This just shows how long it's been since I visited the world of the Vor lords and Barrayar.
I was so thrilled to find a book marked "A NEW Miles Vorkosigan Novel," but then I looked inside for the pub date and saw ... 2010 ... Yeah, I'm really behind on some of my favorite characters.
Well, I knew it wasn't really a NEW book since I found it at my favorite guilty pleasure used bookstore ... *sigh*
For those who don't know who Miles Vorkosigan is ... there's not enough room in this blog posting to bring you up to speed AND tell you about the book. Basically, Miles is a maniac genius when it comes to strategy and schemes and military maneuvers. At 17 he took over a band of space mercenaries and worked his way up to being the secret weapon of his emperor, and when he had a near-death experience (which very strongly relates to the big knotty problem of this book, with cryogenics and shady dealings of those who make it a big business) -- heck, he DID die, but was revived, with a few problems that led to him essentially retiring from the mercenary business and being an Auditor for the emperor. (In fact, the short blurb for that particular book says: Miles hits thirty. Thirty hits back.) Besides his regular seizures as a result of that whole experience, he was born with brittle bones thanks to an attempt to kill his parents when he was in utero, and he grew up handicapped and looked down on (and not just because he was short) by his very Russian-based society, and the guy is just HYPER!
Gotta love him. Okay, on to the story.
"Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death." That's the first line of the cover flap. So Miles comes to the planet for a conference on cryogenics, because his emperor is smart enough to know this booming business is going to affect the Barrayaran Empire, sooner or later. When protesters kidnap a number of attendees and Miles ends up lost in an underground, city-sized labyrinth of the sleeping/cold/dead, he stumbles upon the darker, nastier side of the "sleep until we find a cure for what's killing you" business. And of course, being Miles, he gets involved, and manages to twist things around to profit someone: Barrayar, his clone brother, Mark (another story, that ties into Miles getting killed and revived) and various other business associates from other stories.
*sigh* I love Barrayar, the whole convoluted series, and maniac Miles whom no one quite understands, but they love him, even though he frustrates everyone he comes into contact with ...
No comments:
Post a Comment