SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: The Flowers of Vashnoi by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Flowers of Vashnoi (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold

So I finished my readthrough of all 17-some books in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga last year, and I really enjoyed the series quite a bit, with several of the books (Memory, A Civil Campaign, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance) being particularly great.  Naturally, as I was doing this, Bujold actually releases the first new work in the series in a while - this novella set in between Diplomatic Immunity and Cryoburn.  And since it took a while for the audiobook to come out and none of my libraries would pick up the print/ebook edition, it was a long wait for me to suddenly actually complete the series in its entirety.

And naturally now I have.  As usual, this was read via audiobook, which is done by the excellent Grover Gardner - although Gardner has switched his accent for Enrique Burgos (who had a clearly Spanish accent back in A Civil Campaign) which was kind of annoying.  The novella also follows Ekaterin rather than Miles, which is a nice change - I missed her after her viewpoint disappeared after A Civil Campaign.  More on my actual thoughts on the content of this novella after the jump:



Plot Summary:  For generations now, Vorkosigan Vashnoi has remained an area off limits, still suffering the effects of the nuclear weapon set off there by the Cetagandan occupation, and still being highly radioactive.  But Enrique Burgos' butterbugs have presented a possibility for cleaning the area more quickly - via his new version: the Radbugs, which feed on radioactive material and glow to warn people of their radioactivity.  Yet when Ekaterin and Enrique take a look at the first test run of these bugs, they find that somehow half of the bugs have been disappearing.  And when they take a look into the Vashnoi to see what is really going on, they find something they could never have imagined in the long forbidden area, with ties to Barrayar's less accepting history....

Thoughts:  On one hand, it was nice to have a new story from Ekaterin's perspective, with little Miles, and it was definitely fun to have more Enrique, who may have mellowed a little bit from time on Barrayar but is still hilarious in his singlemindedness sometimes.  On the other hand, this is the type of story that really won't appeal to anyone other than Vorkosigan superfans, and felt kind of duplicative of some earlier works in the series, particularly The Mountains of Mourning, which also features its hero dealing with the remnants of Barrayar's time of isolation barbaric culture.  Ekaterin's personality, with her more calm emotional and rational approach, differentiates it from that story, but it's still a story that didn't feel particularly special. It's still got that Vorkosigan/Bujold charm, but it's a Vorkosigan fan read only.