The Flowers of Vashnoi

An Ekaterin Vorkosigan Novella

By: Lois McMaster Bujold

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Still new to her duties as Lady Vorkosigan, Ekaterin is working together with expatriate scientist Enrique Borgos on a radical scheme to recover the lands of the Vashnoi exclusion zone, lingering radioactive legacy of the Cetagandan invasion of the planet Barrayar. When Enrique's experimental bioengineered creatures go missing, the pair discover that the zone still conceals deadly old secrets.

©2018 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Yay! A Vorkosigan novella

Loved this novella featuring Lady Ekaterin Vorkosigan, with Dr Enrique Borgos as side-kick. I’ve already read and reviewed the ebook a few weeks ago. I really hope Bujold is moved to write more in this world.
I love strong, intelligent women characters, which Bujold excels at writing. She also excels in strong plots and logic. I have all the audios of her books and have been acquiring any ebooks I’m missing. I’m always amazed at how much I underline or clip audio in her books because she makes so many good points.
Yes, I feel they are worth the time and money and I can recommend all her books, wholeheartedly.
I think Grover Gardner is one of the best narrators out there. Though I wish he had kept Enrique’s charming and funny accent.

A Thoughtful Look at Miles’ District

Grover Gardner does an awesome job narrating these very fine books by Bujold. I enjoyed hearing this story told from Ekaterin’s point of view and could quite happily have listened to it continue...if only there had been another chapter or two or ten. The conclusion was satisfying; I just always want more!

a nice mini-story

Nothing groundbreaking here, but enjoyable story and a good read. Always good to get to know some of these characters better.

another vorkosigan book

its a vorkosigan book. its lois mcmaster bujold. nothing more need really be said. buy it.

pretty good entry in the Vorkosiverse

I didn't realize when I bought it that this is a novella, but I love all of LMB's books in the Vorkosiverse & narrator Grover Gardner, so that was ok. I've actually not been a huge fan of Ekaterin up to this point, but wanted to give it a try. I liked her much better in this book. She is the focus of it and she's shown in a better light; her intelligence and courage are more clear & less tortured by memories of her upbringing & her late husband. The 'calm' that Miles so loves is more of a settled centeredness than the former sort of withdrawal/social awkwardness that typified her in the earlier books. We get to see more of Enrique, and he's a bit less of the nutty, absent-minded intellectual type, & not quite so goofy. This is both good & bad; he's more of a 3-D character, but his goofiness could certainly be entertaining. We see a much different portrait of life in Miles' district and it's a tragic but extremely interesting look. I did find myself wondering at the end how the district folks were going to manage in their days ahead, & feeling rather dubious.

I absolutely love Gardner; he's been one of my favorite readers since the first time I heard him & I've several times bought books I would otherwise have passed on just because he read them. So...it pains me to say that his performance this time isn't as outstanding & utterly captivating as the dozens of other books I have that he's read. He's certainly not bad-- GG at less than his best is still better than most other readers, he just sounds almost...tired. It's still very easy to identify who's talking; his voices for each character are clearly individual. His rendering of the non-dialogue parts is good, as usual. I was sort of surprised that Enrique has completely lost his Escobarran* accent for some reason, & since I've listened to all the previous books multiple times that took a bit of getting used to. Gardner still did a good job, but this is the first time I've ever not given him 5 stars. Still love his voice, tho.

I'd recommend this to anyone who's a fan of LMB's Vorkosiverse, but if you haven't read any of the previous books in that universe you're likely to be confused by this one. I'd recommend starting at least with "Shards of Honor," which introduces Cordelia & Aral Vorkosigan. I rather envy anyone who has the joy of discovering this series ahead of them, but I can keep re-listening to them & enjoy them all the same.

*I've only ever encountered all the Vorkosiverse books in audio form, so am not entirely sure of some of the spellings.

Lovely story of lovely characters

I fell in love with Ecatherin together with Miles, now I get to know her better and spend time with her and her friends.

Dear Lois, please keep writing!

The only thing I found disappointing about this was that it is a novella rather than a novel.

