I am generally fairly callous about abandoning books if I find them unimpressive but I had such high hopes for these two that I persevered until the very end, unwilling to abandon all hope. Sometimes patience is not rewarded.
Red Sauce Brown Sauce by Felicity Cloake (2022) – I adore One More Croissant for the Road, Cloake’s foodie travel book about cycling around France and enjoying local dishes. What better pastime for a food writer! And Britain, though hardly a culinary competitor to France, certainly could have offered up an interesting array of meals – but sadly Cloake focuses her regional travels through the British Isles on just one meal: breakfast. While there is some regional variance (laverbread in Wales, porridge in Scotland), it’s really not enough to carry an entire book and whereas Cloake was delightful in her excitement over the ever-changing French scenery, injuries that limit her cycling adventures, Covid restrictions, and perhaps over familiarity make her less descriptive when it comes to her native land. Too much time is devoted to talking about the friends and family who host her along the way, which is a very nice way to thank them but not of interest to most of the readers who are looking for a food- or travel-focused book. Even the title is a weak framing device, as neither the author nor many of the people she encounters like either ketchup or brown sauce with their breakfast. I hope Cloake cycles off towards more varied cuisine sometime soon.
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986) – I have heard rave reviews for years about the Vorkosigan Saga; the books have been nominated for countless prizes and won many of them, and the diverse cast of characters is deeply beloved by many readers. It had been a while since I last read any proper science fiction so I picked this up hoping to be starting a new and exciting series.
The concept is certainly appealing: Commander Cordelia Naismith finds herself stranded on an unpopulated planet with an injured comrade and Lord Aral Vorkosigan, an infamous soldier from the powerful and deeply political planet of Barrayar. After a few days trekking to find help, there is a clear attraction between Cordelia and Vorkosigan but interplanetary politics are vicious and Cordelia is soon fleeing for home. Of course, their paths cross again (as they must, given that they are the parents of the series’ main hero) but the politics never become less messy.
I was reminded almost immediately after starting of why I’ve never had success with Bujold before: dialogue. There were other things I didn’t like – the pacing was too fast, the twists and plots that were supposed to be clever were overused – but in the end it was the dialogue that killed this for me. Cordelia is meant to be an intelligent, capable, mature woman, but slips into vapid slang at the most inopportune moments. Every time it happened, I was jolted out of the scene by my frustration. There is an inadvertently hilarious scene when Vorkosigan is somberly telling her of the evil that surrounds them, the weight of the subject making him quieter and quieter as he eloquently goes on about the perfidy of man. To which she responds, like a complete idiot: “Commodore Vorkosigan – Aral – what’s eating you? You’re so keyed up I expect you to start pacing the ceiling any minute.” Jesus wept.
Sorry these didn’t work for you, but unfortunately those reviews are often the more amusing to read. I will say that I only learned from your post that it’s ‘laverbread’ rather than ‘lavabread’ – I’ve always wondered why it was named after lava, and it turns out it isn’t. (Also this reminds me that a visiting American was surprised I used the word ‘ketchup’ rather than ‘red sauce’, and this title is perpetuating the myth that British adults say ‘red sauce’!)
I’ve never heard any one of any age call it red sauce and feel quite affronted!
I’ll give those two a miss! I thought ‘red sauce, brown sauce’ was a Danny Baker saying. I like to read honest reviews so many book blogs are too nice about every book!
Sorry you didn’t love the books but I, too, always enjoy reviews of books people didn’t like so much!
So many people tell me I would love her books and I don’t think I’ve ever made it through this one despite trying several times!
Clearly we have similar tastes!
So you dismiss her entire body of work based on your personal reaction to her very first book and conclude that the problem is the rest of us.
It is the next book, Barrayar, that won the awards. If you don’t like it, you won’t like the rest of her work.
While this was my first encounter with this series, it was my 5th book by Bujold. She’s an author I really do wish I liked, as her topics are so interesting, but her approach to dialogue (consistent even in books written 20 years later) really grates for me and distracts too much from the elements I do like.
I have a similar response to Bujold but you describe the reasons better than I ever did!