Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance

[brigid]

“Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance,” by Lois McMaster Bujold, is the latest installation of the Vorkosigan Saga. Is it really a saga now? Not just a series? Saga? Seriously? Well.

Bujold has a gift for writing interesting, complex female characters. Sometimes they are allowed to stand on their own like Ista (Paladin of Souls) or Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan (before she becomes a full time wife and mother) but more frequently they exist as interesting sexy puzzles for male protagonists to solve and conquer and collect and romance/marry. The latest book is just one more example of this.

Confirmed bachelor Ivan X. Vorpatril is drawn into sexy intrigue by professional gad-about-town and secret agent Byerly Vorrutyer and, on the spur of the moment, gets married to an illegal immigrant/galactic refugee despite knowing almost nothing about her other than her cup-size. OF COURSE they wind up falling in love (it’s a slapsticky romantic comedy, after all), and it’s an interesting look at both Ivan and By, characters who are pretty minor but interesting in the course of the series. It was really great seeing Ivan developed more. Bujold has long handled him well, presenting his public face as one of genial self-effacement and near-idiocy who sunnily manages to always come out on top. Of course, that’s the safest face to present, one of bumbling good will, when one is so very close in line to the Imperial Throne and with such politically savvy, and active, relatives as Miles Vorkosigan. There have long been hints and glimpses that Ivan isn’t as stupid as he pretends to be, and he gets to shine in this book. But Ivan’s time in the spotlight really seems to come at the expense of his wife and of his mother.

It’s long been hinted in the series that Lady Alys, Ivan’s mother, has a complicated relationship with her (deceased) husband, that she has mixed emotions about him and his death. And while it might otherwise be a normal thing to really dig into her relationship with her husband after her son’s marriage, now that he is a husband as well, the longer the series goes on the more I resent the lack of a woman focus. They’re just kind of there. They’re wives and mothers and they have large breasts that men stare at and they have long legs and long hair and they’re smart and capable but their physical appearance is just so important (which is so very odd considering how very ugly Miles is, but he gets a pass because he’s CLEVER and works hard) and Bujold is very happy to continue the presentation of man-as-sex-obsessed-beast.

Look. I like Ivan. I’m glad he got his own book. The fake marriage that oops is a real one has been done before, a lot, but it’s handled well. I’m interested in Ivan’s future career as a diplomat.

But I’m disappointed, too.

Bujold is really really great at making interesting and complex female supporting characters and I wish we’d get to see more of them promoted to main characters… or at least not delegated to secondary status as soon as they hook up with a dude (Cordelia, Ekaterina).

Mirrored from Thoughtful Consumption.

Comments

[badgerbag]

It is sad. I mean Bujold does so much... in places. But oh our tarnished heroes.

Of course I usually just identify with Miles. But I do wish I didn't have to gender switch to do it.

Cetaganda does the best imho for showing how the protagonists' male gaze limits them.

[brigid]

When I encountered Lloyd Alexander's "Vesper Holly" and Tamora Pierce's "Allana," it was such a huge game changer. Characters I could identify with WHO WERE FEMALE? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Because prior to that, I was King Arthur and Robin Hood and Taran Wanderer. And suddenly BAM! like a door opening. "Yes, women can and should have books starring them, they can be more than side kicks and love interests." It was stunning.

[badgerbag]

The women are amazing, but usually offstage, is the thing. Like as soon as Ellie Quinn or what's her name, his childhood crush from Barrayar, are captains and kicking ass independently, they aren't main characters anymore, they're somewhere else and we just have to imagine that they have stories.

[brigid]

Yes! They grow up, they get involved with someone romantically, and then they are support characters. And one of the Koudelka sisters (Mark's gf?) even comments on this once, how fairy tales follow women only up to a point and that's it. Women get married and the story ends. So it's like Bujold has this meta moment of clarity and then.... WHELP NEVER MIND BACK TO THE DUDES.

[badgerbag]

Yes! But she tries hard! And then Paladin of Souls (and that whole trilogy i think, but especially Paladin) were much better in some ways.

