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Articles by Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer
Mary Sue Fights Fascism: Diane Carey’s Dreadnought! and Battlestations!
There is a fine art to reading a Mary Sue. You have to remember how much work the character has put into getting to the point of whatever fabulous opportunity she is going to conquer with her wits, her love, and whatever skills she happens to have at the moment. You have to respect the challenges of that moment. You have to allow yourself to be glad to see her. You have to be ready to throw your arms around her, and wish her all the best. You have to welcome the opportunity.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: The Vor Game, Chapters 2 and 3
Last week, Miles flew off to Kyril Island, which is like a magical frosty fairyland that also wants to kill you. And I committed one of the classic reread blogger sins—leaving off half of the chapter. The conversation Miles has with Major Cecil is very enlightening, but so are the conversations he has with Lieutenant Ahn and that incident where he proves he is totally getting better at subordination by regretting that he got snippy with his new CO.
“That’s why it’s called fantasy”: An Interview With Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey published her first novel, Arrows of the Queen, in 1987. Since then she’s published well over a hundred more books and an impressive quantity of short fiction both as a solo writer and in collaboration with others. At this point, it should surprise no one to hear that I’m a huge fan.
Murderbots, Hamster Princesses, and Other Cute Reads
Sometimes, when you blog about fiction, people say things to you that are inexplicable—things like, “I hated the winged horse,” or “I wanted to set this book on fire.” That’s fine, really. Cool story. There are lots of people who don’t like psychic cats, or happily-ever-after endings. And again, that’s fine! Many things are a matter of taste. But I’ll be honest—I think those people are missing out. So I’m giving in to the urge to recommend the things I love: You should read cute stuff.
I Have Some Thoughts About Netflix’s The Knight Before Christmas
I hate Christmas. It’s a huge stressful occasion in which we are all expected to put on multiple emotional performances, all of which must appear to our friends and family to be completely genuine, and which are supposed to inspire similar performances from the people around us. This is easy if your feelings are genuine, but it’s hell if anything is going on in your life that stands in the way of your unchecked happiness. The Christmas Spirit is a lot of pressure.
I Have Some Concerns About Netflix’s The Knight Before Christmas
I hate Christmas. It’s a huge stressful occasion in which we are all expected to put on multiple emotional performances, all of which must appear to our friends and family to be completely genuine, and which are supposed to inspire similar performances from the people around us. This is easy if your feelings are genuine, but it’s hell if anything is going on in your life that stands in the way of your unchecked happiness. The Christmas Spirit is a lot of pressure.
The Internet Is Watching You, and It Really Wants to Help: Naomi Kritzer’s Catfishing on Catnet
When I started writing this review, a week in advance of publication day, most readers were still waiting for Catfishing on Catnet. I, on the other hand, had read my copy six times. The novel is based on Kritzer’s 2015 short story, “Cat Pictures Please.” The story won a Hugo Award, and also my heart. Kritzer has a gift for writing things that are analytical, insightful and incredibly reassuring.
