Ratings94
Average rating4
Their technological resources destroyed, a colonizing expedition from Earth has been stranded on the world of Methuen for over two hundred years. Their continued survival is largely due to the organization of healers known as the Eumedicos and to the Seekers Veritas, a unique group composed of pairs of Bondmates, one human and one ghatti--a telepathic catlike being native to Methuen who bonds with a specific human for life. These Bondmates travel from town to town, settling disputes by truth-reading the minds and emotions of plaintiffs and defendants. While most people respect the Seekers, there are those who fear the ghatti powers. And now someone has begun attacking Seeker pairs. What no one knows is that this destroyer has targeted one specific pair of Bondmates as special victims--the woman Doyce and the ghatta Khar'pern. For the key to defeating this deadly foe is locked away in Doyce's mind behind barriers even her ghattas has never been able to break down.
Series
Series
16 primary books21 released books#7 in Vorkosigan Saga (Publication Order)
Vorkosigan Saga (Publication Order) is a 21-book series with 16 primary works first released in 1986 with contributions by Lois McMaster Bujold, Grover Gardner, and Bujold.
Series
16 primary books21 released books#3 in Vorkosigan Saga (Chronological)
Vorkosigan Saga (Chronological) is a 21-book series with 16 primary works first released in 1986 with contributions by Lois McMaster Bujold, Grover Gardner, and Bujold.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
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Another entertaining Bujold novel (I expect no less). Barrayar won the Hugo Award. This books shows us the culture in Barrayar, the Vorkosigan home planet, and explains how Miles, the protagonist of most of the VORKOSIGAN books, became deformed.
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/fantasy-author/bujoldloismcmaster/
Like the first book in this series, this is a really good science fiction culture clash book that is somewhat marred by some dated and naive treatments of SA.
On the whole, Cordelia is one of my favorites of old school SF heroines. She is a scientist, an adventurer, a sometimes soldier, and in this book she is also a wife and mother, and she holds all these identities without sacrificing a one of them. Her impressions of Barrayar still ring as a commentary on our barbaric world today even thirty years later. God reading older science fiction can really show you how little has changed. Bujold is a great writer who balances political intrigue and action fairly effortlessly.
But again, it's hard to gloss over the way SA and mental health in general are treated. It feels like dated misunderstanding more than anything, but it definitely requires a big old content warning at the top not for any sort of graphicness but just for how casually it is treated. I don't think Bujold would write this way anymore, but it does dampen an otherwise wonderful adventure read.
My second book in the series, and it was another fun and quick read. It will be interesting to see Miles and Gregor's future in the series, they certainly have their challenges to overcome.
