Rating: 
Summary: Can you read this book just once?
Review: I love to read, but once in a while a book will cause me to read it through in one setting. Not only did I read this book in one setting but within the week, it was re-read 6 more times within the week.<it has been re-read more since.> This book takes your emotions on a rousing roller coaster ride. Lois McMaster Bujold outdid herself on this "campaign" (I have all her books). The various plots kept you thinking "what else can happen now?" While the dinner was "delicious" in a mini-denouement, my vote went to goes to the voting of the counts chapter as one of the great denouements.<love re-reading this chapter.> I love Miles' adventures and he certainly gets into some sticky ones. He lives up to the adage that it is better to be lucky than good. Rousing story! My hat is off to Ms Bujold.
Rating:
Summary: Space Opera at Its Best
Review: If you've never read encountered Lois McMaster Bujold before, I strongly urge you to lay hands on any volume bearing her name. The adventures of Miles Vorkosigan top the list, however. With charm, a lively sense of adventure and ripping humor, Bujold chucks her hero into the breech and we anxiously wait to see whether he sinks or swims. Miles' successes are as monumental as his screwups. Miles suffered teratogenic (*not* genetic) damage before birth and has had to find ways to overcome his brittle bones, lack of height, innumerable surgeries, and cryo-revival in a society that has a history of killing mutants at birth. He's a "hyperactive little git", a genius, and incredibly lucky. His defects neatly balance his assets, so it is easy to cheer him on. He's not a perfect hero.
As usual, there are many situations going on in this book. The Emperor is getting married, Miles' clone-brother is starting up a business in Vorkosigan House, genetics interfere (once again) in the political world of the Counts, and Miles is on a single-minded hunt to make a lovely widow his Lady. This book is great as a stand-alone volume, but it does help to have read the other books in the series first.
I love this series and am not-so-patiently waiting for the next installment.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I absolutely love this book, but I don't recommend that anyone reads this as their first novel in the Vorkosigan series (at least read Komarr first).
There's a lot going on in this book, but I would rather not ruin it for anyone. However, if nothing else, Mile's dinner party is worth the price of the book.
Rating:
Summary: The funniest book I've ever read - and there's more!
Review: I read the first 11 chapters of this book on the internet (...). I was hooked. I waited on tenterhooks for the book to be released, purchased it as soon as possible and... LOVED IT! I laughed myself silly all through the fateful dinner, party, worried as Miles tried to patch up his ailing lovelife, and marveled at the byzantine turns of Barrayaran politics. If you've never read Lois' books before, this is a great one to start with, because you'll never stop. Each book just get's better, and now MIles is setlling down, it offers a greater scope for 'Milesian mayhem' than ever before. For die-hard Bujold fans, great news. Want to know what happens on the honeymoon? The next book is out March 2002, titled "Diplomatic Immuntiy". (...)
Rating: 
Summary: Bujold Piles It On
Review: One of the tricks in a comedy of errors is to compound problems. You start with something small and then see how you can make it worse. Bujold does this excellently. One such example is Miles's dinner party.I do not agree with some reviewers that Bujold is misandrystic. Aral Vorkosigan is anything but a bumbling fool who needs to be saved by strong women, nor is Simon Illyan, nor was Admiral Sung of the Dendarii, who helped educate and mentor Miles into a competent military leader. But young men *are* bumbling. And Miles is... Miles. He's a hyperkinetic force of nature with a mind to match, and it is not so much that he needs a woman to take him in hand, he merely needs a more grounded counterpart whose strengths complement his own rather than competing with them. And by force of his personality, he has had to find someone with the strength of character to be able to be his equal, not his subordinate. For example, he may have had an infatuation for Elena Bothari Jesek, but their history from childhood was that she and Ivan Vorpatril followed Miles's lead. Elli Quinn, Sgt. Taura... great women, but never in Miles's league. It was not until Ekaterin Vorsoisson that Miles had really met a challenge he could not scheme his way through. The true magic of this novel is that for once Miles's enemy is not a clear-cut, tangible opponent. His enemy is his having to adapt from a life of command that began as a teenager to a more civilian life. Though politics is offered by Bujold as a replacement for the military as an outlet for his scheming mind. The rest of his life cannot operate in the same way and his challenge is not to pull off a grand military operation, but to adapt to his new circumstances as his father's voice in the council and to trying to woo a woman he cannot command. In a way, at 30 years old, he is finally having to become a "man." I have enjoyed this book and have Bujold's next Miles book on pre-order.
