So, I enjoyed The Warrior’s Apprentice, and The Mountains of Mourning made me cry. How I would react to The Vor Game was anyone’s guess, but I knew that this last story in the Young Miles omnibus would not disappoint me.Indeed, with this book, Lois McMaster Bujold hits it out of the park. I totally get why this won the Hugo Award in 1991. It is bold and brash but has a deeper psychological element to it, and the combination of these components results in an extremely entertaining work of character space opera. If The Mountains of Mourning endeared me to Miles Vorkosigan and Bujold’s bizarre feudalistic society of Barrayar, then The Vor Game proves that Bujold can do with Miles what she did with Cordelia in Shards of Honour.This might be a backwards way to start a review, but I want to talk about the afterword to Young Miles first. Bujold provides a fascinating look at the genesis of the Vorkosigan saga and her career as a published author. She describes how the first Vorkosigan books obtained a home at Baen, and her experience preparing The Vor Game. At one point, she remarks how the book was stubbornly threatening to turn into a murder mystery set entirely on Kyril island, backing off only when she altered the contents of the mysterious package Miles finds from money to cookies. I understand that feeling, and I appreciate Bujold sharing such anecdotes. Much of what she says rings true and dovetails with my experience reading The Vor Game—and, ultimately, is that not some of the highest praise we can give an author?Superficially, this novel is much like The Warrior’s Apprentice: Miles embarks on what should be a fairly straightforward journey, only to be drawn into an ever-increasingly complex and dangerous set of circumstances. You cannot understand what it means to “raise the stakes” until you’ve read a Vorkosigan novel. Bujold did not invent the concept, obviously, but I think she might have perfected it (along with the related concepts of pacing and the dramatically ironical twist).I could spend all day, and all night, counting the awesome number of twists, gambits, reversals, and stakes-raising that Bujold pulls off here. Let me just list, cryptically so as not to be all spoilery, a few: Metzov’s return and new lover; Miles finding Gregor (or should I say “Greg”?), losing him, and finding him again; the hilarious confusion of Cavilo and Metzov and Oser as they independently attempt to unravel Miles’ many and sundry identities; the sheer audacity of Miles’ plan culminating in the triumphant arrival of the Prince Serg.The crowning achievement atop all this is Bujold’s pinpoint sense of humour. It’s not just that she manages to continuously and effectively raise the stakes: she’s funny while she does it. I chuckled throughout most of The Vor Game. I read the last 10% or so while on a plane ride home, and I had to work very hard not to disrupt my neighbours and contain my near-constant laughter. Some of the laughter was “funny-hah-hah,” but most of it was the laughter of delight—I giggled nearly uncontrollably at how Bujold portrays the reactions of people to the outcomes of Miles’ insane schemes.Miles feels less like a Mary Sue in this book. I hope that’s the effect of The Mountains of Mourning on him: he still has that same “subordination problem” and the related, probably incurable, certainly terminal problem of not knowing when to stop—but now he has a sense of purpose. He knows why he schemes. And that’s what separates him from similarly clever, stunningly intelligent people like Cavilo—he can match her on her own playing field, but because he has a purpose, he has a sense of solidity that she can never have. Ultimately, that proves to be her undoing.In addition to Miles’ creepy sexual tension with Cavilo, the second deeper, psychological aspect to The Vor Game is there in the title. Emperor Gregor turns up in an unexpected place, thinking suicidal thoughts. This catches Miles in a bind, because if he doesn’t somehow succeed—against all odds—in helping return Gregor to Barrayar, then there will be those who think he disposed of Gregor in order to place himself (or his father) on the throne. It’s so complicated! And meanwhile, we get to see how growing up as the emperor has affected Gregor, for better or worse.I admire how Bujold manages to work these more serious themes into a novel that is, pacing- and plot-wise, a lighter and more fantastic work of fiction. That’s my bottom line: there was nothing boring about The Vor Game, no moment where I wanted to put the book down and do something else. I never had to push myself to keep reading. I never wanted to put it away! And I want more, more, more—oh look, another omnibus edition….This is good stuff, people.My reviews of the Vorkosigan saga:← The Mountains of Mourning
