In mid-'83, having worked through the Shards material and about a third into what would eventually become Barrayar, Bujold realizes her manuscript is becoming too long to submit as one book (the "wisdom" at the time being a thin manuscript is more likely to be picked off the slush pile than a thick one). Eventually you'll want to read Falling Free, but it doesn't matter when you can insert it into your Bujold reading experience anytime.) Shards of Honor is Bujold's first novel (not merely the first novel she ever sold, but the first she ever wrote, thus disproving the axiom, "All first novels are unsaleable trash").
SHARDS OF WAR LOGO FREE
On the other hand, if you are a brand-new reader to this series, why NOT start at the beginning? (Bujold's novel Falling Free takes place within the same fictional universe but, being set approximately 200 years before Miles' birth, features none of the series' familiar characters. Bujold has always been aware of this, thus for new readers interested in her tales of Miles Vorkosigan, it's not really necessary to begin with Shards of Honor.
SHARDS OF WAR LOGO SERIES
Thus, while each book must build on, and ideally add to and enrich what's come before, it must also be self-contained and not require having read any other book in the series to enjoy. But the author of a true open-ended series like Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan novels knows readers may start with any book in the series, and read them in utterly random order. The multi-book single storyline can be - probably is - so self-referential you have to read every book in the series, in order, to understand what's happening in later books. Series fiction has requirements very different from the single novel, or even multiple books forming one long story such as Tolkien's Ring Trilogy.
It's all about love and redemption, and doing the right thing when everything is colored in shades of gray. It transcends both genres to become "more". She has fallen in love with a man who all the civilized worlds consider an amoral killer-when Aral is simply a soldier doing the "right thing" for a government who knows his value as a strategist, but hates his scruples.
The war and contact with the "enemy" have changed her, and she can't go home. Beta Colony misinterprets everything she says, and her mother sells her out for her own good. Cordelia suffers a "breakdown" on stage during the welcome home ceremonies after returning from the war. It was the first book she ever wrote, and in my opinion, the best.
This book has NO compromises, no fake notes. Two middle-aged people, caught in a war they never wanted, fighting for opposite sides, both with issues-acting true to themselves and their personal honor. Shards of Honor is my favorite of the Vorkosigan series because first and foremost-it's a love story. Bujold isn't just a writer, she's a poet and philosopher. I think Shards of Honor was out of print at that time, but I had to have it and it was worth the search. I got into Bujold's Vorkosigan series right after Barrayar.
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