Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Scifi/Fantasy Book Review: Memory (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold





Memory is the seventh book in the Vorkosigan Saga to follow Miles Vorkosigan and the conclusion of what is essentially a trilogy of sorts that began with Brothers in Arms (and continued in Mirror Dance).  This the halfway point in the series, but more importantly, it's maybe the high point of the series up to this point.

Memory is a book that shows off all of the best parts of the series: the series' trademark wit?  It has that in spades.  Characters who are fantastic and who you care about, even when they're being assholes (and our protagonist is an amazing asshole to start this book).  And yet this is also a book with a serious tone - like its predecessors in this trilogy, this is a book about identity, starring a main character who is torn between two of them, and facing the loss of one of them for good.  It's also a pretty fun if dark mystery novel, one that works even if you can guess the culprit (I got spoiled to it,so I can tell)

Basically Memory is everything this series does at its best, featuring great characters and dialogue, a mix of light and dark, and an exploration of a different genre (in this case mystery) as well as a slice of life in a brilliantly deep SciFi world.  It's the Vorkosigan Saga at its best:

Note as usual for this series, I listened to this as an audiobook, and the reader is as usual excellent except as usual the reader has AGAIN switched the pronunciation of one of the series' signature groups (we're back to den-dare-ee-eye here) to my bafflement.  

------------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------
Following his "death" in the last book, Miles Vorkosigan has still been suffering occasional seizures, a symptom of his cryo-revival.  One Problem:  he didn't tell his superiors at ImpSec about it.  Second Problem: He had a seizure in the middle of a rescue operation and accidentally bisected the ImpSec hostage they were rescuing.  Final Problem?  Fearing he would be taken out of the field if he admitted the problem, Miles lied to ImpSec head Simon Ilyan in his report about the incident....and was caught, resulting in him being fired from Ilyan.

Now Miles' permission to be Admiral Naismith, his favorite persona, is gone.  And what is left?  Who exactly is Miles Vorkosigan, the Barrayaran heir?  No one, not even Miles, has seen HIM in around 10 years.  Miles promises not to run off and betray his home planet to be the little Admiral once again, but if Miles isn't going to do that, he doesn't exactly have anything else TO do.  And while Miles doesn't want to share his shame with anyone else, it doesn't help to be back in his ancestral home, Vorkosigan House, all alone now that his parents have accepted the position as viceroy on the third Barrayaran Planet.

But events are moving on Barrayar, and won't give Miles the time to try and figure things out.  For one, the Emperor, Miles' foster brother, has finally found a woman to Court and marry, and wants Miles' approval.  For another, Miles' former boss Simon Ilyan - the man with a perfect memory due to a chip installed in his brain - starts to undergo a major memory breakdown with no warning.

Is this breakdown natural?  Or is it sabotage?  The new temporary head of ImpSec isn't interested in letting Miles try to help find out, but Miles hasn't let that stop him before...
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The Vorkosigan Saga won last year's first (sort-of) Hugo last year for Best Series, and Memory is a good example of the qualities that earned it the fandom who voted it for that award.  This is a book that contains no action scenes whatsoever (no matter what you may see on the book's cover), with a  first half that contains no overarching plot, no problem to solve, but simply our main character trying to rediscover life on Barrayar and who he is.  And yet this works so absolutely incredibly well, thanks to how well built up Miles is, and how well built up the rest of Barrayar is.  This book is absolutely not a stand alone novel, but rather the culmination of not only the prior two books, but everything in the series (the three novellas that make up the "Borders of Infinity" collection are majorly referenced).  And this is a great example of how a series can use such a long and deep background.

 "Love, we are discussing a young man upon whom Barrayar laid so much unbearable stress, so much pain, he created an entire other personality to escape into. He then persuaded several thousand galactic mercenaries to support his psychosis, and on top of that conned the Barrayaran Imperium into paying for it all. Admiral Naismith is one hell of a lot more than just an ImpSec cover identity, and you know it. I grant you he’s a genius, but don’t you dare try to tell me he’s sane."
"I won't seriously fear for Miles' sanity till he's cut off from the Little Admiral" - Cordelia Naismith in Mirror Dance, summing up the central theme of this book

Again, the dialogue and characters are as sharp as ever.  Whether it be witty dialogue or scenes - this book contains maybe the best fishing scene in SciFi/Fantasy ever - the book never fails to pull the proper heartstrings at any given moment, whether its sympathy for Miles (even when the whole start to this book is his own damn fault - more on that in a bit) or cracking up at the amazing witty dialogue.

Miles himself is terrific.  A comment I saw on another review of a Vorkosigan book noted that in another series Miles would be the villain, and wow is that true of the first four chapters of this book where Miles: a) accidentally cutting the legs off an innocent hostage; b) got into a fight with his longtime girlfriend and subordinate officer over lying about the situation; c) lied about the situation to his own superior; and d) cheated on said girlfriend with another woman; among other things.   And yet Miles is the hero of this book (and he is called out and pays for each of those things) and a good one, whose mind goes from near suicidal to finding himself again by the end of the book.  And his inner and outer dialogues and reactions make this work so well.  I'd thought of quoting a few passages from the book, and couldn't choose (and it's difficult to do so from an audiobook), but i'll link to a screenshot of the classic elephant story as part of it here.

The other characters - particularly Ilyan, Galeni, Gregor and Ivan - also work really well.  God, I didn't realize how much I missed a book with a lot of Ivan till this book - Ivan Vorpatril has always been Miles' sidekick when Miles was in Vorkosigan mode, and he is absolutely hilarious here, still a bit of a clown but showing himself to actually be a good guy at heart (despite still trying and failing to be a playboy, amazingly).  We get to see in depth both Gregor and Duv Galeni for the first time in a while and both have changed into rather interesting characters and our first in depth look at Ilyan reveals a real guy behind that sarcastic wit we've seen previously.

Then there's the main plot which shows up in the second half of this book, which is essentially a murder mystery - although without the dead body.  It's here we see the return of manic Miles, who we're used to saving the day in his own way, but this time as Miles Vorkosigan, not Miles Naismith.  It's a fascinating scifi mystery that works even if you know the culprit (I got spoiled by mistake ahead of time).  And expertly done by Bujold, that main plot ties directly into the Miles' book-long issues over his own identity.

The end result is the best book in the series (or tied for it), witty yet serious at times, light at times but also with dark themes, and one that ends in a way to send this series in a new direction.  I'm really looking forward to seeing where she takes this series with that new direction.
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