Sometimes I Can Read Fast
Woo hoo! 150-plus pages in under two hours!
Yeah, I went to the coffee shop tonight and finished Bujold's Brothers in Arms, knocking down the second half of the 340-page novel as well as part of an issue of All-Star Comics from the latest DC Archive reprint volume I picked up. For me, this is an almost blindingly-fast reading speed. I was rather pleased with myself. Especially since I didn't think Brothers was a particular good book.
In it, Miles Vorkosigan and his Dendarii Free Mercenaries arrive at Earth after a particularly difficult mission for Miles' superiors on Barrayar. They promptly discover that their payment for the mission has disappeared, Miles' Barrayaran commanding officer doesn't seem forthcoming with information or aid, and that someone on Earth is trying to kill Miles and replace him with a double.
Unfortunately, the book flounders around in Barrayaran protocol and thoughts of - rather than attempts to - find and recover the money, and when it eventually kicks into gear with the replacement plot it's a little too late. But I think the worst problem is that for the most part it's not Miles' book; he's not really in charge of the situation, but rather is reacting to what happens around him, and is only able to inject small actions into the ongoing story. We do get to see Miles cultivating a new ally in the Barrayaran military, and his ongoing flirtation with his right-hand woman Elli Quinn come to fruition (more or less), which are generally the best parts of the book. But overall I was disappointed.
As for the All-Star Comics book - reprints of cheesy 1940s comics, what can I say?
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