Dendarii Dispatch

Vol I No 1 New Year 1996

Welcome to the re-launch of the Dendarii Dispatch. The Dispatch has now got a new editor, Michael Bernardi. Subscription contact is still Judith Louvis. For addresses see below.

Who am I? I read my first book by Lois McMaster Bujold at the end of February 1989. This was Shards of Honour (It was the Headline UK edition, hence the spelling change). I thought it was so good I bought The Warrior's Apprentice a week later. One week on I bought Ethan of Athos. At which point there were no more Bujold books available in the UK so I had to wait a couple of months for the publication of Falling Free. I then had to wait a year for the UK publication of Brothers in Arms at which point I started buying US imports published by Baen!

I met Lois for the first time at MagiCon, the WorldCon in Florida in 1992 when she told me about Miles' Minions and that Judith Louvis ran her fan club. I wrote to Judith on my return to England and received my first (and unfortunately last) copy of the Dendarii Dispatch.

Just over a year ago, on the Internet, I started a Lois Bujold discussion list, which currently has over 100 readers and is still going strong. As a result of discussion I have created a fairly complete Bibliography (including some translations). It seemed a small step to go from electronic publication to paper one, so I offered my services to Judith as editor of a hopefully revitalised Dendarii Dispatch this was accepted and the first results you hold in your hands.


(Cover Cetaganda)
Cetaganda has just finished its serialised run in Analog and is due to be published in hard cover from Baen in January 1996. "This is the latest instalment of the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan. This time Miles and Cousin Ivan go to Cetaganda to play the part of sprigs of the nobility doing their diplomatic duty to good old Barrayar, a part for which Ivan is particularly well suited. But when the Empress of Cetaganda dies naturally, and her lifelong attendant dies unnaturally--Miles and Ivan find themselves in the thick of it.

So of course Miles tries to play Inspector Poirot in a strange, complicated, and completely alien culture big on rayguns and ritual scarification, while gorgeously handsome and adventurously lascivious Ivan manages to get himself involved with several women at the same time--all of whom are highly connected politically and all TROUBLE from the word go."

In 1995 Lois's profile was raised so that a few more people have now heard of her. She was Guest of Honour at Confabulation, the Eastercon in London, England. This February she will be Guest of Honor at Boskone 33. As is normal for Boskone a book of material by Lois will be published by NESFA to be available at the convention. This book will be called "Dreamweaver's Dilemma". Lois is also to be Guest of Honor at Coppercon 16, September 6-8 1996 at Scottsdale, Arizona.

Lois also plans to attend WisCon 20 in Madison, Wisconsin May 24-27 1996. Minicon 31 in Minneapolis, April 5-7 1996. She will also be giving a speech at the American Library Association meeting in New York City in July.


Mirror Dance was published in paperback by both Baen in the US and Pan in the UK. It also won the Hugo Award at Intersection, the WorldCon held in Scotland in 1995.


(Cover Women at War)
Women at War is Lois's first time as an editor, with the help of Roland L Green, she has produced a very good collection of stories, all of which are written by women. This is a hard cover, published by Tor. The trade paperback edition is due to be published in August 1997.


Lois has also now finished Memory and the manuscript is currently with her publishers, Baen. It will probably be published in hardback at the end of 1996 or the beginning of 1997.


Those of you who have a copy on the 2nd edition of the SF Encyclopedia by John Clute and Peter Nicholls will have noticed the minimal number of column inches given to Lois.

The CD-ROM version:- "Grolier Science Fiction: The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" has much more material from/about Lois. Three of her books (out of only 300 total) are in the Book Browser section, which gives brief synopsis, (the three books are Falling Free, Barrayar and The Vor Game). There is even a QuickTime video of Lois talking. Sadly I don't have a sound card yet so I don't know what she is saying!


In the last few months interviews with Lois have appeared in Locus Issue #415 (Aug 95), Science Fiction Chronicle Issue #186 (Oct/Nov 95), and Interzone issue #101 (Nov 95).

All three interviews were comprehensive and are well worth hunting for if you can get the back issues.


The Reader's Chair has acquired the exclusive audio rights to a series of ten science fiction titles written by Lois McMaster Bujold. The titles are: Falling Free, Shards of Honor, Barrayar, The Warrior's Apprentice, The Vor Game, Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, Borders of Infinity, Brothers in Arms, and Mirror Dance. They will be released in chronological order.

The series will be unabridged and performed by award-winning narrators Carol Cowan and Michael Hanson. This combination of critically acclaimed stories, veteran audio performers and producer Steve Gordon's engineering expertise makes these unabridged productions a sure bet for all science fiction and audio book fans. The series will be performed by award-winning narrators Carol Cowan and Michael Hanson. This combination of critically acclaimed stories, veteran audio performers and producer Steve Gordon's engineering expertise will make these unabridged productions a delight for all science fiction and audio book fans. Advance orders may be placed by calling (800) 616-1350.

Unfortunately these are only available in the US.


If you have news, reviews or suggestions for the newsletter send them to me at the address below. Note that I may or may not use material submitted and will edit material as I see fit.

Miles' Minions is the official Lois McMaster Bujold Appreciation Society. The Dendarii Dispatch is the newsletter of Miles' Minions. The main purpose of the Dispatch is to provide information about Lois's convention appearances, book release dates and to allow Lois to easily communicate with her fans.

The editorial address for queries about the Dendarii Dispatch is:-
Dendarii Dispatch
145 Maple Drive
Burgess Hill
West Sussex
RH15 8DE
England
email: mike@dendarii.demon.co.uk
The contact here is Michael Bernardi

The official address for subscriptions to Miles' Minions etc is:-
Miles' Minions
PO Box 132
Shiloh
NJ 08353
USA
The contact here is Judith Louvis


There is also an electronic discussion list on the Internet which you can join (if you have access to Internet email). The Lois McMaster Bujold Mailing List exists to allow discussion of the works of Lois Bujold. If you wish to join the list send an email to listproc@herald.co.uk with subject blank and message body of
SUBSCRIBE LOIS-BUJOLD Miles Vorkosigan

(assuming your name is Miles Vorkosigan if it isn't, substitute your own name instead, not your email address).

It is hoped that a World Wide Web site can be set up sometime in the near future. Details will appear in future issues.

© 1996 by Michael Bernardi

Current version by Michael Bernardi, mike@dendarii.demon.co.uk


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Last updated: January 31st 1998