The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Warrior's Apprentice 

by Lois McMaster Bujold 

Ms. Bujold (born Lois McMaster) was born on November 2nd, 1949 in Columbus, Ohio. She was born into the shadow of a great man. Her father Bob McMaster not only helped create a manual that is considered a cornerstone of material engineering (principles of nondestructive testing) but went on to become one of the first TV weathermen (Wait, these are two very different things. That must have been a very meandering career path.). Her father was celebrated for his television work because of the effort he put in to educate viewers of why the weather happened, not just what was happening. This left her feeling like she had big shoes to fill. Another way her father influenced her was introducing her to science fiction and fantasy. She was reading science fiction novels by the time she was nine and became a fan of this new television show called Star Trek. To the point of creating a fanzine called Stardate with her best friend Lillian Stewart Carl. They worked on the fanzine while they were in college, with Ms. Bujold attending Ohio State University, originally for an English degree but she lost interest. She first mett John Bujold at a science fiction convention and married him in 1971, leaving OSU in 1972. She divorced John in 1991. She had two children born in 1979 and 1981 and found herself at home with two small children. During this time Ms. Carl became a professional writer. In fact, she published first. This convinced Ms. Bujold that she could do it to. Turns out she can do it really well. (This is something you could do in the 1970s. Drop out of college to get married, then be successful later. Don’t do it kids, no matter what your parents say about how they could have done it In Their Day™. You probably can’t.{Eh, You can if you go into a trade, there's always a need for welders and carpenters, just don't become unskilled labor friends, the world is unkind to them}You can, but depending on the trade that market can also be volatile, and you’ll still likely end up getting screwed in recessions.  Certainly, though, don’t go “unskilled”.)

She ended up writing three novels in a series while trying to get published, the first was Shards of Honor, the second is Warrior's Apprentice (the subject of this review), and Ethan of Athos. She faced a lot of rejection at first. Science fiction publishers told that she was writing young adult fiction, and young adult publishers told her she was writing science fiction. On the advice of Ms. Carl, she tried a new company that had just started. Baen Books, which at this time was Jim Baen, his wife, and about six employees. Mr. Baen, not only read the books but bought all three and promised her that if she could write three books a year for seven years he would make her a star. Her reaction was to hyperventilate and ask if she could write one book a year for twenty instead. Which honestly worked for her. Ms. Bujold has won six Hugo awards (four for best novel, two for best series), three Nebulas and two Locus awards along with a host of other honors. The only writer who has won more Hugos for best novel was Robert Heinlein himself and only if we count two retro Hugos that were awarded after he died. Her books have been translated into seventeen different languages and just about everything she's written is still in print, which is harder to do than you would think. We're going to look at The Warrior's Apprentice today, which was published in 1986 alongside Shards of Honor and Ethan of Athos. All the books are in the same universe and have characters from other books appearing in them. The reason I went with The Warrior's Apprentice (despite Shards of Honor happening before that novel) is the fact that it's the first outing of what would be the series’ main character and central star, Miles Vorkosigan.

