So when life sucks I find myself with two basic options. Write to escape, or read to escape. 

Lately, I've been doing a whole lot of reading. I snag a stack of books from the library's Fantasy/Sci-fi section, read the first chapters and toss them in two piles- books I wish hadn't been written, and books I wish I'd written. The ones I wish I'd written get read. The other pile doesn't. 

Sometimes, I just grab random books- because the cover looks good, or the blurb on the back intrigues. Sometime I grab books from authors I know well- books I haven't read by them, but which hold the promise of becoming as beloved as the works of theirs I already know and love. So it was that I stumbled upon a newer series by Lois McMaster Bujold that has me head-over-heals in love with her- Again.    

I first "met" Lois through her Miles Vorkosigan science fiction series and I loved what she brought to the genre. What she brought was a physically handicapped, interstellar spy and mercenary from a thousand years in our future. What she brought was a male sci-fi character who was not tall, chiseled, handsome, and physically perfect in everyway. Miles, instead, is challenged, sensitive, determined and well, real. How's that for a change? Many of the Vorkosigan novels are almost mystery-like in their plot and construction. I am not a big mystery fan, but a spaceman mystery is something altogether different. I believe the Vorkosigan Saga now has 19 books and I've read most of them.  

If you are not familiar with Bujold, well, you should be. She is an American spec fic writer with four Hugos for best novel under her belt, which ties Heinlein's record, so there. She also has a novella, The Mountains of Mourning, which won both a Hugo and a Nebula. And she won a Nebula for Palladin of Souls. Can you believe some people say that women aren't producing quality work in the spec fic genre? Those people must be blind, deaf and dumb.

After doing so well in the arena of sci-fi, Bujold faced a challenge trying to cross over and break into fantasy. Her first fantasy book The Spirit Ring was finally bought, but only with the promise that she would produce a Vorkosigan novel for that publisher. Almost a decade later, she tried again with her novel The Curse of Chalion, which met a much better reception.   

But none of these are what has me all excited. What I recently read- No, devoured- is her Sharing Knife fantasy series which begins with Beguilement (2006), followed by Legacy (2007), Passage (2008), and Horizon (2008). It has been a very long time since I read something that resonated with me so much and that I wished so desperately I had written. There were times when I felt like I was reading a fantasy version of my own life journey. I don't know many spec fic authors who have dared to feature an accurately described miscarriage in their fiction, despite the fact that this is an experience that hundreds of thousands of women have experienced. Once again, Bujold gives us a strong but sensitive man with a handicap, in this case a missing hand and a whole lot of special prosthetic attachments. She gives us real, not sappy, romance and original magic. She doesn't pussy foot around issues of family and identity. And she raises a whole lot of quality mythic questions. Probably my favorite being "Is it better to be loved and not valued, or valued and not loved?" 

If you're hankering for something good to read, I can't recommend this series highly enough. And if you happen to read it (or already have), be sure to let me know what you think.