2018 books: Shards of Honor, Stardoc

[thistlechaser]

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



Know how you put off a task because you know it will disappoint people? I should have reviewed this book as soon as I gave up on it, because at least then I could have better written my reasons for it, but I know a lot of people loved the series and I hated the idea of disappointing you guys.

This book didn't work for me, but I suspect the later books in the series, maybe once Miles is the main character, might work better for me. I did like a number of parts of the story: the war, the background, and I liked both main characters. I really enjoyed the beginning of the book, when she was trapped on the planet and trying to stay out of the enemy's hands.

But then she was caught by them and... she fell in love. In days. Something like five days after they met, these two enemy people, alien species to each other, were in love and talking about long-term relationships.

Someone on Goodreads described this book as more romance than anything else, and that's how it felt to me as well. They had a 'love at first sight' (or at least lust at first sight) thing going on, and so so so quickly moved into a relationship.

I stopped reading at 45% (sorry!), but will try one of the later books.

Stardoc by S. L. Viehl
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



After I gave up on Shards of Honor, I wanted something different. "Not another woman-in-space book!" I said to myself. Looking through the tiny, tiny covers on my kindle, I saw what I thought was Stardogs. "Ah ha! Perfect! That should be completely different!" ...but the font had been so tiny, it was actually Stardoc, which was about a woman in space.

Stardoc, about (hold onto you seat) a doctor in space, wasn't a bad book. It followed the main character as she left Earth and went to some frontier planet to practice medicine there. The aliens were interesting, the planet was interesting. At times the medical cases were interesting. But, like Shards, this one seemed to be leaning towards romance as well. She meets a sexy blue alien, experiences love/lust at first sight, and days later the two are talking about a lifelong relationship. There was also some Dark Mystery subplot about her father, but that held no interest for me.

While on the surface, things kept happening in the story (medical case after medical case), there was no overarching plot through the whole book other than the rarely mentioned Dark Mystery around her father, and the romance. Like Shards, this book felt more like a romance book than anything else. I stopped reading at 40%.

Partial book credits:
Point reached in these books: 45% + 40%
Previous abandoned book total: 708%
New total: 793%

Comments

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Aw. Sorry to have (probably) been one of the shadowy legions whose disappointment you worried over. Shards worked for me just because I inserted romance novel protocols and didn't worry about it, but people differ, and their falling for each other so fast is definitely a Thing. (I think I would have disliked it if I hadn't read the Miles books first.)

If/when you want the Miles books, the first one's The Warrior's Apprentice.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to have the same experience: If I like the Miles books, then I'll be curious about his parents and background, so I'll come back to this book then. I'll pick up The Warrior's Apprentice soon! (And yes, you're one of the ones I figured would be disappointed.)

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Stardogs would be a good book!

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Basically, I try not to have emotional investment in *whether* someone will enjoy something. If they do, then we can enthuse together; if they don't, we can enthuse about something else, at some point.

(And yeah, that makes sense, re: potential eventual curiousity.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

It wasn't bad at all! It just didn't hook me, so I decided to move on to something else.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Perfect way to handle it!

[hamsterwoman]

I actually also read a Miles book first (although not the first one, and I don't recommend starting where I did, A Civil Campaign, even though it's still my favorite of the series :)

I *think* 'Shards' would've worked for me even without that, although I did absolutely love the glimpse of Aral and Cordelia, as parents of a grown son, that I got in A Civil Campaign, so maybe it did help?

Anyway, I'm the same way as juliansinger in that while I of course hope that my friends will love the same books I do (because it's nice when people love books! and nice to love something together), I don't really go in expecting it, and if someone doesn't love (or even hates) something I love, then either I'm curious to know why or we can just squee over something else together. :)

The courtship IS pretty abrupt, but it doesn't bother me personally because A) I love Cordelia, and can easily believe someone would fall head-over-heels in love with her in just a couple of days, and B) I love Aral, and could easily see myself falling head-over-heels in love with him in just a couple of days, so :P

The Stardoc romance I had a harder time accepting, because I just didn't find Kao very interesting (and also, they are actually different species rather than just humans from different planets, and I feel like that needs a bit more time to, you know, take root). And like you I wasn't very interested in the Dark Mystery around her father.

There is actually an overarching plot that kicks in in the second half of the book (I can tell you what it is if you're curious and not planning to ever go back to it so you don't care about spoilers), but because it took so long to get there, I felt like the pacing was weird.