Lois McMaster Bujold

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
 This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (September 2008)
Lois McMaster Bujold

Occupation novelist
Nationality  United States
Genres science fiction, fantasy
Official website

Contents

Lois McMaster Bujold (born November 2, 1949, Columbus, Ohio) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy works. Bujold is one of the most acclaimed writers in her field, having won the prestigious Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record. Her novella "The Mountains of Mourning" won both the Hugo and Nebula Award. In the fantasy sphere, The Curse of Chalion won the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature and was nominated for the 2002 World Fantasy Award for best novel, and both her fourth Hugo and second Nebula were for Paladin of Souls.

Bujold is the daughter of Robert Charles McMaster[1] and attributes her early interest in science fiction, as well as certain aspects of the Vorkosigan saga, to his influence. He was editor[2] of the monumental Nondestructive Testing Handbook[3] generally referred to as McMaster on Materials.

Bujold currently lives in Minnesota. She is divorced and has two children.


[edit] Vorkosigan Saga

Bujold is best known for her series of novels featuring Miles Vorkosigan, a physically-impaired interstellar spy and mercenary admiral from the planet Barrayar, set approximately 1000 years in our future. Earlier titles are generally firmly in the space opera tradition with no shortage of battles, conspiracies, and wild twists, while in more recent volumes Miles becomes more of a detective. In A Civil Campaign, Bujold explores yet another genre: a high-society romance with a plot that pays tribute to Regency romance novelist Georgette Heyer (as acknowledged in the dedication). It centers on a catastrophic dinner party, with misunderstandings and dialogue justifying the subtitle "A Comedy of Biology and Manners".

There is considerable debate among readers as the best order to read the Vorkosigan series. Some favor reading in publication order, some in order of internal chronology, and some prefer other orders. This illustrates the widely held view that this series consists of independent works which nonetheless gain from their inter-relations.

The author has stated that her Miles Naismith Vorkosigan series structure is modeled after the Horatio Hornblower books documenting the life of a single person. In themes and echoes, they also reflect Dorothy L. Sayers' mystery character Lord Peter Wimsey. Bujold has also said that part of the challenge of writing a series is that many readers will encounter the stories in "utterly random order", so she must provide sufficient background in each of them without being excessively repetitious. Most recent printings of her Vorkosigan tales do include an appendix at the end summarizing the internal chronology of the series.

[edit] Science fiction and fantasy

Lois Bujold wrote three books (Shards of Honor, Ethan of Athos and The Warrior's Apprentice) before The Warrior's Apprentice was accepted after four rejections. On the strength of The Warrior's Apprentice, Baen Books agreed to a three-book deal to include the two prior novels. Thus began Bujold's career in science fiction.

She also wanted to break into the fantasy genre, but met with early setbacks. Her first foray into fantasy was The Spirit Ring. She wrote the book "on spec", shopped it around, and found very low offers, forcing her to go back to Baen Books, where Jim Baen bought it for a fair price in exchange for the promise of more Vorkosigan books. Bujold called this experience, combined with the mediocre sales and lack of critical acclaim of that book, very educational.[citation needed]

She would not attempt to break into the fantasy market again for almost another decade, with The Curse of Chalion. This book was also written on spec and offered up to a book auction. This time, she met with considerable critical and commercial success by tapping into a crossover market of fantasy and romance genre fans.

[edit] Selected works

[edit] Vorkosigan Saga - Cordelia Naismith

  • Shards of Honor (1986) - Set approximately 1 year before the birth of Miles Vorkosigan
  • Barrayar (1991) - Hugo, Nebula, Locus SF Awards winner, 1992[1]

[edit] Vorkosigan Saga - Miles Vorkosigan - Published Order

  1. Ethan of Athos (1986)
  2. The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)
  3. Falling Free (1988)
  4. The Borders of Infinity (1989)
  5. Brothers in Arms (1989)
  6. The Vor Game (1990)
  7. Vorkosigan's Game (omnibus) (1992)
  8. Mirror Dance (1994)
  9. Cetaganda (1995)
  10. Memory (1996)
  11. Young Miles (omnibus) (1997)
  12. Komarr (1998)
  13. A Civil Campaign (1999)
  14. Miles, Mystery and Mayhem (omnibus) (2001)
  15. Diplomatic Immunity (2002)
  16. Miles Errant (omnibus) (2002)
  17. Miles, Mutants and Microbes (omnibus) (2007)
  18. Miles in Love (omnibus) (2008)
  19. Winterfair Gifts (2008)

Listed in order of internal chronology:

