Elizabeth

Classic Ursula LeGuin

Revisado: 10-27-24

Subtle, sophisticated. Says a lot more about human nature and conflict than you originally realize.

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One of the great books of the 20th century

Revisado: 04-03-24

This is my 5th time through this book in nearly 30 years. No book for a thinking person which is a thinly-fictionalized story of the reconquest of medieval Spain could possibly be described as a “happy” one, but Kay balances love and tragedy and beauty in lavish amounts. Rereading in a decade where our world is once again tearing itself apart, I felt even greater poignancy.

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Great narration of a great story

Revisado: 05-19-21

This book is a classic, and Johanna Ward does a great job of bringing it to life.

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Another wonderful Fallen Angels novel!

Revisado: 10-28-19

Sadly, this is the last in the series, but it’s a spectacular conclusion. Steven is one of my favorite heroes, and I love all the details of life in a traveling theater group during the Regency period.

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One of my favorites, though not classic Heyer

Revisado: 10-05-16

This is one of my favorite books ever (and I thought it was very well read) but don't go into it expecting it to be like any other Georgette Heyer novel. I love the story of Harry Smith and his Juanita, and found it very romantic, but the true center of the book is indeed the historical detail, and military historical detail of that. Juana doesn't even show up until after a detailed description of the siege of Badajoz, which was a very nasty, bloody affair that Heyer describes in great detail. Not for the faint of heart.

The novel is compounded in great part from period autobiographies, diaries, and correspondence. Which may make it sound boring, except that the young men of the period seem to have all had a turn for description and a wonderful sense of humor. I was inspired to read a number of the original narratives that Heyer used for research, and can vouch that many of the incredible sounding episodes were indeed there. Harry Smith threw himself headlong into everything he did, and was remarkably successful at most of it--fighting, tactics, foreign languages, making friends with the most unlikely Spanish ruffians who could often be counted on to guide his regiment when they were lost. Johnny Kincaid, who apparently fell in love with Juana himself and gives quite a lot of detail about the Smiths, had a very wry sense of humor as well as a tendency to launch into Wordsworthian descriptions.

Juana de Leon, fourteen years old, is caught in the vicious fighting between the British and the French in the Spain of the Napoleonic Wars. She needs a hero to rescue her, and she finds that hero in Harry Smith. But Juana is no cowed child bride forced into marriage. When warned that she will find it very uncomfortable riding in the baggage train of the army with the other wives, and that she may not see her husband for weeks at a time, she says she thinks that sounds very unpleasant. Her solution is that she will ride with the regiment, and she charms permission from all concerned in order to do so. Harry's friends fear that he will shirk his duties if he has a wife by his side, but he and Juana agree that his work must always comes first. This means that Juana is often thrown on her own resources, and she copes with amazing ability. For instance, on discovering that she will need to ride a horse, she says that she will manage "for I have twice ridden on a donkey." And, in fact, she manages with determination and brilliance, her only argument being that Harry insists she ride with him leading her horse at first. They fight spectacularly and make up just as fiercely. She boxes his ears if he dares even look at another woman; he calls her his "little vixen." Juana seems to have truly loved campaigning, even the nights when the commissary lost the regiment and they end up eating acorns. In another day and age, she would have made as good a soldier as Harry.

I could go on for longer, but the review would end up being as long as the book. I loved this book when I read it as a teenager, and I think David Collins does a spectacular job of making the characters come to life.

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The first and still my favorite Bujold novel

Revisado: 07-04-16

Would you consider the audio edition of Shards of Honor to be better than the print version?

Not better, but different. This is one of my favorite books of all time, and I go back and forth between rereading and relistening. Grover Gardner is the perfect reader for the Vorkosigan novels, and it's come to the point where I hear his voice in my mind when I read the Vorkosigan novels.

Who was your favorite character and why?

You can't have Cordelia Naismith without Aral Vorkosigan, or Aral without Cordelia. This is an expansive space opera with a beautiful love story at the heart of it.

