And that’s it — this morning, I finished off Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga. A little under two years (non-consecutively; many other books have been read in between these) of the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan and his family, friends, and enemies.
This was neither planned nor expected. I started because I’m reading my way through all the Hugo Best Novel winners, and several of the Vorkosigan books are on that list, I continued because even though neither romance nor military sci-fi are genres I usually go for, the books are just so good that they pulled me in. (And, well, I don’t like coming into a series midway through if I can help it, so I had to read the books that were earlier or in between the Hugo winners.)
Bujold’s characters are wonderfully realized. Not always heroes or even particularly heroic (and sometimes rather disturbing), but always very real. The books are funny — I wouldn’t really call any of them comedies, but they are frequently comedic. And the world building (over multiple worlds scattered across a wormhole-connected galaxy) is great, with cultures that are obviously related while also being very separate and distinct.
All in all, while I certainly didn’t expect this when I started, this has become a favorite series, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what Bujold does in a fantasy world, as I head into her World of the Five Gods series (of which the second, Paladin of Souls, is the next Hugo Best Novel book on my list). (It’s a good sign that both the Vorkosigan Saga and the World of the Five Gods series have won Best Series Hugos….)
