Caro the Helmet Lady's Reviews > Shards of Honour

UPDATED 2017.03.31 with Worst Cover Gallery! Check down below and feel free to comment!
Having lately an interesting conversation with my GR friends on the nature of covers for Vorkosigan series I decided to update my older reviews with a little "gallery" of worst covers... ;)
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How could I NOT read this book for so long? I enjoyed it thoroughly and the last chapter (The Aftermath) was just WOW. If you had any doubts (I didn't!) about author's skills while reading the main part, Aftermath leaves you with none. Aftermath leaves you crushed.

So what do we get here? A space opera, which I feel is somewhat more fantasy than sci-fi, which isn't bad at all. I had same feeling while reading Dune, by the way. So good old space opera and a love story that isn't into sappiness and YA dramatism of "omg did he look at me? omg he just so did! omg omg!" - it's mature, it's a bit funny and believable. A complicated political scene and a foretaste of future intrigues and events.

Plus we get a smart and strong heroine, Cordelia Naismith, who is also sensitive and sensible. Where have you been all my life, Cordelia? You could be a perfect role model for teen me!... Sigh. Well, at least I had Ellen Ripley. Another interesting character is Aral Vorkosigan, but he is a tad more stereotypical for my tastes, but still it didn't hurt to have him in the book. I hope both of them will be developed more in series. Which I'm going to read, because I've just discovered my series of the year, I'm afraid.

Of course, some things felt a bit retro sci-fi, but in a good nostalgic way. Also, as always in stories about humankind spread among stars, I get annoyed when language that protagonists use to communicate with each other is not mentioned. Wouldn't it be fun to find out about Barrayar-ish accent or that they had to use some sort of Esperanto to talk to each other? Or at least they got surprised that they can understand each other? Or at least let them use some slang words? Something like that?...

And the villain?... That's really it?...#not_my_villain

Heyyyy, come on, it's me bitching just a bit so you won't get a feeling that I gave it 5 shining stars too easily. ;)
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Worst Cover Gallery