Book Review: Eye Spy by Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey and I go way back. I started reading her Valdemar series when I was twelve and I kept on because I love it unconditionally. For those of you new to Lackey’s work, Valdemar has a very unique form of government. People have to be Chosen by Companions—magical white horses who bond telepathically with specific humans—in order to have access to political power. Individuals who have been Chosen become Heralds. They ride around the kingdom conducting government business.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Epilogue
The epilogue has us rejoining Cordelia and Jole approximately two years later. Jole is getting ready to retire from the military and pursue his PhD in biology. Little Everard Xav has gone into the incubator. Cordelia is still the Vicereine, but clearly transitioning out of her role as well. Aurelia, aged 18 months, is expecting a younger sister. The story ends where it started—Sergyar—but also someplace new—Gridgrad and the site of Cordelia’s future home nearby.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga – Tor.com
Newest Post All Posts Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapter 17
I write to you this week surrounded the pleasant detritus of an early summer weekend—my ukulele, a pile of books, a sleepy dog, a plate containing the remnants of some homemade ice cream sandwiches. We take summer seriously around here. The only problem is that, although my children are both out of school now, I’m not done until Wednesday.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapter 16
At the end of chapter 15 of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Admiral Oliver Jole found himself underneath an unexpected swarm of radials that had also been set on fire. Where did this leave him? For starters, it left him shirtless. He removed his shirt to throw it over Alex and Helen, who he was also protecting with his own body. I thought about calling the shirt thing implausible, but I decided against it.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapters 14 and 15
Chapter 14 of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen opens with Miles and Jole in a field of misdelivered plascrete. Earlier in the book, Jole compared Aral falling in love to being hit by a falling building—not a building falling over, but a building falling from a great height.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapters 11-13
Chapters 11 through 13 of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen deal with conversations that should be had before too late. Chapters 11 and 12 deal mostly with personal matters. Chapter 13 raises the stakes with a second and third perspective on the War for Hegen’s Hub and a look at ongoing threats to Barrayar’s security. The main thrust of the personal conversations is that we’re not reading the kind of book where the plot hinges on people’s secrets being revealed in terrible and scandalous ways.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapter 10
In Chapter 10 of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Cordelia is preoccupied with her impromptu visit from her grandchildren. Cordelia’s grandchildren are amazing. Taura is my favorite. There’s nothing wrong with the rest of them, I just appreciate a person who knows a good hopscotch opportunity when she sees one. I’m ride or die for a tile floor. We’d get along. The Vorkosigan clan is difficult to settle.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapters 8 and 9
Chapters 8 and 9 of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen focus rather more on the Red Queen than on Gentleman Jole. The key issue is that Jole and Cordelia aren’t acknowledging the exact nature of their relationship in public. Rykov, Cordelia’s armsman, supports this decision—which was very definitely NOT Cordelia’s decision—because he’s in favor of discretion in all things.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapter 7
Chapter Seven of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen opens on the second morning of Jole and Cordelia’s weekend at Lake Serena. Even people over fifty can’t stay in bed together forever and the picnic hamper was only stocked for one night. Rather than lounging around having difficult conversations about What This Means and What Comes Next, Cordelia organizes an expedition in the transparent canoe. Transparent canoes are really cool.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapter 6
This week, Jole and Cordelia take off on what Bridget Jones might have described as a weekend mini-break. There’s a vast range of reading experiences between the Bridget Jones books and this one, but they DO have some things in common, most notably a connection with the works of Jane Austen. Gentleman Jole is, in some ways, Persuasion with a sexually adventurous backstory.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapters 4 and 5
Welcome back to Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga! Schools in Massachusetts get the week starting with the third Monday in April off, because of the Boston Marathon and the Battle of Lexington and Concord, so I’ve been on vacation this week. It’s been amazing.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapter 3
As readers, we’ve known Cordelia for a long time. We met her in her thirties when she became Aral’s prisoner and then fell in love with him shortly after he fell in love on her. Cordelia has adopted Jole’s description of that. We’ve seen Jole around, here and there—looking like a recruiting poster, acting as Aral’s ADC, as an admiral it is unwise to cross with your peculation scheme, and as pallbearer “for Sergyar”—but we don’t really know him.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapters 2 and 3
This week, Oliver Jole goes to a reproductive clinic and a garden party. While the Vorkosigan Saga as a whole is very much a space opera, a number of the stories within it are very much romance novels. This one is a love story about a love story. Bujold has called it a meditation on grief and loss, and she has said that it is for adults. In the last weeks, I have reread chapters two and three several times and I can confirm: It is meditative and it is for adults.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapter 1