And that's only because I want more, more, more. The story the author chose to tell fits perfectly into the novella form. It's neither to short nor to long to tell this story. I just want the story to keep going! And I hope that at some point, she does pick up on the beginning she's made here.

One of the joys of this novella was that it focuses on characters that haven't been focused on before. Ekaterin, Lady Vorkosigan, has of course, been an important character in several other books, but by the very nature of Miles Vorkosigan as a character, he pretty much always steals focus. Ekaterin was free to shine in this story. And while Enrique Bogos has always been presented as clearly insanely brilliant, he's also been (in context) more of a clown than anything else. Here we get to see a more fully fleshed out picture of him as a person in a way that doesn't in any way invalidate what we've seen of him in the past.


It's also a tiny slice of things. In a series that spans literal space empires, it was nice to have everything take place in a relatively small and intimate setting. It's one that not only fits into the universe Bujold has created, but actually fleshes out a part of it that has in many ways been central to the rest of the series without ever having been visited.

As always, Grover Gardner is supremely brilliant as a reader. Not only in his own right, but as an incredibly consistent voice of the whole Vorkosigan series. He doesn't disappoint in any way.

I wouldn't try to start the series with this story. No particular reason not to, but I'm not sure that without knowing the characters and the setting and why they're important, it would make nearly as much sense to a new listener unfamiliar with the series. For those who know and love the series, it's a delightful addition.

Beauty

Haunting. Funny. Touching. Insightful. In other words, typical excellent Lois. There is meaning on so many levels, and beauty in fractal scale, echoing down and up the story, characters, plot, and metanarrative of this work of prose poetry. The language and symbol is too packed with truth to call it anything else. I consent to this lie. This fiction is more true than many facts. And more factual than many beliefs.

Catching some rays while gardening

The Flowers of Vashnoi is a Lois McMaster Bujold novella set in the Vorkosigan universe. Miles is tied up in meetings while his wife, Ekaterin takes on a project of reclaiming the radiation contaminated region on Miles estate. The scientist from the earlier bug butter escapade has produced insects that concentrate the radioactive materials. But their bugs go missing and a search turns up squatters living hidden in the area. In addition to learning more of the history of the region, Ekaterin rescues some children and begins to finally bring closure to a tragic piece of Barrayar history.

While the brevity makes for tight writing, the application of engineered insects to concentrate radioactive material is an intriguing concept. At the same time, Bujold manages to extract gems from bits of randomly inserted history in her previous Vorkosigan installment ensuring plenty of ongoing adventures without needing to continually age her characters.

As usual Gardner's narration is superb. Pacing is brisk and never lets up. Expect to complete in one sitting (or walking).

Nice Entry in the Saga

Progress is possible, even on Barrayar. I read the reviews here and seriously considered skipping this novella because of all the comparisons to Mountains of Mourning, with the clear implications that it's much the same story, which I found distressing since it's set 10-15 years later in time. However, while there is a similarity to the theme, this tale shows that life on Barrayar has indeed progressed past the heartbreaking situation Miles encountered in the village of Silvy Vale. I won't give too much detail, not wanting to spoil the story, but I can assure you, it is not a simple replay of Mountains of Mourning.

I also saw a review that complains that Ekaterin dealt with the problem on an individual level without addressing the society implications, and I'm sorry to say that I think the reviewer in this case is seeing something that isn't there. This tale doesn't demonstrate a societal problem in my opinion, or at least not a current one.

Now, there were a lot of complaints regarding the lack of personality displayed by Dr. Borgos, and I have to agree on that point. I, however, am not so sure that the problem lies with Bujold, or at least not wholly. I always enjoy Grover Gardner's narration, but this one caused me some difficulty as Dr. Borgos sounds just like everyone else in the story, which was a lot startling after the heavy Escobaran accent from his dialogue in A Civil Campaign. There wasn't even a hint of an accent, and I think that really took a lot away from the character. I honestly wish they'd go back and redo this audio with the accent back in place, because there were moments when I wasn't actually sure who was speaking when Dr. Borgos spoke, and that isn't usually a problem with Gardner's reading, and it was NEVER a problem in Civil Campaign.

Nevertheless, the story is excellent, and a good addition to the Vorkosigan saga.