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Shards of Honor
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The Vorkosigan Saga: Book 1

Shards of Honor (1986) (edit title/settings)

by Lois McMaster Bujold (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Cordelia Naismith, Betan Survey Captain, was expecting the unexpected: hexapods, floating creatures, odd parasites... She was not, however, expecting to find hostile humans on an uninhabited planet. And she wasn't really expecting to fall in love with a 40-plus barbarian known to cosmopolitan... read more

Summary edit see section history

Cordelia Naismith, captain of an Astronomical Survey ship from the extremely liberal and technologically advanced Beta Colony, is exploring a newly-discovered planet when her base camp is attacked. While investigating, she is surprised by a soldier, hits her head on a rock, and awakens to find... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Cordelia Naismith, captain of an Astronomical Survey ship from the extremely liberal and technologically advanced Beta Colony, is exploring a newly-discovered planet when her base camp is attacked. While investigating, she is surprised by a soldier, hits her head on a rock, and awakens to find that, while most of her crew has escaped, she is marooned with an injured crewman and Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar, notorious throughout human space as the "Butcher of Komarr". He had been left for dead by a treacherous rival. During their five-day hike to a secret Barrayaran base, she finds Vorkosigan not at all the monster his reputation suggested, and is strongly attracted to him. She helps him defeat a mutiny, despite some well-intentioned interference from her crew. She is "rescued" and returns to Beta Colony.

It turns out that the secret base was a staging point for an invasion of Beta Colony's ally Escobar, to be led by Crown Prince Serg, the demented son and heir of Emperor Ezar. Cordelia goes to Escobar in command of a decoy ship and successfully distracts the Barrayaran ships on picket duty at the wormhole exit so the transport ships following her can deliver a devastating new Betan weapon to the Escobaran defenders.

She is captured, briefly tortured by the sadistic Admiral Vorrutyer, then unexpectedly rescued by Vorrutyer's mentally unstable henchman, Sergeant Bothari, who kills his master. Afterwards, Commodore Vorkosigan hides the pair in his cabin. The new weapons give the Escobarans an overwhelming advantage and the Barrayaran invasion is driven back with heavy losses. Crown Prince Serg, his flagship, and all hands aboard are lost. As Vorkosigan takes charge and organizes his fleet's retreat, Cordelia overhears one critical fact and deduces, step by step, a political secret that would plunge Barrayar into civil war if it ever got out. When Vorkosigan can no longer hide her in his cabin, she is placed in the ship's brig. The ship is attacked and loses power temporarily, including the internal gravity, and Cordelia is injured. The Barrayaran retreat is successful, in part due to a suicide mission that blocks the wormhole.

On her way back to Beta Colony after a prisoner exchange, she is assigned a cabin mate who turns out to be a Betan psychiatrist convinced that her injuries are evidence that she was tortured by Vorkosigan, and the fact that she denies being tortured means that she has been psychologically tampered with. Desperate to keep her terrible secret, Cordelia refuses to let herself sleep, developing insomnia, stuttering, and a nervous tic, which further leads the psychiatrist and doctors to conclude that she has been brainwashed and may even be a spy. At home on Beta, the authorities are determined to "cure" her, forcing her to flee.

