My reading of the Hugo Award finalists for Best Novel is proceeding a-pace and my report back “de jour” is on the fourth of the six novels to be read, Lois McMaster Bujold’s Cryoburn. (I note that I think Connie Willis’ Blackout and All Clear, with a report still to come, are being treated as one book for the purposes of the award, but reading-wise it’s definitely two books.)

Those of you who have been following these reports will be familiar with my evaluation criteria by now. But for others for whom this may be a first report, I have set the criteria out in full at the end of the post (below the complete list of finalists for the award.) Any specific considerations that have come up for me in relation to a specific work I mention within the body of a report.

Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold.

The Basic Story:

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan embarks on another adventure, this time on the world of Kibou-daini where those who can afford it buy cryogenic storage instead of death, with the expectation that they will be revived when either a cure for their terminal illness or life prolonging technology is developed. With the proposed expansion of Kibou-daini’s cryo corporations onto the worlds of the Barrayar empire, Miles Vorkosigan, in his role as Imperial Auditor, attends a conference on Kibou-daini to begin his investigations. Bribery and kidnap follow and Miles finds himself uncovering corporate chicanery, corruption, and a miscarriage of justice …

The Report:

Cryoburn is space opera, a form of science fiction where the focus is less on science and technological evolution as humankind advances into space, and more on fun characters and derring-do within some future space milieu. So although cryogenic technology is central to the plot, the story does not focus on it in the same way that a book like CJ Cherryh’s Cyteen, for example, focuses on genetic engineering, or William Gibson’s Neuromancer on the evolution of sentient AIs. The Cryoburn story is mainly another adventure of the irrepressible Miles Vorkosigan. The ongoing adventures of a particular hero protagonist are one of the defining characteristics of space opera as a subgenre of SFF—and Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan is one of the more enduring and popular of such heroes.

Having only read the first of the Miles Vorkosigan novels before Cryoburn (which is, I believe, something like the 12th or 13th in the sequence) I am not well qualified to comment on the development of Miles as a character through the series. But it is at least clear to me that evolution has occurred: the Miles of this book is definitely a more mature character—as he should be, since twenty years of intervening adventure and experience has elapsed.

Genre-wise, therefore, I think Cryoburn is a good example of the space opera subgenre. In terms of the story, I found it an enjoyable light read. The plot was well crafted, the characters likeable and engaging, although I thought that they were stock “types”: e.g. Miles as the (albeit more mature) enfant-terrible trickster-hero; Roic, the loyal, competent soldier-retainer; Jin and Mina, the cute, plucky kids. So no in-depth character studies here, but a likeable, recognizable cast moving—for me, reasonably predictably—through a light-adventure read. The other aspect I note in terms of the cast of characters is that other than a brief appearance by the “goons”, Hans and Oki, toward the end of the story, there are no “bad guy” characters either featured or explored in any depth.

Overall, I enjoyed Cryoburn, which held my attention throughout. But it did not engage me deeply as a story, either in terms of the plot or characters. There were no great surprises and no major highs or lows of storytelling, or pushing of the genre envelope. For this reason, although I liked it and would read another Vorkosigan novel on its strength, I will hesitate over Cryoburn’s ranking on my Hugo ballot, given that the Hugo is an award for the very best speculative fiction novel in the world published in 2010.

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To reiterate, the complete list of finalists for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, by book title, comprises:

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra; Allen & Unwin here in AU/NZ)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr) – you can read my report here
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit) – again, you can read my report here
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit) – my report is here

The evaluation criteria I am using for all the Best Novel finalists are as follows:

– the use of genre elements in the work, i.e. its strength as a work of speculative fiction;

– whether the book works for me as a story, i.e. is it compelling, well written and engaging, with particular regard to the emotional depth to the story telling and interesting ideas (although not necessarily for their own sake.) Consistency of both characters and plot is really important to me. And I do rate good use of humour in the story.

– It has also emerged through my previous reports that I appreciate a good ‘twist in the tale’, although I don’t actively require it to enjoy a book—good characters and a good tale well told are my baseline.

My next and final report will be on Connie Willis’ Blackout and All Clear, with a round up on all six finalists to follow.