At the time of this writing, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen is the last book in the Vorkosigan series. It was released in 2016. As almost always, we will start with the cover. Gentleman Jole has only one cover. I have located a version with the title in Bulgarian (thank you, ISFDB), but it has the same art. The art is by Ron Miller, who has had a long career painting lots of science fiction book covers, based on a design by Bujold herself. This is the perfect genesis for a book cover.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Cryoburn, “Aftermaths”
At the time of this writing, Aral is the last character to die in the Vorkosigan Saga. This is the second time a book has ended with something that functioned as an epilogue titled “Aftermaths.” The previous “Aftermaths” appeared at the end of Shards of Honor and described the process of finding and identifying the remains of the casualties of the Escobar War. Aral lost a great deal in that war, and among other things, that story was about his losses.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Cryoburn, Chapters 19 and 20
In Esad Ribic’s cover of Cryoburn, Miles is looking for something. I came to Cryoburn looking for something, and one of the things about blogging a reread is that the things I thought I was doing never go away, they stay where I wrote them. My recollection of the book, before I started rereading it, was that it had a lot to do with unwanted people. It has some unwanted people in it. Lisa Sato was very inconvenient. Yani was inconvenient. Jin’s father hadn’t bought a cryofreezing contract.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Cryoburn, Chapters 15-18
Last week, Miles questioned Lisa Sato and invited her to sit in on his interrogation of Dr. Leiber. Last week I also mentioned that I think Dr. Leiber is a creep. If one absolutely MUST be a creep, one should at least use one’s creepiness to anticipate and outsmart the creeps who want a piece of you. And Leiber didn’t. We’ve had a lot of morally ambiguous characters in this series, including a number for whom I have a great deal of affection.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Cryoburn, Chapters 12-14
We’ve made the rounds of the interesting covers of Cryoburn. This week, I’m returning to my favorite, which is Esad Ribic’s. I don’t always like his work, but he did a nice job here. In Chapter 12, we finally catch up with Dr. Lieber, the man on whom this entire plot hinges. If you’ve had a question up until now, Lieber either is the answer or knows it. Where is Lisa Sato? Who froze her? Why? What’s up with the cryocorps? Dr. Lieber knows all of this.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Cryoburn, Chapters 8-11
Welcome back to the Vorkosigan reread! This week’s cover is Francois Lamidon’s art for the French edition published by J’ai Lu. This is the cryocombs, and the image captures the chaos and confusion Miles felt there. It also looks a bit like the Borg Cube. This week, we’re starting with Chapter 8. Following the combination educational field trip and influence peddling in Chapter 7, Miles has the inside scoop on Kibou’s cryogenics corporations. Ambassador Vorlynkin has grave concerns about bribery.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Series: Cryoburn, Chapters 6 and 7
This week’s cover is from the Czech edition published by Talpress, and it offers further proof (in case anyone was in doubt) that Martina Pilcerova really pays attention. That’s a cryochamber, with Lisa Sato inside. The guy next to it is the doctor who hid her in his basement, and the pyramids in the background are the New Egypt cryo-facility. I can tell for sure that Miles is not in this picture, because Pilcerova’s portraits of him tend to be more Byronic.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Cryoburn, Chapter 5
Welcome back to the Vorkosigan reread! This week’s Cryoburn cover is by Dave Seeley. This painting was used on the Baen first edition, apparently with some darker filters applied. Baen did something similar to the cover of Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance. Later Baen editions have brighter colors, although the color palette Seeley is using can’t really be called bright. I chose to use the Spanish version from Ediciones B here because the Baen edition has more marketing copy obscuring the art.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Cryoburn, Chapters 3 and 4
For most of this reread, I have introduced each book with an examination of its covers. I didn’t get a chance to do that last week, and I feel like it would be an awkward interjection to do the whole round-up now. But we’re very close to the end of the reread, and I’m not willing to leave it out either. For the next few weeks, I’ll be looking at one cover each week. This week’s is Esad Ribic’s cover for Algoritam’s Croation edition.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Cryoburn, Chapters 1 and 2
It’s new book time, Kittens! Today we’re starting Cryoburn! What is Miles doing? Miles is hallucinating. OK. That’s fun. There are falling angels that are also screaming? And there are a lot of them? And also a door and some lizards? Bujold has written this really well, because I feel like I’m hallucinating. Miles has the most interesting allergic reactions. I mean, I have some idiosyncratic allergies, and I just get wheezing and rashes. I suppose it’s possible that the hallucinations are symbolic.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: The Flowers of Vashnoi
The Flowers of Vashnoi is the most recent Vorkosigan novella. It is set between Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance and Cryoburn. It’s a short adventure focusing on Ekaterin, with Enrique in a major supporting role. While carrying out a research study on bugs that process radioactive waste, Ekaterin and Enrique find a family of mutants hiding in the contaminated area outside the ruins of Vorkosigan Vashnoi.
