— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)
Variante: The principal difference between heaven and hell is the company you keep there.
Geburtstag: 2. November 1949
Lois McMaster Bujold ist eine US-amerikanische Autorin von Science-Fiction- und Fantasybüchern.
Ihre Bücher beweisen Bujolds Beherrschung des vielfältigen Science-Fiction-Genres. Frühere Titel folgen hauptsächlich der Space-Opera-Tradition , mit einer Menge von Schlachten, Verschwörungen und überraschenden Wendungen. Jedoch folgt sie dabei nur scheinbar den Klischees des Genres.
Ein zentrales Thema, das in ihren Romanen immer wieder auftaucht, sind Beziehungen unterschiedlichster Spielarten. Sei es die Liebe zwischen normalen und durch Genmanipulation körperlich veränderten Menschen , die Liebe zwischen Feinden , Homosexualität oder auch nur der Hang kleinwüchsiger Männer zu großen Frauen. Auch wenn es häufig ein Happy End gibt, wird in keiner Weise so getan, als ob diese Art von Beziehung das einzig Wahre für jeden oder auch nur normal wäre. Stattdessen schildert sie einfach vorurteilsfrei, aber durchaus liebenswert diese Eigenarten ihrer Protagonisten und tritt auf diese Weise für mehr Toleranz ein.
Sie hat den angesehenen Hugo Award für den besten Roman viermal gewonnen . Den Nebula Award erhielt sie bisher zweimal für den besten Roman. Für ihren Kurzroman „The Mountains of Mourning“ und den Roman Paladin of Souls bekam sie sogar beide Preise sowie den Locus Award.
Bujold ist geschieden, hat zwei Kinder und lebt in Minnesota. Wikipedia
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)
Variante: The principal difference between heaven and hell is the company you keep there.
"Women’s Hero Journey : An Interview With Lois McMaster Bujold on Paladin of Souls by Alan Oak at WomenWriters.net (June 2009)
„We see the world not as it is, but as we are.“
— Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife
Dag Redwing hickory Bluefield
Passage (Vol. III in Tetralogy) (2008), p. 163
The Sharing Knife, Passage (Vol. III in Tetralogy) (2008)
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, "The Flowers of Vashnoi" (2018)
„Not justice, please, not justice. We would all be fools to pray for justice.“
— Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion
The Curse of Chalion (2000)
Kontext: "Mercy from the Father and the Mother, mercy from the Sister and the Brother, Mercy from the Bastard, five times mercy, High Ones, we beseech you."… Mercy, High Ones. Not justice, please, not justice. We would all be fools to pray for justice.
„Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.“
— Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign
Quelle: Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)
„If you can't be seven feet tall, be seven feet smart.“
— Lois McMaster Bujold, buch Labyrinth
Quelle: Vorkosigan Saga, Labyrinth (1989), p. 106
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)
Kontext: You don't pay back your parents. You can't. The debt you owe them gets collected by your children, who hand it down in turn. It's a sort of entailment. Or if you don't have children of the body, it's left as a debt to your common humanity. Or to your God, if you possess or are possessed by one.
„They weren't supermen, or immune to pain. They sweated in confusion and darkness. And … they won.“
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, Borders of Infinity (1989)
Kontext: The loonies who sought a glorious death in battle found it very early on. This rapidly cleared the chain of command of the accumulated fools. The survivors were those who learned to fight dirty, and live, and fight another day, and win, and win, and win, and for whom nothing, not comfort, or security, not family or friends or their immortal souls, was more important than winning. Dead men are losers by definition. Survival and victory. They weren't supermen, or immune to pain. They sweated in confusion and darkness. And … they won.
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986)
Kontext: The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present — they are real.
„I suppose my determination to be a soldier stems from that date.“
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986)
Kontext: I suppose my determination to be a soldier stems from that date. I mean the real thing, not the parades and the uniforms and the glamour, but the logistics, the offensive advantage, the speed and surprise — the power. A better-prepared, stronger, tougher, faster, meaner son-of-a-bitch than any who came through that door.
The Vorkosigan Companion (2008)
Kontext: Reading is an active and elusive experience. Every reader, reading exactly the same text, will have a slightly different reading experience depending on what s/he projects into the words s/he sees, what strings of meaning and association those words call up in his/her (always) private mind. One can never therefore, talk about the quality of a book separately from the quality of the mind that is creating it by reading it, in the only place books live, in the secret mind.
"'A Conversation With Lois McMaster Bujold", an interview with Lillian Stewart Carl, p. 52
Cordelia's Honor (1996), "Author's Afterword"
Kontext: All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete, or a scientist, or an artist, or an independent business creator. In the service of their goals they lay down time and energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. A false destiny may be spotted by the fact that it consumes without transforming, without giving back the enlarged self. Becoming a parent is one of these basic human transformational deeds. By this act, we change our fundamental relationship with the universe — if nothing else, we lose our place as the pinnacle and end-point of evolution, and become a mere link. The demands of motherhood especially consume the old self, and replace it with something new, often better and wiser, sometimes wearier or disillusioned, or tense and terrified, certainly more self-knowing, but never the same again.
A Girl's World interview (2006)
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)
Kontext: Acting or reacting, we carry him in us. You can't walk away from him any more than I can. Whether you travel toward or away, he'll be the compass. He'll be the glass, full of subtle colors and astigmatisms, through which all new things will be viewed. I too have a father who haunts me, and I know.
„Leadership is mostly a power over imagination, and never more so than in combat.“
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986)
Kontext: Leadership is mostly a power over imagination, and never more so than in combat. The bravest man alone can only be an armed lunatic. The real strength lies in the ability to get others to do your work.
„Adulthood isn’t an award they’ll give you for being a good child.“
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)
Kontext: Adulthood isn’t an award they’ll give you for being a good child. You can waste … years, trying to get someone to give that sort of respect to you, as though it were some sort of promotion or raise in pay. If only you do enough, if only you are good enough. No. You have to just … take it. Give it to yourself, I suppose. Say, "I’m sorry you feel like that", and walk away.
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, Brothers in Arms (1989)
Kontext: No, no, never send interim reports. Only final ones. Interim reports tend to elicit orders. Which you must either then obey, or spend valuable time and energy evading, which you could be using to solve the problem.
„Some problems could only be solved by running away from them.“
— Lois McMaster Bujold, buch Paladin of Souls
Paladin of Souls (2003)
Kontext: You can't solve problems by running away from them, it was said, and like the good child she had once been, she had believed this. But it wasn't true. Some problems could only be solved by running away from them.
p. 36
— Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan Saga
Vorkosigan Saga, Borders of Infinity (1989)
Kontext: The loonies who sought a glorious death in battle found it very early on. This rapidly cleared the chain of command of the accumulated fools. The survivors were those who learned to fight dirty, and live, and fight another day, and win, and win, and win, and for whom nothing, not comfort, or security, not family or friends or their immortal souls, was more important than winning. Dead men are losers by definition. Survival and victory. They weren't supermen, or immune to pain. They sweated in confusion and darkness. And … they won.