lois masters bujold

I did not spend yesterday reading Bujold’s “Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance.”

I spent it reading Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance and laughing like a loon. If you’re unfamiliar with Lois McMaster Bujold and her Vorkosigan Saga series, shame on you: they’re very clever, very well written space operas with a strong flavor of drawing room comedy to them, and Bujold is a favorite read of mine. And because she publishes via Baen, her latest is available in electronic form months before it’s formally in print. Fifteen bucks now for an advance copy that I can read on multiple platforms, or fifteen bucks later for a hardcopy; I decided to go with the former. Honestly, I expect that I’m going to just use Baen for my default SF/Fantasy genre purchasing: aside from everything else, they don’t gouge you on their ‘hardcover’ titles. If it’s not published yet, $15; if it is, $6. If it’s now in paperback, $4. Boom. Done. Why should I subsidize other publishing companies’ poor business modeling decisions, anyway?

…Industry insiders, take note.

Wow. They’ve finally released GURPS Vorkosigan.

Well, OK, they’re calling it the Vorkosigan Saga Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game for GURPS Fourth Edition (official webpage here), but a lot of us in the gaming community have been waiting for this supplement for an appreciable fraction of a decade now. Still only in electronic form for right now, but I can hold out for the print version. I sort of have to: that’s half a month’s ‘pay’ for me.

If you’re wondering what a ‘Vorkosigan’ is… well. Start here and work your way through; there’s some background on Lois Masters Bujold here. Nobody will judge you for your lack, I swear.

GURPS Vorkosigan for April 2009?

Steve Jackson Games is saying precisely that, and it’d be nice to see. Oh, they’re calling it “The Vorkosigan Saga Sourcebook and RPG,” but that’s so that people who are Lois McMasters Bujold fans first and roleplaying gamers… pretty much not at all… will buy the blessed thing.

If you are not a Bujold fan, or a Vorkosigan series fan, then I suggest that you rectify this error at your earliest possible opportunity. It’s good space opera in general, but what elevates it to something special would have to be some of the characters: they’re some of the best-crafted that you’ll ever encounter in science fiction, and Bujold herself has a refreshing willingness to treat her created societies on their own terms, and not necessarily ours. Plus, she hates idiot plots*. That’s worth something right there.

Moe Lane

*Defined as “any plot narrative that can only work if nobody ever takes five minutes to ask three or four simple, straightforward questions of anybody else.” Distressingly common.