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The purpose of this guide is to help readers find English-language Vorkosiverse fanfic novels they might enjoy reading. For the purpose of this guide, a 'fanfic novel' is defined as a fanfic which is at least 40,000 words long. If there is sufficient reader interest, this guide might be expanded to cover fanfic novellas and/or long fanfic series which.

My plan is to eventually review all of the 40K+ word English-language Vorkosiverse fanfics on AO3 (except Gregor's Game) and FF.net. I will go through them in order of timeline (pre-canon first, post-canon last), yet group fanfic novels which belong to the same series together regardless of timeline.

This guide will be spoiler-free (with regards to the fanfics, NOT spoiler-free with regards to canon). If anyone wishes to make comments which contains spoilers for any of the fanfic novels, please use appropriate spoiler warnings.

You Can Make This Guide Better!

I can only offer my own opinions. And I sometimes have a minority opinion about works of fiction (i.e. there is unpopular stuff which I like, and popular stuff which I don't like).

Every Vorkosiverse fanfic novel appeals to at least some readers. Therefore, when I review fanfic novels that I dislike, I will try to do it in a way which makes it clear that other readers do enjoy it.

However, if other readers add their own opinions in the comments, that will make this guide even better! For example, if I write a glowing review of a fanfic novel which you cannot stand reading, by all means mention that in the comments. It may help readers who share your tastes from avoiding a fanfic novel they would rather not read. Likewise, if I write a negative review of a fanfic novel which you love, go ahead and post a glowing review in the comments so that readers who share your tastes will not miss on something they would also love.

One More Thing

There seems to be no correlation between how much I like a VK fanfic novel and how many kudos it has. In particular, there are some good fanfic novels which have surprisingly few kudos. Maybe I just have peculiar tastes, but I think that there are definitely some under-appreciated works. So, please don't dismiss a work just because of a lack of kudos!

And now for the first review ... Rediscovery by Scott Washburn.

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Rediscovery by Scott Washburn

Timeline: Exactly when Barrayar's Time of Isolation ends

Setup: A bunch of social outcasts from Komarr have set up their own wormhole exploration team (to hell with the Betan Survey!) and are trying to rediscover the lost wormhole route between Komarr and Escobar. Meanwhile, though Dorca Vorbarra has made himself emperor of Barrayar in practice as well as in name, there are still those who see him as an unjust tyrant and are waiting for an opportunity to overthrow him...

Structure: This is for the most part an action-based story - there is a lot of 'oh no, will they escape before the antagonists get them' in the plot. There is also a heavy dose of Kommarran/Barryaran culture clash (but since this is long before the conquest of Komarr, it is different kind of culture clash than what's shown in canon). A few references to another fanfic novel by the same writer, Tales from the Academy are thrown in.

This fanfic contains an astonishing number of sentences which end in an exclamation point! If I were inclined to write a parody of this, every single sentence would end in an exclamation point!

Reaction: I love it that an ad hoc wormhole survey team which is very much like the ad hoc Dendarii Mercenaries in The Warrior's Apprentice was the one to rediscover the wormhole route to Barrayar. They even figure out why it became impassable in the first place!

It's also fun to watch the Komarrans and the Barrayarans boggle each others' minds.

The action plot, though nothing exceptional, does work. I also found some of the ideas which the fic presented about Time-of-Isolation Barrayar interesting.

For most of this novel, I had it pegged as 'not much depth or subtlety, but it is plenty of fun'. Towards the end, I realized that this fanfic does in fact have more depth and subtlety than I initially gave it credit for.

I am happy to have read this story.

Next Review: If I Would... by quietann.

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If I Would... by quietann

Timeline: During Ges/Aral's romance and Aral's first marriage

Setup: This is the angsty story of Ges and Aral's romance, including the tragic story of Aral's first marriage. The premise is that, before Chapter 10, Ges Vorrutyer was a decent human being.

Structure:

This story is (except for Aral's letter and coda) told from Ges Vorrutyer's PoV.

Obviously, this is darkfic. However, it is more suggestive than explicit. For example, even though many words are spilled over Ges and his sister's sexual feelings for each other and the sexual things they do with each other, they never actually *cough* engage in PiV sex. Likewise, we only see a glimpse of Aral's final fight with his wife, rather than have Aral's entire monologue.

The plot points are basically what's outlined in Shard of Honor, though some events - such as Ges and Aral's break-up fight - are depicted in a completely different light than what one would have expected based on SoH alone.

Reaction:

I read most of this back in 2007/2008 when it was first posted, chapter by chapter, on livejournal. However, I had forgotten a lot of it, so it was mostly fresh when I recently re-read it.

When I read it a long time ago, the sibling incest part was a major WTF for me (IIRC, it was also a major WTF for the writer, who commented that she was shocked that she wrote that). However, since I've known for eight years that there is a fic out there where Ges and his sister have a sexual thing for each other, I'm fairly used to the idea by now (also, my general attitude towards consensual incest is milder now than it was a decade ago).

I had forgotten just how sympathetic Ges Vorrutyer is in this fic. And that is my favorite part. Generally, I don't like fictional characters who are perfectly good or perfectly evil, and I have always loved that Aral/Ges is canon because it implies that Aral is not a saint, and that Ges had at one time redeeming qualities. However, I find it even more satisfying that, in the first 80% of this fic, Ges comes across as a more considerate and kind person than Aral in ways which are consistent with canon (for example, when Aral is acting like an asshole, it's usually because his father Piotr taught him to act like an asshole).

I also like that this fic has one of the very few lesbian characters of Vorkosiverse fanon (or canon for that matter). She would have been a good Lesbian Best Friend for Aral and Ges if they spent more time with her.

I am also fond of Count Vorrutyer - I can definitely see him being Dono and Byerly's grandfather (he is, in fact, their grandfather). I found his part of the story heartbreaking.

This is not my favorite kind of fic, but I think it does what it does well, and I really liked it.

Next Time: It's a long way to Escobar by jetta_e_rus

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It's a long way to Escobar by jetta_e_rus

Timeline: Between Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 of Shards of Honor

Setup:

Ezar has personally assigned his secretary/protégé/lover/pet Simon Illyan to watch Aral Vorkosigan during the invasion of Escobar. Why? And how is Simon supposed to deal with the volatile Commodore Vorkosigan, and Admiral Vorrutyer's attempts to screw him up?

About the fic:

This is a translation of the Russian fanfic novel Долог путь до Эскобара. It is part six of the fanfic series Истории Иллиана (Illyan Stories). Other parts of the series which have been translated into English are: Part 1: "Conversations in Secret", Part 3: "Owner", and Part 9: "Zeroing In". Since I don't understand Russian, I've only read the English translations.

Structure:

Obviously, this is slashfic - yet it's also worth pointing out that it is rated 'T' and not 'M' or 'E'. The sex scenes are brief, and there is much more to the story than all of the slashiness which is sloshing around (readers who want more slashy sex and less plot may prefer "Owner" which is rated 'E'). The story ends before anyone in the Barrayaran fleet has a chance to capture any Escobarans, which means that Admiral Vorrutyer's and Prince Serg's treatment of prisoners is not part of the story at all. This is a very psychological story, in which Illyan has to try to understand Vorkosigan and Vorrutyer, and then figure out what he is supposed to do with/about them.

Reaction:

I started reading this before I realized that the stories "Conversations in Secret" and "Owner" exist, so when Chapter 2 refers to Simon and Ezar's sexual relationship, my reaction was "What. The. Freaking. Hell!" Though I don't necessarily like the pairing itself, I do like the way that it kicks off the story in an off-balanced way, casting things in a different light than canon. Anyway, Ezar/Simon not the main focus of this story.

Even though I know what eventually happens when they reach Escobar, and I knew that Simon and Aral were going to have sex because it says 'Aral Vorkosigan/Simon Illyan' on the tin, I did not know what was going to happen in the *next scene*. That is because this story has an original plot which just happens to be set during the invasion fleet's journey to Escobar. Since I did not know the plot in advance, I also did not know how Simon Illyan was going to solve the various problems he was confronted with. As a reader, I appreciated that.

There is one particular priceless moment which I am tempted to describe, but it would be a bit of a spoiler, so I won't.

