Shards of Honor

This book is OK during the first half. It kind of reads like a dull episode of Star Trek (of which I am a huge fan, but not every episode was awesome, this book seemed like one of the not-so-awesome episodes). I kept thinking: well, this is pretty neat, being on an alien planet with weird life forms and enemies lurking in the forest, but where are the intelligent aliens? And how did these humans get to the planet? I wanted more back-story, and I wanted something besides a space soap opera.

And then the second half just gets great really quickly. The web of deceit that is woven by many of the characters is complicated, complex, murderous, and suspenseful. The 2 main characters, Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan are explored in great depth by the author, and we come to understand not only how they do the things they do, but why. And their love story is so simple; it doesn't dominate the book, but it was felt by me, the reader.

By the end of the book, I didn't care that there weren't any amazing alien life forms or any in depth descriptions of future technology. But this is what I was expecting at the beginning. The great thing is that this book doesn't need that to stand just fine on its own. But you've got to keep reading; I'm glad I did. And I love reading a great science fiction book by a woman in a field dominated by men.