Womb with a View

This chapter conducts a close reading of Lois McMaster Bujold’s ‘problem’ novel Ethan of Athos, in which an all-male world, Athos, is posited, reliant for reproduction on the ‘uterine replicator’ or artificial womb. Close reading demonstrates how the novel proves more complex than initial readings might suggest in its careful working-through of the ramifications of the uterine replicator for parenting, motherhood, and the duty of care towards the young. The chapter argues how the existence of Athos with the wider Vorkosigan series is significant, part of an ongoing and series-wide project by Bujold to demonstrate the range of possible futures that the uterine replicator might permit. At various points, Ethan of Athos is brought into conversation with Huxley’s Brave New World to contrast Bujold and Huxley’s visions of reproductive futurities. The chapter shows how Bujold’s saga-length project of creating a diverse science-fictional heterotopia involves a thorough working-through of the ramifications of the uterine replicator, of detaching reproduction from a gestational body, in which Ethan of Athos plays a necessary part.

The Road and the River

This chapter provides a close reading of Lois McMaster Bujold’s later fantasy series The Sharing Knife to explore how the project reworks traditional narrative motifs and crosses genres to blur or mutate expectations and storylines. The chapter argues that the series is neither science fiction nor fantasy, but a hybrid based in fantasy whose setting fits early industrial society and the contours of the post-apocalypse. It draws on motifs of Western women’s writing, with a main female character, Fawn, in flight, but with settings (the road and the river) more commonly associated with the picaresque and, in particular, American road trip literature. The non-realist elements and the secondary world situate the novels as speculative fantasy fiction, only to diverge immediately and repeatedly from the modern fantasy norm.

The Emergence of Bujold Studies

This introductory essay provides the context for the present volume, establishing Lois McMaster Bujold as a multiple award-winning writer of science fiction and fantasy worthy of scholarly attention; providing an overview of extant scholarship; and identifying the twin aims of the book, to extend scholarship on Bujold’s fantasy novels, and to account for the wealth of cultural production inspired by Bujold’s corpus (e.g. fan fiction, fan discussion or meta, and the GURPS: Vorkosigan role-playing game in depth). The essay concludes by identifying gaps that might be fruitfully explored in ‘Bujold Studies’: perspectives from Indigenous science fiction studies on The Sharing Knife series; critical engagement with wider scholarship on race in sf; analysis of artworks inspired by Bujold’s writing, both ‘official’ cover art and fan art; and comparative analysis of her reception beyond Anglophone countries, particularly the immense fannish engagement from Eastern Europe.

The Shape of a Hero’s Soul

This chapter explores the nature of prophecy, fate, and the ‘destined hero’ in Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls. These motifs, dominant in modern heroic epic fantasy, imply that if a hero lives according to their destiny, they are incapable of acting of their own free will. The chapter explores how the hero and heroine of the two novels, Cazaril and Ista, make choices when faced with prophecy and destiny, and this allows Bujold to combine the paradox of fate and free will in such a way as to create a narrative with open possibilities and interpretations. In both novels, the chapter argues, Cazaril and Ista can only fulfil destiny by asserting their free will.

In Quiet Converse

This chapter takes as its starting point the dedication at the front of Lois McMaster Bujold’s novel A Civil Campaign: ‘For Jane, Charlotte, Georgette and Dorothy—long may they rule’, arguing that the dedication places the novel in conversation with the authors whom Bujold invokes. This allows the chapter to explore this intertextuality through thematic convergences shared between Jane Austen’s Fanny Price of Mansfield Park and Bujold’s Ekaterin Vorsoisson. These themes include: the ambivalent occupation of and transitions between exterior and interior spaces they occupy; on and offstage performances; the significance of gifts of jewelry; the imposition of familial bonds; and the intertwined experience of health and honor. Despite their often ambivalent reception, the chapter argues, Fanny and Ekaterin are integral components of their respective works; central characters in their standalone and series novels.

