying siege to a woman's heart is only a figure of speech? Bujold is always amusing, but seldom comical; thus it slipped up on me. Add in the continuing saga of Miles' clone Mark, always on the lookout for a money-making scheme, and his bioengineered butter bugs, which make a sort of yogurt instead of honey. Mark's in love, too, and her parents aren't thrilled. Add in Lady Donna's scheme to inherit her brother's title and you have the guest list for a dinner party of apocalyptic proportions. I laughed like hell, but there's a serious side to this foolishness: Miles really loves the girl. If he blows this one it's going to be a long lonely life. Mark's no better off with his dilemma, since few women can really relate to his dwarfed body and unstable mind. And fans of Ivan Vorpatril will find him in top form, casually drifting along ogling the women and ducking responsibility. Tangled political maneuvering, strong characters, and a complicated emotional situation; just what I expected from Bujold, who also gives us men a look at how the fair sex see our foibles. Lucky Miles and Mark; mother Cordelia is still a force to be reckoned with in this universe, and after the bug butter is all mopped up and everyone's had their share of humiliation there's still a good chance of a happy ending. Not many authors can keep a character like Miles alive and growing through this many sequels; Bujold's done a great job of making him plausible, one broken bone at the time.

I was sitting on the couch at about 2 in the morning, after two weeks of straight reading this series. I was trying to finish a paragraph... and I couldn't, because I was laughing so hard that every time I finished the first sentence of the paragraph I would start crying and fall off the couch. This woke up my husband, who came and stood staring blearily from the doorway at me then went back to bed (and closed the door very hard).

After about 5 minuites of this, I had to blow my nose and wipe my eyes, and I finaly finished the paragraph. Then, a few minuites later, I started all over again with the laughing... I havn't laughed so hard in YEARS.

The rest of the series is excelent and I recommend reading all the books, in order. At once.

To fully appreciate this book, it helps to have read Miles's previous adventure, "Komarr", which ends just about exactly where this one picks up. However, Ms Bujold does include enough backstory in this volume to get by on.

The author's dedication includes several ladies listed only by first names -- among them "Jane" (Austen) and "Georgette" (Heyer). Certainly, the ladies' spirits are hovering close ocer this story, because it is a thoroughly enjoyable Comedy Of Manners from start to finish.

Part of the fun, though one tends to cringe as one looks ahead, is in watching the step by step manner in which Miles Vorkosigan, the resourceful former covert ops whiz and youngest Imperial Auditor, who *always* comes out ahead no matter how hopeless the situation, meticulously setting up an inevitable Hideous Flaming Social Disaster for himself. Only the truly brilliant can be truly stupid when they Miss The Point and push on, anyway, and Miles is beyond brilliant.

Miles, you see, has Fallen In Love. For real and for permanent, this time, it looks like. And he has no clue at all as to how normal people connect up and pair off in the Real World.

Of course, he has helpers, partners and accomplices in setting up his own humiliation -- his clone-brother Mark arrives with a true Mad Scientist in tow and sets up a lab in Miles's basement.

Three beautiful sisters with conflicting motives and plans for various of the male characters help to stir the brew.

And then there are the butter bugs... but we won't talk about the butter bugs here, except that they are Rather Important to the plot.

"Mother, Father, I'd like you to meet... She's getting *away*!"

If you enjoy a romp through society's ins and outs; if you have enjoyed Georgette Heyer's wonderful Regency romances, then you must try this book.

And if you like it as well as i think you will, and decide you *must* know more about Miles and his family and Barrayar, then either jump *all* the way back to "Cordelia's Honor", which is the two novels that are earliest in series order ("Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar"), or you might want to jump back to "The Warrior's Apprentice", which is the beginning of Miles's adventures.

Or you might just want to pick up any of the series and enjoy yourself.

This has got to be the best Vorkosigan book ever. I wouldrecommend this to anyone who loves to read, even if they've never read SF before. I love how Bujold creates a true story. It has everything you could want, from true Milesian strategy, imperial politics, and technological consequences to intimate romance (that doesn't have to mean sex), the human condition and bug butter wrestling. If you've never read a Vorkosigan book, I'd suggest reading Komarr first, but even without that Civil Campaign is enjoyable. For all of you who have read all the books(and I know there's a lot of you out there.) Bujold seamlessly meshes references to previous events that make you fall down laughing. I just CAN'T WAIT for the next book! I have a feeling it could include a confrontation between Mile's new life and his old. That would be perfect. There are so many ways to continue the story, I can't stand it. I agree with all previous reviews that compare Bujold to Jane Austin. Bujold has the characters as the most important part of the story. She gets inside them, so you see out of their eyes. I love the not so abject letter "...possess the power of your eyes...". There's something in this for everyone. You have to read it!

Despite the cataclismic changes in his life over the past few years, Miles is still, well, Miles. Miles as a politician is the best thing to ever happen to Barrayar. It's heartbreaking to watch the boy work to gain the affection of a woman he loves for the first time in his life. All this talk of weddings makes me think of guest lists... (Uh, Taura, Elli, Elena, Baz-can he even come back to barrayar?, Tung) Taura at least, seems to have a surefire chance of showing up somehow. Ekaterin is exactly what Miles needs. A keeper. This is by far the best Vorkosigan book I've read, but I think the drain incident could have used a little more illustration, but oh well.

Lois McMaster Bujold has long ago become my favorite author. This is certainly one of my favorite Miles Vorkosigan adventures also. In this book you won't find dendarii mercenaries nor even a huge lord auditor investigation...just good old Miles screwing his love life. In the romantic scene of the Imperial wedding Miles is set on conquering the heart of Ekaterin, whom he met on Komarr. Unfortunately, conquering is too precise a word and Miles will hit quite a few walls in his lame attempts. LMB again unfolds her magic in showing us yet another side of Miles. As in Memory he will face situations that will require he takes a close look at himself and either grow and learn or... But Miles is not alone! Mark rejoins House Vorkosigan with quite a love problem of his own and Ivan can't seem to settle down. And along these problems of the heart the Barrayaran political scene is in turmoil and the council of counts is in full activity. This book is a true adventure of the heart, mind and soul. Nobody does it better than LMB. She conceives wonderful and entertaining plots but the stars are her characters: they live and breathe.