The reason I bought this book was for one novella: "Winterfair Gifts" by Lois McMaster Bujold, the wedding of Miles Vorkosigan and the star of my favorite book series. As soon as the book came in the mail, I read it immediately and loved it. It was very much a Lois story - wonderfully crafted and highly enjoyable. I then read the other five stories in the collection. It's very odd to find an anthology that contains only stories I enjoyed and loved. Usually, there's a mishmash of some that I love...

This book contains:"Winterfair Gifts" by Lois McMaster Bujold. The reason I read this book. I always love returning to Bujold's Vorkosigan series, but this, like the last several novels, felt a bit slack to me. Miles's marriage is the background to Armsman Roic's love affair with Taura. Despite poison and intrigue, the plot never had the sense of urgency that used to make me tear through these books. Instead, it kinda felt like Bujold was wrapping up her time with the series by pairing the last

Like many of the other people who reviewed this on Goodreads, I bought this book for "Winterfair Gifts" by Lois McMaster Bujold. I've re-read that story many times, but never actually read the rest of the book until now.The book is composed of six different stories, three by authors who are known for science fiction or fantasy and three who are known for romance novels. The concept was for each author to combine these genres. Some worked better than others.In order of enjoyment:"Winterfair Gifts...

Like many others, I got this because I needed "Winterfair Gifts" - to come so far with Miles and then miss his wedding?? Of the other authors, only Catherine Asaro is on my radar (I've had her Skolian Empire books recommended to me, though I haven't read them yet), so I was walking into this rather blind.As I would have predicted, "Winterfair Gifts" was fabulous. It was absolutely everything I didn't know I wanted. The rest, however, really weren't up to that same quality. That's not really fair...

The first story in this series overshadowed all the rest for me but then again I'm a Lois McMaster Bujold fan and any extra story in Miles' world is a good thing. This is a story of Taura who attends Miles' wedding and Roic who learns that appearance isn't everything.The Alchemical Marriage by Mary Jo Putney is an interesting story of two magicians who have to work together to save England from the Spanish Armada. Pretty predictable but not a bad story and I really did care for the characters.Ca...

Novellas and stories that are prequels or sequels or just other things in various series, or new fantasy romances. Bujold wrote the wedding of Miles and Ekaterin, Asaro wrote the first marriage of the Quantum Rose hero, Jo Beverley wrote a very intriguing story set on another planet that I’d like to see more of, from the pov of a “fixer”; Mary Jo’s story is an “explanation” of the wrecking of the Spanish Armada; Roberson wrote another Robin and Marian story—a good one, and Deb Stover wrote a gho...

I bought this for Winterfaire Gifts, and at least tried the others; I loved the Bujold. Deb Stover's story had the most appeal to me of the others, though I don't know if I would reread it. The formula for romance appeals to me if there is a great deal of humor, or a knockout voice. I was not the audience for the Putney or the Asaro, though I'm sure their fans would like those stories.

Recommended by Marita for the love story element (she thought I might like the raciness). The first story was my least favorite as it was a bit out there for me (sci-fi/fantasy?) but I appreciate that the authors have to get to the action quickly in the short story format. The stories got much better as I went on and I enjoyed the variety.Overall...very good - quality writers.

I read this book for the Lois McMaster Bujold story, which was excellent. It brought back characters I loved from previous books, involved them in a mystery, gave Armsman Roic a love story of his own, and showed happily ever after for Miles and Ekaterin. Lois gift for characters and how they drive the story really shines through.

Really deserves more of a two and half stars for this book really does epitomize why I am weary of compilations, especially short stories.I only liked two of the six stories. Of the other four, three were okay, and one I absolutely hated. The book certainly didn't sell me on any of the writers.

I bought this for the Lois McMaster Bujold short story about Miles Vorkosigan's wedding, "Winterfair Gifts", which is very good.

I give this book five stars for the Miles Vorkosigan story. The rest of the stories are more in the romance field than SF.

Contains 'Winterfair Gifts' by Lois McMaster Bujold. The tale of Miles' wedding to Ekatrina.

Only read Catherine Asaro's short story in the collection and it was a spectacular read.

Read it for Winterfair Gifts and enjoyed a few of the other stories as well. I copied some of the story descriptions from Wealhtheow's review just for reference."Winterfair Gifts" by Lois McMaster Bujold. Miles's marriage is the background to Armsman Roic's love affair with Taura. Nice time spent with old friends. Not the greatest but much loved. - 5"The Alchemical Marriage" by Mary Jo Putney. Two mages have to work together to prevent the Spanish Armada from invading England. Making this into a...

2.5"Winterfair Gifts" by Lois McMaster Bujold was a nice sequel to the butter bug story. This was a creative story with an interesting twist to what was basically a Beauty and the Beast tale. Like the rest of the Vorkosigan series, this was not what I would call a light read."The Alchemical Marriage" by Mary Jo Putney grabbed me right away with the first page. I felt like it was a bit rushed, but I often feel that way about short stories."Stained Glass Heart" by Catherine Asaro had an incredible...

