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This book is the logical extension of the exploration of "uterine replicator" technology. We see Betans and Barrayarans using them to have safer and more egalitarian pregnancies. We see Cetagandans using them in the previous book to design humans differently. And, here in this book, the planet Athos is using them to perpetuate their remote society made up only of men.

(And yeah, yeah, this story was written in 1986, and so we'll just handwave over what the fate of poor trans folks or non-gay men might be on this planet. On this planet, women are sort of treated as mythological demons that have hypnotized galactic men with their wiles. This book is written in a way to make Ethan come off as comically naive, but the religious indoctrination here is horrifying if you think about it to any degree.)

Ethan is the earnest straight man (:drum:) in this comedy routine who is sent off to figure out what happened to their shipment of ovarian tissue for the uterine replicators on Athos. He's never left his planet until now. He's never seen a woman before. He also tries to recruit people to Athos and earnestly doesn't understand why nobody else wants to move to his religious men-only remote planet. Understandably, this book has a good bit of explicit homophobia (but also some fatphobia). That said, it's largely background radiation to the story, rather than something any of the protagonists are doing themselves directly.

All things told, this book holds up as a lot of fun on a reread. Ethan is out of his depth even before he gets captured by some Cetagandans who then attempt to murder Ethan when he doesn't know anything. He gets rescued by Elli Quinn (of the Dendarii Mercenaries, also an absolute delight) who is trying to kill the Cetagandans and chasing what they're after. We also get some interesting worldbuilding for Kline Station, in terms of station life, biocontrol, and newt ecology. Overall, I would pitch this as a spy/heist story that weaves in sociological observations and stars an earnest-but-naive protagonist.

One of the qualities that I love about the Vorkosigan series is that because it is so long, it allows Bujold to play with different genres between books. If The Vor Game is military SF, then Cetaganda is a mystery novel. Pedantically, this book is not really a mystery proper in the way that a reader could piece together the whodunit independently; however I think this is an example of "detective Miles" mode, and one that we'll see again in Memory and Komarr especially.

This book features Miles and Ivan on a diplomatic visit to Cetaganda for the funeral of the Cetagandan empress. Miles has to juggle investigating a plot that's trying to frame the Barrayarans (but why? and by whom?), hiding things from his superiors (by implying he's a higher level spy), trying to interface with the Cetaganda police about a murder investigation (while not giving things away to them or to his superiors), and stopping a plot that would cause chaos to Cetaganda (while also trying to work towards Barrayaran interests).

One thing I think this novel does well is to portray the Cetagandans in a sympathetic and interesting light, and to dig into the interesting social structure they have going on. In previous novels, the Cetagandans have been the historical invaders of Barrayar and also aggressive expansionists into the Hegen Hub, and the reader doesn't know much about them other than their military bent. This book could be a bit more subtle about weaving all this background info in without as much of an info dump, but in a broader sense it adds a lot of nuance and fills in a lot of detail.

Ok, ok. I know I'm leaning on the horn here (pun not intended), but holy moly this book is still stuck in horny Miles brain mode. He is still not over Elena (who doesn't even appear in this novel) and he loses it over the haut women who ensconce themselves behind opaque bubble forcefields. There is one brief, minor moment where Miles realizes these feelings are clouding his judgement; Ivan comes up with a plan Miles hasn't considered because it wouldn't let him play the hero in front of haut Rian. This is as far as it goes, though.

(It's funny how much this quality sticks out for me on this reread. Am I just older and ace-er? Is this how books airquotes of the time all were and I haven't noticed because I haven't been reading books that are thirty five years old? Is this a deliberate writing decision for a twenty year old protagonist? Did I just forget that's how these books were?)

This novel won a Hugo, and I liked it more than Warrior's Apprentice, but it still jumps around quite a bit. It certainly leans a bit more "military sf" where we learn a bit more about space tactics and wormhole politics. The book feels like it has a couple of distinct sections: first, Miles on his first assignment in Camp Permafrost (until he joins a mutiny and washes out of the Imperial Military, again). Then, Miles kicking his feet "in disgrace" until he joins Imperial Security and is sent back out to potentially active the Admiral Naismith identity again. Finally, a bit where he is separated from his ImpSec minders and simultaneously tries to re-form the Dendarii Mercenaries, stop an invasion, and rescue the Barrayaran emperor all at the same time.

