jack

Bujold wrote a new novella in the Challion-verse! I was disappointed to see it wasn't about the Mother or the Father, but more about demons, but reading about demons is always interesting. I definitely enjoyed it, it had several of the lip-quirking deadpan-humour moments that I love finding in Bujold, and interesting and sympathetic characters. At first I thought it didn't really add much to the world or plot, but I find it more interesting as I think about it.

It also clarified the chronology slightly, the afterword says it was set one-two hundred years after Hallowed Hunt, somewhere in the same area (nobles are referred to as "kin someone" although it seems to have become more formalised, rivers are named after birds, there's a hallowed king somewhere although we don't know if he has any powers, some of the ecclesiastical power structures are the same), but that doesn't overlap with any of the places we were familiar with. And that's one-two hundred years before Curse of Challion.

( Minor spoilers )

Recently Liv linked to a discussion about hat-sorting[1] Vorkosigan Saga characters. I was really interested, although also interested to see I often disagreed.

The houses

First, some clarifications on how I see the houses as Rowling seemed to intend them or how they make the most sense, rather than as they come across in the books.

Gryffindor is the "good" house, but if you eschew a moral judgement, you can say they're defined by bravery/impulsiveness and loyalty/dogmatism.

Slytherin is the "evil" house, but if you eschew moral judgement, you could say they're the house of ambition and forming social alliances. I think "in-group-ness" can be very slytherin, but I don't think it has to be racial-based even though that was the primary division represented at the time Harry Potter was at school.

Ravenclaw is easy: good or bad, they're motivated by understanding.

Hufflepuff is often seen as the "other" house, but that's unfair, they seem defined by reliability (seen positively as loyalty or trustworthyness or negatively as ploddingness) and nurturingness. You can have bad-ass hufflepuffs, see below :)

[1] what's the appropriate verb here?

Miles Vorkosigan

Someone said that Miles was Gryffindor and Naismith was Slytherin. I think that's backwards: Naismith is the most charge-in-and-damn-the-consequences part of Miles, if anything, even more devoted to "do the right thing at all costs" than Miles is. Hence Gryffindor.

Whereas Miles is good, but he's ambitious good. He doesn't just want to do something good, he wants to change the world for good. He talks everyone into his way of doing things, and makes friends with everyone[2]. Ambition, networking, and silver-tongue, that is so Slytherin in a good way.

[2] I thought Slughorn was a missed opportunity, because he tries to make friends, but is way too slimy. I think it still counts as Slytherin if you make lots of friends and genuinely like them.

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