Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series is, yes, pretty long (there are “suggested reading order” lists all over the internet). It might seem scary at first to see that long list of titles. I’m here to tell you, don’t be scared! If you start at the beginning, and don’t sleep until you’re done, it won’t take that long at all to read the whole thing.
Okay, okay. So you only want to dip cautiously into the series, and since you’re here, you want the romantic bits. Here’s my advice:
The series is space opera, with lashings of ongoing romance throughout, but three of the books, in particular, are more romantic than the others.
The first in the series chronologically, Shards of Honor (now included in the omnibus Cordelia’s Honor, along with Barrayar), introduces Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan, on opposite sides of a political divide but stranded together on an inhospitable planet.
“Do you still want to bash my head in with a rock?“
”Not at the moment,“ she said sincerely.
As you can imagine, they must work together to survive, and develop a solid respect for each other, which is only increased when they meet again later on, this time as opposing sides in a planetary war, which turns out to be only the beginning of their problems.
And just when was it, she asked herself, that you stopped being afraid of him and started being afraid for him? And why is this new fear so much more gut-wrenching than the first?
There are more pot twists and “dark moments” than you can shake a stick at, which makes the reward at the end all the more satisfying. The best part of their romance is that their Happily Ever After continues in the novel Barrayar, and is shown in bits and snippets throughout the rest of the entire series. They remain vital characters to the end.
“You have the competence one would look for in a mother of warriors.”
Most of the Vorkosigan series, however, centers on Cordelia and Aral’s son, Miles, physically challenged and mentally extraordinary. He’s brilliant, honorable, and a bit hyperactive, always getting into wild situations, then getting himself out of them. His first romance is unrequited. Later on, he’s successful in finding several romantic partners, but none of them wants to marry him, preferring to stick to their lives as spacegoing mercenaries. But because Miles is his father’s heir to a Countship, his marriage is actually a big deal. When he finally meets the woman of his dreams, Ekaterin in Komarr, though...she’s already married. Not only that, but her situation is bad on several levels, and Miles doesn’t entirely get off on the right foot.
Until seeing those brief glimpses of her animation earlier today, he had not guessed how much of her personality was missing from view, or how much went underground in the presence of her husband.
The dramatic events that follow their meeting and lead up to their marriage take two full books: Komarr (a science fictional mystery story, with thwarted romance) and its sequel, A Civil Campaign (a science fictional comedy of manners). Both books are included in the omnibus Miles in Love.
He’d been falling [in love] for days, he realized in retrospect. It was just that he’d finally hit the ground.
The two books are an interesting contrast to each other; the first combines mystery and politics with an accurate picture of emotional abuse within marriage. The romance does not end in that book, but the whole book is setting it up. The second reads more like a modern Georgette Heyer novel. With science fiction. A Civil Campaign is the most beautifully choreographed book I have ever read. I can only describe this sequence of two books as a rollercoaster of emotions, with more dramatic setbacks and poignant rewards than most “pure” romances.
I highly recommend this series. Addendum: I wasn’t entirely joking about reading the entire series; if you want to get the most out of it, that’s the way to go. There are many complex characters, both primary and secondary, and most of them experience multiple character changes throughout the series. It’s rewarding to pick that up, bit by bit, and equally rewarding to re-read the series for those reasons. However, if you decide to stick with only the more romantic of the books, be aware that the status quo of the series radically shifts in Mirror Dance and Memory, which occur before Komarr.
Victoria Janssen is the author of three erotic novels and numerous short stories. Her latest novel is The Duke and The Pirate Queen from Harlequin Spice. Follow her on Twitter: @victoriajanssen or find out more at victoriajanssen.com.