On this reread, I felt like that the Camp Permafrost section, even if it was interesting, didn't quite tie into the rest of the novel strongly enough for its length. My opinion while reading is that it would be better as a standalone story. I felt pretty justified learning that it was a separately published novella that then got edited into this book.

Camp Permafrost certainly firmly establishes that Miles has a problem with subordination (although we already knew that). The commanding officer Metzov comes back later (and is ironically undone by his parochial attitudes). And there's a joke later about drain expertise (although I'll ask how can you have a surprise corpse in a novel that goes nowhere). The only plot function this section has is that Metzov can know Gregor and Miles and reveal their identities to Cavilo. None of this feels like enough for its length, and it would have made the rest of the book stronger to have it edited out.

This book definitely continues with Miles lusting forever after every woman on page. He's still in love with Elena, and lusts after Cavilo. Buddy, Elena is (still) married to your oath-sworn armsman, get it together. Maybe I'm biased because I roll my eyes through these bits, but it feels like missed opportunity for character growth, either in seeing him change here or paying for these feelings by having to deal with their consequences more explicitly.

One thing I do really like in this novel is being able to see Gregor out in the field. We get to see how Miles feels bound by his Vor responsibilities but Gregor feels trapped. Having Gregor in play (and their identities partially revealed) adds a different flavor; it's not just foiling a plan, but it's doing it in a way that also involves rescuing Gregor. We also get to see Gregor's competence at his job; he's not just a figurehead emperor, he's a master of politics and manipulation.

I think most importantly, we also get to see the implicit trust between Miles and Gregor, culminating in the climax of the book where Gregor walks directly up to a plasma cannon while Miles pretends like he's going to kill him. This book's theme, if I tried to put a finger on it, is Miles' insubordination in service to what he believes is right. (See also: the moment where he has locked several superior officers in the brig simultaneously.) So, it feels useful to establish the level of trust and devotion between Miles and his emperor directly on page. Sure, Miles continues to deliver results, but why else would anybody put up with this ensign.

This is a novella about Miles on Barrayar after the events of A Warrior's Apprentice and while he's waiting for his first assignment (surely, ship duty :drum:). Miles gets tasked by his father to help a woman from out in the country investigate the murder of her child that nobody else will listen to.

This is not so much a mystery story so much as it is an opportunity to stick Miles in a rural area with poor Barrayarans to navigate a thorny social and political situation as Lord Miles Vorkosigan. You get to see him deal with folks outside of the military or aristocracy and show more directly some of the cultural biases going on on Barrayar. (I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about how this story treats the impoverished hill folks. Miles certainly carries less bias than the officers he brings with him, but there's still a feeling that he feels ashamed and responsible for them, even if he is more respectful than others.)

This is probably unintentional, but this story also works exceptionally well coming off of the courtroom scene at the end of the previous book, which dredges back up events from Barrayar where Aral Vorkosigan had Carl Vorhalas executed for dueling, due to a strict reading of the letter of the law. It's interesting to see Miles come up with a much neater solution to his own problem than his father did with his.

I like the foreshadowing of the opening scene of Miles yelling at his grandfather Piotr's grave, but even more it's interesting to see his compassionate revisionist view of Piotr during the mystery reveal climax. From the perspective of Cordelia, Piotr is a conservative stick in the mud who had to be barred from Miles' uterine replicator for security reasons, but Miles looks back and is able to see how much change Piotr did deal with over his lifetime (even if he couldn't cope with everything). These musings about Piotr make for great bookends to a story about dealing with cultural change.

With Cordelia and Aral's story mostly backgrounded, we now get to the Miles Vorkosigan stretch of novels. Miles washes out of military school due to his physical disabilities and easily broken bones; he ends up on a trip to Beta Colony as a vacation with his bodyguard Bothari, and Bothari's daughter and Miles' childhood friend Elena.

This was the first book in this series I ever read, and I almost bounced off of it the first time through. My partner also stopped reading two thirds of the way through and then came back and finished much much later. This book has big "it gets better in season 3 I promise" energy.

