Lois McMaster Bujold (Women's Month)

Lois McMaster Bujold writes the Vorkosigan saga, the adventures of one hyperactive runt: Miles Vorkosigan. They're great reads. I'm currently rereading them all in chronological order.

One thing - among many - that she does really well is to work her exposition into the story: showing rather than telling. For example, this excerpt, from an early story (The Warrior's Apprentice), touches on the dramatic changes this society has been through in only a few generations and how the military, to a large degree, is both embracing and leading social change:

                "Kosigan, Kostolitz," the noncom called, passing in front of him. Mile's brows snapped down and he gave the noncom a sharp glance upward, then controlled his gaze to a blank straightness. The omission of the honorific before his name was policy, not insult. All classes stood equal in the Emperor's service now. A good policy. His own father endorsed it.

                Grandfather bitched, to be sure, but that unreconstructed old man had begun his Imperial service when its principal arm was horse cavalry, and each officer trained his own military apprentices. To have addressed him in those days as Kosigan, without the Vor, might have resulted in a duel. Now his grandson sought entrance to the military academy, off planet style, and training in the tactics of energy weapons, wormhole exits, and planetary defense. And stood shoulder to shoulder with boys who would not have been permitted to polish his sword in the old days.