The Vor Game

At first reading, I wondered whether to give this two or three stars. On second reading, I hesitate between three and four. I think I'll keep it at three for now, but clearly I appreciated it better this time.

Although I like Bujold as a writer, her long-running hero Miles Vorkosigan isn't one of my favourite characters. He's a stunted cripple, an aristocrat, unusually brave, and in some ways a genius—and I'm none of these things, which tends to hinder my sense of identification with him.

He had a military career, followed by a civilian career when his medical problems got in the way of the first. I prefer his civilian career, but this book is the second part of his military career.

At this stage he's 20 years old and has the official military rank of ensign (junior officer). The story shows him navigating his way with difficulty (but ultimate success) through a series of complicated, uncomfortable, and dangerous situations; although most of the people he encounters are left in a state ranging from bewildered through irritated to furious—or, in some cases, dead.

The plot is overcomplicated and riddled with coincidences: transported into strange and unfamiliar places, he keeps running into people he knows (friendly and unfriendly). Some of them may be more insane than he is, which is alarming.

If you allow all the complications to wash over you, it makes quite an exciting story.

TVG provides another romping Miles Vorkosigan adventure. It is the sixth book in publication order but the fifth novel in internal chronological order. I think the series is best enjoyed in chronological order (YMMV).

This story starts with Miles graduating from the Barrayar military academy and being assigned to a freezing arctic station as a meteorological officer. He is informed that this assignment will give him a chance to deal with his issue of not treating authority with the proper respect. That of course doesn't work out. 😯

In this book the hyper Miles's ability to get into trouble surpasses even the level in The Warrior's Apprentice. However, I think he is a more complex, thoughtful, and believable character in this story. Also, this story further develops some important secondary characters -- most especially Emperor Gregor. After a bit of a slow start the action becomes fast and furious as Miles goes from crisis to crisis.

The ending, as I have come to expect from Bujold, is quite satisfying.

I am quite enjoying the audio versions of the Vorkosigan saga. Mostly rereads but it seems I somehow missed this one back in the day.

Solid 4 stars.

Executive Summary: I think this is probably my favorite book of the series so far. After a bit of a slow start I really enjoyed the rest of it.Audiobook: Grover Gardner does another great job. He's made some of the less interesting books easier to get through. He doesn't do many voices but he seems like a great fit for Miles.Full ReviewI've always been someone who prefers to read long-running series in publication order rather than chronological or “recommended” order. For this series that has meant a bit of up and down. This is the sixth book I've read and most of the other five were in the 3-3.5 range. This was a solid 4. I definitely enjoy Miles as a character. I'm a little uncertain where this book slots in compared to some of the others I've read. It seems like it's set before [b:Brothers in Arms 296182 Brothers in Arms (Vorkosigan Saga, #5) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353351698l/296182.SY75.jpg 1808918]. I guess that would be the benefit of reading these chronologically rather than publication order. All I know is I seem to enjoy him more and more as the series goes on.From the description I had thought we were going to spend time with him during the academy. I love a good school trope. However it turns out this essentially starts with his graduation. I found the beginning a little slow but once it got going, I was hooked.I thought there was a lot of good character development. I also enjoyed the stuff with Gregor. I'm a little fuzzy on the details about Miles history with the Dendari fleet, but I feel like I haven't yet read about his first encounter with them yet.Overall this was a solid book, and since I already own [b:Barrayar 61905 Barrayar (Vorkosigan Saga, #7) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397151220l/61905.SY75.jpg 3036422], I'll probably jump into that soon. I'm a bit reluctant since that's set after [b:Shards of Honour 61903 Shards of Honour (Vorkosigan Saga, #1) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1392767899l/61903.SY75.jpg 9673658] which I didn't particularly enjoy, but the consensus seems to be that it's a much better book.

I love a good rogue - or I love reading about them, rather. I may have mentioned elsewhere that, prior to five or six years ago, I liked my protagonists to be heroic in the more traditional sense of the word: followers of order and justice, keepers of the peace - Lawful Good, to use the parlance of Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop role-playing games. However, recently I've developed a marked preference for rogues: clever, street-smart, and whose loyalties and actions are defined not by the law or society or any kind of hierarchy, but their own selves and what they believe is right. I have grown very appreciative of characters who are capable of getting themselves out of any situation by talking themselves out of said situation, as well as the way they can treat the law and society in a very subjective manner while still having a personal code of honor.

