It’s the last Wednesday in November and YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks, What’s the best book you read in November?
I have been reading Old School for all of November, and part of October as well, reading paper books rather than using my Kindle. In October, I bought a whole pile of books by one of my fave science fiction/fantasy authors, Lois McMaster Bujold, from one of our local UBSs (Used Book Store). I’ve been making my way through those books ever since.
A side note: I do love finding books I want to read in USBs. I like the idea of supporting a local business. But I feel a little guilty when I do that because I know the author doesn’t get her share when I buy her book used. Not to say you should never buy books used. Just be aware of that fact when you do.
So, among my LMB purchases was a three-fer titled Miles, Mutants & Microbes. LMB has published so many books in the Miles Vorkosigan universe that her publisher has gone back and repackaged a number of them together in various volumes. Miles, Mutants & Microbes includes the novels Falling Free and Diplomatic Immunity sandwiching the novella Labyrinth.
Of the three, Falling Free was definitely my November best book. Falling Free takes place a couple hundred years before the birth of Miles Vorkosigan, the featured player in most of the Vorkosigan Saga books. In Falling Free, we’re introduced to the quaddies, genetically engineered humans designed to live in freefall. Their bodies thrive without gravity (where normal humans would lose muscle mass and therefore bone density). And they’re able to navigate a living environment in freefall because in place of legs, they have an extra pair of arms. Hence the quaddie designation.
It’s a very cool story with a triumphant ending. Reading LMB’s later books that feature quaddie characters is all the more fun because we know their origin story.
If you haven’t checked out any of Lois McMaster Bujold’s books, I highly recommend her. She writes both excellent science fiction and fantasy. And I’m quite thrilled that she will be the Guest of Honor at BayCon in San Francisco, which I will be attending in May.
So how about you? What have you been reading this month?