The translation flows mostly well in English. There are a few spots where the language is a bit odd, and I suspect it's because those are concepts which are easier to express in Russian than English (for example, when Ges Vorrutyer refers to 'conjunctive mood'). I actually liked these subtle reminders that this is a translation from Russian. The characters may actually be talking to each other in (Barrayaran) Russian, so one could argue that this more accurately reflects their thought patterns than something written originally in English.

In short, I enjoyed reading this story.

Next Time: Aral Vorkosigan's Dog by Philomytha

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Aral Vorkosigan's Dog by Philomytha

Timeline: Shards of Honor

Setup: Shards of Honor, from Simon Illyan's point of view.

Structure:

It basically follows the plot of Shards of Honor from Chapter 6 to the end. A lot of the plot of this fanfic is tightly structured to follow how Simon realizes the truth of the Escobar invasion, and how it affects him.

To give a sample of the writing style, I pulled a random paragraph, and removed the spoilers:

His hand hovered over the weapons at his hip. The stunner, the nerve disruptor. He looked around the tactics room. Arresting the commanding officer in the middle of a battle was not an unprecedented act in Barrayaran history, but it was also not an easy one. The other officers would be sure to object at the very least, resist perhaps. And that would only be the start of his problems. They would want explanations, and the story of [spoiler] would come out and would bring furious counter-accusations of fraud and treason against him. He wouldn't be able to maintain his authority. And then there was the worst problem of all. He was by no means certain he could hold [character] against his will, not now that [spoiler], even with duty and conscience allied. Could he hold a nerve disruptor to [character]'s head in earnest, could he project the aura of utter ruthlessness that it would require? Better not to make the attempt than to try and fail. He would not be able to bluff [character]; he rarely had managed it during their sparring sessions. His hand slid to the stunner. That he could do, though it was not the right weapon for the circumstances, and [character] would not miss the message it sent.

Reaction:

I first tried to read this on fanfiction.net. I read the first chapter, it did not interest me, so I quit. It was only after seeing how many kudos it got on AO3, and reading and enjoying some of Philomytha's shorter fanfic, that I tried it again.

Fortunately, I found later chapters interesting enough to keep reading. However, I did not find it much more interesting than that.

It felt like a re-write of Shards of Honor to me. I do appreciate that it tells the story of Shard of Honor from a different angle, and I like how it filled in some plot holes, and I like some of the details it added. That's what made it interesting enough for me to finish it. However, the best parts of this fanfic were the parts pulled straight from canon, and I kept on feeling like I would have been better off re-reading Shards of Honor itself instead (I admit that when I see comments praising this fic for the plotting, I think 'ummm, I think LMB is the one who deserves credit for the plot'). The original parts (i.e. parts which were not taken from canon) which I liked weren't quite enough to justify reading all of the uninteresting material. I would probably have preferred having the best original bits pulled out as a series of short fanfics. Or maybe I simply find Simon's PoV less interesting than Cordelia's PoV.

I will note three things. First, whereas most of the reviews for this project were written shortly after I finished reading or re-reading a fanfic novel, I wrote this review months after I read this fanfic. I tried to re-read this, but when I started reading, I found that I really did not want to re-read this, so instead I re-read a random chapter (chapter 4) in full and skimmed the rest. It did not change my impression of this work.

The second thing I want to note is that I did finish reading this long before I decided that I was going to read All the Vorkosiverse Fanfic Novels. Therefore, it does NOT belong in the category of fanfic novels which I had to mentally ram myself through, in spite of how un-enjoyable and tedious it was to me, just so I could achieve my goal of reading All the Vorkosiverse Fanfic Novels.

And third ... this fanfic does have over 350 kudos. In fact, as of the date that this review is being posted, it has the fourth highest number of kudos of any Vorkosiverse fanfic on AO3. That shows that a lot of people respond much more positively to this than I do. Maybe you are also one of those people, and now that I've encouraged you to have low expectations, if you try to read it, it will blow you away.

Next Time: Meta comment on the timeline of the Vorkosiverse fanfic novels

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Meta Comment on the Timeline of the Vorkosiverse Fanfic Novels

I decided to order these reviews in timeline order since I figured it was as good a way to determine an order for the fanfic novels as any other (and I wanted an order which could be determined objectively, rather than an order which would require me to make a lot of subjective judgements).

That made it obvious to me that the fanfic novels are concentrated on one particular slice of the timeline. Specifically, about half of the VK fanfic novels are set in the A Civil Campaign thru Captain Vorpatril's Alliance timeline.

But before I get to that, I want to point out a huge gap in the fanfic novel timeline, one which this series of reviews is making very obvious. The previous novel which was reviewed, Aral Vorkosigan's Dog, is set during Shards of Honor. The next novel to be reviewed, A Deeper Season, is set *after* Memory. That is a gap which is not only thirty in-universe years long, it is a gap which encompasses a majority of the Vorkosigan Saga stories. As it so happens, the one fanfic novel which is set in this gap is also the one fanfic novel which I am not going to review.

Though ... if one considers certain long series (*cough* Petya 'verse *cough* The World That You Need *cough*) to be fanfic novels, then there are a couple more fanfic novels in this period.

I like to split this gap into two periods: Barrayar thru The Warrior's Apprentice and The Warrior's Apprentice thru Memory.

There are many potential good novels one could write in the Barrayar thru The Warrior's Apprentice period: a novel about Cordelia and Alys learning how to be mothers, a novel about the Komarr Revolt, a novel about the Third Cetagandan War, etc. However, since canon itself gives little information about this period, any fanfic writer would have to flesh it out with a lot of original material, not to mention an original plot. It's a lot of effort, and it requires a particular kind of inspiration, so I am not terribly surprised that nobody has done it.

I am more surprised that there are not more fanfic novels in the The Warrior's Apprentice thru Memory timeline. Of course, I am the person who actually did write a fanfic novel set in this period, so it makes sense that I fail to understand why other people don't do it too.

Anyway, back to the A Civil Campaign thru Captain Vorpatril's Alliance timeline.

I am aware of five fanfic novels which center on Ivan Vorpatril. This is not a surprise to me, since for over a decade after A Civil Campaign came out, fans had been asking for an Ivan Vorpatril novel until Captain Vorpatril's Alliance finally appeared. However, two of those fanfic novels came out after CVA came out, but I can also understand that as a) fans just really liking Ivan and/or b) fans feeling like CVA was missing something.

That said, there are also a bunch of fanfic novels in the A Civil Campaign thru Captain Vorpatril's Alliance timeline which are not centered on Ivan. I don't mind this phenomenon, but I still wonder why fanfic novelists are so much more attracted to this part of the timeline than other parts of the timeline. Maybe, because it's later in the timeline, they have to make fewer adjustments to make it consistent with canon or, in the case of AU fanfics, to diverge from canon. Yet, because it still is in the canon timeline, they can get more support from canon itself than they would for, say, a far future fanfic.

What do I mean by support from canon? Speaking from my own experience as a fanfic writer, it is easier to take a plot from canon and tweak it than to create a brand new plot from scratch. Setting a fanfic novel in a part of the timeline with a lot of canon stories allows one to borrow a lot of plot from canon; the further away a fanfic is from parts of the timeline covered in canon, the more plot a fanfic writer has to make up on their own. To pick two examples of fanfic novels which I've already reviewed, Aral Vorkosigan's Dog was able to borrow a ton of plot from Shards of Honor because it's in the same part of the timeline, whereas Rediscovery has an essentially original plot since it is a part of the timeline which is only occasionally referenced in canon.

Suffice to say, I am not surprised that there are only two pre-canon fanfic novels (Rediscovery and If I Would...) and only one fanfic novel which is set 10+ years after canon (Saint Miles dy Vorkosigan).

Because the A Civil Campaign thru Captain Vorpatril's Alliance timeline is so crowded, I've had to make some judgement calls after all, but I think I've worked out the proper order for all of those fanfic novels.

Next Time: A Deeper Season by lightgetsin and sahiya

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A Deeper Season by lightgetsin and sahiya

"To be honest, it's sort of comforting when the little git's bouncing off the walls. When he gets thoughtful like this, that's when I start to really worry." - Ivan Vorpatril, A Deeper Season, Chapter 2

Timeline: Shortly after Memory (AU)

Setup:

Gregor has been in love with Miles since The Vor Game, and finally gets around to letting him know. Also, there is a plot around a technique to allow two males to have a genetic child together (androgenesis) which is entangling the Durona Clinic, the Cetagandan Star Crèche, Lord Auditor Miles Vorkosigan, and various other parties.

