Shards of Honor [Import] [Unbound]

Lois McMaster Bujold (Author)

Product Details

• Unbound
• Publisher: Baen Books (1986)
• ISBN-10: 1590623738
• ISBN-13: 978-1590623732
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Start Your Miles Vorkosigan Reading Here, December 15, 2005

By 

Duane Thomas (Tacoma, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shards of Honor (Hardcover)

Series fiction has requirements very different from the single novel, or even multiple books forming one long story such as Tolkien's Ring Trilogy. The multi-book single storyline can be - probably is - so self-referential you have to read every book in the series, in order, to understand what's happening in later books. But the author of a true open-ended series like Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan novels knows readers may start with any book in the series, and read them in utterly random order. Thus, while each book must build on, and ideally add to and enrich what's come before, it must also be self-contained and not require having read any other book in the series to enjoy. Bujold has always been aware of this, thus for new readers interested in her tales of Miles Vorkosigan, it's not really necessary to begin with Shards of Honor. On the other hand, if you are a brand-new reader to this series, why NOT start at the beginning? (Bujold's novel Falling Free takes place within the same fictional universe but, being set approximately 200 years before Miles' birth, features none of the series' familiar characters. Eventually you'll want to read Falling Free, but it doesn't matter when; you can insert it into your Bujold reading experience anytime.)

Shards of Honor is Bujold's first novel (not merely the first novel she ever sold, but the first she ever wrote, thus disproving the axiom, "All first novels are unsaleable trash"). She begins writing it in December 1982. In mid-'83, having worked through the Shards material and about a third into what would eventually become Barrayar, Bujold realizes her manuscript is becoming too long to submit as one book (the "wisdom" at the time being a thin manuscript is more likely to be picked off the slush pile than a thick one). Bujold finds a logical breaking point for her tale (Cordelia's arrival on Barrayar), puts it in final draft form, and mothballs the partially finished "rest of the story."

Bujold submits Shards and begins working on another book, The Warrior's Apprentice. She's about halfway through that when Shards comes back rejected with an editorial suggestion she tighten it up. She finishes Warrior's, then cuts about 80 pages out of Shards, giving her two good unpublished novels. In 1985, around the time she finishes her third novel, Ethan of Athos, Warrior's makes it over the transom at Baen, and suddenly she goes from unpublished wannabe to successful novelist with three books (Shards, Warrior's, Ethan) SOLD. Shards is published in 1986.

Shards of Honor stars Captain Cordelia Naismith, commander of a survey team for the Betan Expeditionary Force, and Captain Aral Vorkosigan, victim of a mutiny on his Barrayaran warship. Both stranded on an unexplored alien planet, officers on opposite sides of the Betan-Barrayaran War, they reach an agreement of honor: they will trust and rely on each other for survival as they travel across a planet seemingly intent on throwing all its resources into killing them before they can reach Aral's ship. And then there's the little problem of overcoming the mutineers.... In the process of their adventures, Cordelia and Aral fall in love.

This story is told from Cordelia's viewpoint (as is the novel completing this particular story arc, Barrayar). Thereafter in the series Miles, with very few exceptions, takes center stage. Never again will Cordelia be the main character. But for these two books she emerges as one of the most well-realized, loving and vulnerable but still tough-as-nails female SF protagonists ever.

The next book in the series you'll want to read is Barrayar, or you can read Cordelia's Honor, which collects the entire story arc, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, between the same covers.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The almost-first book of a great series, February 6, 2001

By 

Jae Brodsky - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shards of Honor (Paperback)

Shards of Honour is one of those incredible books that is almost completely unknown outside of the sci-fi genre. This is a loss to the people who think that sci-fi consists of nothing more than strange aliens, ray guns, and sex in outer space.

Lois McMaster Bujold has the amazing talent of mixing characters and science and fiction in exactly the proper amounts. Cordelia Naismith is an astrocartographer from Beta Colony, heading a company of scientific prima donnas on an expedition to map out and catalog flora and fauna on a newly discovered planet. Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately Cordelia wasn't expecting to be ambushed by a bunch of blood-thirsty, out of control Barrayarans, or to get stuck in a trek for survival with their leader, Aral Vorkosigan, better known as the Butcher of Komarr. And that's only where the trouble begins.

How do two people from distinctly different cultures survive in their situation, which I'm not going to expound on as it will spoil some of the best moments in the book? How will love survive an intergalactic war? How can someone survive after sacraficing honour, only to find that the necessary, vital result will never replace it? And, of course, the most pressing question to be asked: how much sexual energy do two people have to spare while hiking forty kilometres a day, concussed, stunned, diseased, on poor food and little sleep, alternating caring for a wounded man with avoiding becoming dinner for every carnivore within range, and with a coup to plan for at the end? Lois McMaster Bujold handles the characterisation so well that you almost forget that you don't actually know Cordelia and Aral. Highly, highly recommended.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING: Adventure, honor and true love., October 15, 1999

By 

Alice Saczawa (Mineral, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shards of Honor (Mass Market Paperback)

I was reading a book yesterday which made me feel like I was in an exciting new world. I absolutely fell in love with the main characters, and there were moments of excitement, true love and romance, terror, mirth and of delight. The experience was lovely.

After finishing the book, I found that I was so in love with the characters and the experience of sharing their lives, that I felt sadness, even grief over not being able to continue in the world created by this author. After all, one can only read a book once in awhile to experience it fully, because the feelings evoked, the sense of interest and excitement fades with familiarity.

After this experience, I found myself pondering what was so important to me about this book, what made this experience so positive, so important. Why did I wish with all my heart that these people lived in my world? Why did I yearn to be a part of their lives in a real way? Why did I want to be them, or know them?

As I pondered my feelings, I realized that these characters, which so fascinated me, lived with a very deep code of honor, sometimes at great personal expense. This code was an intrinsic part of the make up of their being. The ongoing struggle to live according to these deep values was exciting, and created tension and drama. Over and over again, it was evident that these characters struggled with the importance of personal honor, of keeping one's word, of living consistently by their code. Sometimes they succeeded, and sometimes they had to set aside the code, for the greater good.

Does living by a code of honor make things humorous; I don't know. Or perhaps honor gives one a way of looking at the world that facilitates laughter sometimes, and then tears as well, sometimes.

Villains were portrayed as humans that had so immersed themselves in vice that they had lost their code, and turned into monsters, albeit predictable monsters, capable of the most hideous acts of depravity against others. In fact, the ability to brutalize those that were trying to live by honor gave them pleasure and satisfaction. Personal honor was not important to these characters, except the ability to undermine it in others and enjoy their pain. Feeding their lust for physical and emotional sensation was an important motivator for them. Gratification of their egos was important, winning was important, but honor was not.

And there was one key character to whom loyalty was the only code of honor. This character was honorable within his relationships to key dominant characters, but he had no code otherwise, and could be influenced to perform horrific acts. Although his emotional make up was warped and sadistic, this character was ultimately sympathetic as he struggled with his own flaws, and tried to redeem himself from acts that are almost beyond redemption.

Although this is probably the third time I have read this book over the years, reading it this time moved me every bit as much as when I read it the first time. I wish I could forget it and then read it again. The experience was lovely, and I recommend it highly.