KJ

1. As of this week, I'm back on a Monday-Friday schedule at work (I've been mostly working Tuesday-Saturday since mid-April). I'm happy to get my traditional weekends back, sad to lose my nice laid-back Mondays, and overall just really confused about what day it is now. I'll get back in the swing of it soon, but it's going take some time to adjust back.

2. I seem to be whole-heartedly embracing Cinders as a fandom. At the moment, I'm in the midst of something I've never done before: writing a scene or two of a story every day or so and posting as I go. Originally I didn't care for Tumblr as a fic-posting venue, but for this mode it actually works pretty well. It will definitely need polishing before I put the whole thing together -- the seams between scenes, especially -- but I'm happy with how it's coming together so far. And it's a nice way to keep myself pushing forward on it rather than letting it drift into WIP limbo. If you want to follow the WIP, here's a link to the tag.

3. Also on Tumblr, I completed a 30 Days meme for Alistair, which was particularly interesting because a lot of other folks were doing it too, and it was fun to see other people's takes on the questions and on his character. I got some great new headcanon thoughts, and came up with some ideas of my own. Eventually I will probably post the character development interview I was writing up for Sereda Aeducan at about the same time, especially as my work on each informed my answers for the other.

4. I spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks vegging out in front of the Olympics, which was fun, but good god was the NBC coverage wretched. I should probably have given up and gone to the livestreams, but I much prefer to watch sporting events on my nice large television than on a computer screen. As a result, I found myself watching less and less, and skipped the closing ceremonies entirely. I had heard rumors that NBC was going to lose it stranglehold on coverage, due largely to the time delay shenanigans, but no such luck -- they've got the contract through 2020 at least. Sigh.

5. I gave in to temptation and bought the eARC of "Captain Vorpatril's Alliance", the new Vorkosigan saga novel, which isn't out in print until November. I haven't had a ton of reading time lately, so I've been working my way through slowly, but I've been enjoying an Ivan-centric novel every bit as much as I thought I would. This is one of the first novels I've read on my iPad, and it's... interesting. Not sure how I feel about the experience, overall. More thoughts on both the story and its ebook format to come, I'm sure.

( Thoughts, with spoilers as usual. )

And now, a dilemma. I am now caught up on all the older books, with only Cryoburn left to read. Cryoburn is only out in hardback, and I am reluctant to buy fiction in hardback -- I don't like carrying them around, they take up more shelf space, and they cost more. But the paperback isn't published until September. So I have three options, as I see it: suck it up and buy the hardback, wait five months for the paperback, or get on the longish waiting list at the public library. The last one has some appeal, but my fundamental laziness comes into play because it's been so long since I've checked anything out from the library that I would have to go into the library to get my card reactivated before I could even place the hold. Yes, I know this makes me a bad librarian. Please don't judge me. Any thoughts?

"He's not short. He's just... concentrated."

There's a part of me that wants to just leave it at that. ( But of course I won't. ;) )

So I think I would be hard-pressed to call this one of my favorites -- at this point, I would probably pick Memory, or Cetaganda, or maybe Mirror Dance -- but as the first story fully committed to the series's new direction, it does quite well.

Well, that was intense.

( Spoilers, seriously, spoilers, do not read this if you haven't read the book. )

Mayhem is right. I suppose it has at least partially to do with his being the protagonist of a book series, but it does seem like wherever Miles goes, mayhem follows.

Normally I try to write up the individual stories separately, but 1. because I was out and about with the book, I started reading Ethan of Athos immediately after finishing Cetaganda and 2. those stories are so thematically related that I decided it made more sense to talk about them all together. I kind of wish that Falling Free had been included in this volume as well, because it ties in so well with the theme of the others: what are the social implications of genetic engineering combined with a technology that allows a fetus to gestate outside a human body? This idea provides an opportunity for some awesome worldbuilding, one of Bujold's strengths, so I really enjoyed seeing all her riffs on this.

( Cetaganda )

( Ethan of Athos )

( Labyrinth )

Taking a break now to read books 2 and 3 in the Soulless series, which I borrowed from S some time ago and would like to clear off the decks. But I picked up Miles Errant and Miles in Love at my local Borders clearance sale (sigh), so my omnibus collection is now complete!

The reading continues apace, although I'll probably read a book between each omnibus, just to keep the palate cleansed, and so I don't burn out. Although so far I'm finding Miles and his universe engaging enough that I'm not too worried about getting tired of him.

( Spoilers for both books, although I suppose 'Mountains of Mourning' is technically a novella )

Just finished reading "Barrayar"/the second half of "Cordelia's Honor". I would have finished the book in any case, but I still was glad to know, going in, that "Barrayar" is a tighter, better written story. ( Spoilers for the whole volume. )

And now I need to go find the next one...

I've had Lois McMaster Bujold recommended to me a number of times over the years, but was never really sure where to start with her many, many books. However, I was recently reminded and enabled by justira, and I had a Borders coupon, so I picked up Cordelia's Honor and started it today. Since I know she's not the only one out there who's interested in hearing my thoughts as I go through this book *cough*Sev*cough* (and hopefully then the rest of the series), I'm going to see about posting as I go along. So here goes. PS: Please, no spoilers in comments beyond the point I've read as noted in the cut text, please please please. I know very little about this series going in, and I'd like to keep it that way going forward. Thanks much!

( Spoilers through Chapter 4. )