The verdict
A small, sharp first novel that starts a huge story with two people rather than a war.
Quick facts
- Author
- Lois McMaster Bujold
- First published
- 1986
- Publisher
- Baen Books
- Series
- Vorkosigan Saga, book one
- Best for
- Character-driven science fiction, and a series that improves as it goes
- Skip it if
- You want hard science or a fast plot
Author Lois McMaster Bujold
Shards of Honour is Lois McMaster Bujold’s 1986 novel about two officers on opposite sides of a war, stranded together on an uninhabited planet, who have to trust each other long enough to survive and then go home to governments that will not believe a word of it. It is the first book of the Vorkosigan Saga and the start of one of the great long-running stories in science fiction.
The idea behind it
Bujold’s subject is honour, and she is careful to make it complicated. Barrayar is a militarised planet that clawed its way back from a collapse, and its officer class runs on a code of personal obligation that is both admirable and lethal. Beta Colony is its opposite: socially engineered, sexually egalitarian, therapy-first, and quietly convinced of its own superiority.
Cordelia and Aral each think they understand the other’s culture. Both are wrong, and the novel is the process of them finding that out. That is the whole book, and it works because Bujold lets the reader like both societies while seeing exactly where each one goes wrong.
The story, spoiler-light
Cordelia Naismith commands a Betan survey ship, which is attacked and destroyed by a Barrayaran vessel on a planet nobody is supposed to care about. She meets Aral Vorkosigan, the officer in charge, who is known across two systems as the Butcher of Komarr. A mutiny on his own ship leaves the two of them walking across hostile ground with nothing but bad options.
The second half is where the book becomes something rarer than a survival story. Cordelia ends up on Barrayar, inside a court she does not understand, watching a political plot close around people she has come to care about. Two things are worth knowing going in: the novel is a romance as much as a space story, and the ending is a quiet political resolution rather than a battle.
What makes it science fiction
The technology is domestic rather than spectacular. The Betan contribution to the plot is reproductive medicine, which Bujold treats as a social fact rather than a gadget: if children can be grown outside a body, then questions about who owns a child, and who is responsible for one, change shape entirely. Barrayar’s answer to those questions is the engine of the series.
What is genuinely unusual here is the scale. Most military science fiction of the period is about fleets. This is about two people and a marriage, in a novel that still has space battles in it. Bujold came from a romance and historical fiction background and it shows, entirely to the book’s benefit.
Who should read it, and who should give it a miss
Read it if you want character writing in science fiction, and if the idea of a long series that actually improves appeals to you. It is also one of the best entry points to the genre for a reader who thinks they do not like space opera.
Give it a miss if you want hard science, big fleet actions, or a plot that moves fast. The action is in the first half, the second half is politics and family, and the pacing is deliberately unhurried.
Where to start, and what to read next
Start here. It is the first book of the Vorkosigan Saga and the beginning of the Cordelia duology, which continues directly with Barrayar. Bujold has won multiple Hugo awards and this is where the run starts.
The two books to pick up next are Barrayar, which is the second half of Cordelia’s story and is set immediately after this one, and The Warrior’s Apprentice, which jumps a generation ahead and begins the Miles Vorkosigan books where most readers agree the series hits its stride.
The rest of the sequence, for reference: Cetaganda, Borders of Infinity, Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Memory, Komarr, A Civil Campaign, Diplomatic Immunity, Cryoburn, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance and Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Falling Free sits in the same universe centuries earlier and can be read at any point.
The verdict
A small, sharp first novel that starts a huge story with two people rather than a war. Read it for Cordelia and Aral, and stay for the twenty books that follow.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shards of Honour the first Vorkosigan book?
It is the first published and the usual place to start. Falling Free is set earlier in the timeline but is a standalone in the same universe, so it can be read at any point.
Do I need to read the whole series?
No. Shards of Honour and Barrayar form a complete two-book story. Everything after them follows Miles, and you can stop or start there without losing anything.
Is it military science fiction?
Partly. There are soldiers, ships and a mutiny, but the book is far more interested in culture, marriage and obligation than in tactics. Readers who dislike military SF often like this.
Is it a romance?
It has a romance at its centre and it takes that romance seriously, which is unusual for science fiction of its period and part of why it still reads well.
Where can I buy it?
It is available in paperback and as a Kindle edition, and the buy links for Amazon.com and Amazon.in are on this page.