Miles is an interesting character with a large number of contradictions in his life. Born the son of Cordelia and Aral Vorkosigan, he is among the highest of elites on his home planet of Barrayar, however, due to an attack on his mother, while she was pregnant with him, Miles is also physically frail. His bones are extremely brittle and prone to breaking, because of this his growth is stunted and he often needs to wear leg braces and other supports. This is a problem for Miles for several reasons, part of that being the history of Barrayar itself. Let me give y'all a quick explanation, so keep in mind this isn't a complete history. Humanity travels to other planets by the means of using wormholes, it was through one such wormhole that Barrayar was surveyed and colonized. However, when the colonists arrive, the wormhole closed, washing the colonists and the planet in a wave of radiation. The planet was still undergoing terraforming, it had a breathable atmosphere and water but the native plants were mostly toxic to Terran creatures. So the colonists found themselves cut off from the galaxy, with much of their infrastructure incomplete or not yet arrived and a terraforming effort that was collapsing. Much of their technology was destroyed by the radiation. On top of that the radiation wave caused mutations in newly born children and not the cool marvel comics kind, but the kind where most newborns don't survive their first couple of weeks because their bodies simply don't work (Radiation does not work this way. The sorts of radiation that would be released by a wormhole collapse are gamma waves, and some very fast-moving sub-atomic particles that don’t stick around and do damage. We’re talking about acute radiation sickness here, not flipper babies.{I’m thinking that Bujold’s wormholes work differently, because well, it did.}). The toxic plant life also had effects on developing unborn, causing birth defects that weren’t genetic in nature. Without even 20th century medicine to fall back on, the Barrayarians adopted a brutal policy of infanticide for mutated or deformed newborns. This is honestly a part of human history we don't discuss much (because even societies that practice it usually find it horrible, not even Sparta celebrated its child murders) but we find examples of it in every stage of history and across every culture; but that's a topic for another day. Barrayar also regressed socially becoming a planet with a feudal culture and political set up, creating a society that was sexist, classist and authoritarian but was clawing its way forward with native technology being at the steam age. Then the wormhole reopened and Barraya was invaded, while they fought off their invaders, it took them 20 years and 5 million dead (Wait. What? Okay, I am gonna have to assume that this because the invading civilization simply could not be bothered with occupying the place. If they’ve technologically regressed to the steam age there is no way they could repel an extrasolar invasion. Roland Emerich movies to the contrary, we couldn’t do it now.{The invasion wasn’t very popular with the invading Empire’s ruling caste, that’s a complicated story for another book, and the rebels had a lot of outside support. Even then a number of cities were nuked. This didn’t help with the whole birth defect issue}That… is marginally acceptable.). Having acquired advanced technology and after spending some time rebuilding, they started invading people as well. Until they were stopped, partly by outside resistance and partly by not-quite-a-coup by Miles’ parents. His mother Cordelia was not born on Barrayar, but the more advanced Beta colony. Miles’ father served as regent for a new Emperor and then stepped aside once the boy hit sixteen. While regent he pushed to modernize and try to sand down the edges of Barrayar society. But let's turn back to Miles.

So while Miles is very much a member of the upper crust, he is hated by many for his physical weaknesses and deformity. His reaction is a determination to prove them wrong by becoming a military officer like his father and grandfather. Miles' personality is fairly interesting because he swings from hyperactive to morose with very little in between, which honestly suggests bipolar disorder to me (or just a teenager…{this is very much in excess of your average 17 year old. Consider he’s dealing with the burden of people openly stating his parents should have aborted him} No no. Under those conditions, that is normal non-disordered teenager.). Additionally, while he presents an outer face of sardonic wit and cynical intelligence that doesn't quite work for a 17-year-old, he's honestly incredibly insecure and desperate for the acceptance of his society, the love of his old playmate and the validation and respect of his father and grandfather (No no. All of this is perfect for a seventeen year old.). Although he would rather die than admit any of that out loud, pretty much like your normal teenage boy. It also doesn't help that his father and grandfather are titans within his society. His grandfather was one of the m

en who led that long insurgency starting when he was seventeen and his father is one of the most important men on the planet, having had a major role in creating the empire. Much like how Ms. Bujold felt like she was in her father's shadow, Miles feels trapped in his own father's shadow. The novel opens with Miles taking the officer exams to enter the military academy, sure that this will gain him his Grandfather's pride and prove himself to his Father. He's aced the written exams and all he has to do is finish the physical exams and he'll be in. However, Miles manages to break both his legs on the very first obstacle, a wall that he climbs handily enough but doesn't manage to get down from very well at all. This leaves Miles in despair and seems to kill his Grandfather out of disappointment, which is bad but comes just as the old man seemed to be accepting Miles as a person and possibly even a grandchild. This leaves Miles battling depression and when he's offered a chance to take a trip off-planet, he takes off latching on the idea of finding out the identity of the mother of his childhood playmate - and his major crush - Elena. While on Beta Colony, he overhears a confrontation between a pilot trying to keep his ship from being junked and his creditors and decides to intervene on a whim and things get out of control from there. Having assumed the pilot's debts and taken him into his service via feudal oath (the Barrayarians take these dead seriously) Miles needs to raise money fast and he finds a cargo that can do the job. It's a covert cargo of weapons to a warzone. Through a blockade run by a powerful mercenary fleet being paid by the other side. With an aging unarmed cargo ship and a crew of five. Payment on delivery (This kid is an idiot {Listen, it’s his first time and he’s a noble. He’s never had to parse a business contract before}.).

