largely because people have told me that Cordelia's Honor is one of her earliest and therefore not best works.
I'm confused; you read *some* of Komarr and didn't finish it, and read *some* of Cordelia's Honor and didn't finish it? Also, CH is actually a compendium of Shards of Honor and Barrayar. Shards is pretty much a romance-with-politics-and-action. It was Bujold's first finished work, but sold after The Warrior's Apprentice (the first actual book about Miles). Barrayar was written some years later, and is a political thriller, I guess you would say, with not much in the way of romance in it. It's also much better than Shards, and has one of my favorite scenes in all fiction ("I went shopping." "How much did you pay?" "Too much." [or WTTE]).
I dunno. If the narrative drive of Bujold doesn't capture you (although I wouldn't have thought Komarr was a good place to start, for a multitude of reasons anyway), it doesn't catch you. I'm just not convinced you got the right examples. *grin*
Anyway, Bujold's characters usually start off relatively well-adjusted, have a bad spot, and end up a little better off, and understanding more about themselves. (Even Memory fits this template, and that's about as low as Miles falls.) Also, she doesn't dwell on the angst, it's there in the plot but the characters don't generally spent a lot of time thinking mournful thoughts. They're too busy being shot at or making pithy one-liners.
I'm sorry Bujold doesn't work for you: she's one of my favorite writers, although I'm less enchanted by the fantasies than by the Vorkosigan novels, and I was sorely disappointed in the last Miles novel. I'm waiting on tenterhooks for a novel about Ivan, who really really deserves one. Damnit. But it's okay if Bujold is Not Your Beautiful Cake.
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I'm confused; you read *some* of Komarr and didn't finish it, and read *some* of Cordelia's Honor and didn't finish it? Also, CH is actually a compendium of Shards of Honor and Barrayar. Shards is pretty much a romance-with-politics-and-action. It was Bujold's first finished work, but sold after The Warrior's Apprentice (the first actual book about Miles). Barrayar was written some years later, and is a political thriller, I guess you would say, with not much in the way of romance in it. It's also much better than Shards, and has one of my favorite scenes in all fiction ("I went shopping." "How much did you pay?" "Too much." [or WTTE]).
I dunno. If the narrative drive of Bujold doesn't capture you (although I wouldn't have thought Komarr was a good place to start, for a multitude of reasons anyway), it doesn't catch you. I'm just not convinced you got the right examples. *grin*
Anyway, Bujold's characters usually start off relatively well-adjusted, have a bad spot, and end up a little better off, and understanding more about themselves. (Even Memory fits this template, and that's about as low as Miles falls.) Also, she doesn't dwell on the angst, it's there in the plot but the characters don't generally spent a lot of time thinking mournful thoughts. They're too busy being shot at or making pithy one-liners.
I'm sorry Bujold doesn't work for you: she's one of my favorite writers, although I'm less enchanted by the fantasies than by the Vorkosigan novels, and I was sorely disappointed in the last Miles novel. I'm waiting on tenterhooks for a novel about Ivan, who really really deserves one. Damnit. But it's okay if Bujold is Not Your Beautiful Cake.