I wouldn't recommend this as a good place to start reading the Vorkosigan series
I'd go further; it's a really terrible entrypoint into the series.
On the other hand ... I have a slightly different reading of it: it's a very interesting character study of Aral Vorkosigan -- and a technically challenging one at that -- conducted by minutely examining the effect of his death on the rest of the ensemble cast of the series. We get to learn a lot more about his interior life by examining the survivors than we would have if we observed him in a traditional expository adventure novel (such as the earlier titles in the series). He's positioned in the series as a Great Man of History, and by using this frame Bujold is able to humanize him without distracting us by way of his exploits.
(It also offers the hope of closure to a major protagonist who some readers might feel was dumped in the ordure at the end of Cryoburn. You don't dump much-loved protagonists in the midden without pushback from readers, and I'm betting this novel is partially a response, if only to her own second thoughts "yes, but what did Cordelia do next?)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2015-10-25 03:17 pm (UTC)I'd go further; it's a really terrible entrypoint into the series.
On the other hand ... I have a slightly different reading of it: it's a very interesting character study of Aral Vorkosigan -- and a technically challenging one at that -- conducted by minutely examining the effect of his death on the rest of the ensemble cast of the series. We get to learn a lot more about his interior life by examining the survivors than we would have if we observed him in a traditional expository adventure novel (such as the earlier titles in the series). He's positioned in the series as a Great Man of History, and by using this frame Bujold is able to humanize him without distracting us by way of his exploits.
(It also offers the hope of closure to a major protagonist who some readers might feel was dumped in the ordure at the end of Cryoburn. You don't dump much-loved protagonists in the midden without pushback from readers, and I'm betting this novel is partially a response, if only to her own second thoughts "yes, but what did Cordelia do next?)