  • "Dreamweaver's Dilemma" [set in the Vorkosigan universe long before the rest of the series] (1995) (included in collection Dreamweaver's Dilemma) NESFA Press
  • Falling Free [set approximately 200 years before the birth of Miles Vorkosigan] (1988) — Nebula Award winner, Hugo Award nominee, 1988[2]
  • The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)
  • "The Mountains of Mourning" (1989) — Hugo Award, Nebula Award. First published in Analog magazine; included in Borders of Infinity; available online via the Baen Free Library.
  • The Vor Game (1990) — Hugo Award winner, Locus SF Award nominee, 1991[3]
  • Cetaganda (1995) Locus SF Award winner, 1997[4]
  • Ethan of Athos [Miles Vorkosigan is referred to, but does not actually appear, in this novel] (1986)
  • "Labyrinth" (1989) — First published in Analog magazine; included in Borders of Infinity.
  • "The Borders of Infinity" (1987) — First published in Freelancers; included in Borders of Infinity; available online via Baen Webscription.
  • Borders of Infinity (1989) — Collection of "The Mountains of Mourning", "Labyrinth" and "The Borders of Infinity", tied together with an original frame story interspliced between them, which is set shortly after Brothers in Arms.
  • Brothers in Arms (1989)
  • Mirror Dance (1994) — Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1995[5]
  • Memory (1996) (unavailable in any omnibus volume) Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1997[6]; Nebula Award nominee, 1998[7]
  • Komarr (1998)
  • A Civil Campaign (2000) Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 2000[8]; Nebula Award nominee, 2001[9]
  • "Winterfair Gifts" (2003 in Croatian (as a "Zimoslavni darovi") and Russian, 2004 in English) — First published in Irresistible Forces, a Science Fiction/Romance genre crossover anthology edited by Catherine Asaro. Also in the omnibus Miles in Love. The "Winterfair Gifts" novella is also available as a standalone ebook from Fictionwise.
  • Diplomatic Immunity (2002) Nebula Award nominee, 2004[10]
  • A new Vorkosigan novel (untitled as of late-2008) is scheduled for publication in 2010. Bujold read the first two chapters at Denvention 3 (August 2008), where she was Guest of Honor.
Omnibus volumes
  • Cordelia's Honor (contains Shards of Honor, Barrayar)
  • Young Miles (contains The Warrior's Apprentice, "The Mountains of Mourning", The Vor Game)
  • Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem (contains Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, "Labyrinth")
  • Miles Errant (contains "The Borders of Infinity", Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance)
  • Miles in Love (contains Komarr, A Civil Campaign, "Winterfair Gifts")
  • Miles, Mutants and Microbes (contains Falling Free, Diplomatic Immunity, "Labyrinth")
  • Test of Honor (out of print; contains Shards of Honor and The Warrior's Apprentice)
  • Vorkosigan's Game (out of print; contains The Vor Game, "The Mountains of Mourning", "Labyrinth", and "The Borders of Infinity" including the framing story for the collection Borders of Infinity)
Audiobooks

Cassette tape and CD versions of Falling Free, Shards of Honor, Barrayar, The Warrior's Apprentice, The Vor Game, Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, Borders of Infinity, and Brothers in Arms were produced by The Reader's Chair. This company is no longer in business.

Currently, unabridged audio CD editions (retail and library), MP3, Playaway and cassette versions are available through Blackstone Audio of: The Warrior's Apprentice, The Vor Game, Cetaganda, Brothers in Arms, Miiror Dance, Memory, Komarr, A Civil Campaign, Winterfair Gifts, and Diplomatic Immunity. Ethan of Athos and Shards of Honor are scheduled for release by Blackstone in 2009. Titles currently produced by Blackstone Audio are also available for download on Audible.com.

[edit] Fantasy novels

Audiobooks

Blackstone Audio produces CD editions, MP3, Playaway, and cassette versions of: The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, The Hallowed Hunt, The Sharing Knife Vol 1: Beguilement, The Sharing Knife Vol 2: Legacy, and The Sharing Knife Vol 3: Passage. All of these titles are also available from Audible.com.

[edit] See also

Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lois McMaster Bujold

[edit] References

Specific
  1. ^ http://www.nae.edu/nae/naepub.nsf/Members+By+UNID/1AC75749CC99029285256937005457F3?opendocument
  2. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Nondestructive-Testing-Handbook-Robert-McMaster/dp/0318215020
  3. ^ http://www.asnt.org/publications/handbook/third/thirdedition.htm
General
  • Haehl, Anne L. (Fall 1996), "Miles Vorkosigan and the Power of Words: A Study of Lois McMaster Bujold's Unlikely Hero", Extrapolation (Kent State University Press) 37 (3): 224–233, ISSN 00145483 
  • Kelso, Sylvia (Winter 1998), "Lois McMaster Bujold: Feminism and 'The Gernsback Continuum' in Recent Women's SF", Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (JFA) 10 (1 [37]): 17–29, ISSN 0897-0521 
  • Lindow, Sandra J. (Autumn 2001), "The Influence of Family and Moral Development in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Series", Foundation: the International Review of Science Fiction (Foundation) 30 (83): 25–34, ISSN 0306-4964 
  • Wehrmann, Jürgen (2007). "Jane Eyre in Outer Space: Victorian Motifs in Post-Feminist Science Fiction". in Margarete Rubik and Elke Mettinger-Schartmann. A Breath of Fresh Eyre: Intertextual and Intermedial Reworkings of Jane Eyre. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi. pp. 149–165. ISBN 9789042022126. OCLC 144615405. 
  • Yung, Regina (2007, MA). Reading Her Machine Flesh: Permutations of the Cyborg Body. University of Alberta (Canada). OCLC 261212307. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Science fiction
Media
Creators
Subgenres
Related genres
Themes
Subculture
By country
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_McMaster_Bujold"
Personal tools