Threerings Reads The Vorkosigan Saga: "Komarr"
Hey, ashfae, sorry it's taken so long to post this. I finished reading it over a week ago, but I had a con out of town right afterwards and things got crazy.
I was trying to slow down my progress in this series because this is the last book I have waiting. I waited two whole days to start this one.
Komarr
Chapter 1-2
-So Miles is on Komarr investigating an accident in which a ship crashed into the mirror that reflects sunlight onto this planet. And he's staying with the niece of one of the other Auditors. And her husband and child.
-So I have to be straight-up in that I know this book and two others are part of the collection called "Miles in Love" and I know that he gets married and goes on honeymoon. (Damn having to look up the book order all the time!) So when he starts falling in lust with Ekaterin, I am suspicious. Is this going to be about how he falls in love with a married woman and gets her to leave her unhappy marriage?
Chapter 3
-I have to admit to not really liking Ekaterin. I feel sorry for her, but MY GOD she has no backbone. She is totally subservient to her husband, even when she knows he is wrong. If this kind of internal monologue from her POV goes on for much longer I am going to get very frustrated at her.
Chapter 4-5
-Not much to say about chapter 4. Plot set-up stuff.
-OMG, this is a painful portrayal of an emotionally abusive marriage. I've been in an emotionally abusive relationship, although one a lot different than this. URGH it fills me with so much rage. And heartbreak. The description of what she has to do to have sex with her husband is so painful and so...accurate.
-I really can't see Miles becoming romantically involved with her, though. He has always needed women who will stand up to him, and Ekaterin is so passive that I can't imagine it working between them.
-Miles' revelation about the accident in which that soldier died is interesting. He never realized until now that HE would have died if his grip hadn't slipped.
-I'm glad he told her about the file he read, but I'm so frustrated at her scared rabbit responses.
Chapter 6-8
-The mystery plot, the mirror accident and the mysterious extra body of the man who worked in terraforming is interesting. I'm enjoying it, although I don't really have THOUGHTS on it.
-So Tien is stealing from the government. Or taking bribes from someone stealing from the government. And betting on trade fleets. And losing. *shakes head* Typical. I'm glad Ekaterin knows about it now, but what is she going to do? Hopefully something that requires a spine.
-It's interesting reading the part of Miles and the Impsec officer going through the office looking for clues, knowing already what there is to find. I initially thought that it removed some of the mystery, but actually I think it adds tension, since you are WILLING Miles to figure it out.
Chapter 9
-I know I've been really hard on Ekaterin. It's not that I don't sympathize with her, I do. I understand how someone could arrive at her place. But at the same time I have disdain for her for letting it go that far. This is likely my own issue, because as I said, I was in an emotionally abusive relationship, but I was a lot more volatile within it, rather than passive.
-This chapter, I have to admire the fuck out of her. She has made the decision to leave him and she never wavers from it. She sees his manipulations for what they are and refuses to react to them. I'm quite surprised that things didn't get physical.
-Actually, I've just remembered that I actually played this scene out in my own life. Circumstances were a little different in that I had already left and he had taken to stalking me to get me to take him back. And there was a lot more crying and pleading from him. But I was this calm and steady in my refusal. And he did finish with a suicide threat. And he did grab me and only let me go when my friends intervened and I threatened him with the police if he continued following me. Of course, admiration for my actions in that moment are a bit reduced by the fact that I was back with him two weeks later for another three months before finally ending it for good. Manipulative manipulation is manipulative. And I was a young idiot. Whatever, what I'm saying is that this is a situation I know personally, and it hurts how accurate this scene is.
Chapter 10
-Fuck. Well, I suspected that Tien was going to try to kill Miles, probably because he suspected him of sleeping with her/he was going to uncover the embezzlement. Instead he's trying a stupid ploy of saying he just discovered it.
-But it turns out that something else is going on because Soudha and the dead man's wife are at the experiment station loading shit into a truck and they stun Miles and he wakes up tied to some posts outside.
-And Tien fucking DIES OF STUPIDITY. Horribly. Seriously, you're an idiot, well, for a lot of reasons, but specifically for not charging your oxygen mask, not checking it, and then struggling and going nuts when you found your oxygen was low instead of conserving it. I mean, the dude totally deserves such a stupid ass death.
-Miles, you are also slightly stupid for going off to an isolated spot with someone involved in your investigation without at least telling anyone else.
Chapter 11
-Gah! So emotionally intense. So I can't believe that the plan for having Miles and Tien found was calling his wife with some half-ass reason she needs to go pick him up. I thought at least they'd call an authority figure and make some report. Obviously it's going to take Ekaterin a while to get there, and she might not even go, or might put it off.
-Argh, she shouldn't have to find her husband's body like that. I imagine there's going to be some emotional repercussions of that at some point. Especially since you can argue he wouldn't have been there if she hadn't left him.
-MILES! MY FEELINGS! I don't know why, but when Miles is all panicky about his seizures it gives me FEELINGS.
