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Character development
Miles Vorkosigan is one of the most striking characters in science fiction. Ambiguity is deeply rooted in his life: he has two identities, Admiral Naismith and Miles Vorkosigan. He has an ambiguous status on his home planet, being simultaneously a pampered and powerful aristocrat and a despised outsider. Miles constantly tests himself against the restrictions of his inadequate body, sometimes with disastrous consequences, although more often his mental brilliance allows him to overcome his physical weakness. In the course of what is already a lengthy series, with several more books apparently on the way, Miles has been allowed to grow and evolve in ways most action heroes never do.
While Miles grows, the series background does as well. The large support cast of characters that populate the Vorkosigan novels are well developed. The cultures of the various worlds and locations where the action takes place -- Barrayar, Beta Colony, Cetaganda, Komarr, Kline Station, Athos, Jackson's Whole -- are distinct and skillfully worked out. Variety also appears in the stories themselves: Miles's challenges are varied from one episode to another, not just a new space battle in each book. These strengths explain why the Vorkosigan series is among the most popular with readers and critics in current science fiction and likely to remain such in future installments.
By the time of the later novels, Miles is living the calmer (at least by his relative standards) life of a troubleshooter for the growing Barrayaran empire. He is also preparing to settle down and have a family.
Stories are listed in order of story chronology, rather than of publication. Bujold's earlier novel Falling Free is also part of this chronology.
Cordelia Naismith, captain of an exploration ship from the extremely liberal and technologically sophisticated Beta Colony, is trapped on a newly-discovered planet with Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar, notorious throughout human space as the "Butcher of Komarr". In this unwelcome situation, she finds Vorkosigan is not at all the monster his reputation suggests, and begins to fall in love with him. She subsequently undertakes another mission for Beta, successfully delivering new technology to an ally which results in a Barrayaran invasion being repelled with disastrous casualties, but is captured and again encounters Vorkosigan. Back on Beta, she is hailed as a heroine until her strangely sympathetic descriptions of Vorkosigan convince Betan authorities she has been brainwashed. Naismith then escapes from Beta and goes to Barrayar, there to become Lady and later Countess Vorkosigan. The dying Emperor Ezer Vorbarra appoints Aral as Regent Elect for his grandson and heir, the four year old Prince Gregor. Aral, who is at the top of the list of succession after the Prince, at first refuses, but Cordelia convinces him to take the job.
As Barrayar begins, the Vorkosigans are expecting their first child, the Emperor dies, and Aral takes over as Regent. An unsuccessful plot to assassinate Aral with poison gas seriously injures Miles while still a fetus. An experimental treatment is available but extremely harmful to the mother, so Cordelia undergoes a placental transfer operation and Miles is transferred to an artificial womb, a uterine replicator acquired subsequent to the recent war. While Cordelia and Aral are recuperating, a palace coup occurs but the young emperor is rescued by the loyal security chief and flown to the Vorkosigans. They escape into the hills on horseback and hide Gregor amongst the rural peasant population. After Cordelia rejoins Aral at a military base they hear that Miles, in his replicator, has been taken to the Palace as a hostage. It seems certain he will die within two weeks for lack of proper maintenance, but Aral cannot bring himself to mount a rescue for one hostage, even his son, out of hundreds. Cordelia convinces her two bodyguards to follow her on a private expedition to rescue Miles and Gregor's mother, the Princess Kareen. Once in the Palace, Cordelia and her party are captured. They overpower their captors, execute the Pretender to the throne, and escape with Miles, but the Princess is killed. The coup falls apart without its leader and peace returns to the planet. The enlightened Betan Cordelia is given control of Prince Gregor's education, with far-reaching consequences for benighted Barrayar.
When Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is born, he is a dwarf, with extremely fragile bones that tend to break under any stress. This has particular consequences on Barrayar, where birth defects are common and were subject to infanticide during the centuries of the Time of Isolation, before Barrayar was rediscovered by galactic civilization. So-called "muties" are still reviled and shunned, and Miles, though genetically healthy, will deal with prejudice throughout his life.
17-year-old Miles fails to qualify for the Barrayaran Service Academy, breaking both legs during the physical. On a visit to Beta Colony, in quick succession he obtains a ship, a pilot, and a smuggling mission, running guns to a beleaguered government. He captures another ship from the Oseran Mercenaries, somewhat unintentionally, and presenting himself as the commander of the competing Dendarii Mercenaries co-opts the crew through sheer improvisation. Under "Admiral Naismith", the Dendarii eventually take over the rest of the Oserans and win the war.
