"Mountains of Mourning" & The Vor Game

[flourish]

I fail at discussion-starting.

Any initial thoughts on these readthroughs? Here's a couple of mine:

Mountains of Mourning

• This is the first time we actually learn about the Dendarii hill country, but it ultimately becomes pretty important in the series, both as character background for Miles and as a metaphor for Barrayar.
• This is also the first time we learn about the extent to which Barrayar is filled with subsistence farmers. We've heard it before, but it's different to see it. Specifically, until now, we've seen Barrayar as a place that's essentially in the 20th century or a little advanced with regard to technology. Here, we see that those technological advances are actually very recent, and haven't filtered down.
• How much is this based on Appalachia?

The Vor Game

• Apparently, the US armed forces genuinely do have a place that's the equivalent of Kyril Island.
• Is there something special about Miles' affinity for drains? Other than the fact that he's so small. I wonder whether his eventual Lord Auditor status could be considered the equivalent to being a "plumber," the "fix-it man." :P
• It's so clear that this is the other half of The Warrior's Apprentice in theme, not just for Miles but for Gregor. Seeing Gregor in this book makes me regret very much that we don't get to see him in The Warrior's Apprentice.
• Is Metzov intended as a dark mirror of Miles' father? 

What are your thoughts?

I should add: We press on on July 15 to Cetaganda and "Labyrinth," which I think are thematically connected enough to read together.

Comments

[tel]

For Mountains of Mourning this is also the first time we see the concept of Voice. And actually, the first time we really get in-depth into Barrayar's mutation issues.

The interesting thing for me about the Vor Game is that it's clear that even after Gregor became Emperor, he's not really the Emperor. He's in the Academy probably practically till he's 21, then a year of space duty after that... then easing into power. By the time he's 23, in Warrior's Apprentice, he's only -really- been playing Emperor for about a year. The fall of Warrior's Apprentice is probably the time where he first actually begins to flex his Imperial power - and screws up. (Gregor's age is a year off in the final bit of Vor Game - he should be 26, not 25)

Also, it seems Miles really only spent a little over 2 years in the Academy, if graduation is at Midsummer when he's 20.

The Vor Game is also the last book that even pretends to be about space battles.

[flourish]

That's a really good point. Actually, it introduces a lot of things about the political situation on Barrayar.

That is interesting, your point about Gregor. Although I'm not surprised that it's the case - it does make Warrior's Apprentice much more explicable.

As for the Academy, Miles obviously got to come in with Ivan's class, even though he started late. Which is fine - I mean, if anyone can catch up, it's Miles.

Minor thematic SPOILERS for Memory

[spiralsheep]

Warning: Minor thematic SPOILERS for Memory

For Mountains of Mourning this is also the first time we see the concept of Voice.

And both Silvy Vale and the concept of Voice recur in Memory, which is all about echoes of the past (and memories, obviously).

[legionseagle]

The Mountains of Mourning always has a particular sort of resonance for me because while I'm not at all sure my own kind of lake country is the sort LMB had in mind, a landscape of lakes, woods and mountainsis my childhood landscape so I have a very specific place in mind for Miles hiking up from his early morning swim with the damp running down the back of his legs.

It's a very moral story - almost, if there was an overt religious framework around it, a very "pi" story (The One in Which Miles Realises Light-Flyers Are Not Everything") and yet it works extremely well at avoiding didacticism, partly because you can both loathe Ma Mattulich and cringe inside at the appalling choice "being a good wife and mother" put before her in just-post Time of Isolation Barrayar.

[flourish]

LOL, I hadn't thought of Mountains of Mourning as being didactic at all until you just told me about it. I think that part of it also is that our mind is kept so focused on Miles, the "mutie lord," confronting his people's anti-mutant prejudice, that we don't notice all the moralizing going on in the background wrt the lightflyer. Nice little bit of sleight-of-hand.

I completely agree about Ma Mattulich - any other kind of villain would have been too easy to hate. I think that particularly the motivation "I had to suffer, and so must you" is pretty universally recognizable.

[onyxlynx]

Without getting into the other items yet, because I still need to organize my thoughts: I tend to think of Metzov as the dark mirror of Piotr.

[flourish]

H'm, that might be a much better analogy. Can't wait to see your thoughts.

[cjk1701]

I'm an unashamed Gregor fangirl (if the Emperor was real, I'd be the kind to have a meticulously collected magazine clippings album, or the digital equivalent) so Vor Game is probably one of my favourite books, never mind the space battles -- which I had to re-read half a dozen times and *still* don't get, but that's me.

As tel pointed out, Gregor was still somebody's puppet in TWA (he thought he was Aral's, turned out he was Vordrozda's) and Vor Game is his coming-of-age story (may a bit like Memory will be for Miles). He finds his own strength when he faces Aral down and wins:

"The most morally dangerous moment for a guardian is when the temptation to become a puppet-master seems most rational. I always knew the moment must... no. I knew that if the moment never came, I should have failed my oath most profoundly." He paused. "It was still a shock to the system, though. The letting-go."

