The Vorkosigan Companion edited by Lillian Stewart Carl

[lightreads]

The Vorkosigan Companion by Lillian Stewart Carl

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pretty cool, with a few notable low points. The second half of the book is all reference material – an exhaustive concordance, wormhole maps, genealogical charts, etc. Handy, for those who find themselves in need of such things. The first half starts out strong with a few new essays from Bujold herself, as well as a long informal interview. Then it slides precipitously downhill into topical essays on romance and technology in the books, whose general quality is far outmatched by the meta you can find various places on the internet. Isn't that always the way, though? There's also an adorably note perfect piece about fandom, lacking in that it focuses entirely on the mailing list culture and neglects all fan transformative activities that aren't discussion. Cue mingled exasperation over the elision of decades of history mixed with profound relief.



Aaaanyway. Totally worthwhile, for the resident Vorkosiphiles.


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Comments

[readerjane]

Did they include The Hard Question of Squishy Machines by Frances Bonner? It's a little dated, but I liked her take on Bujold.

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

Nope. The meta isn't nearly that interesting.