Conference noted::sf

       She is bar-none my favorite author. I don't think there are any
       more books in that set however. Her other books are "Falling Free",
       which has the most interesting genetic human forms I've read
       about, and "Ethan of Athos", about a planet of homosexual males
       looking for a new supply of ovvum. I'll read ANYTHING she writes.
       liesl

Both Ethan of Athos and Falling Free are set in the same universe as
the Vorkosigan books.  As a matter of fact Ethan is directly connected
to the Vorkosigan books via the character of Elli Quin (?).  There are
also at least to Miles stories, one of which was in last months Analog
and on that was packaged in on of the triplet books, from Tor I
believe.

				shades

    Great! Now I know I'm missing two short stories? RE: Tor triplet, 
    How do I find out the name so I can order it? Where do I get a back
    issue of Analog? Was it in April 89?  Questions, Questions! 
    
    Thanks for the pointers !
    
    Frank

Re .2, .3

There will be a collection of three novellas coming out this fall (an October
release, I believe, meaning a publication date of mid-September) from Baen
Books, all featuring Miles Vorkosigan.  I believe all three are reprints, so if
you want to save money and be sure you read the stories "in order", you might
want to want another month.  Based on descriptions from a Bujold interview in
the August issue of Locus, at least two of these novellas take place prior to
the events in the novel published earlier this year ("Brothers in Arms"?). 

				Andrew

    
    Heavy sigh!  My copy of her "Tales of Infinity" finnaly arrived and
    I finnaly understand the gaps in "Brothers"!.
    It was great as usual. 
    
    Any sign of new works in progress?
    
    Frank
    

    does anyone know if L.M.D. is a local from greater Boston ?
    I grew up with a friend whose name was Mcmaster and he had a younger
    sister named Lois? I would be shocked to learn that Saugus Ma.
    had actually produced a S.F. writer.
    Pete

    I read Shards of Honor and just recently, and just started Ethan of
    Athos.  While the Miles books counted among my all-time favorites,
    these (and let's not forget Falling Free!) are right up there too. 
    Definately worthwhile!!!!!!!!
    
    Willie

    Wow,
    Re: saugus
    
    Does anyone have the answer to where she is from?
    I live in Saugus and cripe, soon we won't even have a bookstore
    let alone a resident author!
     
    Any new works in progress? It's been a while.
    
    Frank
                                              
                                

Re .8
     
>    Any new works in progress? It's been a while.
    
There's a new Miles Vorkosigan novel coming out in late August
from Baen books called "The Vor Game!", and according to Locus 
she is currently working on a fantasy novel.
                                
				Andrew

    Just finnished "VOR GAME" and it was great. The time line of the story
    puts it after "Warrior's A..."  This fills in a lot of the references
    made in the later time line books. It is a must read if you enjoyed
    this series. It would seem the author is trying to complete her story's
    by providing some past events. Her last two books, have done this
    really well. 
    
    Frank
    
    

    I think I'm going to write her a letter and beg shamelessly for her to
    write about Aral and Cordelia again. I want to hear the stories about
    the time when she was pregnant and some of the stories that were hinted
    when Mile told Elly (in Bothers in Arms) that everytime his mother
    clashed with Barrayan culture, Barrayar changed.

    How do you write to an author, just send it care of the publisher?
    liesl

    re .11, how to write an author.
    
    Yes, and it will be forwarded.  Many authors like to get letters,
    and often answer them; but some don't.
    
    Is _Vor_Game_ out in paperback?
    
    		-John Bishop

<    Is _Vor_Game_ out in paperback?
    
    Yup, that's the only one's I buy. I don't think I've seen any of her
    books in hardback. liesl

    Wasn't _Vor_Game_ just a story in her latest 'collection'?  I really
    love the Miles stuff (and want more too), but after reading the stories
    in Analog (or was it IASFM?) it feels to me that she just writes short
    stories in the life of Miles till she has enough for a novel, then
    stacks them all up and wraps a cover around them, and:
    
                              Instant Novel!
    
