My opinion about Lois McMaster Bujold's The Warrior's Apprentice is roughly equivalent to my opinion about Bujold's other novels that I've read, Shards of Honor and Barrayar: an overwhelming sense of blah. The setting is nothing special: at least in this novel, the level of political intrigue feels shallow and almost peripheral. The characters are also nothing special: Miles Vorkosigan, the protagonist, is undoubtedly resourceful, but only because the author intrudes to make his zany plans succeed; plus, he's a little obnoxious in his aristocratic overbearingness and self-congratulations. And the plot is, well, dumb: after failing officer school, Miles goes on a vacation, only to end up with a mercenary fleet at his command--an opportunity for Miles, son of the Butcher of Komarr, to show his quality. And he does, in a way, in scenes and schemes that are meant to be humorous but that, for some reason, just didn't click with me.

The book as a whole has the flavor of juvenile fiction. Everything in it is somewhat superficial and not very complex. And the way characters react to crises is similarly inappropriate. Take, for instance, the following passage:

Looming up behind them was a large Oseran warship. . . . Miles swore in frustration. Of course! Oseran full-feedback space armor logically implied an Oseran monitor nearby. He should have realized it instantly. Fool he was, to have simply assumed the enemy was being directed from inside the docking station. He ground his teeth in chagrin. He had totally forgotten, in the overwhelming excitement of the attack, in his particular terror for Elena, the first principle of larger commands: don't get balled up in the little details. It was no consolation that Auson appeared to have forgotten it too.

I think my problem is that everything in the entire novel is treated as something of a game, rather than as matters of serious concern. Now I know that's deliberate: Bujold isn't out to write about the grim realities of war. Instead, her novels are supposed to be almost like sitcoms in space, as mistakes, good luck, and derring-do pile up toward some hilarious punchline. (Unfortunately, Bujold does find it necessary to inject some gravitas into the novel with a few sudden deaths that lead to some of the most blatant and ineffective authorial tear-wringing that I've ever read.)

I guess that the most I can say about The Warrior's Apprentice is that it just didn't appeal to me on any level. It was a juvenile novel when I didn't want to read one; I could feel the author's heavy hand in the background when I wanted to immerse myself in the novel; and I didn't get any of the jokes. If you're a fan of the series, please please let me know if they get better, or if this is about as good as I can expect.

Copyright © 2003 Steven Wu