There are quite a few rogues in literature, of course, and they seem to be quite frequent in genre fiction, especially. Fantasy is, naturally, populated by quite a few of them, but sci-fi has it's own fair share of rogues, too. One of my personal favorites has to be Miles Vorkosigan, from Lois McMaster Bujold's excellent Vorkosigan Saga, a series of military space opera that began with the novel Shards of Honor, and continued with the novels Barrayar and The Warrior's Apprentice. I'd read Shards of Honor and Barrayar long before I'd gotten the idea of starting a book-review site, but I already had the site in place when I picked up The Warrior's Apprentice and have a review for that book. This is fortunate, because the novel The Vor Game picks up where The Warrior's Apprentice left off.

The events of The Vor Game happen some time (a couple of years) after the end of The Warrior's Apprentice. Miles has graduated from officer school, and has been given the rank of ensign and an assignment to the remote, frozen outpost of Kyril Island - what is probably the most terrible assignment that could be given to anyone. However, Miles, being Miles, accepts it with minimal complaint - but Miles, being Miles, also gets himself entangled in a series of events that take him far from Kyril Island and Barrayar: events that lead him to a conspiracy that threatens his family, Barrayaran society, one of his closest friends, and which could potentially lead to a deadly, destructive war.

It must be said now that I have very strong feelings about this series, and about the characters in them. There is always a certain amount of investment involved when one reads a book, but the degree of investment can vary from absolutely none at all to extreme levels of investment. The latter is how I feel about Miles, and about the handful of supporting characters that surround him. Much of this devotion comes from the fact that Miles is precisely the kind of rogue I enjoy reading about, but severely hobbled by his own insecurities - insecurities he has had to deal with from birth, but which, paradoxically, have given him his roguish traits in the first place. This combination of wicked cleverness and vulnerability is a particularly enjoyable combination for me, which means Miles is right up my alley.

The Vor Game is, therefore, a great mountain of fuel for that particular fire, because it throws Miles several curve balls that challenge him both mentally and emotionally. These curve balls include the Dendarii Mercenaries, whom Miles brought together in The Warrior's Apprentice, and then abandoned to continue studying to be a Barrayaran military officer. Amongst the Dendarii Mercenaries is his old friend (and love) Elena, who married and fell in love with another one of the Dendarii Mercenaries at the end of the previous novel. Miles' reaction to her is interesting, both because he is still in love with her, and because Elena herself has changed from the way she was in The Warrior's Apprentice. In Miles' absence she has become (or perhaps has had to become) a strong, capable, and perhaps somewhat ruthless leader. Miles, in his poor, broken heart, is uncertain as to how he should deal with this - or for that matter, how he should deal with being the leader of the Dendarii Mercenaries again, assuming his former identity of Miles Naismith. He brings it off with aplomb, of course, but it's interesting to see how he finds being in that particular identity's skin a bit uncomfortable because it doesn't square with how he thinks a Vor, especially one in the military, should act. This novel also introduces Miles childhood friend and Emperor of Barrayar, Gregor Vorbarra, as an active supporting character. Mentioned frequently enough in the last books, this is the first time we see Gregor take an active part in anything to do with Miles - except it's quite obvious Miles would have preferred that Gregor stayed in the safety of Barrayar, but Gregor's very much tired of living in a gilded cage - tired enough that he's obviously depressive, and suicidal to boot. I find this portrayal of him to be interesting, and very much in keeping with the way he was raised, so I look forward to finding out what happens to him further down the line.

As for the antagonists, those are quite interesting too. There's General Metzov, whom Miles meets while at Kyril Island, and is a perfect case what happens when people let days of glories past get to their heads. But Metzov isn't the most interesting villain; that honor goes to a woman named Cavilo, who believes that there is no such thing as choosing between victory and defeat; instead, one must make choices so that, whatever the outcome, one always wins. Possessed of "a face like an angel, [and a] mind like a rabid mongoose", it's incredibly fascinating reading how Miles matches wits with her, and wins - but just barely. If I like my protagonists to be fantastically clever, I certainly like it when my antagonists are too, and Cavilo is one of the wiliest I've read about yet. I certainly hope she makes a further appearance down the line in the series, because it'd be incredibly fun to see how Miles deals with her.

Given these characters in play, plus events from previous novels, I think it's safe to say that the plot is an enormous amount of fun. There's an almost breathless quality to it, with very little time for Miles to think, and when he does it's usually filled with him simultaneously plotting his next move and doubting himself. And of course, given how clever the antagonist is in this one, there are quite a few twists and turns, some of which I didn't see coming - and I really like it when I can't see the plot twists coming.

Overall, The Vor Game is another great example of why Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga has the readership it does: great characters, thrilling plot, and the promise for even more further down the line. Given the events that have happened in this novel, I'm looking forward to finding out just what happens to Miles, his friends, and even his enemies in the succeeding novels, though whatever might happen to them, I'm sure it's going to be another excellent adventure.