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Liked It “This is a funny book. Miles gets himself in trouble and pretends to be the commanding officer of a mercenary fleet. It doesn't take long before he and his friends are running as fast as they can to keep his house of cards from collapsing around them. I loved the contrast between what the reader...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “Having just finished "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar", I simply couldn't wait to pick up the first book in the Miles Vorkosigan series. Unfortunately for me, it seems Mrs. Bujold has shifted tones when going from Cordelia to her son Miles. |
Newest Reviews
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“This is a funny book. Miles gets himself in trouble and pretends to be the commanding officer of a mercenary fleet. It doesn't take long before he and his friends are running as fast as they can to keep his house of cards from collapsing around them. I loved the contrast between what the reader knows to be true and what Miles and his friends convince the other characters to believe.”
Debbie F wrote this review Tuesday, February 3 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“As soon as I finished reading The Warrior's Apprentice, I went online and ordered the rest of the Vorkosigan series. Warrior's Apprentice is a fantastic, character-driven scifi novel. It is unexpected and addictive with a splash of humor.
Ulrike G. wrote this review Saturday, September 27 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Highly recommended!”“Having just finished "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar", I simply couldn't wait to pick up the first book in the Miles Vorkosigan series. Unfortunately for me, it seems Mrs. Bujold has shifted tones when going from Cordelia to her son Miles.
Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Where Cordelia's novels were sometimes funny, sometimes inclined to the romantic, but as a whole well-crafted and dramatic, "The Warrior's Apprentice" feels more like a running joke. It seems Mrs. Bujold has decided she would show Miles is human by making him whine, cry, puke his guts out and tremble in fear most of the time, 'in aparté' for the reader. Oh, he also lusts after Elena a lot, and shows us his noble streak by going down the 'unrequited love' path. Bleh.
What is particularly irritating about the novel is the way things just fall in place conveniently for Miles. Miles' genius is that which comes forth in second-rate novels, where it is not so much the protagonist that is intelligent, but the rest of the Universe that is downright dumb. Miles recruits people by stuttering half-baked lies; he exposes imperial schemes by confronting admirals with his sharp wit; he outwits entire armies by concocting plans full of assumptions that his enemies conveniently fall into.
I realize this novel is intended as light reading, but so were "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar". They were light reading, filled with drama, action and humor, and a certain dose of romance. "The Warrior's Apprentice" feels like a bad imitation of all that made the Cordelia books so great, and all the characters from these two books are here only as cardboard cutouts reminding us of the clichés at the heart of the vibrant characters we grew to love previously.
I wish Miles were more like his mother. ”
“Miles Vorkosigan is one of the most inventive, fun and intelligen characters I've ever read about. This novel is fast-paced, ingenious and my favorite of the series. A must-read!”
Sara E wrote this review Friday, June 27 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I was recommended to read this book. I tried, and after 80 pages, I gave up. I am not a fan of Science Fiction, unless there is some depth to the story and characters. This lacked the essential depth and gave up.”
clyde m wrote this review Monday, January 21 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Miles is my hero. If you love rooting for the underdog and daring-do, this is your book. ”
Cherie L wrote this review Friday, January 11 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I read this book after receiving a glowing recommendation from a few friends of mine, and came to the conclusion that we have very different tastes. Although the writing was good, and the characters well developed, I found that I didn't much care for what was happening in the story. The story, as it was, was fairly boring and seemed to skip all of the scenes that I would have loved to see: spaceship battles, death of a family member, reuniting with a family member after an extended period,etc. On the whole, I found the events to be extremely coincidental, nigh unto impossible: meeting someone with a ship, and then just happening to meet someone next who is a ship's engineer for precisely that make/model, coming across a lost relative in the deep reaches of space, etc. Just recently, I saw a play that was also extremely coincidental in its events, but it was so funny that I forgot about how impossible everything was I didn't find anything in this book to distract me from its coincidence. Overall though, I can definitely see how people might like this book/series. It's light, and fairly quick to read, and has a sympathetic main character that is easy to like and apparently endures from one novel to the next. If you're into this kind of book, I'd definitely suggest picking it up. I'm just not much into them though.”
WriterDan wrote this review Monday, October 8 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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