    Willie

    "Boarders of Infinity" was a collection of short stories on Miles but
    "vor Game" is a complete stand alone novel. liesl

Re: .13, .14, .15

The only Bujold available in hardcover is in 2-in-1 editions from
the SF Book Club.  The most recent mailing I received offered
a volume containing BORDERS OF INFINITY and THE VOR GAME! for $9.98.

While BORDERS OF INFINITY is a set of three novellas, connected by
the thinnest excuse of a framing sequence (because "novels" sell
better than "collections"), THE VOR GAME! is indeed a novel, although 
the first segment set in the polar regions of Barrayar (perhaps a quarter 
of the novel) is taken from a novella published in Analog earlier
this year.  I feel sure that Bujold felt free to change the Analog 
story to make it a better jumping-off point for her novel, though I
haven't actually read the Analog version.

				Andrew

    Re; Hardcover copies:
    
    "Vor Game", also comes in a signed 1st Ed.
    
    
    Frank
    
    

    What I admire most about her books is the integrity: most authors,
    working with a set-up like that in _Ethan_of_Athos_, would toss in
    a "conversion" of Ethan and a conventional love-story; she did not.
    
    I also like the little touches: "Athos" is the name of the moutainous
    pennisula in Greece on which a number of monasteries are built, and
    on which no female is allowed (human or otherwise); Miles refers to
    the "super-soldier" as a teenaged werewolf; the "newt-fritters"...
    
    I can't believe in it, for the same reason I find C. J. Cherryh's
    future to be unrealistic, but I like it.
    
    		-John Bishop

Well, I did it. I wrote to LMB, and most wonderful of all, she answered!

She is currently working on the sequel to SHARDS which is titled Barrayar but
she expects that to change. It will be about the year follwing SHARDS up to
Miles birth and a bit past. Bothari will play a big role in this book. 

She says it's been wonderful being back in Cordelia's head again. I can't wait.
It's due out around this time next year. After that she is contracted to write
some non-series fantasy novels. 

I'm trying to sit on my hands and not pester her but do intend to write her
again. She had some interesting ideas about what she might have happen to the
characters in response to some suggestions I had. I have some other ideas and
it's just great fun to speculate. We both had some similar ideas about Elena
and I can't wait to tell her my twist after reading her thoughts. This was
great good fun!!!! liesl

    
    GROAN!!!!
    Next year? That long to wait?
    Heavy sigh....
    
    Please keep us informed all you can.
    Thanks!

    
    Has anyone heard of any new works?
     Anything due out etc.
    
    It's been a long time since her last.
    
    Frank

Re .22

Bujold's next novel, BARRAYAR, takes place in the year or so after 
SHARDS OF HONOR, and is on the schedule as an October paperback release 
from Baen.  It is currently being serialized in (I believe) Analog 
magazine (the serial runs four issues, July through October), though it 
will cost more to get the magazine, and it has probably been cut for 
serialization.  Expect to see the paperback in late September.

				Andrew

     Well I just read Falling Free and LOVED IT.
    
     I now ( .0-.23 ) know about something called the VOR books.
    What order would you read them in if you were just starting out!
    
    Eric Wise

    I asked Lois this at Worldcon, and she essentially reccomended that you
    read them in the order she wrote them, which is sort-of
    non-chronological, but makes mre sense....
    
    Willie

The order in which you buy them and the order in which you read them may not
be identical.

Buy the most recent one (Barrayar) and in the back there is a chronology.  This
is a slightly more up-to-date version of a chronology published in "The Vor
Game".

I have not been able to get a copy of "Shards of Honor", although I have all
the others.  When I get it, I plan to reread the whole series in the exact
order as given in the chronology (which is most definitely not publication
order).

						-- Spencer

    
    
    Read in this order 
    
    
     Shards of honor
     Barrayar
     Warrior's Apprentice
     Vor Game
     Boarders of Infinity
     Brothers In Arms
    
    
    

    
    Has anyone heard any new info on her  next book?
    Like what, and when?   It's been awhile sence Barrayar.
    
