Edward James - Lois McMaster Bujold

Science fiction often anticipates the consequences of scientific discoveries. The immense strides made by science since World War II have been matched step by step by writers who gave equal attention to scientific principles, human imagination, and the craft of fiction. The respect for science fiction won by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells was further increased by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ, and Ray Bradbury. Modern Masters of Science Fiction is devoted to books that survey the work of individual authors who continue to inspire and advance science fiction. A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book.

2015 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

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This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

James, Edward, 1947

Lois McMaster Bujold / by Edward James.

pages cm. (Modern masters of science fiction)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-252-03932-4 (hardback : acid-free paper)

ISBN 978-0-252-08085-2 (paper : acid-free paper)

ISBN 978-0-252-09737-9 (e-book)

1. Bujold, Lois McMasterCriticism and interpretation. I. Title.

PS3552.U397Z68 2015

813.54dc23 2014048356

To Farah

Thanks are due, first, to Bill Regier of the University of Illinois Press: for inviting me out of the blue to contribute a book on a major British writer to his new series; for being enthusiastic when I noted that this writer already had several books written about him and that I would like to be the first to write a monograph on Lois McMaster Bujold instead; and for being very tolerant when the book was finished much later than I expected.

Second, I owe a very great deal to Farah Mendlesohn, with whom I have written or edited several books on science fiction and fantasy. She made me read Bujolds books back in the mid-1990s, when I had only read what Bujold had published in Analog , and since then I have read every new Bujold book as it has been published. Over the years we have talked about the books and reread them, particularly the Vorkosigan books, and she has offered constant encouragement during the writing of this book. At this stage, I have no idea how many of the ideas in this book are mine, or whether they have been suggested to me by Farah. For this, and for everything else, I dedicate this book to her.

Third, I would like to thank Lois herself. I had not met her at the time I contracted to write this book, although we began to communicate by email not long afterward, having been introduced by Lillian Stewart Carl (whom I had met at the Montreal Worldcon in 2009). I finally met Lois when she was a guest of honor at the Finnish National SF Convention (Finncon) in Tampere, July 2012; the convention chair, Marianna Leikomaa, asked me to conduct Loiss guest of honor interview, and I was able to spend some time with her. Both then and through email, she has always replied to my questions graciously and promptly.

I have not met, but owe a great debt to, the British sf fan Michael Bernardi, who created and sustains The Bujold Nexus , Bujolds official website, at www.dendarii.com. This is an invaluable resource, as is The Vorkosigan Companion , a book edited by Lillian Stewart Carl and John Helfers. When I started writing this book, there were a few published critical essays on Bujold, and one slim volume of essays partially devoted to her, by Sylvia Kelso; halfway through writing this book, the collection of essays on Bujold edited by Janet Brennan Croft was published, and my own book was able to proceed in dialogue with this. A word of thanks is due as well to Grover Gardner, whose excellent readings of Bujolds Vorkosigan books on Blackstone Audiobooks kept me entertained over many months as I walked to and fro between home and university in Dublin.

Finally, I would like to thank the following friends and fellow Bujold fans for kindly looking over this book in draft, correcting many mistakes, and offering many valuable comments: in alphabetical order, Lillian Stewart Carl, Julie Hofmann, Sylvia Kelso, Kari Maund, Una McCormack, Farah Mendlesohn, Cheryl Morgan, and Hallie ODonovan. Thanks to the two readers for Illinois University Press for comments; and thanks again to Lois McMaster Bujold, who read through the whole text with great care, correcting numerous errors and making many valuable suggestions. In what follows, if there is mention of a comment by Bujold that is not referenced in any way, then this is a comment made on the electronic draft version of this book during August 2013. Thank you for all your help, and for making the scary experience of writing about a live author less traumatic than it might have been. The subject of my next book died in a.d. 594.

Full publication details and a list of the Vorkosigan stories in internal chronological order are to be found toward the end of this book. All quotations are from the first editions listed in the bibliography unless otherwise specified.