Barrayar readthrough

[flourish]

Okay, readthrough #2: Barrayar! Sorry that this one's a day late - I just got back from vacation last night and was too pooped to post. ;) Some thoughts to kick us off:

• In my readthrough of this novel, I was surprised to see how much the "gun principle" applied. You know - "if you see a gun in the first act of the play, it will certainly be fired by the third act"? Only it applied to everything, not just nerve disruptors. For instance: Drou's disappointment when Cordelia wants to go shopping (and her parallel thrill when they go to Siegling's) is echoed in Cordelia bringing Vordarian's head back in a shopping bag. Even Cordelia remarking on how Drou looks awful in the "superior servant" dresses is echoed by Alys Vorpatril dressing her beautfiully for her wedding. Maybe this is part of what it is to write a really tight story?
• I was kind of uncomfortable with Koudelka's ideas about what he was "doing to" Drou. I think that given Barrayaran society, it's perfectly... understandable? That's not the right word, but you know what I mean. But because we don't really deeply delve into Barrayaran society until books later in the timeline (they were, I think, previously published, though) it is jarring. I'm now kind of itching for fanfic.
• Speaking of itching for fanfic, Barrayar brought up all this great stuff about the Time of Isolation and the Cetagandan war that I'd really, really love to see handled.

On those topics, would people be interested in doing some kind of a fest? I'd be into running one, if people were into writing for one, but I'm nervous that there are too few Vorkosigan fanfic writers around to make it very big at all. Worth it anyway, do you all think?

Comments

Re: Illyan

[raven]

Heh, I thought just this! I love Memory for this reason - how they're recognisably the same character, at different times in a long life. It's really good characterisation.