Cordelia's Honor (Vorkosigan Omnibus, #1) in Hoyt's Huns

Sep 07, 2021 Mary Catelli added it

Shelves: military-fiction, sf-far-future

Reviewed in its parts
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Apr 04, 2020 Kamas Kirian rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

This is a collection of two stories, Shards of Honor and Barrayar. Both books are told through the experiences of Cordelia Naismith.

In the first book, Shards of Honor, we meet Cordelia Naismith of a Betan Survey party and Aral Vorkosigan of the Barrayarian military, warriors on opposite sides. It starts with a rather thrilling man-vs.-nature story on an alien planet. Cordelia is the the main character. It is her motivations and fears that we see her contemplate as Vorkosigan takes his prisoners This is a collection of two stories, Shards of Honor and Barrayar. Both books are told through the experiences of Cordelia Naismith.

In the first book, Shards of Honor, we meet Cordelia Naismith of a Betan Survey party and Aral Vorkosigan of the Barrayarian military, warriors on opposite sides. It starts with a rather thrilling man-vs.-nature story on an alien planet. Cordelia is the the main character. It is her motivations and fears that we see her contemplate as Vorkosigan takes his prisoners through the wilderness to a storage facility Barrayar has set up on the planet. We see the determination and leadership skills of Vorkosigan as perceived by Cordelia.

Upon completion of their cross-country journey we are introduced to more characters, such as Bothari and Koudelka. After her escape from Vorkosigan's ship we catch up with Cordelia again a few months later as Beta Colony and Barrayar fight on opposite side of an invasion of another planet. Cordelia is quickly taken prison again and brought aboard the same ship Vorkosigan is serving on. A harrowing experience is had by all, particularly Cordelia and Bothari. Upon the completion of the war Cordelia is repatriated back to Beta Colony with some undesirable results.

I enjoyed the interactions of Cordelia and Vorkosigan. They were the only two well developed characters. The rest of the supporting characters were barely there, though I did like the little bit of Bothari we were able to see. The action was interesting well paced.

There is a short "afterward" story that was told from a new character's perspective that takes place after the war. It was completely dissimilar, and unnecessary, for the rest of the story.

The second book, Barrayar, takes place on Vorkosigan's home planet of the same name picking up the action shortly after the first book ended. The first part of the book was interesting but seemed to drag in pacing a little. That might have been because it was mostly political intrigue. It did give us more insight into Vorkosigan and his family. Bothari and Koudelka got better developed. The more background that comes out on Bothari the more I like his character. Among the new characters developed were Count Piotr and Droushnakovi, both of whom I enjoyed.

The second half of the novel is quite different with much more action as a civil war ignites. Piotr, Bothari and Cordelia end up on the run in the countryside. The small commando mission was delightful in pacing and background of supporting characters.

In the afterward by the author she explains that the first part of the novel was written a couple of years before the second part. The demarcation being the crash of Negri's flyer. I think the latter half of the story was better crafted. Overall it was still quite interesting.

The eBook was formatted well with no obvious errors in spelling or grammar. ...more

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