Johan asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Hi there! I am looking to get into your work. I have The Curse of Chalion in my bookshelf, ready for me to dig in. But I thought I would ask you, the author, a question: "Which book written by you would you recommend for a first-timer?" It can be a personal favorite, it can be a book you feel is your best work, or a book that represents your oeuvre?

Lois McMaster Bujold
Welcome!

That answer will vary depending on the tastes and interests of the reader. The Curse of Chalion is my usual starter-rec for fantasy readers, so you're good to go there. Dive in.

The science fiction side is trickier. If you like to read your series in strict order, Shards of Honor is first in the Vorkosigan series in chronological, publication, and writing order, and also my first novel. If you prefer a young male protagonist, The Warrior's Apprentice, another early and early-series book, also works, or The Borders of Infinity novella collection for a sampler platter, though I really feel that would work better after tWA.

Start the recent Penric & Desdemona novella series with the e-novella "Penric's Demon" or its first paper collection Penric's Progress.

Note that while The Hallowed Hunt is set in the same fantasy world, it does not follow on from the first two, Chalion and its direct sequel Paladin of Souls but is rather a stand-alone set 200 years earlier in another realm and with a completely different cast of characters. If you know that going in, you won't waste time flailing around either waiting for it to turn into a continuation or peeved that it doesn't. It does lay in some worldbuilding useful for the later "Penric and the Shaman" novella.

Happy reading!

L.

-- As always, my compete reading-order guide is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

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Sandy In response to Jonathan.... I was thinking of "middle" as anywhere "between the first and last/beginning and end" rather than as "the center/mid-point In response to Jonathan.... I was thinking of "middle" as anywhere "between the first and last/beginning and end" rather than as "the center/mid-point between two points". If that helps to clarify.

I don't usually think of these things as exact points because there remains the possibility of books being added, as has happened many times since I began reading the series in the 90s. My concern in choosing recomendations is more with what is the style of which ever book, since they are all stand-alones really (perhaps an exception for the Sharing Knife series).

Bujold has a wonderful way of using many different styles/themes/structures that keeps the series interesting and avoids being formulaic and predictable. By that I mean some books are "Action-adventure" while others are structured more as "mysteries" or in the case of "A Civil Campaign" as "romantic comedy" and so forth. I find a broad spectrum of readers, and even non-readers, are open to the "romantic comedy" style of aCC, although sometimes I recommend a differently styled novel if I think that is what that particular potential reader would be most open to.

The beauty of the books being stand alone is that you can jump in pretty much anywhere and read a book because it is the kind of thing you are looking for, be it space opera, mystery, fantasy, whathaveyou. Then you fall in love with the rich characters and vibrant world-building, and you are rewarded with having other books to enjoy that include those things but which might stretch your reading habits into new territories. There were many folks who fussed about "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen" because they wanted it to be a particular style (mostly action-adventure) that it wasn't. But I loved it much because it was a whole new kind of story, to add to all the other kinds of stories in that series. And there are still more styles to explore or create so perhaps there will be more books. One style the Vorkosigan series hasn't attempted yet for instance is something from a child's perspective, or a close look at parenthood with children. So perhaps there might be another someday. And I would particularly like to see more concerning the opposite end of life's spectrum. Since it is a view we rarely get as readers. ...more
Dec 29, 2021 06:13AM · flag

Jonathan Palfrey Sandy: OK, thanks for the clarification!

By the time I got to "A Civil Campaign", I already knew a fair amount about the world it's set in, although I ...more
Dec 29, 2021 09:14AM · flag