She manages to reach Barrayar, where she marries Aral Vorkosigan. The dying Emperor Ezar Vorbarra appoints Aral as Regent-Elect for his grandson and heir, the four-year-old Prince Gregor. Aral, who is next in line of succession, at first refuses, but Cordelia convinces him to take the job.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Cordelia Naismith: Commander of the Rene Magritte, a Betan Astronomical Survey ship; an astrocartographer.
  • Aral Vorkosigan: Captain of the Barrayaran Imperial cruiser General Vorkraft. Called the Butcher of Komarr or the Hero of Komarr, depending.
  • Simon Illyan: Lieutenant in the Emperor's personal security staff on Barrayar.
  • Radnov: The Political Officer on the General Vorkraft.
  • Dubauer: Ensign; the Rene Magritte's botanist.
  • Bothari: A soldier on the General Vorkraft.
  • Ges Vorrutyer: Admiral; Co-Commander of the Barrayaran Armada.
  • Koudelka: An Ensign on the General Vorkraft.
  • Pyotr Vorkosigan: Count Vorkosigan, and a General; Aral's father.
  • Korabik Gottyan: Captain Vorkosigan's second-in-command on the General Vorkraft.
  • Darobey: One of Radnov's spies in the communications section on the General Vorkraft.
  • Nilesa: Yeoman cook on the General Vorkraft.
  • Aristede Vorkalloner: Lieutenant Commander (second in command) on the General Vorkraft.
  • Lieutenant Stuben: Officer on the Rene Magritte.
  • Vortala: Count; Ezar Vorbarra's Prime Minister.
  • Lieutenant Lai: Officer on the Rene Magritte.
  • Tafas: A soldier on the General Vorkraft.
  • Serg Vorbarra: Crown Prince of Barrayar; Co-Commander of the Barrayaran Armada.
  • Rulf Vorhalas: Admiral in the Barrayaran Armada.
  • Captain Negri: Head of the Emperor's personal security staff; called Ezar Vorbarra's familiar.
  • Grishnov: Head of the Ministry of Political Education on Barrayar.
  • Ezar Vorbarra: Emperor of Barrayar.
  • Marsha Alfreedi: Lieutenant; ranking officer in the prison camp.
  • Joan Sprague: A psychiatrist.
  • Dr. Mehta: A Betan psychiatrist.
  • Bill Tailor: A Commodore in the Betan Expeditionary Force; Cordelia's commanding officer.
Show all 26 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “His eyes bothered her, and his smile. His curtness she could meet and match with her own flippancy, guarding herself as with a fencer's foil. His kindness was like fencing with the sea, her strokes going soft and losing all volition. She flinched from the smile, and his face fell, then became closed and grave again.”
  • “She took the story in like some strange, spiked gift, too fragile to drop, too painful to hold.”
  • “Yes. . . I could take over the universe with this army if ever I could get all their weapons pointed in the same direction.”
    Aral Vorkosigan
  • “Permitting private judgments to turn <your> duty in the smallest matter <will> be just like getting a little bit pregnant -- the consequences will very soon get beyond <you>.”
    Captain Negri
  • “Why can't you just lose your temper with subordinates, like normal men, instead of with superiors, like a lunatic?”
    Rulf Vorhalas
  • “The truth was too complicated and ambiguous to appeal to them, and she herself, suppressing everything in it that had to do with Vorkosigan, was unable to make it sound convincing. Her duty seemed drained of meaning, dull and discolored. She longed for home, and her sensible mother and brother, and quiet, and one thought that would connect to another without making a chain of secret horror.”
  • “Exile, for no other motive than ease, would be the last defeat, with no seed of future victory in it.”
    Aral Vorkosigan
  • “A price is something you get. A cost is something you lost.”
    Cordelia Naismith
  • “I've always thought -- tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune.”
    Cordelia Naismith
  • “Vampire balloons?”
    Aral Vorkosigan
  • “I've always tried to walk the path of honor. But what do you do when all choices are evil? Shameful action, shameful inaction, every path leading to a thicket of death.”
    Aral Vorkosigan
Show all 11 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

  • Sergyar: Newly discovered planet with a wormhole to Barrayar.
  • Escobar: Planet at the nexus of several wormholes.
  • Beta Colony: Most scientifically advanced planet in the wormhold nexus.
  • Barrayar: Planet formerly cut off from the wormhole nexus, now connected through Komarr.
  • The General Vorkraft: Barrayaran battle cruiser commanded by Aral Vorkosigan.

First Sentence edit see section history

A sea of mist drifted through the cloud forest: soft, grey, luminescent.

Glossary edit see section history

  • The Time of Isolation: The period between Barrayar's original wormhole collapsing and the discovery of the current wormhole to Komarr.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 19 in The Vorkosigan Saga. (standard series)

Preceded by Falling Free, and followed by Barrayar.

This is book 1 of 15 in The Vorkosigan Saga (Publication Order). (standard series)

Followed by The Warrior's Apprentice.

This book is in F-sari. (publisher series)
This is book 59 of 100 in National Public Radio's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Lord Foul's Bane, and followed by Going Postal.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Lois McMaster Bujold (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Baen
Country: U.S.A.
Publication Date: 1986
ISBN: 0671655744
Page Count: 239

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • The Vorkosigan Companion
  • Dreamweaver's Dilemma
  • Federations

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
  • Whose Body?

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • GURPS Vorkosigan Saga

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