Six romantic stories in either scientifiction or fantasy settings. Probably most people came here for Miles Vorkosigan's wedding, but the other stories are well worth reading. Bujold, Asaro, and Beverly set their tales off world in the far future, Putney and Roberson are set some centuries past but both in England, and Stover chooses Heaven as her setting. Many of the stories are part of bigger series by the authors, and all of them are love stories in one way or another. Four are mostly from th...

I'm rereading the Skolian series in order, and was up to "Stained Glass Heart", so that's all i read from the book on this reread.Lily and Vryl's romance isn't one of my favourite, both because I read The Quantum Rose first, which is set later and his story with Kamoj, and because they are both so young.So it's a nice little story, but nothing profound.Schism is next, which is both a full novel and will be my first Soz story of the reread, so I'm looking forward to that one more.

Anthology. 3.33 stars average.1. "Winterfair Gifts" by Lois McMaster Bujold. TRe-read 09/25/21 I read as part of the anthology Irresistible Forces. When I noticed it has been 8 years since I read this initially I was surprised because it didn't seem that long ago. I loved it. 5 stars again.2. "The Alchemical Marriage" by Mary Jo Putney. Couldn't get into it. No rating.3. "Stained Glass Heart" by Catherine Asaro. Couldn't get into it. No rating. 4. "Skin Deep" by Deb Stover. Couldn't get into it....

I picked this up because it was the only way to get Lois McMaster Bujold's story "Winterfair Gifts" in mass market paperback size, but I decided to read the rest of it before dismembering it. The stories are well-written, but romance is definitely not my genre.

Read this mostly for Bujold. Enjoyed that story most.

The Bujold story is my favorite in this anthology, but I did enjoy this book enough to give it as a gift to a friend who likes the romance genre. She loved it.

I searched for this book long and hard because I desperately wanted to read the Bujold Vorkosigan short story "Winterfair Gifts". The first thing that threw me off about this paperback volume I found is that it looks like a romance novel - embossed flowery font for the title, a romatic elfish damsel on the cover. Inside it contains short stories by Bujold (right in front), Mary Jo Putney, Catherine Asaro, Deb Stover, Jo Beverley, and Jennifer Roberson. Bujold's "Winterfair Gifts" does not disapp...

Winterfair Gifts - ***Roic is the awkward armsman for a short and eccentric nobleman on a distant planet. The nobleman is about to get married, and one of the guests is Taura, a biochemically engineered human who is taller than Roic. Sparks fly between Roic and Taura. However, the nobleman has attained many enemies throughout his life...What an interesting story. Totally not what I expected and completely different from the previous books I've read recently. I appreciated that finally we had som...

The romances in this collection were all okay, but I expected more from these authors. There's nothing specifically wrong with any of the stories, I just found them forgettable. I just didn't find the stories engaging enough to hold my interest. The story I most enjoyed was "The Alchemical Marriage" by Mary Jo Putney, but it was still not up to the standard I would expect from Putney. Overall, I was disappointed.

A truly mixed assortment of novellas. Two brilliant ones, two mediocre ones and two drop-dead awful ones. Brilliant: Lois McMaster Bujold’s "Winterfair Gifts." One of my favorite authors, and I was thrilled to rejoin her and her cast of characters here. Not sure how it would play to an audience that had not yet read at least Komarr and A Civil Campaign, but for me it worked delightfully. The other brilliant one, that sparkles like a gem among the offal, is Jo Beverley’s "The Trouble with Heroes....

Irresistible Forces (2004) 379 pages edited by Catherine Asaro.I would normally avoid buying an anthology but I really wanted Asaro's story of Havyrl and Lily. I got my money's worth several times over from the rest of the book. The theme of the book is a blend of SF and romance.Winterfair Gifts - Lois McMaster Bujold 71 pages. Excellent. The characters are familiar to the readers of the Vorkosigan books. This Miles Vorkosigan tale is told by Armsman Roic, the most junior of Miles' twenty armsme...

I'm almost ashamed to admit I actually read this book because most of the stories contained herein are really bad. Most of the stories demonstrate all the stereotypical bad characteristics of romances. "Winterfair Gifts" by Lois McMaster BujoldI don't care for her Vorkosigan books, so I didn't even try this story."The Alchemical Marriage" by Mary Jo PutneyUgh. I loathed this story even though I've read several novels set in Putney's Guardian universe and enjoyed them. But this story was a bundle...

http://nhw.livejournal.com/110771.html[return][return]I bought this because it contains the latest installment of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga, the short story "Winterfair Gifts", about Miles Vorkosigan's wedding, so set a few months before the most recent novel of the series, Diplomatic Immunity. The book is worth it for this story alone; I've seen several reviews along the lines of "I haven't read anything else by Bujold but this was very good". Even if you have read everything else

After reading this book, I realize that I'm not a big fan of romance. And while some of the authors I'm familiar with from the SciFi/Fantasy genre, the others were Romance, and in one story in particular that was painfully obvious. And I really didn't like those Romance stories. The one I hated the most (and that I think dragged down the whole book) was one where the fantasy aspect was that a woman's dead husband came back as an angel to make sure that she would marry her sweetheart, that he her...