I'm noticing a pattern with the Vorkosigan saga omnibuses. Each of them generally contains one novel which is well-written and good fun but not striking, and one that blows me absolutely out of the water.
Shards of Honor? Was fun. Barrayar? Was the one that convinced me I needed to read more with a great desperation.
Warrior's Apprentice? Fun. ...Actually, the second omnibus was a peculiar case, because The Vor Game is really two different books. Even Bujold said as much in her afterword. In this case, it was the first half of The Vor Game, along with "Mountains of Mourning" that blew me away.
Up till now, I could blame this trend on when the respective books were written. Bujold's later stuff shows how much her talent has grown. The third omnibus, however, breaks the trend all to hell. Cetaganda was good, but I liked Ethan of Athos much better.
I'm currently reading Miles Errant, the fourth omnibus if you don't count Borders of Infinity, and the trend seems to have resurrected itself. Brothers in Arms was a fun romp. Mirror Dance, on the other hand, is leaving me with my mouth wide open, going "Holy fuck!" Bujold's psychological insight and 'how the hell does she know quotient can be downright scary.
You may notice that the books I'm singling out are, for the most part, the ones she won awards for. Good to know the committee has taste. The fact that the award-winning books seem to be arranged every-other-book chronologically amuses me, though.
For those of you who don't know, the reason I'm counting Borders of Infinity separately is because it's a collection of novellas. As I mentioned before, "Mountains of Mourning" was brilliant. "Borders of Infinity," the title story, was too, though it was overshadowed by MoM in the collection and by Mirror Dance in the onmibus. "Labyrinth" was a good story but didn't grab me the same way.
