Some people have described the new anthology edited by Catherine Asaro (not my favorite author) as a romance/scifi crossover. To me that misses the point, to me Irresistible Forces is a vehicle for the “Winterfair Gifts” the missing and much delayed chapter in the Vorkosigan saga.

The story has a bit of a saga of its own. Bujold wrote the story specifically for Irresistible at least two years ago as part of IF’s originally planned publication date of Feb, 2003. Publication, for reasons unknown, has been delayed for over a year. In the meantime however Bujold sold translation rights to a number of countries, including to a publisher in the Czech Republic (where apparently she is very popular). Up until last week this meant that the only way to read “Winterfair Gifts” in english was to read a covertly circulated version that had been back translated from Czech to English. (an undertaking which Bujold seemed to very amused by when I saw her speak)

update: I thought WF was merely OK. Without my historic affections for the principles I’m not sure it would even have been that. Nothing else in the collection caught my eye. (but then half the writers aren’t from one of my genres, and I went through my Roberson phase 12-13 years ago and see no reason to revisit it)