About three meters away, he is now. An uncrossable gulf. So in the physics of the heart, distance is relative: it's time that's absolute. The seconds spun like spiders down her spine. [loc. 1508]
Cordelia Naismith (captain of a Betan Astronomical Survey ship) and Aral Vorkosigan (Barrayaran admiral, colloquially known as the 'Butcher of Komarr') meet when Aral's landing party attack Cordelia's base camp. Cordelia finds herself stranded with a wounded colleague and an 'enemy' who has been left for dead by treacherous subordinates. She and Aral get to know one another as they travel cross-country, on an uncolonised and distinctly alien planet, to rendezvous with another Barrayan contingent, some of whom are loyal to their commander. Aral then proposes marriage, what with Cordelia being competent and independent: but suddenly she is rescued by her fellow Betans, and when they meet again they're on opposite sides of a planned invasion -- which is also an assassination plot. By the time Cordelia gets back to Beta Colony, where she is feted as a heroine and encouraged to seek therapy, she finds that it's no longer the safe, liberal home she once thought it was.
Reader, she married him ... I remember first reading Shards of Honor, the opening volume of the Vorkosigan saga, and being underwhelmed. Then I reread it a few years later (after becoming more familiar with the series) and loved it. Right book, wrong time. Or vice versa? Reading it now, I'm still impressed by the characterisation of Cordelia and Aral. Cordelia thinks, with some justification, that Barrayarans are bellicose and feudal, but that Aral is an honourable man despite his cultural background; Aral thinks, also with justification, that Cordelia is much more interesting than Barrayaran women, and that her military experience and general common sense might suit him very well. The novel is told from Cordelia's point of view, so there's more of her interior life than of Aral's: we see him through the filter of her changing emotions and her own cultural context, and it becomes clear that he is a decent man in a corrupt and violent situation.
I did find some aspects of the novel dated, especially Cordelia's experience at the hands of the sadistic Ges Vorrutyer. Does it need to be a sexual assault, as opposed to a non-sexual physical assault? In one sense yes, as it sets up the backstory of several other characters, as well as indicating that -- even for a Barrayaran -- Vorrutyer is vile, and his colleagues know it. But: ugh. Yes, sexual violence exists: no, I do not want it to be a plot device.
Overall, though, I do still like Shards of Honor, and I still prefer Cordelia and Aral to their offspring.
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