Publisher: Baen Books
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Title: Shards of Honor
Year published: 1986
Captured by the Butcher, held prisoner of honor, torn by heart and duty, Cordelia Naismith will need to choose which she loves more, home or heart.
Shards of Honor is what I regard as the start of the Vorkosigan saga. While the majority of the series focuses on Miles, this novel is about how his parents met. In some ways it is a subtle romance, but mostly it is a story about the price you pay to follow your heart. While there are land fights, space ship battles, invasions, political intrigue, mostly it is about two people trying desperately to adhere to their own code of ethics while in the middle of a war.
I love this series, but the subtle way two stiff necked people fall in love before they ever kiss has always seemed more real to me than the heady sexual attraction. Both of them fall for the other’s soul, the body is just a bonus.
For me the truth of this book is summed up in one sentence “When he is cut, I bleed.”