Structure:

There are two main plot threads which run in parallel. One is about Gregor being in love with Miles, and Miles and their family and friends dealing with that. The other is about the plot around androgensis, which may or may not be related to the various attempts made to assassinate Miles. This part of the plot contains a lot of mystery and whodunit aspects. Naturally, these two plot lines often intersect (for example, Lovesick!Gregor reacts to people trying to kill Miles).

Random Comment:

I sometimes see people referring to this fanfic by the acronym ADS. However, to me, ADS means A Distant Soil, so I've been amusingly tripped up by that a few times.

Reaction:

I first read this many years ago (IIRC it was around the time the sequel, What Passing Bells, was WIP). I did not like it back then. I recently re-read this, and was happy to find that my reaction was much more positive this time around.

First of all, I lost count of how many times a turn of phrase made me laugh out loud. I disagree with the people who says it feels just like Bujold (it never felt like Bujold to me), but I have to admit, it is just as good as Bujold for entertainingly witty language.

Second, aside from one bit near the beginning, I like the way that Gregor and Miles' relationship evolves over the course of the story. I also really liked some of the digressions of their conversations, such as their speculation on the purpose of the haut which turned into a discussion on the meaning of life (Chapter 6).

There are various other things I like, such as the way the Mysterious Men Who Give Ivan Cryptic Messages are used in the fic.

That said, just as when I read it 7+ years ago, I cannot buy the whole androgenesis thing. How the heck can a civilization which can make the genetic babies of Aral and Cordelia from just his little finger and her big toe (Barrayar, Chapter 9), or genetically engineer human hermaphrodites, *not* be able to make babies from the genetic material from two men. It never made sense to me, even before canon (GJatRQ) confirmed that such technology has been available for centuries. It's like claiming that a society which has machetes to clear paths in the jungle doesn't have the the technology to chop vegetables.

And generally, with the exception of touches such as Mysterious Men Who Give Ivan Cryptic Messages, I simply do not like the caper/mystery/scheming part of this novel. This was basically what put me off this fanfic way back when I first tried to read it. The main difference now is that I like the Miles/Gregor part of the story more than I did the first time, which gives me more patience for the parts of the story I don't like.

I also find it disappointing that this fic misses so many opportunities to make people's heads explode. The news that Gregor thinks Miles is his One True Love has such great potential for, say, getting a super entertaining reaction from Ivan Vorpatril. However, with the exception of Miles' parents and a certain original character, I am underwhelmed by the reactions. What a waste of an opportunity for comedy and/or drama. (Note: I am the kind of person who has read over a hundred reviews of GJatRQ because it is entertaining to see how readers react to Aral/Jole becoming canon).

In short, I find some parts of this novel satisfying, other parts unsatisfying. Overall, it was a worthwhile read for me, and I am glad I gave it a second chance. It made me really interested in reading the sequel, What Passing Bells.

Next Time: What Passing Bells by lightgetsin and sahiya

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What Passing Bells by lightgetsin and sahiya

"I don't trust myself right now, Ivan. My brain was always the excuse for my existence. And now it's falling apart." - Miles Vorkosigan, What Passing Bells, Chapter 8.

Timeline: Four years after A Deeper Season (Miles is 34 years old)

Setup: This is the sequel to A Deeper Season. Gregor and Miles are discussing making their romance public and finally announcing their betrothal to each other. Then shit hits the fan.

Structure: This story is centered on what Gregor and Miles experiences, as well as having a side-plot about Ivan and Ekaterin. It is very focused on personal relationships, including a particular emphasis on Miles/Gregor (obviously) and father-son relationships.

Reaction: Now I am really happy that I gave A Deeper Season another chance, since I happen to love this sequel.

One thing which I think is much better about What Passing Bells than A Deeper Season is that it focuses much more on the characters and the melodrama, and a lot less focus on the conspiracy/scheming/mystery/etc. plotting which I don't care for.

And what a magnificent melodrama it is! At the end of A Deeper Season, I was thinking 'man, I really wish to read about how they try to go public' so I was obviously pleased that this story started there. And I loved the elegant yet wrenching plot twist they threw it. Why did I love it? Because 1) the feelings, the FEELINGS!!! and 2) it forced a number of characters to grow and develop. It is so good that I did not mind that there was much less witty banter than in A Deeper Season.

I also respect the way the writers rattles some of the fault lines within the Vorkosigan family. There is an entirely understandable tendency in fanfiction to emphasize, for example, how harmonious Aral and Cordelia's relationship is, or how wonderful they are as parents. Therefore, it definitely gets my attention when a fanfic depicts, for example, Aral and Cordelia having a serious disagreement on a very personal matter.

I admit that I was somewhat underwhelmed by Ivan and Ekaterin's relationship, but I enjoyed reading about Ivan's experiences as an Imperial Heir, and I really liked Ekaterin's relationship with Miles.

One thing I would like to point out is the way disability is presented. First of all, the plot forces Miles to consider the prospect of becoming mentally as well as physically disabled, which, considering that he considers his mental abilities to be his justification for living (see quote at the beginning of the review), is a big deal. Miles also has deal with a disabled Barrayaran character in one part of the story, which once again raises discussion of the living as a disabled person. Finally, I liked the touch when a veterans group tries to use Gregor and Miles' newly public romance to help fight ableism in Barrayaran society. Given that one of the co-writers (lightgetsin) sometimes writes non-fiction about disability issues, it is no surprise that this theme is in this story.

In short, I am finally sold on the A Deeper Season series.

Next time: Other Ways by sahiya

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Other Ways by sahiya

Timeline: A few months after the events of What Passing Bells (Miles is about 35 years old)

Setup: Miles and Gregor's honeymoon turns into an action-packed nightmare which threatens to cause the collapse of the Imperium - as well as their marriage.

Structure:

Miles, Gregor, Aral, Cordelia, and Elli Quinn get put into a really, really bad situation. And as they learn more about the situation, they realize that it's worse than they originally thought it was. Since Cavilo is the antagonist, there is a lot of psychological calculation to try to counter her. Does it work? I'm not spoiling.

There is also a fair bit of straight up action - people pointing stunners/nerve disruptors/plasma arcs, breaking into secured areas, explosions, etc.

Unsurprisingly, this highly stressful situation puts a lot of stress on Miles' and Gregor's new marriage.

Reaction:

I really liked the cliffhanger at the end of Chapter 1 - it definitely started the story with a big bang! Generally, I found the action-packed part of this story fun - it was fast, it was easy to follow, the stakes were high, and I wanted to know what happened next.

Cavilo is one of my least favorite canon characters, but I found that I liked her here more than I usually do (ummm, by 'like' I mean that I liked reading about her, not that I like her personality).

My favorite part was the implications for Miles and Gregor's relationship. I love it that, instead of ignoring Miles' and Gregor's potential incompatibilities as life partners, this fic (and the A Deeper Season series in general) faces them square on. In this fic, Miles realizes that, if he really is going to be Gregor's husband, he is going to have to change some of his deeply ingrained tendencies. Does Miles want to be with Gregor badly enough to do that to himself? It's the test of character which Miles undergoes which really makes this fic work, and adds gravitas to something which would otherwise be a simple action story.

Next Time: Forward Momentum by Bracketyjack

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Forward Momentum by Bracketyjack

"When he took Chandler’s call in—he glanced at his chrono—two hours, something new would start. The kitten tried to eat his thumb, and he looked down at it in mild admonition. Chandler’s genie was about to leave its bottle." - Forward Momentum, Chapter 2.

Timeline: Shortly after "Winterfair Gifts"; AU to Diplomatic Immunity

Setup: After "Winterfair Gifts" (but before Diplomatic Immunity) a Terran scientist brings to Miles the technology which allows, among other things, real-time communication with anybody in the Nexus. It would be a disruptive technology in anybody's hands. But in Miles' hands, 'disruptive' is an understatement.