I can't really love the sharing knife series and there was also some point where I realized she keeps having 18 year olds marry old dudes and I got kind of annoyed at the pattern. ( It is in the Chalion books and ... a bit gross. I tend to just block it out of my mind.)

[brigid]

I wanted to like "sharing knife" so much, especially the world & magic system. But soooo much about the content was skeevy as hell.

She has an ongoing thing with very young women marrying much older/more experienced men and with women being really tall and having huge boobs. Which is kind of a nice change from women being super skinny and petite. But if this was a straight dude writing I'd be making jokes about fetishes showing.

[msmcknittington]

But if this was a straight dude writing I'd be making jokes about fetishes showing.

Um, actually, I get an uncomfortable impression of a middle-aged woman fetishizing youth from her writing. But maybe I'm just talking nonsense. It's possible. But I really kind of do get that impression, since it's not especially evident in her earliest work.

[brigid]

Yeah, I'm thinking back over earlier Vorkisogan books and you have Cordelia who has a rich and full life before getting married and Eli Quinn who similarly has a cool life but doesn't get married... and you have Drou who is essentially a young virgin who marries someone more experienced (and older?), and you have Taura who was created for a lab and in many ways a model of innocence when she meets Miles and demands he have sex with her, and you have Ekatarin who, like Tej, needed saving, and... there's a really unhealthy dynamic going on where lipservice is paid to how cool and strong and capable women are but they still rely really heavily on men to save them and provide them with worth (or a path to finding their worth). And it's kind of getting more so as the series goes on.

[msmcknittington]

I was more than a little freaked out by how much Tej reminded me of Fawn from the Sharing Knife. And how much Fawn and Tej both remind me of Cazaril's "prize wife" Betriz in Curse of Chalion. I'm beginning to suspect that Bujold might fetishize innocence just a little bit, especially from female ingenues, and is totally OK with men marrying women who are young enough to be their daughters without really exploring how imbalanced those matches can be in terms of power. I can't think of a single relationship in her books where the woman is older than the man or they're the same age. There are pretty significant age gaps between them consistently. I think even Lady Vorpatril and Ivan's father have a good age gap, don't they?

Argh, it's so annoying, considering how much I like the two Cordelia books. I think I'd prefer if the series just focused on Cordelia navigating Barrayar, rather than on Miles so very much. I am very tired of Miles at this point.

[brigid]

Donna is much older than Ivan, and he's mentioned being with older women a few times in a fetish-y "learning from their skilled teachings" kind of way.

I felt that Tej was sheltered but still more knowledgeable than Fawn. Which, of course, not hard to be. And she was WAY more sexually experienced than Fawn, albeit in a hand-wavy "because Betans that's why" way.

I do think Bujold has weird womanly innocence hangups, yeah. Cordelia is much younger than Aral BUT she's had a lifetime of experience before getting married and accomplished quite a bit on her own.

[al_zorra]

I get the feeling that the author is in love with her creation, Miles. She -- her characters -- could not stop bringing him into conversations and personal reflection throughout the book, reminding themselves, revealing to others, just how AWESOME MILES IS -- and scary too!

Kind of like the first season in particular of Scandal -- everyone keeps whistling on and on AND ON how awesome, awesomer, awesomist Olivia Pope is.

What I did like about the Vorpatril installment was the in-laws showing up and not in any of the condition Vorpatril expected his in-laws to be. It's as though the novel is really two different novels. The second one starts with the arrival of Tej's relatives.

I did get a little confused with the Tejas part of her name though -- I kept thinking, "Texas!" because that's the Spanish form of Tejas.

Love, C.

[brigid]

Well, Miles is a hugely popular character, so I can see mentioning him. But yes the constant trumpeting of him... it does make sense in a way for Ivan because he has spent his entire life being compared to Miles (and coming up short). But there are totally times when it felt like mentions of Miles were just shoehorned in there because Miles.

I really liked how Ivan's perception of his mom and his actual mom are so at odds with each other. And his growing relationship with Simon.