A Fun Space Adventure: Yoon Ha Lee’s Dragon Pearl
Yoon Ha Lee’s Dragon Pearl is the upcoming title in Disney’s “Rick Riordan Presents” series for middle grade readers. I am, myself, the parent of a middle grade reader. We’ve had to have a number of difficult conversations lately—chores and homework, mostly—and I jumped at the chance to review the book in the hopes that offering her access to a pre-publication work with the word dragon in the title would help me score some cool points.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapter 25 and Epilogue
We’re finishing up Ivan’s book this week. I’ve been procrastinating on this blog post all weekend, for once not because of time management but because I’m a little sad to let it go. Ivan goes out in such a good place—perhaps not where he planned to be, but in command of his own destiny. I don’t think that Ivan and Tej will be happy for every moment of their lives together from here on out, but I’m confident that they will put things right when they go wrong, and I’m thrilled for them.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapters 20-24
Welcome back to the reread! It’s been two weeks—roughly, I didn’t count—since our last blog post. I hope everyone had multiple brilliant holidays, and that no one found Ivan being stuck in a bunker with his in-laws excessively relevant to their celebrations. And for those of you who are just tuning in, this is the week when Ivan gets stuck in a bunker with his in-laws! The last blog post left Ivan at a perilous point: He made promises to Tej without knowing what he was promising.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapters 16-19
One week before Winterfair, and Ivan is desperately trying to get his wife’s attention. Tej is BUSY. Family are making a lot of demands on her time, which is just so typical of this holiday season. There’s a lot of pressure to pitch in and make things work and put family first. There are some domineering parents and grandparents.
A Love Letter to Murderbots, Hamster Princesses, and Other Cute Reads
Sometimes, when you blog about fiction, people say things to you that are inexplicable—things like, “I hated the winged horse,” or “I wanted to set this book on fire.” That’s fine, really. Cool story. Is there more to it? Did Satan give you something when you handed over your soul? I have strong literary preferences of my own. For example, I prefer that people’s psychic companion animals not comment on their sex lives.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapters 15 and 16
In this segment of Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, the Dowager Lady Vorpatril is hosting a dinner party for her son’s in-laws who have just arrived from Earth. It’s been just over six months since this blog last discussed a dinner party. Lady Alys is much better at them than her nephew, but the evening is not without its dangers. Ivan’s unscheduled morning meeting with Admiral Desplaines and an ImpSec agent has made it clear that Ivan’s personal life has a great many political implications.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapter 14
Chapter 13 ended on a dramatic cliffhanger near (but not in) the detention area at the shuttleport, where Tej and Rish were about to be reunited with most of their family. Tej and Rish have talked about their family—the Arquas of House Cordonah—a few times so far. We know that one of Tej’s older brothers didn’t feel like he was cut out for life in a Jacksonian House and relocated to Escobar to work with the Duronas, because the Nexus is Galactic, but also very small.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapters 12 and 13
True confessions: I watched The Princess Switch. It was exactly what the review led me to expect. My heart was warmed. Literally its only connection to Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance was that in some scenes it snowed. There is snow in part of chapter 12 of Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance because Ivan and Tej travel up north to the Vorpatril’s District. Apparently it snows there for a lot of the year, because there was no mention of Winterfair.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapters 10 and 11
Possibly the most influential thing I read this week was this review of Netflix’s new holiday movie, The Princess Switch. I am no more likely to watch The Princess Switch than I was before I read the review—television takes a looooong time, ya’ll. I’ve got some pretty major commitments on the pie crust front this week before I get too busy celebrating the winter holidays to watch movies about other people who are also celebrating the winter holidays.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapters 8 and 9