For me, it's a weaker book than the two Cordelia books prior in a number of ways, and honestly there's really only so much I can take of teenager Miles. It's partially his self-loathing--internalizing the way that Barrayar treats anybody who looks like a "mutant" or is at all disabled, and also coping with his own military failures in the eyes of his family. But it's also his constant teenage lusting after his friend Elena or even later with Elli Quinn. My memory is that Miles interacting with any women are a low point in other books too all the way up to Ekaterin, unfortunately. It's not "breasted boobily" levels of lecherousness, but there's a desperation for attention in all of his actions.

Positives, instead. The joy of this book is how instantly the chain of chaos starts when Miles is involved. An example: he makes it to Beta Colony and in the brief period of time that he is out of Bothari's vision after customs he immediately adopts a pilot (plus ship) as his armsman, and then must come up with a scheme to pay off said ship by sneaking weapons through a blockade. Cut to being in space and Miles hatches a scheme to pretend to be leader of the (fictional) Dendarii Mercenaries in order to recruit mercenaries that they had just captured (once they shape up, of course). This creates a wild chain of lies and fabrications as Miles tries to keep it all together, keep his actual identity secret, and keep himself and his people safe.

This book feels meant to be funny and ridiculous. Why does nobody suspect the 17 year old with no combat experience leading mercenaries into battle? I think it's almost believable that these folks are so down on their luck that the version of reality that Miles presents (and creates) is compelling enough that nobody asks too many questions (even if they give some side-eyes). And maybe they handwave past the age with a rumor of mythical Beta Colony rejuvination treatments that make him look really young.

The delight of Miles is his manic energy and the way that he energizes the people around him to be bigger and better than who they were; it's also the balancing flip side of his secret identity trying to keep Barrayaran politics in mind and trying to live with some aristocratic Barrayan honor.

I think this book is still a good introduction to Miles, and I'm glad that he quickly grows up a little bit after this one. The main gripe for me is that this book is just not as neatly plotted or tight thematically and it feels a bit off the rails (even if it sticks the landing with a delightful courtroom ending). I really don't know that I would recommend this book, but it also sets the initial trajectory for the series so strongly that it would be impossible to skip.

Most of the books in this series are quite standalone, but Barrayar feels more like the second half of Shards of Honor. This book follows Cordelia's attempt to survive and protect her new child in a hostile environment as Aral struggles with his new job as regent.

This book and its prequel are some of the strongest books in the series for me. I love Cordelia as an outsider character who hates what she sees in Barrayar but ties herself to it for the people she loves all the same. It's also nice to have "older" characters (which then feels a bit of a shock when the next book has seventeen year old hyperactive Miles). This is also a book that very much centers itself on children and families, and all of the side plots (Drou & Kou, the Vorpatrils, friendship with Kareen, Bothari & Elena) tie neatly into this as well.

One thing I noticed in this reread is how much thematic foreshadowing Kou's nerve disruptor injury has for Miles, obviously in terms of the disability-averse Barrayarans but also psychologically. Miles is carrying a boatload of self-loathing when we first meet him in the next book, and it helps to have been warmed up to the cultural and familial context around those feelings a little bit here.

My favorite moment in this book is the fight between Aral and his father Piotr; their dispute over the fate of baby Miles comes to a head and in a rage Piotr kicks both Aral and Cordelia out of all the Vorkosigan house. A sudden interruption as the emperor Gregor is threatened and Piotr and Aral instantly drop everything and align themselves with full trust to protect their liege together. This is also the moment where the novel shifts from social (politics) directly into action (politics) mode.

He paused, watching Aral, watching her watch Aral. One corner of his mouth crooked up, then the quirk vanished in a thoughtful pursing of his lips. "He's bisexual, you know." He took a delicate sip of his wine.

"Was bisexual," she corrected absently, looking fondly across the room. "Now he's monogamous."

Look, it's the 1980's and I'll give you credit for trying here, but wow does this line always catch me off guard and feel like such a backwards attitude about bisexuals.

I'm sure this line has been picked to death elsewhere, but I'm going to fall back on my previous rant about explicit identity labels in fiction; I think that it's a rare case that using them makes any media better, and like here they certainly don't age well. This exchange could have led with the attempted barb "he's also attracted to men" or "do you know he slept with Ges Vorrutyer", neither of which could have been negated and both of which could have had more interesting answers.