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Summary
Summary
A rich Komarran merchant fleet has been impounded at Graf Station, in distant Quaddiespace, after a bloody incident on the station docks involving a security officer from the convoy's Barrayaran military escort. Lord Miles Vorkosigan of Barrayar and his wife, Lady Ekaterin, have other things on their minds.
Author Notes
Science fiction and fantasy author Lois McMaster Bujold was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1949. After graduating from Ohio State University, she worked as a pharmacy technician at Ohio State University Hospitals. Her first short story was published in Twilight Zone Magazine in 1984 and her first three novels were published in 1986. She received the Nebula Award for Falling Free and The Mountains of Mourning and the Hugo Award for The Vor Game, Barrayar, Mirror Dance, The Mountains of Mourning, and Paladin of Souls. She also received the Locus award for Mirror Dance and Paladin of Souls, the Minnesota Book Award for Komarr, the Mythopoeic Award for The Curse of Chalion, and a Romantic Times 2003 Reviewers' Choice Award for Paladin of Souls. She is best known for her series featuring Miles Vorkosigan.
She currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Those who have followed Bujold's superb far-future saga about the undersized and unorthodox warrior, Miles Vorkosigan, will heave a sigh of relief as our hero and his beloved Ekaterin enjoy wedded bliss (including looking at "baby pictures," i.e., a sperm fertilizing an egg) on a belated galactic honeymoon until a diplomatic crisis intrudes. As a Barrayaran Imperial Auditor, Miles must look into a murder whose investigation is complicated by the boorish behavior of the Barrayaran military. When the case develops a host of new angles, Miles wonders, "How many angles can dance on the head of a pin?" A seemingly straightforward crime leads him to mass murder, kidnapping, hijacking, biological warfare and Cetagandan genetic politics, all on an orbital habitat of the quaddies (the genetically engineered four-armed humans introduced in the author's Nebula Award winning Falling Free). Preventing interstellar war is a tough job, but fortunately Miles has his lady working beside him, in the best tradition of Nick and Nora Charles or Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. As usual, Bujold is adept at world-building and provides a witty, character-centered plot, full of exquisite grace notes such as the description of quaddie ballet (hint: four arms and no gravity make many things possible). Established fans will be thoroughly gripped and likely to finish the book in a single sitting. While this isn't the best place to start for new readers, they'll be helped by a concise chronology at the end that neatly sums up Miles's earlier adventures. (May) FYI: Bujold has won four Hugo Awards for her Vorkosigan saga. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Miles Vorkosigan returns, married, much to his own and readers' relief, to Ekaterin, and, indeed, about to become a father. Lord and Lady Vorkosigan's galactic honeymoon is interrupted, however, by an incident on an orbital habitat in Quaddiespace, home of the four-armed, genetically engineered humans of the Nebula-winning Free Fall. The Barrayarans have been less than diplomatic, and everybody else's paranoia about them, and theirs about everybody else, are fueling a potentially gruesome situation. Naturally, Miles is called on to untangle several interwoven knots, involving old friends, new friends, enemies of all descriptions, the Cetagandans (of course), and Jackson's Whole and its you-pay, we-play gene engineers. There are several romances in unexpected places, though Miles and Ekaterin don't have much time for romancing. In fact, Ekaterin narrowly escapes returning to Barrayar as a widowed single mother! Most of the themes addressed refer to Miles' galactic past, but faithful followers will keenly anticipate the new Vorkosigans settling into Barrayaran society, and Bujold once again failing to disappoint them. Roland Green.
School Library Journal Review
Adult/High School-While Miles Vorkosigan is on his honeymoon, soldiers from his planet are imprisoned for assault on a space station run by the four-armed Quaddies. He is the only competent representative of Barrayar nearby, and he's told to go and get them out, but to try to avoid a major diplomatic incident. Along the way, Miles runs into an old flame who happens to be helping the Quaddies run their space station; an agent of Barrayar is missing in a place where people with only two arms stick out like a sore thumb; and the planet's enemy seems involved as well. Bujold deftly mixes mystery and espionage into her usual well-developed plot as Miles tries desperately to solve the problem and get back to his wife. Extremely intelligent and manically energetic, Miles is one of the most enjoyable characters in science fiction. Bujold's fans will remember the Quaddies from Falling Free (1988) and will enjoy the continuation of Miles and Ekaterin's relationship from A Civil Campaign (2000, both Baen), but a chronology gets new readers up to speed. This quick read has an abundance of plot twists to keep teens glued to the pages. The author gets the technical details right, but keeps explanations to a minimum, so this book should appeal to even non-SF readers who like a fast pace.-Paul Brink, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The umpteenth volume in Bujold's far-future adventure series (A Civil Campaign, 1999, etc.) interrupts dapper, diminutive gentleman adventurer Miles Vorkosigan's honeymoon (he married the widowed Ekaterin Vorsoisson) to handle a complicated emergency at a space station inhabited by Quaddies, genetically engineered humans who thrive in zero gravity because they have another pair of arms and hands rather than legs and feet. Miles, now a diplomatic troubleshooter, must determine the fate of a Barryar ensign who has fallen in love with a sexy but earnest Quaddie dancer and who was contemplating desertion when a bunch of his racist shipmates tried to snatch him back, leaving the dancer with a broken arm, ensign and crewmen in the Quaddie brig, and the Quaddie station commander confiscating the offending Barryar vessel. On top of this, another Barryar officer has disappeared, leaving behind a gruesome trail of blood. Miles plays detective Nick to Ekaterin's weaker version of Nora Charles, as they run into characters from previous tales, such as Miles's former (and unrequited) lover, the hermaphroditic Bel Thorne, and a host of other schemers, none of whom is being completely forthcoming. Just when the story bogs down in dialogue, a rogue Catagandan threatens to explode a bio-bomb if the Quaddies don't set the Barryar ship free. Though Miles remains clever and debonair throughout, too many early series references needlessly obfuscate a breezy, conventional, albeit deep-space, whodunit.
Library Journal Review
En route to his home to await the births of his ex-utero children, Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan receives a directive from the emperor: he must travel to Graf Station to investigate the impounding of an allied merchant fleet from Komorra and the seizure of Barrayaran personnel. In the course of his pursuit for the truth, Miles finds mystery, missing persons, attempted murder, and a host of suspects while simultaneously rediscovering the importance of true friends. The latest in Bujold's popular "Vorkosigan Saga" continues the adventures of one of the genre's most enterprising and engaging heroes. Recommended for most sf collections, particularly where the series has a following. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
