[u][b]Book Recommendation (sort of)[/b][/u]

The Warrior's Apprentice - Louis McMaster Bujold

This book is a very mediocre space opera. It is bland and formulaic setting, the plot makes little logical sense and the characters are inconsistent and unbelievable.

I nearly didn't finish it until an odd piece of mental gymnastics totally changed the book for me. The protagonist is a young aristocrat name Miles who is conveniently a cripple for the presumable purpose of making us overlook the fact that he is a monster. Miles of course is a word derived from Latin that meant knight in the middle ages. When you look at Miles as a knight, it actually turns a rather crappy book into a masterful take down of Medieval Knighthood and the myth of the martial aristocrat. I dont think Bujold meant it this way but it made the whole exercise way more enjoyable!