Through Shards of Honor and heading into Barrayar, that's where

[azurelunatic]

Belovedest, having been isolating in a small room with a lot of books and a few pulled out for the sake of convenience: "I'm not sure what to think of Piotr..."
Me: "What's just happened?"
Them: [assassination attempt #1]
Me: "Heh, heh, heh..."

Comments

[longmagpieroads]

Heh Heh Heh is the perfect response to that.

[kareila]

I read the first part of the Vorkosigan series around 2004 and was a couple of chapters into Memory when I packed all of my books for a move and never got back to it.

It’s been long enough now that I should just start over from the beginning... after I finish my current move. 😅

[batrachian]

I have not read yet (my loss), but "#1" is providing a great deal of context...

[azurelunatic]

#2 is a DOOZY.

[azurelunatic]

Memory is one of my favorite, favorite books.

[azurelunatic]

If your opinions are mixed and you've only encountered #1...

X'D

I did, after they'd processed #2, tell them about Bothari's deal with the old Count. The one they made on the balcony, belike.

[batrachian]

It's more the part where there are multiples, y'know?

(My brain jumps to people like Rufus Fucking Shinra)

[azurelunatic]

Imagine if Tseng was a famed general of a backwater planet with an Imperial Russia vibe, with a dying Emperor, with Shinra Senior as the crown prince with a less inhibited Hojo as his right hand man (who is also Tseng's very estranged ex boyfriend); both of them will have been fused with Rosso the Crimson. The crown prince has one (1) toddler son, in the custody of his mother (maybe like an unpowered Aerith?), who the Old Emperor is keeping in very separate quarters from the Prince.

Due to reasons in Book 1, the crown prince and his right hand man have been removed from the picture. Wracked by guilt over that episode, Tseng descends into drunken self-destruction, but is given no choice but to recover when Cordelia (I have no idea how to map her onto Final Fantasy) arrives unexpectedly to marry him.

Tseng reluctantly accepts the post of Regent upon the Old Emperor's death, and several factions attempt to gain control of the government, some more violent than others.

[batrachian]

... right then.

[vass]

He's never going to get that World's Greatest Grandpa shirt at this rate. Certainly not if the assassination attempt had succeeded.

[tinchen]

Piotr is the poster child for generational trauma. I'm also sitting here celebrating getting somebody to read more Bujold. I just read that there will be a new Penric and Desdemona soon, do you read those?

[azurelunatic]

I am sadly behind but I love them.

[azurelunatic]

Picturing a world in which Mark & Kareen's oldest got to interact with him, and the mind BOGGLES.

[azurelunatic]

I've also put The Curse of Chalion into our car audiobook rotation, and they seem to be getting into it, to my delight. They've known of the Bastard since before I heisted them, and I really want them to love Ista as much as I do, so we start at the beginning.

[vass]

For a long moment there I thought you meant that Mark and Kareen had kids in canon, and the mind did indeed boggle. (I can't see either of them wanting kids, but I can definitely see LMB assuming that they must. "the natural conclusion of any romance that starts out boy meets girl" and all that.)

That would be a fascinating AU.

[azurelunatic]

I can't see either of them wanting kids now, but they might get to a place where they did some 30+ years hence.

But I was thinking about an AU situation with a lot less existing Miles, a Mark who Cordelia cooked up behind Aral's back (he wasn't ready to try again due to the politics of the Regency and very much did not want to clone the slain fetus) resulting in some really wild family dynamics that did a fairly comprehensive number on poor Mark's psyche. He never quite could live up to the imagined perfection of his Sainted Older Brother...