Rating:
Summary: Try it
Review: I didn't want to like this book. This is only the second book of this series that I have read (the other was Memory), and I approached it with some trepidation given that, from the illustration and intro copy on the cover, it almost feels more like romance than sci-fi. But I must admit that at times I found myself howling with laughter, and at other times almost moved to tears. The central dinner party is truly one of the funniest scenes I have read in a long time, and the climactic council scene successfully brought the various elements of the story to a satisfying conclusion. The central characters are likable and Miles certainly demonstates an admirable capacity to learn from his mistakes. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read but enough of the misandry already!
Review: This book is yet another fun read by Bujold but her rampant misandrony is becoming the dominant theme of her work. Males, particularly white, heterosexual, ones without massive physical or mental/emotional damage, are over and over again portrayed as complete idiots that need to be rescued or straightened out by strong women. While I gladly ignored her complete lack of knowledge about matters military (which she admits) in the first books, because they were rather well written and side-splittingly funny, her hatred/contempt for males is getting too much to ignore. Her only really smart/competent characters are women and especially women who make better men than men do! If my information is correct, Ms. Bujold went through a particularly nasty divorce and this would explain the misandry. May I suggest some therapy so we get more scenes such as Miles' dinner party and less of the bile?
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Lois McMaster Bujold has long ago become my favorite author. This is certainly one of my favorite Miles Vorkosigan adventures also. In this book you won't find dendarii mercenaries nor even a huge lord auditor investigation...just good old Miles screwing his love life. In the romantic scene of the Imperial wedding Miles is set on conquering the heart of Ekaterin, whom he met on Komarr. Unfortunately, conquering is too precise a word and Miles will hit quite a few walls in his lame attempts. LMB again unfolds her magic in showing us yet another side of Miles. As in Memory he will face situations that will require he takes a close look at himself and either grow and learn or... But Miles is not alone! Mark rejoins House Vorkosigan with quite a love problem of his own and Ivan can't seem to settle down. And along these problems of the heart the Barrayaran political scene is in turmoil and the council of counts is in full activity. This book is a true adventure of the heart, mind and soul. Nobody does it better than LMB. She conceives wonderful and entertaining plots but the stars are her characters: they live and breathe.
Rating:
Summary: She can still write with the best of them
Review: I have read every word I can find in print that this woman has written. I have done tis with only one other SF author, Robert Heinlein. Why? Simple, the characters and the stories . In not so simple words it is becasue I like the way her characters think. To me there is no higher praise for an author than to say that I would pay full price for one of their books. I would do so for anything she has written as they are that good. This one has some great humor and still keeps Miles life moving forward. Bravo Zulu! I can't wait for the next one. ....
Rating:
Summary: Gut-busting, I LOL. Eye-tearing and heart-warming.
Review: I LMAO (can I say that?) I laughed so hard, my eyes teared and I had to stop reading till I could dry them. THE BEST BOOK I've read this Summer--no, this YEAR...and LAST. (THE NEXT BEST were KOMARR and Cordelia's Honor. I haven't read the rest of the series...YET but I'm workin' on it.) I ached for Miles but I could sympathize with Ekaterin. And those bugs! Oh God! And that dinner party! Ms. Bujold, please, please don't let this be the last of the series! You could start another whole generation of Vorkosigans. At any rate, please let Miles live on! I'd give this 10 stars if I could!
|