Structure: I am pulling a random paragraph from the story (okay, not completely random - I made sure it contained no spoilers), since it is a easier to present a sample than to try to describe the writing style:

Wandering round the house he was both mildly horrified and rather admiring to find at the side-door, where guests would enter, Captain Khourakis, in unexceptionable mufti but nevertheless at something very like parade rest, and on a nearby bench Nikki and Arthur Pym, suspiciously neatly turned out. Both greeted him politely as Khourakis nodded a mufti salute. Suppressing both a squawk and a grin he gave greetings back and went to lean against the wall by Khourakis. After a moment the boys resumed a muttered conversation both adults could hear perfectly well, and they listened together in, Miles thought, mutual fascination to Arthur’s colourfully indignant commentary on a young Jankowski hoyden in the village. He already had something of his father’s turns of phrase but without the senior Armsman’s range of nuance and banked-up tact, producing a sometimes compelling effect. Miles’s crystallising thought was that Miss Jankowski sounded an ideal candidate for ImpSec training in a few years, for the women’s squad in the protection detail. A true niece of her uncle, belike. When he caught the captain’s eye at the end of the tale he knew his thoughts were shared. Miles smiled to himself but had to swallow a groan as Arthur guilelessly continued another fascinating conversation he and Nikki must have been having.

My impression is that more than a third of this fanfic is characters discussing events which happen in canon (granted, I have not done a statistiscal analysis to confirm whether this really is 33% of the content). Also, a lot of the fanfic is like the paragraph above, going into lots of details about various things. The pace in the beginning is glacial (it takes forever even to get to the first explanation of the frames), yet speeds up in the second half.

Reaction: The first time I tried to read it, I got a few chapters in before I gave up. I did manage to get as far as the explanation of the frames, which I found to be an interesting idea, but I did not find the style enjoyable enough to continue.

My attitude is that, when I want to re-visit canon events, I would much prefer re-reading canon itself than reading about characters talking about the same canon events in past tense, especially if I feel that the characters who are talking about the canon events have very little to add which cannot be obviously inferred from canon itself. And most of the other details that the fanfic goes into (for example, the paragraph above) strike me as a) irrelevant to the story and b) not interesting on its own. It was even more irritating to me that a lot of the dialogue seemed to be like 'You did this [explains a bunch of stuff which happened in canon in much more detail than necessary] and you are so awesome.' I don't want to read about Vorkosiverse characters telling other Vorkosiverse characters that they are awesome - I would much rather watch them actually do awesome stuff.

To be clear, I don't insist that all of the (fan)fiction I read be fast-paced. For example, one of my favorite fanfics in any fandom is The Mouse of Konoha, which is very wordy and slow. However, even though TMoK is verbose, it generally does not repeat information which readers already know from canon too much, and almost all of those details do move the plot (very slowly) forward, or at least are entertaining in their own right, even though it sometimes takes me a long time to figure out where the writer is going.

I also feel like some characters in Forward Momentum swallowed some ideas too easily, and that it was unrealistic that their minds were changed with so little resistance. Or rather, that sometimes the writer was so determined to make good things happened, good things were forced to happen even when it was unrealistic and contrived for things to happen that way.

That said, there are parts which I do like. For example, I liked the discussions Nikki had about Lord Vortalon and ethics (and even if one doesn't want to read the whole fic, it might be worthwhile just to read the Nikki/Vortalon parts). And I do prefer the second half, since the ratio of fresh material to repetitive material is better. Nonetheless, it was very frustrating to have to wade through so much material which bored me to find parts which interested me. If I did not crave the satisfaction of READING ALL THE VK FANFIC NOVELS WITHOUT SKIMMING, I would have been better off never giving this a second chance.

I think that, if all of the stuff which seems irrelevant or repetitious to me were cut out, this would be 60,000 words or less, and it would be much easier for me to appreciate the essential ideas of this fanfic.

However, YOU are not me. It is obvious from the comments that some readers really love this fic, and I don't want to discourage people who are into this kind of fic from reading it. Just as I prefer the second half because I think it has less irrelevant stuff, some readers prefer the first half because to them the second half feels too much like a summary. To each their own. Finally, I have to give this fic credit for being unique. Therefore, in spite of my reaction, I recommend giving this fanfic a shot. I also recommend dropping it like a hot coal if one isn't enjoying it by end of the first or second chapter.

Next Time: Moving On by ana

Chapter Text

Moving On by ana

“Eve, you can’t always get what you want at a convenient time. Using timing as an excuse to avoid taking a chance will only lead to regret.” - Moving On, Chapter 13 - "Ivan's Not Drunk | The Vorkosigans Make A Bet"

Timeline: Shortly after A Civil Campaign (Alternative Universe)

Setup: Eve, an ImpSec agent, likes Ivan. Ivan likes Eve. But Eve spied on Ivan for his mother when he was very vulnerable without his knowledge. Will Ivan feel betrayed if he finds out?

About the Series: This is the third entry in the series The Ivan Tales : Marriage, Divorce, Love and Chocolate Cake. It's best to read the first two entries before reading this one.

Structure: Ivan and Eve have feelings, and misunderstandings, and people around them try to help them, though they have different ideas about whether or not Ivan and Eve should get together or stay apart. This is mostly a romance, but there is also an incidental conspiracy, historical research into Barrayaran charity houses, a piano theft, and other things to fill out the plot.

Reaction: After I read this the first time, I wrote a rough draft of a review, which could be summarized as "I don't get it". However, I read it while I was significantly sleep-deprived, and I thought it might be a bit unfair to claim that a fanfic had unclear writing when I'm the one who had an unclear head, so I decided to read the whole thing again. Naturally, I found time to re-read when I was sleep-deprived *and* recovering from an injury. So much for that plan.

I definitely understood the story a lot better on the second read through. However, there were some passages I had to re-read more than twice to figure out what was going on, and there are still some things which I still don't entirely get about the plot.

The thing is, I tend to read fanfic when I'm tired, and I generally don't have this much trouble understanding what is actually happening in a fanfic. I probably would have an easier time following what is going on with a clearer head, yet I also think there are things which the writer could have done which would have made things easier for me as a reader. For example, here is one of the sections which I had trouble processing:

“Right. Well, JB found out Eve was one of the Betan Ten and tried to blackmail Eve into giving him some of her compensation – money in exchange for keeping her anonymity. She was only thirteen and still a mess; it was only one year after her therapy trauma, and she physically attacked him. Marcus found out what happened and nearly beat JB to death.”

Tatya was wide eyed. “That’s how Eve lost her anonymity?”

“Kind of. After JB recovered he got as far away as possible, sued Marcus and told everyone where one of the Betan Ten survivors was living but implying, as he put in the article, that he was doing this for charitable reasons because he was worried about Marcus’s ability to take care of her. People tried to kill the story because Eve was a minor, not for any other reason, but it was impossible. So the lies in it linger.”

If this information had been conveyed through, say, flashbacks, rather than as a dense info-dump, I think I would have found it easier to mentally process.

Anyway, since this story is primarily a romance, I am going to talk about my reaction to that.

For me, romance in fiction is hit or miss. And whether a fictional romance is a hit or miss for me is not entirely correlated with the quality of writing. For example, Pride and Prejudice is a miss for me, yet there are some not-so-well-written romance stories which are hits for me.

Ivan and Eve's romance for me is a ... miss.

That doesn't mean the writing is bad - I can tell that in some ways it is skilful writing. However, on some level, I don't get why he's attached to her, or why she's attached to him, and I am simply not invested in the development of their relationship. If it had just been a subplot, it would not have been a problem, since I also don't actively dislike the pairing. However, since it is the main plot, that means this story is a flop for me.

Nonetheless, I did read this twice, which says something. I suggest starting with the first story in the series, and figuring out whether or not this series suits one's tastes.

Next Time: Guerilla by Glishara

Chapter Text

Guerrilla by Glishara

"As Aral had predicted, there was plenty of time for tears." - final line from the prologue of Guerrilla.

Timeline: Diplomatic Immunity (Alternate Universe)

Setup: Ivan Vorpatril is not sure who is alive and who is dead. What he is sure of is that the Cetagandans have invaded Barrayar again - and the Cetagandans seem to be winning. Ivan never wanted to be the leader of an armed resistance movement, but he is Vor, and that means that he is not going to surrender.

Structure:

So, this is the Dark Epic Ivan Vorpatril fanfic novel.

I think this excerpt from the prologue represents well the spirit of this fanfic:

It was closer to ten minutes before the door to Presidente Arroyo 's office opened [Presidente Arroyo is Escobar's head of state], and the Vicereine turned with wide-eyed relief. At Arroyo's invitation, she stepped inside to greet him.