Gregor spends much of his first 25(ish) years being afraid -- first of simply being killed ("Are they going to kill me, too?" he whispered to her.), then of the Imperium descending upon him and suffocating him, then of being played and helpless (and then realising he actually was) and then finding out about Serg and realising that Mad Yuri's heritage is much closer than he thought. Him being watched all the time was a bit of a blessing, all things considered, because he might have done something far worse than just running away (which started, after all, as a suicide attempt gone wrong).

I doubt there's a time in his life where he *isn't* a bit nostalgic for the days he spent simply screwing in light bulbs (Queen Elizabeth II once said that the time she spent living with Prince Philip on Malta, before her father died, was the happiest and most carefree time of her life) but the events of Vor Game teach him that while he cannot escape the Imperium, or at least not without very serious consequences, he can actually *do* something as the Emperor. By the time Memory rolls about, or even earlier, he has not only grown into his role, he also changes the role to fit him and becomes the true leader of new Barrayar -- a Barrayar that Miles can finally accept, and vice versa.

LMB always does this thing, where a person's own perceptions of him/herself contrast sharply with the way others see that person. Gregor in Vor Game is smart, competent, well trained in every aspect, thinks on his feet, and overcomes immense mental and physical obstacles -- while he sees himself as useless, half-insane and weak. It's a painfully sharp contrast, and I would have loved to have seen more of the road in between.

[tel]

I think Gregor's coming of age is only half the story, though. The main focus of the book is what a crap ensign Miles makes :P

[cjk1701]

Yes, but I'm biased and don't like Miles much until Memory, so I chose to pay attention to the non-Miles bits first and foremost. :)

I wonder what kind of ensign Aral was. And what kind he would have made had his older brother been alive and Piotr not there to desperately impress.

[krait]

Heh, yes. I think that "well, there's a start on the insubordination problem" line was pretty telling! :D Miles will never make a good ensign.

(And will probably never be the best at commanding ordinary men; he does his best work, it seems to me, with the extraordinary ones. Be they extraordinarily bad/troubled -- Baz, Arde, Cavilo -- or extraordinarily good and driven -- Quinn, Tung.)

[feuervogel]

I'm going to blatantly self-promote a blog post I made on how much I love The Mountains of Mourning. (I did a companion piece on Memory.)

MoM is very thematically connected with Memory, and iirc in the Tor.com discussion, LMB said that she wrote it to prove to Jim Baen that Miles had to be Vorkosigan, not Naismith. And it showed us his heart, there on Barrayar, which would eat him whole if it could. (And adds another layer of meaning to "The only thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.")

I advocate reading MoM and Memory together; it adds ever so much.

Now for your thoughts:

I'd say there's a large basis in Appalachia for the hill country. I've been to Appalachia, doing mission trips with my mom's Methodist church, and some parts are a strange mixture of modern (satellite TV) and old (outhouses). I vaguely remember hearing that some rural county (in NC?) just got internet access. in, like 2008.

TVG:

There are people who hate this book, who think the appearance of the Prince Serg is contrived and a deus ex machina (I had this discussion on a panel at Dragon*Con last year, and I was confused.) It isn't, so much, I think. It's all there, if you look. Miles is deliberately creating comm traffic in his area, and he reveals himself to the ImpSec plant on ship, and between Miles and the plant, they get ImpSec's attention in the right place, then dun-dun-DUN, Aral to the rescue.

I think the "imperial plumber" is a nod to TVG (Miles does refer to it on a few occasions.)

Definitely, I wish we could see Gregor in TWA. He starts to grow into the Imperium here, and by Memory, he *is* the Imperium.

I have a tendency to become enamored of the side characters rather than the leads. (My adoration of Ivan is no secret!) Sure, I like Miles, but I think if I met him in person, I'd want to strangle him. TWA and TVG!Gregor needs a hug, then he grows into a confident person, and I like that.

[krait]

Is there something special about Miles' affinity for drains? Other than the fact that he's so small. I wonder whether his eventual Lord Auditor status could be considered the equivalent to being a "plumber," the "fix-it man."

When I read this, I immediately thought of Peter Wimsey complaining that the Government is using him "as a plumber, to plug up diplomatic leaks".

We know Herself has read Sayers (a la the title of A Civil Campaign; maybe we're meant to catch the connexion? A bit of foreshadowing (in a way, Miles stops up the biggest potential "leak" of all when he finds the runaway Gregor; and as an Auditor he's going to be dealing with a lot of sticky political situations)?

Or at least a quiet underscoring of his relationship to the Imperium? After all, as Gregor's foster brother as well as -- now, anyway -- someone Gregor trusts, he's pretty uniquely placed for dealing with sensitive cases. He even uses this in Cetaganda as the explanation for his courier position/odd chain of command!

It's also something of a reminder that Miles can come "unplugged" -- Gregor, back in Warrior's Apprentice, distrusted Miles's motives and suspected him of treason. If he ever loses Gregor's trust/favour, his job and possibly even his life would be... "Depositatum De Latrina" (if I may borrow from another author for a moment)!

[cjk1701]

*tries to stop thinking about Miles on the Discworld*

Barrayar as a country next to Quirm? Miles sent to sort out the political plumbing between Barrayar and Ankh-Morpork, and forced to deal with Sam Vimes and Lord Vetinari? Lady Alys meeting Sybil at the Quirm College for Young Ladies?

[tree_and_leaf]

Ooh, that would be brilliant!