Review: Shards of Honour

Shards of Honour by Lois McMaster Bujold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The rough plot is a bit hackneyed space-opera; freedom-loving democratic science-based culture at war with jackbooted totalitarian warrior-based culture. Man and woman fighting on opposite sides meet in trying circumstances, struggle together, and fall in love.

What makes this better than that sounds at first blush is that it gains some depth from there. The characters are deep enough that they don't just throw over everything else they believe in for love. The warmongers turn out to be embroiled in byzantine political infighting. The democratic society ends up a little fascist out of fear, and entangled in its own bureaucracy. In the end, while I still don't get why some people are comparing this series to really epic mind-blowing sci-fi like Banks or Stross, I really quite enjoyed it.



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