Shards of Honor

Executive Summary: I liked it, and I plan to continue, but I had been hoping for a bit more.Audiobook: The audio is pretty good, but nothing fantastic. Grover Gardner does a good job in terms of volume and inflection, but there isn't anything in his performance that makes this a must listen. It's a decent option though, if like me you have more time for audio books than reading.Full ReviewApparently I bought this book twice. I had the ebook and totally forgot. Then I bought the audiobook on sale. I figured it was time I read at least one of the copies I own.This is the third book I've read by Ms. Bujold. I really enjoyed the two Chalion books of hers I read, and so I was eager to check out her more popular Sci-Fi series. Needless to say after how much I enjoyed those books, and how popular this was, I had high expectations coming in.I believe the author actually recommends a different order to read the books, but I'm pretty stubborn about reading series in publication order. I'm not sure if this was her first book, or even one of her earliest works, but it definitely isn't as polished as [b:The Curse of Chalion 61886 The Curse of Chalion (World of the Five Gods, #1) Lois McMaster Bujold https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1322571773s/61886.jpg 1129349].I liked both Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan, but I found the story slow in places, especially at the beginning. I did find the world building interesting enough that I plan to continue. It probably also helps that I already own [b:The Warrior's Apprentice 61906 The Warrior's Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga, #2) Lois McMaster Bujold https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1170597854s/61906.jpg 2792]. Hopefully she'll continue to build on some of the things she set up here and maybe include a bit more action than this one had.