"Vicereine," Arroyo greeted, offering a polite nod. "To what do I owe the honor of this unexpected visit?"

To his profound shock, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, wife of his planet's old enemy and one-time hero of his people, spread her skirts and dropped to a knee in front of him.

"Presidente Arroyo," she said, her words formal, "I have come as an ambassador plenipotentiary on behalf of my husband, Emperor Aral of Barrayar, to beg your aid in throwing off the unprovoked Cetagandan invasion of his Empire."

As illustrated in the scene above, this fanfic is brimming with tension, and has cliffhangers and plot twists which go straight for the jugular.

This fanfic has truly earned the "Major Character Death" archive warning. I think this might have the the highest canon character permanent death count of any Vorkosiverse fanfic I've read. The fact that the writer was not at all shy about killing canon characters creates a great deal of suspense - NOBODY is safe. That said, this fanfic never kills characters just for the sake of killing characters. All of the character deaths are very plausible and justified by the nature of the plot.

Because there is such a nervewracking sense of danger throughout the fic, it is a major cause of celebration when various beloved canon characters do make it to the end alive. Yet it is a bittersweet celebration.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. When appropriate, bits of humor are inserted, such as this example:

"Mother will be… unbearable, probably."

Berenice smiled at him. "I don't find your mother nearly as unmanageable as you seem to, Ivan," she told him. "You should have taken a firmer hand with her at a young age."

Ivan choked back a laugh. "I defy you," he said, "to ever say that to her face."

I was about to write that there is a lot of action in this story, but actually, most of the fight/action scenes take place off-screen. For that matter, in spite of how many character deaths there are, there is only one character death which actually happens on-screen. This fanfic is full of suspense nonetheless, and keeping most of the action off screen allows the it to focus on the psychological side of the story.

And of course, what really gives power to this fanfic is how Ivan grows as a character. Under such extreme circumstances, Ivan Vorpatril definitely discovers depths to himself he never had to access before. I think one of the commentators said that this story is to Ivan Vorpatril what Mirror Dance is to Mark and Memory is to Miles. That is somewhat true, but Ivan never reaches the emotional lows that Mark and Miles do because a) he's Ivan and b) he's doesn't have the luxury of being able to wallow in bad feelings - if he does, he's dead.

Reaction:

The prologue is ... wow. That is definitely the most memorable opening of any Vorkosiverse fanfic novel I've read. Heck, it's more memorable than the opening of any of the canon novels. That said, I'm sure it puts off a lot of people from reading further, which is probably a good thing, since people who are put off by the prologue probably would not want to read the whole thing anyway.

This fanfic sucked me in. I cannot believe that it is over 50K words long, because the story seems to move faster than that, and yet it certainly has more than enough substance for a nearly 80K word fanfic.

Some of the plot twists definitely caught me, particularly the plot twist near the end of Chapter 15.

I re-read this fanfic just to write this review, and it worked as well for me as it did the first time I read it. In fact, it may have worked even better for me this second time, since I feel I have a better appreciation of Ivan's character development arc now.

The bottom line is that this is one of my favorite Vorkosiverse fanfics. I get excited about reading more Vorkosiverse fanfic novels because I am hoping to find more fanfics like this one.

Next Time: A favor for a former lover by manateehugger

Chapter Text

A favor for a former lover by manateehugger

Timeline: When Ivan is approximately 33 years old; AU to Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

Setup:

Chel, a bold muckraker for a Nexus-wide human rights organization, really wants to grill interview Gregor Vorbarra, so she uses the only leverage she has: her teenage daughter, sired by Ivan Vorpatril during The Warrior's Apprentice. But what is it like for the daughter, to be with a mother who is so quick to use her and shows so little regard for her well-being? How will she react to the Vorpatril family? And how will they react to her?

Structure:

This fic is mostly focused on family drama and angst, with a dose of indirect commentary on politics and human rights issues. A lot of time is spent inside the characters' heads, particularly the dialogues they have with themselves in their own minds. This fic could benefit from being cleaned up by a beta reader / copy-editor, however those small issues did little to interfere with my enjoyment of the fanfic.

Reaction:

Chel is fantastic! (I mean she is fantastic in the same sense that I enjoy watching scenes like this.) She is brave, stubborn, and strong-willed. She projects her own selfishness onto other people, and accuses them of being selfish when they don't do what she wants them to do. She often engages in manipulation, deception, and gaslighting. In fact, she does not care how she makes other people feel as long as she accomplishes her goals. Her goals, however, include trying to relieve the sufferings of millions of people. So sometimes she uses her considerable powers for good, and sometimes she uses them to abuse her own daughter, or other innocent people.

I like the acknowledgement that some activists who do good for the world at large do really horrible stuff in their own personal lives. In fact, I've read a couple memoirs by people who were abused by their left-wing activist mothers as children, which might be why this story has the ring of truth for me.

And I really do feel for Hailey. If the only mother you've known is abusive, how do you know that it is abuse? No wonder she expects her newly discovered family members (in this case, Ivan Vorpatril and Alys Vorpatril) to be abusive as well.

And I really like the friendship between Hailey and Byerly Vorrutyer *snicker*.

I went into this with low expectations, and then I ended up getting hooked. This is a fanfic which works for me.

Next Time: Tales from the Academy by Scott Washburn

Chapter Text

Tales from the Academy by Scott Washburn

“That’s… that’s not fair.”

“Welcome to Barrayar.”

- Tales from the Academy, Book 1, Chapter 4

Timeline: after Diplomatic Immunity, overlaps with Captain Vorpatril's Alliance but makes no reference to CVA events

Setup:

Anny Payne is the first woman to get into the Imperial Military Service Academy. Unfortunately, this fact bothers a lot of people with influence, so they try to unfairly set her up to fail. Even with all of the good friends she's making, the odds are stacked against her. Will she make it and graduate?

Background:

Originally, this was a fanfic based on the Honor Harrington series about Andreanne Payne, the first woman from the planet Grayson to attend a military academy. However, because Scott Washburn (the fanfic writer) was under the impression that David Weber (the creator Honor Harrington) has an aversion to fanfic, it was not on the internet for a long time. After he wrote the Honorverse Tales from the Academy, Scott Washburn discovered the Vorkosigan Saga, and then learned that Lois McMaster Bujold did not mind fanfic. Thus, he re-wrote Tales from the Academy to fit into the Vorkosiverse rather than the Honorverse, and finally made it publicly available on the internet.

This review, obviously, is based on Vorkosiverse!Tales from the Academy. Reviews of Honorverse!Tales from the Academy can be found here/

Structure:

Clearly, this is a 'female trailblazer breaking into the all-male military' story.

I think of this as being five short novels rather than a single novel, since each 'book' could work as separate story within a series.

On AO3, each book is under a single [AO3] chapter, which can make them seem like long intimidating walls of text! I suspect that's one reason this fanfic has not gotten so much attention on AO3. The version on FF.net is broken into real chapters. Alternatively, one could download the EPUB version and manually insert chapter breaks (that's what I did).

Anyway, in each book, the protagonist (who is usually, but not always, Anny) has to deal with one major challenge over the course of about a year. Dealing with the challenge generally (but not always) involves some sort of action. The action scenes are generally clear enough to follow and interesting to read. The major challenge du book always forces the protagonist to change/grow up in some way.

A lot of detail goes into the culture of the academy and the military. I don't know how much like a real military academy it is, but accurate or not, it's an immersive experience.

Content warning: Book 4 contains sexual violence.

Reaction:

Since I consider each 'book' to be a separate story, I will break down my reaction by book.

Book 1: This is a fast read, even the second time I read it (when I already knew how it was going to end). The way certain people treat Anny makes me mad, so I really want to watch her kick their asses, and then ... well, I am not going to spoil the ending.

Book 2: I love this book! First of all, it's told from Alby's POV (Alby is my favorite OC in this fanfic - yes, I have a soft spot for maverick characters). I felt for him as I read about how he deals with his family situation and the dillemma his family eventually puts him in. It forces him to make some difficult decisions. The new threat posed to Anny graduating from the academy is really clever, and the final showdown is, errr, "epic".

Book 3: I suppose this book is okay, but I did not find it as satisfying as Book 1 and Book 2. I did like that much of it was set in Anny's home region, which happens to be the Dendarii Mountains.

