Book details of 'A Civil Campaign: A Comedy of Biology and Manners'

Title	A Civil Campaign: A Comedy of Biology and Manners
Author(s)	Bujold
ISBN	0671578278
Language	English
Published	September 1999
Publisher	Baen Books

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'A Civil Campaign: A Comedy of Biology and Manners':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
If you relish costume adventure in an intergalactic society starring strong, convincing male and female characters, you'll adore the Vorkosigan Series. If you haven't met Miles Vorkosigan, whose brilliance, manic energy, and unstoppable determination make him a larger-than-life hero despite his dwarfish stature, pick up Komarr and A Civil Campaign. Read them, and then go back and catch the previous nine books (10 if you count Ethan of Athos, which features not Miles but his partner, Ellie Quinn); or read the series in order, starting with the romance of Miles's parents in Shards of Honor. A Civil Campaign opens where Komarr ends, with Miles determined to court Ekaterin. Unfortunately, his approach is described as "General Romeo Vorkosigan, the one-man strike force." By his father. The potential for comic disaster increases when Miles's clone brother Mark arrives. He's brought a brilliant but scatterbrained scientist who's created a bug producing a perfect food: bug butter. They set up a lab in the basement of Vorkosigan House. Mark has also found a nice Barrayaran girl--she even likes the bugs--with whom he got together on the sexually liberated world of Beta. But now Kareen's living at home. Naturally, disaster strikes, repeatedly and on all fronts. Bujold unfolds her comedy of manners while continuing to explore familiar themes: the difficulties in becoming a strong adult woman in a patriarchy, the need for trust and honesty in relationships between the sexes, the difference between appearance and identity, and the impact of advanced biotechnologies on society. A Civil Campaign is a sure-fire Hugo and Nebula nominee, likely to add another statue to Bujold's already full shelf. It's charming, touching, and quite funny too.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
My brother has been at me to review more of Bujold's books. He loves Bujold. (As an author, at the very least.) Trouble is, while I like Bujold's books, too, she writes space opera. Not much scope for technical reviewing, there. And when he loaned me Bujold's latest, even he admitted that there was nothing I could review in it. But we'll come to that. Bujold is a very good author. She is consummately professional in wordcraft, plotting, scenes, and dialogue. But unlike other writers who are merely technically competent, there is a strong thread of humanity that illuminates and enlivens all her books. Her characters are complex, which occasionally leads to rough spots as she skates a thin line between different aspects of her actors: a line that may sometimes waver a little. Bujold has a strong sense of both irony and comedy, using both but abusing neither. But, as regular readers know, I am a critic of technology, not literature. I was deeply engrossed in the book before I realized that it had a very strong, and central, technically related component. A major subplot in the story is the development of a new product, and the trials and tribulations thereof. This plotline, while nowhere near the detail of "Making It Happen" (see reviews), outlines the necessary considerations for product development: functional development, interface design, market research and marketing, financial and organizational evolution of a company, and project management. There is the great idea. There is the fact that the great idea has to be "productized." There is the really disgusting interface. There is the initial product. There is the really, really bad marketing idea. (Anybody who has worked in high tech will recognize this one.) There is the discovery that the interface really has nothing to do with the function, and that it can be changed almost arbitrarily. There is the marketing presentation (done rather well). There is the attempted hostile takeover (almost literally, in this case). And finally, there is the "killer app." (This is the technology industry's version of "happily ever after," with about the same level of reality.) I was a trifle disappointed that an earlier, and rather perceptive, discussion of terraforming got lost as the story progressed. It made some interesting points, and could have been significant. Oh, well. Maybe in a later book. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999
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