This week, Ivan and Tej appreciate each other aesthetically in the Admiral’s suite on Desplaines’s courier. That’s not the point though—Tej has been focused on what she is escaping from, and now she’s confronting what she is escaping to. Chapter 8 is sprinkled with little reminders of who Tej is and where she comes from; She has the Cetagandan ear, and the the genetically engineered facility with languages.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapter 7
This blog post opens in Ivan Xav’s apartment on Komarr. In another sense, it opens in the Student Union at UC Storrs where I am writing while my students argue about international affairs. Were I not committed to this for the weekend, I would be knocking on doors to get out the vote. Instead, I’m writing to you. We are just two days away from the midterm elections—and by the time you read this, it will be tomorrow.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapter 6
Chapter six opens with Tej hanging over the balcony. The balcony is at the center of Tej and Rish’s emergency backup plan, but on this occasion, Tej is using it to spot Ivan. Let the record show that there is no question about whether or not Tej is smitten with Ivan. She is deeply smitten. Rish is all but glued to the wall, urging Tej to come away from the railing. Rish is a cynical realist, smitten with no one. Yes, she found Byerly attractive last night, but that could happen to anyone.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapter 4 (part 2) and Chapter 5
Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger / You may see a stranger across your distant cousin’s crowded temporary flat convenient to the nightlife in Solstice… That happens shortly after Byerly walks through the door. Not in time to cut off his critique of Ivan’s activities last night—and I, for one, don’t think it’s fair to criticize Ivan for having been tied to a chair, or for talking to Dome Security. I share Ivan’s concerns about the inadequacy of By’s briefing.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapter 4 (Part 1)
Ivan has been many things to many people. He has been an object of jealousy, a military officer, a friend, a cousin, and a lover. He has been a foppish playboy—he has, and will continue to have, some distinctly Bertie Wooster moments—and he has been the Vor lord, with intent, which is pretty impressive considering that he is the Lord of exactly nothing, it’s a courtesy title that acknowledges his close relationship to other people who are actually important.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapters 2 and 3
Chapters two and three of Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance introduce the key characters. We’ve known Ivan for ages—he was born in Barrayar and appeared in eight of the Vorkosigan stories before this one. He’s always been a secondary character, and we’ve never seen his point-of-view before. It’s more complicated than I think readers might have suspected after reading The Warrior’s Apprentice . Later books have hinted at a more complex, deeper Ivan—Ivan is a rich tapestry.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Chapter 1
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance opens with Ivan’s door buzzer, at his temporary flat on Komarr. In addition to all the Ivan you could ever want, this book has a generous helping of Byerly Vorrutyer. And as a brief introductory note, I think Byerly suffers from the comparison. He has his charms, our Byerly. He’s creative, snarky, and—I understand from commentary in the later chapters—good in bed. He’s got lovely eyes.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Cover Comparison
We’re starting Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance this week! This is such a fun book, and it’s full of IVAN who is sometimes a loutish caricature—like when he was seventeen and his mother was trying to get Aral to have a Serious Talk with him about swiving the maids—and sometimes secretly really clever—like when he found the weapon used to attack Simon Illyan.
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Diplomatic Immunity, Chapters 17 - Epilogue
In chapter 17 of Diplomatic Immunity, Miles is confined to the Idris’s infirmary, strapped down (seizure precautions!) and transported in the general direction of Cetagandan space. I’ve been thinking a lot about Miles this week—as is my habit, now, two-and-a-half years in to this reread, but more than usual because Miles is on his honeymoon, and I’m working on planning my twentieth anniversary.
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