azurelunatic | From Twitter 10-22-2010: Cryoburn

11:26:51: 11
11:27:52: High noon, the best time to steal a corpsicle.
11:29:38: Ah, NHLL, the new bad examples.
11:30:40: M'lord grinning = interesting times!
11:36:08: Uh oh.
11:37:44: No no no no no no oh nooooooooooooo.
11:39:59: THE PLOT THICKENS. This is a whole new worst possible. Who the hell is she if not Lisa Sato?
11:41:37: 12 A vexing question, that.
11:43:23: Roic must be getting better at stoic. Also he gets awakened a lot.
11:44:59: Forensic analysis of mummies!
11:45:37: Poor kids.
11:47:11: Dna scanner = great toy!
11:51:44: I like Vorlynkin more and more.
11:53:07: Oooooooops.
11:53:42: 13, oh of all the luck.
11:57:13: Ahh, "normal". Heh.
11:58:10: What a lovely call-me note.
12:01:43: Hooray. Looks like success so far.
12:02:39: Miles certainly puts the odd in auditor.
12:05:14: Hee kids. Aww.
12:09:29: Uh oh. Leiber is popular.
12:11:15: No. One cannot ride a spider.
12:15:07: Oh dear god that is appalling. :(
12:17:15: Oh I bet she has questions.
12:17:48: 15 Covert ops, how not to do it.
12:19:00: Miles is already picking up local bad habits. Roic is not.
12:21:30: Oh bribery.
12:23:48: Glad someone is lecturing the bonehead.
12:26:35: I have suddenly started shipping Madame Sako and Vorlynkin. If just for a few dates.
14:38:43: Time to call for backup.
14:39:28: 16 Hans and Oki are nasty pieces of work.
14:40:45: Indeed, what does one do with captured goons.
14:42:09: Ah yes, the sphinx that was om the mantlepiece in act 1.
14:43:48: Oh dear, I just bet Wing wants to put Miles on ice.
14:45:04: Quite literally in a bag. Ha.
14:45:59: Oh I bet a sphinx is *loud*.
14:48:38: My mental casting for Kareen Koudelka is apparently Portia DeGeneres.
14:50:51: Annnd... Mark.
14:51:59: Vorlynkin is good at explaining.
14:52:33: REJUV.
14:54:50: Oh Mark. Glad Kareen provides the human factor.
14:56:15: Poor Sasha-Xander-Alex.
14:58:12: Mark, unsurprised by the shenanigans of Miles. Oh Yani. Oh dear.
14:59:08: Miss Koudelka, quietly ready to kick ass.
15:01:27: 17 Leiber is so in over his head. Jin + sphinx = yay!
15:02:53: Anyone else see Mark's human trial plan as skeezy? Good.
15:04:41: "it's not your planet, you know. You can't fix it."
15:05:47: Oh Lily. (Oh aging Aral.)
15:07:09: Flappy kitty.
15:08:47: Kids know how to argue with Mom. Home cloning. Heh.
15:10:25: Mmm takeout.
15:12:42: I can see Vorlynkin approves of tethering Miles, wishes he could.
15:13:47: FOES. FOES!!! Good job they went back.
15:15:36: Meep. Fire scary.
15:16:33: Hello Madame Xia. I bet you are curious.
15:18:24: Mark + Kareen = OTP.
15:20:23: Heeeeee. I like Madame Xia.
15:21:01: Asterzine is nasty stuff.
15:22:30: "fire sale" oh god Mark is twistier than Miles.
15:23:09: A question of ninjas.
15:23:43: FOES OH FUCK.
15:31:34: These guys are unpleasant.
15:33:07: Oki: not the brightest glowtube.
15:34:11: Roic to the rescue!
15:34:48: Stun them all, sort it out later.
15:38:46: 19 Yay Roic. Yay Miles. Oh god now I want to see the old days through Illyan.
15:41:30: Baaaaaait. Roic does not blend well.
15:42:49: NHLL: still bad news.
15:44:04: I suppose Roic is in fact scary.
15:45:23: Miles spins things nicely.
15:46:55: Roic is very helpful.
15:49:21: Poor underbribed Matson.
15:52:02: I still like the Consul lots. Poor Gregor does not need more creepy.
15:53:09: 20 Chickens actually prefer perches.
15:54:15: "Miles-san had a way of un-relaxing people."
15:56:05: Lady Murasaki! ALL HER BABIES! The delighted chickens! (My Calico would have been so happy.)
15:57:29: "Lord Unpronounceable"
16:02:42: Miles the ferret. (Amazing bouncing!)
16:04:01: Transfer station coffee. Heh.
16:05:18: Ohhhhhhh boys, I know what is cooooooooooooooooming.
16:06:34: Kids. Mark. Er, no. If anyone has motivation to be CF!
16:07:21: Miles ships like I ship.

