SBD -- Why I heart Miles Vorksigan

[jmc_bks]

What to SBD about? 

Yeah, anybody who has stopped by here often enough knows that I'm a Lois McMaster Bujold fan girl. I'd read her grocery list if she published it. I can admit, however, that some of her work is better than others. Falling Free? Not a favorite. Same with Ethan of Athos. The Hallowed Hunt was good enough, but not nearly as good as The Curse of Chalion. I was reminded today, though, that I became a fangirl because LMB created Miles Vorkosigan.

As I've mentioned before Miles's letter to his ladylove is swoon-worthy to me, second only to Wentworth's letter to Anne. But it's more than that.

Miles is smart, often too smart for his own good. He crosses lines -- usually he's so busy scheming that he doesn't even see the line to begin with. He's physically imperfect in a world that does not tolerate physical imperfection or deformity.

He has grown up in the shadows of two great men, his father and grandfather, one the liberator from invaders and kingmaker to the Vorbarra family, the other a hero of galatic wars, Regent and Prime Minister. Miles admits once that it is all kinds of hubris, but that he would like that someday, just once, his father be noted as important historically not because he was Regent, but because he was Miles Vorkosigan's father. One of LMB's repeated phrases in the Vorkosigan series, even beginning with Miles's parents, is "forward momentum." That's what Miles is all about. Trying and trying again, til he achieves, then figuring out the next thing to do or try.

And for all that he is physically imperfect, Miles is a bit of lady's man. I mean that in the best possible way. He's not a womanizer; he's a man who loves and appreciates women, usually very tall women. And the women in his life always end up the better for his presence -- he never leaves them less. Really, he doesn't leave them at all: after nurturing and encouraging them to grow, they grow beyond him and what he can offer...until he meets his Lady Vorkosigan, that is.

I suppose what I like about Miles is that he seems real, inasmuch as a fictional character can. Meaning that he isn't icon perfect. He messes up royally, picks himself up and moves on. Makes mistakes, fixes them as best he can, and keeps going.

What reminded me of my Miles-love today? I picked up A Civil Campaign to reread on the commute. And I snickered all the way home as I read the dinner scene in which disaster strikes. [Yes, it's funny, no, I'm not losing my mind and I'm not crying. Go back to playing with your gadgets or talking on the cellphone. And don't try to pretend that my giggles are disturbing your phone call at full volume. I'll be getting off at the next stop, so go back to ignoring me, please.] I would share my favorite passages with you, except this post would be pages long. And really, butter bugs and heroines fleeing into the night really need context. :p

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Bujold grows Miles as well, and that's not somethimg you often get in series. The Miles at the end of the series is a much more complete person than the Miles at the beginning. He's recognisably the same person throughout, but his life experiences change him. I'm trying to think of another author who has done that - but it's hard to think of another example. It's one of the reasons I can't watch soap opera, because the characters so often shrug off life-changing events.

A Civil Campaign is such a good book.

Did you she they've finished posting the fanfic? And a promise of another story about Ivan, so I'm happy.

Marianne McA

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Marianne,

I saw that the last two chapters were posted, but haven't had a chance to read them.

More Ivan? Good news!

Watching Miles grow and change is one of the better parts of the series, yes. I can't really think of any other characters who get the same treatment. Eve Dallas, maybe, but in a different way, since that series has a shorter time span.

~jmc

[(Anonymous)]

I'm never sure about Eve and Roarke, but I left the series some books ago, so things may have changed. They are people that are extraordinary in so many ways - extraordinarily abused, extraordinary in that they both achieved such emotional stability after their abuse, extraordinary in their professional achievements - that it's hard to imagine what growth you'd expect to see through the series. And of course they both started the series as fairly mature adults.
There's also, as you say, the timeline of the series, which means the reader perhaps shouldn't expect huge changes.
I thought Roarke didn't change that much, and Eve didn't change enough - all the changes seemed to be small scale personal stuff. I always felt that if you went from an ordinary detective who'd rarely been injured to a 'celebrity' detective who was constantly the focus of fairly elaborate plots, and frequently in near death situations, that would trigger more profound change.
Of course, that might just be the nature of detective series: Miss Marple was never altered by the decimation of the population of St. Mary Mead.

Marianne McA

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that you include Roarke in with Eve, becaues I see very little growth in him. Well, perhaps more accurate to say very little change in him. While I think they were both extraordinarily damaged characters to start, he was the more emotionally aware and developed one, I think. He may have changed incrementally in terms of sharing his life, but it was something he was already capable of when he met her. While I think that piece of Eve was completely closed off until she met & loved Roarke. I think the more significant growth has been Eve's, despite her resistance to it. Although it is still slow.

[jenfullmoon.livejournal.com]

I was just rereading Civil Campaign again, because that dinner party is SO VERY AWESOME.

I miss the Miles series. I just can't get into Chalion, or figure out what the first page of any of those books is even talking about.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

It's cold comfort, but at least there is more Miles on the far, far horizon :)