Did you know that Lois Mcmaster Bujold has one 4 Hugo Award's more than every other author except Heinlein? I didn't, but when I first heard about this I decided I'd better find out what all the fuss was about and so I picked up Cordellia's Honor.Cordelia's Honor is a compilation of two of novels: SHARDS OF HONOR and BARRAYAR (Barrayer won a Hugo). The main character in both is Cordelia Naismith a captain on an interstellar exploratory mission and it follows her adventures as she is captured by the militaristic Barrayans, escapes, is captured again, falls in love, gets married and then learns to survive and thrive in the hostile Barrayan society.
To non-scifi readers that summary might sound kinda corney and the cover of the book certainly doesn't help but trust me when I say these where two terrific books. Full of likable and loathable characters, well written and unusual for scifi, humorous. The closest thing I can compare them to in style are the Flashman books (only without the cad).
