May's Book Club Discussion: Cordelia's Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold

[Parson]

Originally Posted by pyan

because no reasons are given for finding the books "mediocre". I have read Curse of Chalion, and thought it was formulaic fantasy at best - certainly not up to the place I hold Miles to be in SF. I also love Cherryh's books (hence the username!), but they are different to Bujold's - not better, not worse - different

Pyan,

Much to my surprise I have carved out a few more minutes this week to be on Chronicles. My phrase clearly was a throwaway. I have read none of Bujold's fantasy, but I would use your word "formulaic" to describe what aggravated me about the Miles saga (saga only in length, not in depth of quality). After reading a couple, which I do not remember their names, I found that I could almost tell exactly what the plot and tension was going to be. Secondly, I found Miles to be completely unbelievable as a character. Thirdly, and not unimportantly, my great love in SF is space opera and while "Shards of Honor" was a great book, IMO because of the space opera, and only secondarily, but importantly, the romance. I felt that the subsequent titles in the saga especially those which dealt with Miles were too "light hearted" to be believable.

Nothing I have read by Cherryh would come close to "light hearted," they all take life and its inherrent struggles seriously and honorably. They are never "easy reads" but immenently worth the effort.