Cordelia's Honor

"Shards of Honor" left me deeply ambivalent, and at various points throughout that story as well as "Barrayar" I found myself somewhere between eye-rolling and aghast in horror at the protagonist's tenacity to motherhood above all else (as though there were no other reason for women to be heroes?). Barrayar began by passing the Bechdel test and making me fall instantly in love with Drou, proceeded with quite a bit more maturity of writing and pacing, and ultimately wound up making me hang on every word of the story and finding quite a bit of affection for the main cadre of heroes. The afterword was lovely and made the whole tale cohere to me. I'll likely pick up more of the series for Miles, but at the moment I'm pining for more Cordelia.

So far so good. I've had this recommended my way from so very many places. Liking.

This was very old-fashioned space opera/adventure from a female heroine's point of view. A bit simplistic in parts, and I never quite got what the heroine saw in the hero, but it's a huge amount of fun to read, and I can understand why the series has such an enthusiastic following.

Bujold's Vorkosigan universe is well flushed out, with nearly every character given a full backstory and 3 dimensions. I'll be finding more in this series.