    Frank

From some things she said in respnse to a letter I wrote her last year LMB may
have something on Elaina in the works. Her husband may come to an early end and
the tie to Miles return. But that was just mentioned as a maybe. I've been
thinking about writing her again. I was just so tickled when she answered my
first letter. liesl

Re last few

Lois has just written a fantasy novel, THE SPIRIT RING, which is due out
in hardcover from Baen this fall.  She is currently three chapters into
a new Miles novel, which will also feature Mark.

				Andrew

    I just bought _Spirit_Ring_, but am only about 5 pages in.
    There are lots of echos already: it starts out like a prequel
    to Shakespeare's _Tempest_ (with some name changes), with
    lots of not-quite name-dropping to various Renaissance Italian
    artists (Cellini's saltcellar, <?>'s Perseus with the head of
    Medusa, Da Vinci....).  I hope she'll take this background
    and make it her own.
    
    I love her Barrayar stuff--I have read and re-read the novels
    several times--and yes, Cordelia is a pleasure: I prefer the
    two about her (Shards and Barrayar) to the Miles ones.  And I'm
    impressed that she can refer to an adventure (e.g. the Dagoola
    rescue or Cordelia changing Barrayar) in other books and then 
    write it convincingly later.  Most authors can't do that.
    
    I wrote to her as well, and asked for a book on the Old Count,
    Piotr.  I want to read about the end of the time of Isolation
    and the Cetagandan invasion.
    
    And yet I just can't believe in her future world.  We are almost
    even with its computech and biotech, and by internal evidence 
    they are several centuries away in the future.  It just doesn't
    make sense.
    			-John Bishop

What's this??? I hadn't heard of Spirit_Ring, what's it about?  And more
important, is it in paperback form? liesl

    _The_Spirit_Ring_, paperback, just showed up in my local bookstore
    yesterday.  I was looking for it, as her reply to my letter mentioned
    it.
    		-John Bishop

    John,
    
    Well... perhaps there was a hiccup between that later century and ours.
    Notice how there isn't an Alpha Colony mentioned?
    
    							Ann B.

    I've finished _The_Spirit_Ring_.  It's a harmless fantasy.
    
    It's good, but it's not up her best, I think.  In particular, it
    doesn't have those philosophical/ethical comments, asides or themes
    which the Barrayar books are full of.  The protagonists are simpler
    (for one thing, they're young) and it's more of an "external conflict"
    plot than an "internal conflict" one.
    
    Explaination of Title: a spirit ring is a ring with a bound ghost 
    in it.
    
    Background: Italian Renaissance plus magic.  Good magicians are about
    twice as powerful as a man with a cellular phone network and a good
    first-aid kit; bad magicians are more powerful, but don't much past
    the tank plus flamethrower level.
    
    Plot: Good magician has a daughter who is learning magic even though
    women aren't supposed to; local duchy is betrayed and occupied by a
    bad duke supported by a bad magician; in fight good magician dies as
    does a member of the local guard.  Daughter escapes, connects to brother
    of dead guardsman; two struggle to defeat bad duke and bad magician.
    Motivator is that the bad magician is eager to do necromancy on the
    dead good magician and the dead brother.  You can sketch the rest.
    
    Tone: no sex, little violence or horror, uncomplicated motivations
    and straight-forward characters.  Plot unfolds with no surprises.
    Details of background not worked out.  Difficult issues (like what
    happens to Islam when Christianity is true) not mentioned at all.
    A fun, light story, but not something I plan to re-read.
    
    Overall it reminded me more of Lawrence Watt-Evens' weaker works
    than Bujold.
    
    		-John Bishop

    _Mirror_Dance_ is out in hardback.
    
    I haven't started it yet, but I see no reason why it won't be as the
    author described it to my friend Suford:  A lot of it takes place in
    Jackson's Whole.  Since Bujold was taught to tell the story from the
    viewpoint of the character in the most trouble, the viewpoint character
    is Mark.
    
    							Ann B.

    
    	 I have a chance to see her at a Con. Has anyone seen her.
    Would it be worth the 5.5 hour drive?
    
    	Efw

    I don't know if it's worth it, but if you go, please say hello
    from all of us!
    