16:08:08: Rynia, if you're reading this, ditch now.
16:08:30: S
16:08:42: P
16:08:56: A
16:09:23: C
16:09:35: E
16:25:03: I knew this was coming. Does not make it easier.
16:26:16: In full uniform. Take your levity while it lasts, boys.
16:27:22: Count. Count. God.
16:28:05: Cried when I read it the first time. Crying again now.
16:29:09: Aftermaths (5 drabbles)
16:30:34: Oh Cordelia. Oh. D:
16:32:06: New miles. What is he like. I say this as a once and future multiple.
16:33:02: Oh Gregor.
16:34:03: (I will likely mist up off and on as I remember. Aral is special to me.)
16:35:59: And this finishes my livetwit of #Cryoburn; the log will be up on http://azurelunatic.dreamwidth.org in about 11 hours.
21:29:03: I'm crying again. There was so much left undone, so many questions left unasked -- he's at peace now but his faaaamily omg.
21:29:38: (and yes, I may very well be projecting a bit; my old man is nearly 70 and tired and we're not on the best of terms.)

*not looking not looking not looking!*

But - does the book in fact come with her other books on a non-DRM CD? I have heard it does! I have heard it doesn't! It makes a difference!

The first printing (at least US) comes with almost all the rest of the Vorkosigan saga (minus Memory) on non-DRM, freely distributable CD.

ekaterin has kindly pointed to where a public-spirited soul with a generous space-and-bandwidth hosting package has it uploaded: http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/24-CryoburnCD/

Ooo! Thank you!

(And, yeah, I'm buying the book anyway. Oh, LMB, I said I wouldn't pay for any more of your novels in hardcover*, but apparently I can't quit this verse.)

It's better than Diplomatic Immunity.

And, uh, I do not want to spoil you, but I also would advise you to make sure that you are near a reliable source of failsafe comfort near the end of the book.

It's better than Diplomatic Immunity.

YAY. (For calibration purposes, if you have a moment: what are your favorite books in the series?)

And, uh, I do not want to spoil you, but I also would advise you to make sure that you are near a reliable source of failsafe comfort near the end of the book.

*whimpers*

Memory, above and beyond all others, because it's an absolute song of a book: Miles at his finest and worst. Shards of Honor, joy and pain and honor/dishonor braided into secrets that are worse from the inside. Then their respective arcs: Memory is followed by Komarr (weaker, but necessary) and A Civil Campaign, another favorite (which I can't read while crossed in love); Shards of Honor followed by Barrayar, favorite and Cordelia so brave and uncertain.

I avoid Mirror Dance in re-reads, not because it is flawed but because I am.

I would consider Cryoburn as strong as Cetaganda, and someday when I have more time and more brain, I may poke about to see why I think they're similar.

Thank you! And yay, we mostly agree. (Most important to me is that you put Memory first. When people say they didn't like that book I know they aren't reading the series for the same things I am. I think it's amazing for several reasons, but not the least because it's an incredible example of a mid-series reboot that works. There are risks taken that pay off perfectly, and I think the element of risk brought out her A writing game, too. Plus, you know, that book is absolutely Miles.) Which means I probably will not regret buying Cryoburn.

Although, man, I am approaching this book with great trepidation. (I mean, I was even before I knew the ending contained Epic Sadness, which I think I can guess because it's been pretty well telegraphed, but I'm still not over losing my father five years ago, and - well. Maybe it isn't that.) It's been so long since I started reading these books, and LMB has changed a lot. And so have I. *bites nails*

I first read Memory at a crucial enough point in my development that I had the quote, you know, The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart itself written on my whiteboard for at least a year, and this spring when I'd fucked myself over but good at something I'd outgrown but still valued deeply, I told Twitter that I was sulking in a little attic room with brandy and a knife (and, more sensibly, that I was going to go take a nap) -- this being the first analogy that suggested itself. (Though my nap was sufficient to reboot my brain, no ice-water baths needed.)

I've been reading these for about 14 years, and I think the thing that's changed the most (at least for me) is that large parts of the US are far more progressive about sexual orientations that are not heterosexual than they used to be, and some bits that were worse than Barrayar are now better than Barrayar, and wild sexually freewheeling Beta Colony is by comparison stodgy and constrained-to-strict-labeling Beta Colony. Fortunately the recent explosion of fic has been keeping up. (When it is finished, I must point you at the multipart fic In Which Cordelia Ships Her Husband With An Armsman Who Reciprocates The Unprofessional Thoughts That Aral Has Been Having About Him, for it promises to be sweet, hot, and pitch-perfect.)

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I've got the version with the CD!

And yeah, I was waiting all book for the hammer to fall. And then it did.

From Twitter 10-22-2010: Cryoburn

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