Things swiftly go from bad to worse on their arrival, as they find themselves trapped in a warzone with no friendly ships to call for aid. Miles finds the only way to ensure his survival and the survival of the people he's responsible for is to find a way to subvert or neutralize the mercenaries who are the dominant force in this war. He's got to do this with the only weapons he really has, his ability to think fast on his feet, his utter lack of shame, and willingness to tell any lie necessary to achieve his goals (So, either an idiot, or an inside joke in our Star Wars RPG game. Maybe… both? {Written in 1985, published in 1986, so it’s more our Star Wars game is an inside joke on this novel}). Another interesting thing is that it's Miles impulsiveness that got him into this situation, this whole series of events is a direct result of his character flaws, flaws that dog throughout the story and exact a terrible toll on him that will likely haunt him for the rest of his life. However, while he is impulsive and prone to wild mood swings, he is honestly very intelligent and capable of solving problems. This doesn't come off as some sort of Xanatos style plans-within-plans style of intelligence but rather the intelligence of a man who can pile improvisation on top of improvisation and keep a dozen lies up in the air at once. He's also backed up by the grim and dour Sgt Bothari, who has been his bodyguard and in a way his surrogate father for his whole life. Sgt. Bothari is a dangerous man but one who is willing to do anything to keep Miles alive and even happy. I can't discuss his character without spoilers, so I'll just say I find him tragic and uncomfortably real.

He's also supported by Elena, who is Bothari's daughter. Elena and Miles grew up together, so while Elena is uncomfortably aware of the class differences between them, Miles is willing to completely ignore them if it means her love and acceptance. Now, I suppose this could be considered a feminist storyline within the plot because Elena finds herself growing into a capable and competent person and commander once she's outside of the sexist society of Barrayar, which doesn't allow women to serve in combat positions or hold to many positions of authority. While this doesn't bother Miles, it does put a rift between them because Miles is focused on getting home and Elena is starting to think she doesn't want to go back. However, Miles is a lot like her in that to find out just what his gifts were and their full extent, he had to leave Barrayar behind. The big difference is because of his class and gender, Miles can go back and exercise those gifts and Elena can't. This brings an element of coming of age to the story and subtly reinforces Miles' privileged status even if he spends the entire book as an underdog. The struggles and obstacles that Miles has to go through are very real but at least because of his class, he'll be rewarded equally to his struggle. Whereas Elena's reward will be to be told to forget this ever happened and find a nice young boy to marry (See, that’s what she can do if/when she gets back home. Work to violently overthrow the patriarchal and feudal social order! Break out the guillotines! Bring on the Bourgeois Revolution as a first stage and then, the Next Stage. You know what that Next Stage is! We shall not make excuses for the terror! Sorry, that just kinda came out there. Damn Lenin demons *takes a deep breath*. I need to remember Rosa.{This is why we have that 3 dollar patron level folks}). The group is rounded off by a pair of strays (Why are you disparaging the valiant proletarians by calling them strays?{because they're literally people on the verge homelessness that Miles picked up because he could. Them being strays isn't a judgment on their value of people, it's a matter of fact statement of their socio-economic state}), that pilot that Miles picked up earlier and a Barrayarian deserter who Miles took with him out of a combination of pity and desperation as he has the engineering skills to keep their old ship from falling out of the void. I'm not going to discuss these two either because of the massive spoilers that would result.

As military science fiction, this book is an odd one. Taking a character from a very militant society who at first look cannot physically fulfill the role that society demands of him and throws him into a situation where he needs to make his gifts fit the situation or perish. While there are many battles within the novel, the main struggle is a psychological one as Miles has to win the battle not on strength of arms but through misdirection, cunning, and sheer audacity. I say audacity because who would ever commit to as big a lie as the one Miles peddles throughout the story and expect it to stick? Which is another unorthodox look at war in this novel, which is just how much perception and deception play a part in it. As a military science fiction novel, The Warrior's Apprentice goes very much against the stereotypes and shows us just how much room there is in the genre for variation. It is also a very well written work and I do encourage everyone to give it a try. While it is a sequel to Shards of Honor, it's a completely self-contained work. You can read The Warrior's Apprentice on its own and you're not missing anything important to the plot or the main characters partly because Shards of Honor happened before Miles was even born. Ms. Bujold puts a lot of social commentary here but does it without preaching. the social implications of what Elena's gone through and Miles’ position are part of the plot and there's no soapboxing to be here. This honestly makes it more effective and I think less likely for the reader to simply ignore or reject it. Also, I think Miles is a hero that works just as well in the 21st century as he did in the 20th so hopefully he'll be in print for some time to come. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold gets an A.

So this opens our month of looking at woman writers of military science fiction!  Which was a theme voted on by our patrons.  If you would like to join us and vote on possible theme months or upcoming book reviews, join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where a 1$ a month gets you a vote and there are greater rewards at higher levels.  Next week join us for Elizabeth Moon's Trading In Danger.  Until then, Keep Reading!

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders