Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Publisher: Baen Books
Published Date: January 1, 1986
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: ★★⍣☆☆
Awards:
REVIEW
I read this as a precursor to my Reading the Hugo's series. The sixth, seventh, and eighth all won the Hugo Award and multiple others in the series were nominated for it. The series spans decades from the 80's to 2016. With it having such a long life as well as being so well received, I figured this space opera would be worth the read. Now I'm really wondering if I should continue.
SYNOPSIS
Shards of Honor follows Cordelia Naismith, who is the head of a survey group from the Betan Colony. When her team is attacked by a group of Barrayaran soldiers, she is taken hostage. She then manages to fall in love with her captor and, after being taken hostage again by a different Barrayaran group she forced to think on her feet in order to escape alive. This book does have a couple trigger warnings, especially for sexual assault, and involves a lot of politics.
MY THOUGHTS
I apologize to anyone who liked this book, but to me, it felt more romance than sci-fi. Sure, the setting was in space, but put it in any other setting and it no longer is sci-fi. The beginning I actually really liked. The uninhabited planet Cordelia's group was exploring was described in a very beautiful way, and the tension that the first few chapters brought made the rest of the book that more disappointing.
Cordelia was an ok character. She definitely fit into that "not like other girls" trope, especially since everyone she was surrounded by was male. I get that these two groups of people have vastly different social norms and military traditions, but the way she was described from Vorkosigan's perspective was just so annoying. Not only was it a tad insta-lovey, which surprised me coming from an older book, but it just felt so aged. I've read older sci-fi that still felt somewhat fresh while reading it, but this was not it. The writing didn't flow very well and it took me way too long to read seeing that it was less than 300 pages.
Can someone please tell me if reading more of this is worth it. I want to get to the Hugo winners but if I have to get through five more and they're all like this, I just don't think I can do it. This book made me not want to pick up older sci-fi because it gave me that assigned reading feeling that I hate. Another thing that completely bugged me (TW) was the sexual assault that was brought up. It just felt so unnecessary. It didn't really forward the plot and it almost felt like Cordelia was not affected by it, which is just terrible in my opinion. At least if you are going to have SA included in your book, it should do something for the plot and the aftermath should feel realistic.
Overall, I am not sure if I'll continue with this series. If not, I'll just read books that were nominated for the three years that this won the Hugo. As of now, I am baffled that writing of this caliber has won this award multiple times, especially when compared to more recent winners.
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