Book 4: Maybe it's because this book is told from Jer's POV rather than Anny's, but I found Anny's behavior in this book a little hard to buy. I really liked the discussion of the Kommaran point of view of the Cetagandan invasion of Barrayar at the beginning of this book, and wish that this book had delved deeper into Jer's and/or Komarran perspectives. In short, I wish this book had been either Jer's POV + about Jer's character growth, or Anny's POV + about Anny's character growth (just as I loved the way Book 2 was Alby's POV + about Alby's character growth), but Jer's POV + about Anny's character growth did not work so well for me.

Book 5: This book starts out slow, which was not a problem since I enjoyed the characters' company during a relatively light-hearted story arc. Then in the second part of the book ... there is combat ... and because I do not want to spoil it I will not say much more than that. I can say this book was a satisfying conclusion to the story for me.

If I had not re-read this especially to write this review, I probably would never have re-read it (except maybe Book 2). That said, I did enjoy it as much the second time around as I had the first time I read it.

Next Time: Lieutenants by Scott Washburn.

Chapter Text

All I did was to remind everyone else of the same thing. They reacted just as I had.

Lieutenants, Chapter 31

Lieutenants by Scott Washburn

Timeline: Cryoburn (even though the events of Cryoburn are barely mentioned)

Setup:

Anny and her buddies have graduated from the academy. Transitioning into full military service is a challenge ... especially for Barrayar's first female military officer ... and it becomes all the more challenging when they are sent on a mission outside of the Imperium which turns out to be more difficult than expected...

Background:

This is the sequel to Tales from the Academy. Like Tales from the Acadeny, Lieutenants was originally written as an Honorverse fanfic way back in 1999, and was years later re-written as a Vorkosiverse fanfic.

Structure:

This is much less episodic than Tales from the Academy. Whereas TftA is really a series of five short novels, this really is a single story, albeit with distinct parts.

Part 1 revolves around a training exercise which was basically an extended action/battle scene. But Part 2 is about something completely different from battle/action - namely, women, domestic violence, and how to deal with it. After that, the story moves away from Barrayar to Afghanistan Nova Paveo. It continues to alternate between more action-oriented sections and more socially-oriented sections, which in my opinion does a lot to balance out the story.

The action scenes tend to be very fully described without getting too bogged down in details. The fights are won - or lost - by good thinking and courage rather than sheer force.

The more socially oriented sections carefully look at the situation, whether it is domestic violence, coordinating a campaign involving so many different militaries, or the conflict on Nova Paveo itself, from multiple points of view, and I generally think the relevant subject matters are handled with sensitivity.

Reaction:

I love long stories which hold my attention for over a thousand pages. Okay, this fanfic isn't quite that long, but it is the only 200K+ word Vorkosiverse fanfic I know about, and I definitely wish there were more.

Anyway, I love this more than Tales from the Academy. That's partially because it is a longer and more unified story, and as I just said, I love long stories. However, I also feel like this has greater depth than Tales from the Academy.

The action/battle scenes were a lot of fun to read. I also really appreciate that it was not pure action - there was social analysis, character growth, a suspenseful mystery plot (you know something is really wrong with Nova Paveo, but it takes a long time for the exact nature of the wrongness to be revealed), worldbuilding, and all that good stuff. This fanfic left me with the feeling that I had just eaten a well-balanced meal.

I was disappointed that the plot thread around Vorritter, who at first seemed like he was going to be a major menance, seemed to fizzle out without going very far.

Overall, I found this to be really good reading. In fact, this is one of my favorite Vorkosiverse fanfic novels.

Next Time: By Any Means Necessary by Tevildo

Chapter Text

"As far as Ivan was concerned, a prole was a man who was not Vor and not Service. But when he tried to take the Vor and Serviceman out of himself, there was nothing left. His mother expected him to be her truly perfect, gentle knight--and he was suddenly inexplicably terrified that there truly was nothing more to him than that."

By Any Means Necessary, Chapter 5

By Any Means Necessary by Tevildo

Timeline: Between Diplomatic Immunity and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

Setup:

When Ivan is having a perfectly ordinary evening, Byerly Vorrutyer comes and asks Ivan to take his lightflyer and fly him out to some town in Vortaine District. Obviously, this is a bad idea for an officer like Ivan who is expected to show up at work on time the next morning. As if Byerly is going to let a little detail like that get in his way ... especially since Byerly also has to do his own job...

Structure:

This is a case fic where one thing leads to something more complicated, and as the 'case' unfolds, we learn a lot about Barrayaran politics and society. There is commentary peppered throughout the story, which often presents serious ideas in a sardonic manner. Here is a sample:

It was strange how Vorinnis, who considered himself a Progressive, was reverting to that old Time of Isolation practice--except instead of cutting out mutants from the gene pool, it was incompetents--while the Conservative Vortaine was advocating a galactic-style protest movement that would no doubt have set off a bloody rebellion in the Old Barrayar he was nostalgic for. It was all too political for Ivan, too dangerous to think about.

However, not all of the sardonic commentary is about society and politics. Some of it is about yet another more dreadful topic - Ivan's cat Xav!!!

Reaction:

Things I loved about this fic:

- All of the jokes about Ivan's cat Xav
- The town of Saint-Fiacre - a touristy and not-entirely-historically accurate Time-of-Isolation town
- The fact that someone tried to get past government censorship by using an old-fashioned printing press. Canon (and most fanon) tends to avoid the implications of our beloved protagonists being part of a government which practices overt censorship, so I appreciate that this fic takes that seriously. And it is darkly funny.
- The fic's take on Barrayaran politics and society in general interested me. I found the discussions of Barrayar & Komarr particularly fascinating.
- Ivan being locked up with actors, and the actors assume that he is one of them. Yes!
- Aside from the discussion of society and politics, this fic is full of wonderful little nuggets of observations or commentary on canon which I love.

What I do NOT love about the fic can be summed up in one sentence: I was frustrated by how hard it was for me to follow the plot.

The first time I read this, I got lost about a third of the way through - around the time the Vorinnis character go involved. Sometimes I do space out when reading fic, especially when I'm tired, so I was willing to give this fic the benefit of the doubt. So I re-read this fic just before writing this review, and tried to read it more carefully. I did have a little better grasp of what is going the second time around, but I still got lost, so I have concluded that This Story Is Too Hard to Follow. Maybe if examined this fic with a fine-toothed comb I would figure out what is going on, but that is no fun.

There were conversations where I lost track of which character was saying which lines, and it would have been really helpful if there had been a few extra instances of "[Character Name] said..." to get me back on track. Sometimes I did not know which town the characters were in, or which characters (besides Ivan) were present. Ivan makes a few references to crashing a float truck, yet I missed that scene both times I read this fic.

I get that this is case fic, and that there is a mystery, but ... it's one thing for Ivan to understand A but not B, and for me as the reader to understand A but not B. It's another thing when Ivan understands A and B, yet I, as the reader, do not understand B.

The fic writer does brilliantly lampshade the convoluted nature of the plot(s) with this bit from Chapter 14, which is actually one of my favorite parts of the entire fanfic:

... when had Komarran plots been less than crazy? Komarrans made complex plots because they had an expectation that things worked, or at least worked consistently. Barrayarans, on the other hand, knew that everything broke down, nothing ran on time, and at least once a week some important person's whim completely changed the game, so they depended on speed and brute force instead. Ivan knew which made more sense to him.

[Note: I will not comment on whether or not there actually is a Komarran plot in this fic because that would be a spoiler]

Yes, it is true that Komarran plots in canon tend to be convoluted and ridiculous. However, I at least understand the ridiculous Komarran plots in canon. Even after reading this fic twice, I still do not understand the convoluted plots present in this fic.

If someone out there understands the plot of this fanfic, please explain it to me (and please use appropriate spoiler warnings if you do). With all the good things this fic has going for it, I want to enjoy it better, and some of the comments indicate that the plot is very interesting if one actually understands it.

Next Time: A Bit Too Much Good Work by a_t_rain

Chapter Text

"They aren’t asking more of you than you’re well capable of giving. What I’m trying to tell you is that you’ve reached the point where they’re asking more of you than they have a right."

- A Bit Too Much Good Work, Chapter 20 "Falling Apart"

A Bit Too Much Good Work by a_t_rain

Timeline: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

Setup:

What Byerly Vorrutyer and Rish Arqua were doing on Barrayar during Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

Structure:

A lot of this fanfic consists of witty banter or witty observations. Here is a sample:

Careful about that defending-my-honor business. If you keep that up, people might start to get the idea I have some to defend, and then what would become of my career?

