"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

[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.