Title:	Shards of Honor
Author:	Lois McMaster Bujold
Category:	Fantasy / Science Fiction
Rating:
Date Reviewed:	August 3, 2026

read Bujold's The Curse of Chalion and quite enjoyed it, so I thought I would try the first book, Shards of Honor, in her much-lauded SF series - the Vorkosigan Saga. Alas, I was not impressed. I liked the main character, Commander Cordelia Naismith, but the other protagonist, the honor-bound Count Aral Vorkosigan, did not win me over. I got the impression that this book was a prequel; it seemed that the author assumed that readers had some knowledge of the Barrayan - Betan conflict. But I looked up the publication dates for the books in the series, and Shards of Honor came out first, in 1986. The plot also seemed disjointed, with the action climaxing about two-thirds of the way through the book, followed by a long series events that presumably set the stage for future books (apparently, right from the start, Bujold knew she was writing the first of a series - which seemingly ended at book #16 with Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, published in 2016.)

The novel opens with Commander Cordelia Naismith and her Betan survey team exploring a new planet when a Barrayan military squad led by Count Aral Vorkosigan launches a surprise attack on the Betan base. Most of the Betans escape in their shuttle, but Cordelia is left stranded on the planet surface with a wounded crewman. Also stranded, somewhat surprisingly, is Count Vorkosigan himself. It seems that the evil chief Political Officer Radnov has seized the opportunity to spring a mutiny and take over the Barrayan command. (The Barrayans are a rigid, militaristic society, with everyone filling structured roles and obeying authoritarian rules, no matter what their own personal convictions may be.) Naismith and Vorkosigan must trek a couple hundred kilometers across the planet surface to reach a secret Barrayan cache. Once there, Vorkosigan hopes to regain control of his troops.

The journey across the wilderness is interesting, but I could not buy into the plot device of Naismith falling for Vorkosigan so quickly. It is only a matter of days for them to reach the secret Barrayan base. Vorkosigan's troops attacked her crew, killing one of them and severely injuring another. Vorkosigan has a reputation amongst the Betans as the "Butcher of Komarr". Naismith pushes all of these red flags aside too quickly while falling for an enemy soldier. It just did not seem credible to me.

Bujold is good with plots. She conjures up an exciting escape attempt by Naismith, to return to the Betan civilization. The middle of the book tells the story of a full scale Barrayan invasion of the planet Escobar, and the role that Naismith plays in attempting to thwart the Barrayan plans. The reader sees a lot more of the internal workings of the Barrayan military society and its depravity. The attack on Escobar is the climax of the book. But the final third of the book is still to come.

I was disappointed by Shards of Honor and don't feel inclined to read further in this series. However, I did like The Curse of Chalion; what I should read next by Bujold would be book two in that fantasy series, Paladin of Souls.