A lot of this fanfic is about Byerly Vorrutyer (obviously) as well as his boss, McSorley, and his friend/colleague Alain. This offers Byerly (and the writer) many opportunities to engage in wittiness. And a lot of it is about Rish too.

However, beneath all of those attempts at wit, there is serious consideration of what it is like to be in Byerly's position - to have the family history he has, to have the kind of job he has, etc.

There is a plot/conspiracy. It's not of the "ZOMYGOSH Barrayar/The Imperium/My Favorite Character/The Entire Universe Is In Grave Peril" variety. Instead, it is a conspiracy about something apparently mundane, yet very revealing about Barrayaran society.

Oh yeah, and this is also a romance story.

Most of this fanfic novel has an original plot which is nested in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance rather than derived from it. Towards the end, it follows the main plot of CVA much more closely.

Reaction:

The first time I tried to read this, I read about 2-3 chapters, and then dropped it. I really like a_t_rain's short fanfic. When trying to read this long fanfic, I found that I strongly prefer this style of writing in small doses. If I read too much in a single sitting, Byerly and the stylized writing get on my nerves.

However, when I decided to give this fic another shot, I realized that there was a very simple solution - namely, to read this in small doses. Instead of trying to read it all within a few days (which is what I usually do with novels, fanfic or not), I spread it out over weeks, and I never read more than a single chapter in a sitting (some chapters I spread out over multiple sittings). This worked really well for me. It's like consuming a high quality 85% cacao chocolate bar - I love to nibble it, but I would not enjoy gobbling it.

Even though it took me a few weeks to read this, I found that I did not need the original character cheat sheet at all (then again, if I had read it over the multiple months it was serialized, it might have been different). That meant that the original characters and their subplots were written vividly enough that I could keep track of them without external assistance.

The part of this fanfic which stands out most to me, of course, was the Shakespeare party and its aftermath. I re-read that chapter multiple times, trying to figure out what the Shakespeare quotes say about the characters who quoted them. I even ended up reading the first two acts of Henry VI Part 2!!!

I also love the overall depth added to Byerly's character. Yes, he is good at being a town clown and making witty remarks, yet he is also in a lot of pain in his own way. His romance with Rish did a really good job of exploring all of that. Damn, you know, when I was reading Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, I did not spare much thought for what was going on with By and Rish behind the scenes, so it simply amazing to have such a thoughtful character study about all of that.

I liked the last part, which follows Captain Vorpatril's Alliance more closely, less than the earlier parts. However, since this is not an AU, the writer did not have much choice about following the CVA plot. I did enjoy a lot the final chapter (which ties into the short fanfic "Hostage Negotiation Is the Family Business"), and felt it was a good way to wrap up this fanfic novel.

In short, this is unlike any other Vorkosiverse fanfic novel, and it is one of my favorites.

Next time: Burnt Offerings by AndyJ4077

Chapter Text

"I have found that people elsewhere have a tendency to think they have more control than they actually do ... We are not fatalists, we are realists, you are fantasists."

- Burnt Offerings, Chapter 5

Burnt Offerings by AndyJ4077

Timeline: When Ivan is approximately 37 years old; AU to Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

Setup: Baron Bharaputra has two eight-year-old clones of Gregor Vorbarra. Ivan Vorptaril is sent to Jackson's Whole to get them out alive.

Structure:

There is a strong focus on the technical aspects of getting the clones out of Baron Bharaputra's secret facility. In the beginning, there is a lot of negotiation with Baron Fell, and it turns out that there is quite a backstory behind why Baron Bharaputra has clones of Gregor. Then, when it comes to actually getting the clones, there is a lot of action, including things which Do Not Go According to Plan. Unfortunately, this fic does not use breaks to indicate a change of scene or POV, which can be very confusing.

Reaction:

Sometimes, I love long action sequences / fights / battles in novels. However, the action / fight scenes I love tend to either be interwoven with a large serving of drama (famous example: Romeo vs. Tybalt) which grabs me by the heartstrings, or have a large element of strategy which engages me intellectually (an example of this is in Part 1 of Lieutenants, which I already reviewed). My most favorite action scenes generally have both. The action scenes in this fic occasionally had a sufficient level of drama, but they mostly felt like brawn being mindlessly thrown at brawn (even though they are using armor, plasma arcs, and so forth). In a visual medium (movies, live performance, etc.) I might enjoy brawn vs. brawn for its own sake, but not in prose.

Most importantly, in order to enjoy an action scene, I have to actually understand what is going on. There were way too many points in Burnt Offerings when I had to re-read passages just to follow what was happening. I don't need to understand every detail, but if I can't even get the gist on the first read-through, then I'm not going to enjoy the action scene.

I was really interested in a) how Ivan reacted to being thrown into combat b) how Gregor felt about having two little clone brothers and c) how the clone brothers themselves felt about this whole situation. Alas, the writer of the fic did not explore these things very much (okay, it was clear that the clone brothers want to leave Jackson's Whole, but I wanted much more than that). Generally, I wish this fic had a lot more feelings in it. And since it has a scenario which practically screams for feelings, the lack of exploration of the characters' feelings was particularly jarring.

And the marriage proposal ... I don't understand why those characters decide to marry each other. They hardly interact with each other in the story, and there's no alternative motive such as economic or political interests to explain it either. It felt like the fic writer wanted to have an engagement because characters are supposed to get married in fiction, yet the fic writer could not be bothered to actually sell the relationship. (I admit that this is one of my pet peeves - I can totally adore a love story which ends in marriage, but there actually has to be love in it - having people marry 'for love' just because the writer felt it would happen automatically without, you know, any kind of well-developed relationship is simply 'ugh' for me).

I did enjoy the conversations between the Duronas and Baron Fell, especially when they were talking about the purpose of living. In particular, they contained something which I felt the fic lacked overall - an attempt to explore the characters' inner lives. In particular, Rowan Durona was a highlight - even when she was not with Baron Fell, she had a lot of thoughtful observations and commentary, and was the character I found most engaging in this fic.

Overall, this fic was not my cup of tea.

Next Time: Saint Miles dy Vorkosigan by tuval

Chapter Text

Miles tapped his walking stick and considered unsheathing the sword. That seemed disproportionate, but whoever this was didn't seem to understand that he was in enough of a hurry to have seriously risked his life to follow his brother. Of course, it was possible he was dead, and this, he was becoming increasingly convinced, would not be his first choice of afterlife.

"You are not dead." Miles jerked and opened his mouth. "In fact, this whole conversation is taking place in your mind. As to your hurry, no time is truly being lost in the world while we speak. You will arrive promptly, whether you are happy when you do so or not."

"If this is all taking place in my mind, who are you to be in here? I've had conversations with myself, and I've got nothing so annoying as you inside me!"

Saint Miles dy Vorkosigan, Chapter 3

Saint Miles dy Vorkosigan by tuval

Timeline: Miles is 50 years old.

Setup: It's exactly what it says on the tin - "Miles, aged fifty, discovers a portal into Chalion and rides off to save Mark with the Bastard's aid."

About the Crossover:

Never read the Chalion books? Neither has Miles - which means that all of the essential information is in the fic itself, and it's possible to enjoy it without knowing the Chalion canon. That said, familiarity with the Chalion canon improved my appreciation of this fic.

Structure:

The first chapter is a rather long setup for why, exactly, Miles, Mark, and a few other characters are in the middle of a nowhere that's a wormhole jump away from Sergyar. Once Miles and Mark actually get into the Chalionverse, the plot picks up quickly. At first, the story is about saving Mark from the demon which posseses him. Then, it is revealed that there is a much greater threat.

Much of the story consists of Miles and Mark interacting with various Chalionverse characters, and the Chalionverse characters reacting to them (culture clash!) For example, Mark tells Umegat that he's an agnostic, and then realizes that he's seen/experienced enough evidence of the gods doing stuff in the Chalionverse that he believes that the Chalionverse gods do, in fact, exist.

Reaction:

I loved this! Mark is one of my favorite Vorkosiverse characters, so I super enjoyed reading a long fic which gives the Lord Mark & the Black Gang such a prominent role. It was especially a treat for me to see how Mark as a character changed in response to his experiences in the Chalionverse.