    		-John Bishop

I wrote her a letter and she gave me a very long and friendly reply. Wish I
could see her in person. She even used a quote from my letter in a list of fan
comments printed in Spirit World. I was thrilled. I just the new book was out in
paperback. I'm allegic to buying hardbacks unless they are marked down. :*) liesl

    I just finished _Mirror_Dance_, which was I got as a gift in
    hardback.
    
    Nano-review: good sequel.
    
    Micro-review:
    
    Mark becomes a hero in his own coming-of-age novel, and is 
    satisfactorily distinguished from Miles.  We get to see most
    of our old friends (now a bit older) again.
    
    Review:
    
    First, a warning to non-Bujold fans--if you haven't read at
    least some of the previous books in the Vorkosigan series, you
    are going to be totally at sea here.  Characters just appear
    (Bel Thorne, Elena Bothari-Jesik) and are important, but little
    introduction is done.  From the point of view of a fan, this
    is great--no wasted words, so more new stuff.  
    
    The plot revolves around Mark (the clone brother trained to
    replace Miles' Vorkosigan persona), who we last saw ducking into 
    a London underground station with million-dollar credit chip.
    He is out to be a hero and is a mess, with not only sibling
    envy but a host of other problems from his horrific past.
    Mark has a deep and personal hatred for the Bharaputran clone
    labs, and tries to destroy them by imitating Naismith.  Miles
    himself spends much of the time off stage, often _very_ off
    stage.
    
    Bujold manages to give Mark a distinct but similiar voice as
    early as the first chapter, and to carry off the usual 
    amazing-but-still-believeable sequences (remember the Pretender's
    head?).  There are weaknesses, but they don't detract significantly
    from the book.  I still, for example, can't buy into the offered
    technological level.  Most jarringly, when at one point a
    character is being tortured by bad old Baron Ryoval, she hints 
    at unnatural, unmentionable and ego-destroying sexual tortures
    but maintains for plot purposes that they don't involve any 
    physical harm or coercion beyond drugs.  I find this oddly 
    old-fashioned and naive, and smarmily coy--at odds with her
    usual concrete style.  I didn't believe for an instant that 
    she had any idea of what would have actually been going on,
    beyond some kind of pink blur.  On the other hand, a later
    flaying by enzyme is quite concrete and believeable (calling
    Beth Rust!).
    
    Time has passed and Bujold is unafraid to make real changes in
    her characters (unlike series where the same year happens twenty
    times in a row!), and it's a bit of a shock.  There's clearly
    room for another sequel.
    
    In some ways Mark is nicer than Miles--more human (if just as
    or more wounded inside).  I like the way that he turns out to
    be a one-woman man--or at least it seems like we get to see
    the first part of a romance more like that of Aral and Cordelia
    (to be continued later in the sequel?).  He also turns a profit
    on his deals!
    
    Overall: fans will want it.  Others should start with
    _Shards_of_Honor_, which I still think the best.
    
    		-John Bishop

    Lois McMaster Bujold has accepted the position of Guest of Honor at
    Boskone 33, to be held in February, 1996.
                                           ^
    Her next work, _Ceteganda_ will be serialized in "Analog" next autumn,
    and the hardback will be out in January, 1996.
    
    							Ann B.

Saw "Ceteganda" in the Barnes&Noble bookstore yesterday.  Miles and Ivan go 
to a funeral for a Cetegandan dignitary?  Something along those lines.
Looks to follow right after the "Vor Game".  Looked interesting, but I've only
just started on Bujold, so by the time I'm ready for this one, it 
should be out in paperback...

PeterT

BTW, you can read the first few chapters for that at http://www.baen.com/

><<< Note 752.42 by QUARRY::petert "rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty" >>>
>                             -< New Bujold out... >-
>
>Saw "Ceteganda" in the Barnes&Noble bookstore yesterday.  Miles and Ivan go 
>to a funeral for a Cetegandan dignitary?  Something along those lines.
>Looks to follow right after the "Vor Game".  Looked interesting, but I've only
>just started on Bujold, so by the time I'm ready for this one, it 
>should be out in paperback...

It was the most recent four part serial in Analog.
Abridged?  I don't know.

- tom]