Review: The Warrior's Apprentice
I just finished The Warrior's Apprentice, the first of Lois McMaster Bujold's fairly extensive series of military science-fiction books. Having previously read and enjoyed her fantasy novel Paladin of Souls, I had very high expectations for the book.
I wasn't disappointed.
The main plot of the book follows the scion of a powerful military family in a planetary empire; a physically deformed but brilliant boy named Miles Vorkosigan. The book's plot is fascinating to me; it consists, largely, of the young Miles turning a small amount of human capital into a powerful mercenary company, mostly through an elaborate hoax that essentially becomes the truth. The book has a much lesser focus on technology and individual fights or battles than most military sci-fi; instead, the focus is on the internal, emotional, and interpersonal lives of Miles and his closest companions, and on the social manipulations and logistics that he uses to build, control, and motivate his mercenary soldiers.
I literally read through this book in one day, almost all of it in one sitting. I'm comfortable adding this to the shortlist of my favorite military science fiction (along with David Weber's Dahak Trilogy and S. M. Stirling's Draka books and Island in a Sea of Time).
Rating: Good times. Good times.
I wasn't disappointed.
The main plot of the book follows the scion of a powerful military family in a planetary empire; a physically deformed but brilliant boy named Miles Vorkosigan. The book's plot is fascinating to me; it consists, largely, of the young Miles turning a small amount of human capital into a powerful mercenary company, mostly through an elaborate hoax that essentially becomes the truth. The book has a much lesser focus on technology and individual fights or battles than most military sci-fi; instead, the focus is on the internal, emotional, and interpersonal lives of Miles and his closest companions, and on the social manipulations and logistics that he uses to build, control, and motivate his mercenary soldiers.
I literally read through this book in one day, almost all of it in one sitting. I'm comfortable adding this to the shortlist of my favorite military science fiction (along with David Weber's Dahak Trilogy and S. M. Stirling's Draka books and Island in a Sea of Time).
Rating: Good times. Good times.