-I officially have no idea what's going on plot-wise, but damn it's gripping.
Chapters 12-14
--It's hard for me to even say what happened in these chapters. Aftermath of Tien's death. Questioning and informing and case details.
-Ekaterin tries to put her life into order to prepare to leave. The fact that she can be so decisive now that her husband is gone just makes her state while he was alive worse.
-Ekaterin is questioned under fast-penta and Miles realizes he's fallen in love with her. I still don't really see them as a couple, though I just received "Diplomatic Immunity" in the mail and a glance at the back cover (I know better!) confirmed they do in fact get married. I don't know. My feelings on the subject are still TBD.
Chapters 15-16
-I am so failing at blogging this book and it's about to get worse because tomorrow I will be out of town and away from my computer. So...yeah. Umm, Miles feelings for Ekaterin are getting cuter.
Chapters 17-18
-EXCITING STUFF
-Ekaterin goes to the jump terminal to meet hre aunt who is coming in to be with her. But she recognizes a delivery man as one of the missing engineering techs so he stuns her and kidnaps both women. He takes them to Souhda and the others and Ekaterin manages to jockingly guess they intend to collapse the wormhole to Barrayar, cutting the whole plant off from the galaxy and removing their occupiers.
-Which is a horrible fucking plan, not less because most of the Barrayaran army is on this side of the wormhole. Ekaterin is smart and keeps them talking until she can set off the fire alarm, but it doens't work.
-Miles and Vorthys meanwhile are still trying to figure out what the bad guys are going to use their machine for. They finally find out when Miles fast-pentas one of the experts who has it figured but wasn't sharing. But it won't actually WORK to destroy the wormhole, the energy will bounce back at whereever they fire from.
-Miles figures out that they may be on the terminal and about to attempt to fire the thing. So he sends out guards and goes.
Chapter 19
-YES. Ekaterin rocks. She manages to take her chance and lock herself in the control room and smash the fuck out of the device, saving an entire planet. I love that she thinks that she should just sit and wait for grown-up males to come fix everything, but fights that instinct to get things done. AND she manages to call for help!
Chapters 20-21
-So ok, Miles manages to be adorable enough to charm me into being in favor of him getting with Ekaterin. I was afraid she was too much the damsel in distress, and in some ways she still is, psychologically. But her foiling the bad guys plans on her own and her willingness, and total acceptance of her own death for the good of the many does win me over.
-So basically the ending of this book is made of cute. I really like the conversation between the two of them at the end about his past girlfriends and about her taking a number.
-And now I have to go out of town. And wait for who knows how long until I get the next book.
I was trying to slow down my progress in this series because this is the last book I have waiting. I waited two whole days to start this one.
Komarr
Chapter 1-2
-So Miles is on Komarr investigating an accident in which a ship crashed into the mirror that reflects sunlight onto this planet. And he's staying with the niece of one of the other Auditors. And her husband and child.
-So I have to be straight-up in that I know this book and two others are part of the collection called "Miles in Love" and I know that he gets married and goes on honeymoon. (Damn having to look up the book order all the time!) So when he starts falling in lust with Ekaterin, I am suspicious. Is this going to be about how he falls in love with a married woman and gets her to leave her unhappy marriage?
Chapter 3
-I have to admit to not really liking Ekaterin. I feel sorry for her, but MY GOD she has no backbone. She is totally subservient to her husband, even when she knows he is wrong. If this kind of internal monologue from her POV goes on for much longer I am going to get very frustrated at her.
Chapter 4-5
-Not much to say about chapter 4. Plot set-up stuff.
-OMG, this is a painful portrayal of an emotionally abusive marriage. I've been in an emotionally abusive relationship, although one a lot different than this. URGH it fills me with so much rage. And heartbreak. The description of what she has to do to have sex with her husband is so painful and so...accurate.
-I really can't see Miles becoming romantically involved with her, though. He has always needed women who will stand up to him, and Ekaterin is so passive that I can't imagine it working between them.
-Miles' revelation about the accident in which that soldier died is interesting. He never realized until now that HE would have died if his grip hadn't slipped.
-I'm glad he told her about the file he read, but I'm so frustrated at her scared rabbit responses.
Chapter 6-8
-The mystery plot, the mirror accident and the mysterious extra body of the man who worked in terraforming is interesting. I'm enjoying it, although I don't really have THOUGHTS on it.
-So Tien is stealing from the government. Or taking bribes from someone stealing from the government. And betting on trade fleets. And losing. *shakes head* Typical. I'm glad Ekaterin knows about it now, but what is she going to do? Hopefully something that requires a spine.
-It's interesting reading the part of Miles and the Impsec officer going through the office looking for clues, knowing already what there is to find. I initially thought that it removed some of the mystery, but actually I think it adds tension, since you are WILLING Miles to figure it out.
