Review: “Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance” by Lois McMaster Bujold

Captain Vorpatril's AllianceCaptain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The e-ARC had the usual skips and errors, so of course I’ll be reading the official release, too.

The Vorkosigan saga is unique in its memorable characters, and the kind of tales it takes to tell their stories. In some ways, “Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance” consolidates most of the major events of the Vorkorverse, seen from a very different point of view.

The long-standing supporting character, Ivan Vorpatril, finally gets his turn in the spotlight. Ivan lives the life of a smarter moth. Standing too close to the Barrayaran throne for his own comfort, no way does he want to fly close enough to the fire to go up in flames. But he often gets dragged into scrapes–interstellar scrapes–as the unwilling foil to his cousin Miles’ manic schemes. This time, Miles doesn’t drag him into trouble; neither is he around to pull Ivan out of the fire. And it was kind of weird reading a Vorkosigan tale without Miles in it except as a domesticated husband and father…weird, but an enjoyable grace note to the story.

No, this time it’s By Vorrutyer’s scheme that disrupts Ivan’s peaceful life as the promotion-avoiding aide de camp of the Barrayaran military’s ops chief. But for the sake of the girl and Barrayar, Ivan rises to the occasion, as he’s done in the past despite his inclination to fly under the radar. In doing so, we get an interesting peek at Ivan’s lingering demons, the truth behind his suave facade. Hey, despite his usual nonchalant attitude, he’s gotta have a few, growing up on Barrayar in interesting times with Miles as a cousin.

I’m not quite sure why Bujold chose to place this book before “Cryoburn,” and I don’t know why that bothers me so much. Perhaps because I want the Vorkoverse to keep moving forward. Although I’ll admit the tone of the book is happier than might have been possible in Cryoburn’s aftermath. Happier, but also retrospective. The characters have all grown up, done wonders and marvels, made mistakes, and learned from it. Even Ivan. I can’t help but wonder (or is that hope?) that having given us a glimpse of life going reasonably well for the main characters, Bujold is cooking up another major challenge for her incredible cast of characters in the near future. Using Bujold’s maxim of the “worst possible thing,” possibilities are boiling in the back of my mind, but mentioning them would involve spoilers, so…hmmm.

Why four stars? More than a bit unfairly, I’m rating a Bujold book against Bujold’s body of work. There’s a reason Bujold is my favorite author. Her best stories are…spectacular. As much as I enjoyed reading this, CVA isn’t “Shards of Honor,” “Memory,” or “A Civil Campaign.” So call the CVA rating a “Four Stars with Palm” for filling in the spaces in a really remarkable ‘verse.

Now…when’s the next one???

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4 thoughts on “Review: “Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance” by Lois McMaster Bujold

  1. bluesun,I started with Planet Big Zero (Franklin Hadley), and some 35 cent, Avon dolbue novel. Maybe it was Doc Savage. Or maybe it was the Hardy Boys and a spaceship. Or watching Telstar pass over, when it launched, and Dad pointed it out to me.Anne McCaffrey’s “The Ship Who Sang” was an important SF in my life, and Heinlein’s schlocky “Have Space Suit Will Travel,” and maybe more importantly, “Door Into Summer.” More recently, Elizabeth Moon’s “Once a Hero” is really good military SF. For good pulp distraction – Mike Shepherd’s “Kris Longknife: Mutineer” is good. Leo Frankowski’s “Cross Time Engineer” is a retelling of Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Aurthur’s Court” . . set in Poland. Even E.E. “Doc” Smith with the Gray Lensman series (starts with “Triplanetary”) and the “Skylark of Space” series; even the “Subspace Explorers” was good fluffy pulp fun. (Smith was infamous for “was indescribable”, then three pages of description later taking you back to the story.)I just re-read Alexei Panshin’s “Rites of Passage”. This is a fairly serious ethical exploration, and I am not sure how enduring the story is – it relies on the reader being familiar with a number of cultural assumptions of the time it was written.

    • I loved the “Ship Who Sang” novels; the Lensman series was my first foray into “grown-up” SF, following on the heels of Tom Swift, Rick Brant, and the Narnia Chronicles. Weber is probably my favorite military SF writer. If you haven’t read Bujold, or Lee and Miller, you’re missing rare treats, indeed. + TK

      • bluesun,I started with Planet Big Zero (Franklin Hadley), and some 35 cent, Avon duoble novel. Maybe it was Doc Savage. Or maybe it was the Hardy Boys and a spaceship. Or watching Telstar pass over, when it launched, and Dad pointed it out to me.Anne McCaffrey’s “The Ship Who Sang” was an important SF in my life, and Heinlein’s schlocky “Have Space Suit Will Travel,” and maybe more importantly, “Door Into Summer.” More recently, Elizabeth Moon’s “Once a Hero” is really good military SF. For good pulp distraction – Mike Shepherd’s “Kris Longknife: Mutineer” is good. Leo Frankowski’s “Cross Time Engineer” is a retelling of Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Aurthur’s Court” . . set in Poland. Even E.E. “Doc” Smith with the Gray Lensman series (starts with “Triplanetary”) and the “Skylark of Space” series; even the “Subspace Explorers” was good fluffy pulp fun. (Smith was infamous for “was indescribable”, then three pages of description later taking you back to the story.)I just re-read Alexei Panshin’s “Rites of Passage”. This is a fairly serious ethical exploration, and I am not sure how enduring the story is – it relies on the reader being familiar with a number of cultural assumptions of the time it was written.

        • Maira — I thoroughly enjoyed “Cross Time Engineer”! I also enjoyed both the Lensmen Series, and the short story send up of it. I think it was written by Randall Garrett, but I’m not sure anymore. The “Dauntless” was the “Dentless.” 😀 I have not read Panshin…I’ll have to put him on my TBR list. + TK

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