Shards of Honor

By: Lois McMaster Bujold

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

It was the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. And Captain Cordelia Naismith of the Betan Expeditionary Force would be forced into a separate peace with her enemy, Lord Vorkosigan.

Shards of Honor is the novel in which Lois McMaster Bujold introduced the science-fiction world to Barrayar and Aral Vorkosigan, Beta Colony and Cordelia Naismith. From this beginning the author has created a multigenerational saga spanning time as well as space.

Bujold is generally recognized as the current exemplar of the character-based science-fiction adventure story.

©1986 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[Bujold] gives [her] characters enough emotional depth, and enough sense, to raise their story beyond cliché." ( Locus)

3 in 1

I liked this book a lot. It's cool to see how Mile's parents got together, but the format was a bit strange. It really felt like 3 books put into one binding. I don't think it suffers much for it, but it was a bit distracting. Plus the epilogue seemed really out of place and only seemed to serve the purpose of saying "war sucks!"

Loved it.

Bujold is in my top two favorite authors. The Vorkosigan saga is addictive and lovable. Read and repeat!

Amazing Book

Amazing book and a real kicker of a story from start to stop. There are some very have implications throughout.

What fun!

I read this and Barrayar after having read the rest of the series. What fun! I really enjoyed finding Miles' mannerisms evident in his mom and dad. I'm not sure I would have caught the inheritance without having Miles' behavior ingrained from all the subsequent books.

Too much of a romance novel for my taste

Definitely a female author. A little too "touchy-feely" for me. Story has a lot of dangling threads - unfulfilling, incomplete. My overall opinion of the book is, "Meh."

Fun but meaningful

Bujold has an amazing way of being lighthearted but still encourages the reader to grapple with deep philosophical issues.

The first and still my favorite Bujold novel

Would you consider the audio edition of Shards of Honor to be better than the print version?

Not better, but different. This is one of my favorite books of all time, and I go back and forth between rereading and relistening. Grover Gardner is the perfect reader for the Vorkosigan novels, and it's come to the point where I hear his voice in my mind when I read the Vorkosigan novels.

Who was your favorite character and why?

You can't have Cordelia Naismith without Aral Vorkosigan, or Aral without Cordelia. This is an expansive space opera with a beautiful love story at the heart of it.

Which scene was your favorite?

So many scenes to choose from, it's hard to choose just one. Cordelia's first meeting with Aral, puking out her guts in a muddy ravine. The moment when Aral discards the notion of lighting a fire by rubbing two sticks together, and starts the blaze instead with the back-up battery to his missing plasma arc, creating a crater that can be seen from the sky.. The moment when Commander Vorkalloner says of Cordelia, "She's not on the general staff," and Aral replies, "Come to think of it, neither am I..any longer." The moment after the war when they lie out on the promontory over what has become the prisoner of war camp, and Aral finally tells the story behind the invasion of Escobar. And that's just the start.

Great books, poor value

This a review of the entire series, not just the first book. the performance is excellent, the story is great. I really like Bujold's writing. full of interesting sayings and she has a wonderful vocabulary. my only disappointment is the value offered with these books. they are too short for the price. the price per book should be lower or these stories should be available similar to the omnibus format of the written works so that tokens can be used to purchase.

One of her first and very touching

I am a great fan of the Miles saga, but somehow had never read this first one. Although it is true Bujold’s writing techniques improve with practice, she rarely reaches such a heart space as she does here. Highly recommend.

love Bujold. The Miles Series Rocks

Really enjoy this series. Bujold always keeps it moving with out bogging you down in technical details. The main characters are consistent and well eshed out.