Chapter 9
-I know I've been really hard on Ekaterin. It's not that I don't sympathize with her, I do. I understand how someone could arrive at her place. But at the same time I have disdain for her for letting it go that far. This is likely my own issue, because as I said, I was in an emotionally abusive relationship, but I was a lot more volatile within it, rather than passive.
-This chapter, I have to admire the fuck out of her. She has made the decision to leave him and she never wavers from it. She sees his manipulations for what they are and refuses to react to them. I'm quite surprised that things didn't get physical.
-Actually, I've just remembered that I actually played this scene out in my own life. Circumstances were a little different in that I had already left and he had taken to stalking me to get me to take him back. And there was a lot more crying and pleading from him. But I was this calm and steady in my refusal. And he did finish with a suicide threat. And he did grab me and only let me go when my friends intervened and I threatened him with the police if he continued following me. Of course, admiration for my actions in that moment are a bit reduced by the fact that I was back with him two weeks later for another three months before finally ending it for good. Manipulative manipulation is manipulative. And I was a young idiot. Whatever, what I'm saying is that this is a situation I know personally, and it hurts how accurate this scene is.
Chapter 10
-Fuck. Well, I suspected that Tien was going to try to kill Miles, probably because he suspected him of sleeping with her/he was going to uncover the embezzlement. Instead he's trying a stupid ploy of saying he just discovered it.
-But it turns out that something else is going on because Soudha and the dead man's wife are at the experiment station loading shit into a truck and they stun Miles and he wakes up tied to some posts outside.
-And Tien fucking DIES OF STUPIDITY. Horribly. Seriously, you're an idiot, well, for a lot of reasons, but specifically for not charging your oxygen mask, not checking it, and then struggling and going nuts when you found your oxygen was low instead of conserving it. I mean, the dude totally deserves such a stupid ass death.
-Miles, you are also slightly stupid for going off to an isolated spot with someone involved in your investigation without at least telling anyone else.
Chapter 11
-Gah! So emotionally intense. So I can't believe that the plan for having Miles and Tien found was calling his wife with some half-ass reason she needs to go pick him up. I thought at least they'd call an authority figure and make some report. Obviously it's going to take Ekaterin a while to get there, and she might not even go, or might put it off.
-Argh, she shouldn't have to find her husband's body like that. I imagine there's going to be some emotional repercussions of that at some point. Especially since you can argue he wouldn't have been there if she hadn't left him.
-MILES! MY FEELINGS! I don't know why, but when Miles is all panicky about his seizures it gives me FEELINGS.
-I officially have no idea what's going on plot-wise, but damn it's gripping.
Chapters 12-14
--It's hard for me to even say what happened in these chapters. Aftermath of Tien's death. Questioning and informing and case details.
-Ekaterin tries to put her life into order to prepare to leave. The fact that she can be so decisive now that her husband is gone just makes her state while he was alive worse.
-Ekaterin is questioned under fast-penta and Miles realizes he's fallen in love with her. I still don't really see them as a couple, though I just received "Diplomatic Immunity" in the mail and a glance at the back cover (I know better!) confirmed they do in fact get married. I don't know. My feelings on the subject are still TBD.
Chapters 15-16
-I am so failing at blogging this book and it's about to get worse because tomorrow I will be out of town and away from my computer. So...yeah. Umm, Miles feelings for Ekaterin are getting cuter.
Chapters 17-18
-EXCITING STUFF
-Ekaterin goes to the jump terminal to meet hre aunt who is coming in to be with her. But she recognizes a delivery man as one of the missing engineering techs so he stuns her and kidnaps both women. He takes them to Souhda and the others and Ekaterin manages to jockingly guess they intend to collapse the wormhole to Barrayar, cutting the whole plant off from the galaxy and removing their occupiers.
-Which is a horrible fucking plan, not less because most of the Barrayaran army is on this side of the wormhole. Ekaterin is smart and keeps them talking until she can set off the fire alarm, but it doens't work.
-Miles and Vorthys meanwhile are still trying to figure out what the bad guys are going to use their machine for. They finally find out when Miles fast-pentas one of the experts who has it figured but wasn't sharing. But it won't actually WORK to destroy the wormhole, the energy will bounce back at whereever they fire from.
-Miles figures out that they may be on the terminal and about to attempt to fire the thing. So he sends out guards and goes.
Chapter 19
-YES. Ekaterin rocks. She manages to take her chance and lock herself in the control room and smash the fuck out of the device, saving an entire planet. I love that she thinks that she should just sit and wait for grown-up males to come fix everything, but fights that instinct to get things done. AND she manages to call for help!
Chapters 20-21
-So ok, Miles manages to be adorable enough to charm me into being in favor of him getting with Ekaterin. I was afraid she was too much the damsel in distress, and in some ways she still is, psychologically. But her foiling the bad guys plans on her own and her willingness, and total acceptance of her own death for the good of the many does win me over.
-So basically the ending of this book is made of cute. I really like the conversation between the two of them at the end about his past girlfriends and about her taking a number.
-And now I have to go out of town. And wait for who knows how long until I get the next book.