Miles has lots of fun too - by which I mean, I had fun reading about Miles, especially when Miles interacts with the Bastard! I do have to admit that Miles does not necessarily enjoy the fun into which he is thrust.

It has been over ten years since I read a Chalionverse novel, so I did not squee over them as much as I squeed over Miles and Mark, but that's okay. I do remember enough about the Chalionverse to still feel some level of attachment to the characters.

The plot around the great threat to Chalion-Ibra felt nothing particularly special, yet it let the characters do their thing, which was all the plot needed to do. It's the characters and their interactions which make this one of my favorite Vorkosiverse fanfic novels.

Next Time: Three Vorkosiverse Fanfic Novels I Want to Read but Possibly Never Will

Chapter Text

I want more Vorkosiverse fanfic novels in general to read. I think there are so many possibilities, both the ones which I can think of, and the ones which would never occur to me.

Then, there are three specific planned Vorkosiverse fanfic novels which I am very interested in reading, but I can't read them because they haven't been written/completed yet. They are:

Mirror Hunt by Tel. I have read what has already been posted, but it seems to have been abandoned. That's a shame, because it is a sequel to one of my favorite fanfics - The Short Victorious Vor - and I want to know what happens when a certain pair of characters meet again.

Emperor by Glishara. This is yet another sequel to a favorite fanfic of mine, in this case Guerilla, so of course I want to read it! I have avoided reading what has already been posted because I don't want to get hooked if it's not going to be updated again. I do hope that Glishara will return and finish this eventually, but given that it has not updated at all for over four years, I think this is unlikely to happen.

Lord Gregor by avanti_90. This story is set in an AU where Prince Serg survives the Escobar invasion, and Aral eventually leads an uprising and declares himself emperor. Lord Gregor grows up as the hated symbol of the hated Emperor Serg, and he is determined to restore the reputation and honor of the Vorbarra line. This is by one of my Vorkosiverse fanfic writers, and I find the premise fascinating. I hope the writer will come back to this and post a complete novel about this.

None of the fic writers owe us anything - after all, writing fanfic is a labor of love, and whether there are obstacles getting in the way of the fic writers working on these, or whether their heart simply is not in it, there is nothing wrong with abandoning these projects. Also, two of these are sequels, and I am finding out through personal experience that writing the sequel to a fanfic novel can be dramatically harder that writing the first fanfic novel. I am grateful for the tantalizing bits these writers have already released through the internet.

At this point, I think it is unlikely that any of these fanfic novels will ever reach completion - however, I would love to be proven wrong.

Next Time: Provisional Concluding Thoughts

Chapter Text

Why is this "provisional"? It's quite simple - I don't know how long I will participate in this particular fandom, but if more Vorkosiverse fanfic novels get written or translated into a language I understand, and I'm still here, I intend to read them and add new reviews to this guide. And maybe some yet-to-be-posted Vorkosiverse fanfic novel will compel me to alter my 'concluding' thoughts.

All of the reviews in this guide, of course, reflect my tastes. This, of course, limits this guide's usefulness to people whose tastes are very different from mine. Even the way the reviews are written reflects my tastes - I don't rating works of fiction with stars, so I did not use any kind of star system! This might be disappointing to readers who like starred reviews.

I have a general bias in favor of longer stories. Yes, some short stories are awesome, but I rarely love my favorite short stories nearly as deeply as I love my favorite novels. And even within the realm of novels, a disproportionate number of my favorite novels are long novels. For example, my favorite Vorkosigan Saga stories are Mirror Dance and A Civil Campaign, and I don't think it's a coincidence that they are also the longest two canon Vorkosigan Saga stories. That's not to say that I always like a longer work than a shorter work (ha ha, no), just to say it's one of my tendencies.

I had lurked in the bujold_fic livejournal community some time around the year 2008 (a little before, a little after, I'm not clear on the timeline) which is where I first encountered some of these fanfic novels. However, I did not get hooked on Vorkosiverse fandom, and when I stopped reading LMB books for a period of about 6-7 years, I did not even think about Vorkosiverse fanfic.

What inspired me to take fanfic much more seriously was discovering Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It was not just that it was excellent, it opened my eyes to things that fanfics can pull off which original fic cannot. After HPMOR was completed, I found myself searching the internet more fantastic fanfic novels.

In order to find long fanfics, I have to mostly look in fandoms which are big enough to have generated a sufficient number of fanfic novels. And even among the fanfic novels which exist, it's possible that only a small fraction within a given fandom will actually suit my tastes - which means I have to find an even bigger fandom so that there would be even more to pick from. There are fandoms where I would not commit to reading 15-20 random fanfic novels from beginning to end without skipping or skimming because, chances are, a majority of those novels would not suit me at all, and I would be miserable. I had to learn how to be picky.

Yet one thing which got in the way of me being picky is that I have been rewarded many times for giving a story I initially disliked a second chance. For example, the first two times I tried reading a Vorkosigan Saga book were negative experiences - it was the third time that was the charm. That sometimes makes me hesitate before I drop a work of fiction, even when I'm not enjoying it (though I think I am getting better at it).

Larger fandoms also often have reviewers, or at least recommendation lists, which helps me sort through the long fanfics which are more likely to appeal to me. Even when my tastes are very different from the reviewers, the information in their reviews is still helpful.

The fanfic which convinced to dive once more into Vorkosiverse fanfic is "Tides of Stars" by Tel. But I had a problem. I had no way of sorting fanfic novels which were more likely to appeal to me from the fanfic novels which were less likely to appeal to me! I really wished that someone had written a guide to help me figure it out, but I did not find such a guide.

It seemed that sorting fanfics with kudos count might be a good way to start - and that strategy failed so badly that it almost put me off Vorkosiverse fanfic completely. Most of the Vorkosiverse fanfics which appear on the first page when one sorts by kudos count did not appeal to me the first time I tried to read them. Sometimes, when I returned to those fanfics and gave them a second chance, I found that I liked them a lot more than I had the first time around, but I would have never given them a second chance if my first impressions had made me give up on Vorkosiverse fanfic completely. I think the only thing which convinced me to stick with Vorkosiverse fanfic was how much I liked Tel's fanfic novellas.

Eventually, I discovered that there are plenty of Vorkosiverse fanfics which I love that don't get many kudos. Kudos count is a really bad way to predict how much I will like a particular fanfic (and no, it's not an inverse correlation either - it's simply not correlated). Interestingly, comments count does have some correlation with how much I will like a particular fanfic, but it's a fairly loose correlation. In the absence of a guide, that meant that, to find Vorkosiverse fanfic which appeals to me, I pretty much had to slog through a high volume of Vorkosiverse fanfic on my own.

Eventually, when I was trying to decided which Vorkosiverse fanfic novel to read next, I told myself "You know, what the heck, there are less than twenty of them in English, I will just read them all, and then I will be sure to find all of the ones which appeal to me." And, since I decided to read them all, it made sense that I would write the guide which I wished had already existed. There are some fanfic novels which I would have never tried if I hadn't decided to read them all, and some of them are ones I ended up liking.

I, however, am just some person on the internet who decided to read and review all of these fanfic novels. What's more, my preferences are far from universal. Finally, it is possible to write guides which are better than this one. I think it would help readers if there were more guides to the Vorkosiverse fanfic novels written by people who are not me.

My hope for this guide is that it has helped readers find fanfic novels that they like. I sometimes check on these fanfic novels to see how these reviews have affected their stats, and it means a lot more to me when I see someone has, because of my review, tried a fanfic novel and then left a kudo and/or comment, than when readers leave kudos or comments directly on this guide (I actually do not care much about whether or not people leave kudos on this guide).

So, I encourage you all to go read Vorkosiverse fanfic novels. And maybe, if you wish and have the time/energy, to write your own guide, especially the kind of guide which would have helped you when you were new to Vorkosiverse fanfic. And maybe, just maybe, write (or translate) a new Vorkosiverse fanfic novel so that I have another one to read and review.

***

I definitely want to take a break from writing fanfic reviews, but after that, I am undecided about whether or not I'll write a "Guide to the Vorkosiverse Fanfic Novellas". I would probably define a novella as a fanfic in the 20,000-40,000 word range. The questions is: how helpful would a guide to the Vorkosiverse fanfic novels be to readers?

Of course, maybe someone else will write a set of fanfic novella reviews before I would get around to it.