Which scene was your favorite?

So many scenes to choose from, it's hard to choose just one. Cordelia's first meeting with Aral, puking out her guts in a muddy ravine. The moment when Aral discards the notion of lighting a fire by rubbing two sticks together, and starts the blaze instead with the back-up battery to his missing plasma arc, creating a crater that can be seen from the sky.. The moment when Commander Vorkalloner says of Cordelia, "She's not on the general staff," and Aral replies, "Come to think of it, neither am I..any longer." The moment after the war when they lie out on the promontory over what has become the prisoner of war camp, and Aral finally tells the story behind the invasion of Escobar. And that's just the start.

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Bujold and Gardner can't be beat

Revisado: 07-04-16

If you've not read prior books in Bujold's Vorkgosigan series, this is not the book to start with. But if you've always loved Cordelia and Aral Vorgkosigan, you will love this "postscript" book that shows Cordelia as Vicereine of Sergyar, the place where it all began. Cordelia is and always will be the inimitable Cordelia, and Aral is there in spirit if not in person. And you get the charming bonus of Admiral Oliver Jole (who always looks round when he hears himself called the Admiral, because only one person could be that) who has always been only a cameo as Aral's right hand man.

Grover Gardner "gets" the Vorkosigans. There is no other way of putting it. I can't imagine any of the Vorkosigan series read by anybody else.

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Patricia Wrede is always just plain fun!

Revisado: 02-03-15

This is the third in the series and wrapped it all up brilliantly. Since each book is short, I listened straight through, and I did get tired of all the recap at the beginning of each new novel, but it does mean you don't have to start with the first. Though I'd highly recommend doing them in order.

Amanda Ronconi did a good job of narrating. I thought she slightly overdid the accents, however. I got very tired of that folksy, frontier accent and with the Scandinavian accent of the Vinland professor. On the other hand, I thought she did great with Wash's southern drawl.

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Really, really annoying narrator

Revisado: 04-30-14

What didn’t you like about Daniel Hill’s performance?

I thought his presentation was very cartoonish, and disliked the "voices" that he chose for most of his characters. He made the action scenes sound like someone broadcasting a sports event.

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Fantastic narrator!

Revisado: 05-25-13

What other book might you compare Kim to and why?

Kim is incomparable; it stands alone. (An interesting piece of trivia: Kim Philby was named after him.) But one thing that struck me while listening this time (I've read it several times) is that Kipling's strength in his books about India was the ability of a great newspaper reporter. He stands outside the action and records it without personal commentary. I think this is why he sometimes has been labeled racist--because he recorded India exactly as he saw it, and the British of the time were frequently racist, so there are scenes showing blatant disrespect for the "black man."

Which scene was your favorite?

There is one scene where an Indian-born Englishman--who is clearly bilingual in English and Urdu (or is it Hindi?)--trades colloquial, good-humored insults with a cranky old grandmother who is in fact the wife of one of the small hill rajahs. She loves a good battle of words, but what really wins her heart is the clearly over-the-top praise of her beauty. "O, pearl of perfection, etc." She laughs, but you can hear the wistfulness when she says, "Once upon a time, maybe, that was true." (These are not exact quotations; my memory is not that good).

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Heavens, no! I think it's 14 hours long. Over 10, anyway. But when I was listening I was immersed in India and the story. And when it was over, I wished that it had been longer.

Any additional comments?

Madhav Sharma brings Raj India in all its variety to life. There are almost no women characters (the old grandmother is the notable exception) but he does teenage Kim's voice beautifully, as well as the lama, Mahbub Ali the Afghan horsetrader/spy, and Huri Babu, the self-described "fearful," and certainly fat, Bengali whose feats in espionage actually are more like James Bond's. Well, Mahbub is probably James Bond, since they're both incredibly fond of guns. But "no hurry for Huri" is still my favorite.

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