Canon Compliance and Creative Analysis in Vorkosigan Saga Fan Fiction

This chapter examines different types of fan fiction based on the science fiction Vorkosigan novels by Lois McMaster Bujold. It explores the ways in which the source texts, or ‘canon’, are used as touchstone and tool not only to tell the stories that fan writers want to tell, but also to interpret specific characters and dynamics in the text, to interrogate the political and personal implications of the worlds of the books, and to explore how original characters can offer deeper insight into the characters and societies. The chapter examines canon-consistent stories, original characters, and slash fiction, to argue that the central focus remains the close reading and analysis of Bujold’s universe and characters, albeit in imaginative and exploratory ways.

The Naismith Stratagem

This chapter critically considers Genevieve Cogman’s Vorkosigan sourcebook for Steve Jackson Games’ tabletop Generic Universal Roleplaying System (GURPS). It examines how the sourcebook reframes Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga as an immersive environment through six key processes employed typically in TRPG adaptation: distillation, accentual emphasis, nomenclatural qualification, statistical quantification, ludic systematisation, and fictional gazetteering. The chapter assesses how the adaptation balances the requirements of the GURPS ruleset with the need to facilitate immersion in an authentic version of the saga, and analyses how Cogman preserves and adapts the novels to promote and sustain imaginative, immersive gameplay faithful to the saga’s structural, narrative, and shifting intergeneric qualities. The chapter further shows how the game allows players to immerse themselves in the saga; conceive, develop and enhance character types from the novels; and experience plots and story structures reflecting the unique tenor of Bujold’s work. In its emphases, the game reveals what it assumes to be the most appealing aspects of the books: its characterisation, relationships, locations, and the emotional immersion central to Bujold’s treatment of the science fictional family saga.

The Bastard Balances All

This chapter examines the role of the Bastard, one of the gods in Lois McMaster Bujold’s ‘Worlds of the Five Gods’ series, and his contribution to her depiction of an inclusive Queer Theology. Drawing on the queer theology of Marcella Althaus-Reid, the chapter considers the distinctive set-up of the five-fold Quintarian pantheon that Bujold establishes, and how it creates and subverts dualistic ideas. The chapter provides close readings of interactions with the Bastard, particularly in Paladin of Souls and the ‘Penric and Desdemona’ series, where the Bastard is the patron god, and analyzes how the idea of the Queer God becomes essential to an inclusive dialogue within religious identity and society. The chapter demonstrates how these novels and novellas afford Bujold the opportunity to reflect upon many of the vital social functions performed by real religions throughout history while challenging those dualistic theological systems that remain prevalent, particularly in Western culture.

Pain Made Holy

Through an examination of the experiences of Castillar Lupe dy Cazaril, protagonist of Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion, this chapter argues that the novel mirrors academic and advocacy agendas on the topics of passing, sexuality, and care, while ultimately relating to emerging perspectives from queer disability studies critiques of normalcy. The chapter engages with The Curse of Chalion as a text that illustrates and contributes to theoretical and activist work on disability in relation to vulnerability and cure, through the multiple meanings of Cazaril’s ‘holy pain’. The chapter shows how, in its overarching concern with embodiment through Cazaril’s physical suffering, fatigue, chronic illness, and rehabilitation, Bujold’s speculative narrative aligns with recent disability studies and disability justice frameworks that hold space for multiple, nuanced perspectives on these issues, inviting examination of the connections between the bodily and social dimensions of disability.

The Holy Family

This chapter focuses on the relationships that two of Lois McMaster Bujold’s fantasy heroes – Cazaril (The Curse of Chalion) and Ingrey (The Hallowed Hunt) – have with divine and supernatural beings in the world of the Five Gods. The chapter opens by focusing on two specific definitions of queerness which underlie a subsequent stylistics analysis of the visions experienced by both heroes. The chapter explores the impact of these visions on the heroes’ able-bodied heterosexual male bodies, leading to the conclusion that Bujold’s Holy Family, especially the Bastard, deconstructs the gender constructions of the patriarchal nuclear family structure and its attendant ‘family values’ to create queer spaces. The chapter ends with a brief consideration of the potential for even greater subversion found in Bujold’s recent ‘Penric and Desdemona’ novellas.