[LMB] SciFi vs Fantasy, No longer OT, was OT: Digest vs. "Folders" And List Expectations

[Elizabeth Holden]

--- Kat/Perchta <perchta at gmail.com> wrote:

> I know I'm going to be very unpopular for saying
> this, but to be brutally
> honest, I think that part of the problem is that the
> first SK book simply isn't as engaging as the 
> rest of LMB's books, and we've run out of things to
> say.

I think you're half right.

I found it engaging in the engaging in the extreme,
but I have - unless someone raises some really
interesting aspect I haven't thought of - run out of
things to say.

I loved it because I loved both Dag and Fawn.  But it
didn't leave me with things I was just itching to
discuss.

Worse, having read the second book when many others
haven't, I feel hamstrung in discussing Beguiled
without spoilers for Legacy. (And I take that very
seriously. I personally hate, hate, hate spoilers.
Except when I don't.)

> I don't think it has to do with a break down of
> scifi vs. fantasy.  

For me, it doesn't directly - I prefer the Bujold SF
novels not because they are SF but because they are
about the Vorkosigans, whom I love.  The genre is
pretty much irrelevant.

But what it then boils down to is that I love the
Bujold SF novels more than I love the Bujold
fantasies, because they aren't about the Vorkosigans.

> I'd hate to try and choose a fav Miles
> book!  

I usually say "Memory" but there are good arguments
for saying other titles. ("The Vor Game" may be a
close second.)

> The very first LMB book I read, The Memory
> Ring, addicted me to her books forever.

The first one I read was "Falling Free" and it didn't
addict me by any means.  Butit intrigued me enough to
read another, "Shards of Honor", and *that* addicted
me, and the rest is history.

> What I love about these books is the realness of the
> characters, the
> intensity of the action and the clever & bold ways
> problems are solved.  

All of that. Add the pacing, and the humour, and the
humanism, and the intelligent approach to human
nature, relationship and psychology.  Add to that the
interesting sociological insights and the gorgeous
suspense.

> I could identify with or admire the main characters.

> With TSK:B, I don't find any of that.  

Really? I identified with and admired both Dag and
Fawn. Very much.  My favourite Bujold creations since
the Vorkosigans, in fact.

namaste,
Elizabeth