I fear I may have outsmarted myself....
Apr. 20th, 2006 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katharos...rather like Miles as I come to think about it.
So a few months back I feel completly in love with Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan saga, and set about getting my hands on the whole set. Unfortunatly only a few of them have been published in England - and out of order, wtf's with that? Amazon to the rescue. But a lot of the earlier books are out of print - and they weren't turning up cheap on Amazon marketplace.
So I hit upon I cunning plan. I would buy these big compendium novels priced at the cost of a single novel, thereby getting my hands on the outdated books. I wouldn't even lose out on any money by ending up with two copies of the same book - buying a second hand Vor Game, for example, was more expensive then buying the compendium that included the Vor Game. There was also the added bonus that each of the compendiums contained a novella from a previous collection called 'Borders of Infinity, so I was really getting 2 1/3 books for the price of one!
But now I've found out that those novella's were set in a larger narrative involving dialogue between Miles and his longsuffering, sarcstic superior Simon Ilyan! Which has been published no where else! *Cries*
So a few months back I feel completly in love with Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan saga, and set about getting my hands on the whole set. Unfortunatly only a few of them have been published in England - and out of order, wtf's with that? Amazon to the rescue. But a lot of the earlier books are out of print - and they weren't turning up cheap on Amazon marketplace.
So I hit upon I cunning plan. I would buy these big compendium novels priced at the cost of a single novel, thereby getting my hands on the outdated books. I wouldn't even lose out on any money by ending up with two copies of the same book - buying a second hand Vor Game, for example, was more expensive then buying the compendium that included the Vor Game. There was also the added bonus that each of the compendiums contained a novella from a previous collection called 'Borders of Infinity, so I was really getting 2 1/3 books for the price of one!
But now I've found out that those novella's were set in a larger narrative involving dialogue between Miles and his longsuffering, sarcstic superior Simon Ilyan! Which has been published no where else! *Cries*
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Date: 2006-04-20 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-21 04:01 am (UTC)I'm confused about these compendium novels and novellas. Borders of Infinity isn't available in the same form as in the US? Do you want the ISBN number, would that help? The one I have is 0-671-72093-7.
I'd hate for you to be Miles-less all the way over there. Don't worry; I'm sure you'll be able to get them all with a little forward momentum... ^_^
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Date: 2006-05-04 09:57 pm (UTC)Ooo, thank you for the links! I didn't know about some of those.. Hopefully, though I've managed to find a library which has a copy of Borders, though it'll be a while until I'm near it again...
Ah, thank you for your kind thoughts! *grin*
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Date: 2006-05-04 10:16 pm (UTC)FYI I also found lots of new and used copies of Borders of Infinity on amazon.co.uk, here. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/202-7377790-2671800) Weirdly, none of the ISBN numbers listed are the same as the copy I have, so... not sure what to make of that, but you could always email the bookseller and ask specifically if it contains the whole narrative or not. Good luck!
BTW I forgot to mention http://www.abebooks.com/ - they are also very good. Have you read Lois' other books, the Chalion ones? I enjoyed them as well...
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Date: 2006-05-04 10:26 pm (UTC)Yep, I've read the Chalion ones! Curse of Chalion was actually the first one of hers I read, and was what made me immediatly go on a mad hunt for absolutly everything else she'd written! I just... I loved the strong female characters who didn't need to 'act like a man,' to be extreme in order to be strong - they could be exrtremely strong within the culture they lived in. And I loved Cazaril. So very, very much, and I am severly dissapointed we haven't seen much more of him since.
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Date: 2006-05-05 12:54 am (UTC)I really liked Caz as a character too... It was cool where she went with the second book, but I kinda wished we'd gotten more of him as well. I love how she writes female characters too - in fact, I just love her characterizations in general. Really different, and really awesome.
BTW, doesn't Miles sort of remind you of Ed? Not just cuz they're both short, but in their "ready, steady go" "never give up" mentality, and, well, the fact that they're both short term personal heroes of mine... ^_^
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Date: 2006-05-07 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-04 03:58 am (UTC)Anyway re: your Miles angst, you're not missing much by not having Borders of Infinity. Bujold originally published those novellas in sci-fi magazines. The publisher just wanted to get an extra book out of her, so it compiled the novellas into the one book. The "larger narrative" is approximately a dozen pages wherein Miles is laid up in the hospital (getting new arm bones) and Illyan quizzes him on some of his latest missions because some govt scandal seeker thinks that Miles must be embezzling money --- his missions can't *possibly* cost that much. You can read the first six pages here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0671720937/ref=sib_dp_pt/102-2982994-0704102#reader-link
Hope this makes you feel better.
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Date: 2006-05-04 10:01 pm (UTC)And eeeee, Miles and Ilyan snark! Thank you SO much for that link! (although I'm just all the hungrier for more of them now...)
and I'm glad you enjoyed my fic :) Thank you!