The unexpected arrival of Miles' cousin Ivan Vorpatril awakens Miles to the realization that the Council of Counts has charged him with maintaining a private army — capital treason on Barrayar. He returns home posthaste, reveals the real plot behind the charges, and escapes trial by recasting the Dendarii as Imperial forces. He is rewarded with admission to the Academy.
Miles undertakes his first mission as his Father's Voice, exercising justice and mercy in appropriate measure.
Emperor Gregor gets bored and runs away seeking adventure. Unfortunately it gets to him first; fortunately Miles is on hand to rescue him.
Miles and Ivan are sent to the homeworld of the Cetagandan Empire to represent Barrayar at an Imperial funeral. Unsurprisingly they become entangled in a struggle for power
Miles undertakes a mission to Jackson's Whole to recover experimental samples. Almost too late, he discover that the material has been injected into the leg of Taura, the result of an earlier attempt to create a "super soldier": wildly attractive, she is covered in hair and capable of breaking him into pieces without even breaking step. Miles is inevitably attracted to her and she joins his list of dangerous girlfriends. He rescues her whilst creating havoc on Jackson's Whole which will have repercussions.
Miles manages to finagle his way into a maximum-security POW camp on Dagoola IV. He stages a mass breakout.
Miles discovers he has a clone brother, who is trying to kill him. The assassination plot is foiled and Miles invites his brother home to meet the family.
The three short stories Mountains of Mourning, Labyrinth, and Borders of Infinity were reprinted with an untitled framing story in which Miles reports to Simon Illyan.
Cordelia, accepts the clone, who is thus named Mark in Barrayan tradition, as another son and convinces the Vorkosigans that the clone is a legitimate family member. Miles is killed after Mark is captured when he masquerades as Miles and dupes the Free Dendarii Mercenaries into a mission to free clones held "prisoner" on the planet of Jackson's Whole. Although Miles is treated in the battlefield and put into a cryogenic hybernation chamber, it is lost when the assult team has to withdraw and an inovative medic hides the chamber in freight forwarding warehouse. While the Mercenaries negotiate Mark's release from a planetary overlord, Miles is unknowingly resuscitated by the employees of a rival overlord.
By the time of Memory, several years later, Miles' already weak body is showing strains of his adventures. He suffers an epileptic seizure during a combat mission, injures friendly personnel and then falsifies the mission report to cover up his medical condition. He is caught lying by Simon Ilyan, head of Imperial Security. Forced to resign from Impsec, Emperor Gregor Vorbarra appoints Miles as an Imperial Auditor after Miles suspects a plot to destroy Simon Ilyan's career and subvert Impsec is in the making.
Miles is despatched to Komarr to investigate what appears to be a serious accident. He manages to defeat a plot to seal off the only wormhole to Barrayar and meets (and falls in love with) Ekaterin Vorsoisson whose husband manages to die in such a way as to point the finger of suspicion at Miles.
Miles sets himself the interesting task of wooing Ekaterin without actually telling her: he is fearful that her previous experience of marriage has put her off for life. Predictably his attempts at subtlety backfire spectacularly and he is only finally saved by accepting her proposal of marriage.
Miles and Ekaterin set out to enjoy a much-delayed honeymoon whilst their first two children are approaching birth in their uterine replicators back on Barrayar. They are almost home when Miles is despatched to Quaddiespace to untangle a diplomatic incident. Not unexpectedly by this stage, the solution to the problem involves Miles almost dying (again) and averting an interstellar war by the skin of his teeth. Not least of his problems is the potential combined wrath of his wife and his mother should he miss the birth of his children.
The earlier novels and the short stories have been repackaged in omnibus editions.
The Stories
Shards of Honor
Barrayar
The Warrior's Apprentice
"Mountains of Mourning"
The Vor Game
Cetaganda
Ethan of Athos
The eponymous Ethan is an obstetrician on Athos, a planet populated entirely by men. When a problem arises with their latest shipment of "raw materials" (i.e. human eggs) Ethan has to venture off-world for the first time to solve it. He also experiences his first encounter with a female human: luckily for him it is the redoubtable Elli Quinn (one of Miles' numerous girlfriends) and he succeeds in his quest. He also recruits a new immigrant to Athos, one Terrance Cee, who is an escapee from a Cetagandan genetic experiment (he's a telepath so they really want him back)."Labyrinth"
"Borders of Infinity"
Brothers in Arms
Borders of Infinity
Mirror Dance
Memory
Komarr
A Civil Campaign
Winterfair Gifts
Diplomatic Immunity
Books in Print
This story is also available from the Baen Free Library
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