Finished! Have now read AND written reviews for The Vorkosigan Saga, a militaristic space opera with some romance (but not in this book), plenty of suspenseful action-adventure, and sound character development. I read about 19 books in the past month, crushing on Lord Aral and Lady Cordelia Vorkosigan and their midget-like son Miles, aka The Mutie Lord, Shorty, Admiral Naismith, etc. Aka bloody brilliant. I loved the main bulk of the story, with Miles and Gregor and the Dendarii Mercenaries. Loved the scene where something big comes through the wormhole, and the scene where Miles is reunited with his da. Great scenes with Tung. Loved it when he went ga-ga about the great military tactician, Aral Vorkosigan. In front of Miles. Enjoyed the scene with Lieutenant Ygeurof (sp?) escorting Admiral Naismith to meet the big man on deck, and telling Mikes to mind his military manners and salute appropriately. Chuckles. Along with the humor, the suspense, and the action, there are some sad and serious scenes, a few beatings, a few deaths, and some heartwarming scenes of friendship and parental love. A nice mix. We see some nice cameos of Cordelia and Aral, as well as Simon Illyan and Ivan.Good story, but there are a lot of chance encounters -- it's such a small galaxy, after all. Haha! Also, there is a flat section, between Weatherman and The Vor Game (cobbled together into one narrative), when Miles is detained at ImpSec. Finally, I wasn't crazy about the first six chapters (Weatherman).Weatherman: Only 3 stars for the first six chapters of The Vor Game, published originally as a novella. The two stories are completely distinct, except that one of the main characters from Weatherman appears later in the book. Plot: Ensign Miles Vorkosigan, young graduate of the Imperial Service Academy, receives his first assignment: Weatherman, at Kyril Island Military Base, near the Arctic Circle. He's sorely disappointed, but this assignment comes with a promise: If Miles proves to be a good little subordinate at Kyril Island his next assignment will be a dream come true: Placement on the new starship fighter, The Prince Serg.I enjoyed the section where Miles is confronted with a tough choice, one that could cost him everything, even his soul. That whole bit was great. However, the corpse section had nothing to do with the main plot and was not resolved to my satisfaction. It seemed like filler. Also, I didn't care for how it ended, how the military applied "justice" in this case. My reviews of this series (*favorites): Shards of Honor review*Barrayar review*The Warrior's Apprentice reviewThe Vor Game reviewCetaganda reviewThe Mountains of Mourning reviewLabyrinth review*Borders of Infinity reviewBrothers in Arms reviewMirror Dance review*Memory review*Miles in Love: Komarr, A Civil Campaign, Winterfair Gifts review*Komarr reviewDiplomatic Immunity reviewCaptain Vorpatril's Alliance reviewCryoburn review
What do You think about The Vor Game (2002)?
Young Miles is back. He’s completed his training at the Academy and he’s hoping to get posted on a space battleship. But Miles has a problem with subordination and to prove he is worthy to serve he is required by his superiors to demonstrate he can do just that ie serve - in some backwater Arctic station for six months.So then Miles serves out his time in humility before being assigned to the pride of the Barrayan fleet The Prince Serg and.....yeah that didn’t happen. That would be totally boring. It’s more like Mile gets to trot and plot all over the galaxy fighting space mercenaries, spying on potential enemies, command set piece space battles and you can bet there is a whole lot of usurping/insubordination involved.What I appreciated about this book is that we pretty much have the same Miles I loved from The Warrior's Apprentice. What I didn’t like so much about this book was that we pretty much have the same Miles I loved from The Warrior's Apprentice. Most of Mile’s character development happened last book. And we had the pycho/sociopathic batman, Bothari. We had Miles ordering torture and having peoples cybernetic insets ripped out their heads. We had Miles storming spaceships and developing his own fleet. We had Miles struggling with the morality of his actions.We don’t really get that much in this book. In this book Miles has no psychopaths under his command doing psychopathic things and very few questions of conscience. It felt like we got the Miles as he was at the end of the last book, which was fine because I do like that Miles and his interactions with Gregor and his various commanders was priceless. But I am looking forward to the next books building on Miles character and career as he gets older.This is more a 3.5 stars for me. I can’t bring myself to give it a 3 so its4 stars
—David Sven
This book really reads as two separate stories--the episode on Kyril Island and then the adventure with Ungari and Gregor. Miles has difficult choices to make, and his nimble mind makes the unexpected connections out of conjecture.I am coming to like and appreciate Miles, conflicts in his life, the forces that drive him. His "Admiral Naismith" persona is engaging and amazing, but it is the reality of his Vorkosigan life that I appreciate the most.New and old relationships shape this story, the changes that relationships must undergo over time and in different circumstances.I wanted to savor the story and Bujold's marvelous way with words, but I also couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next, and so I raced rather than rambled through the book. I will try, next time, to slow down to better appreciate the writing, but I have a feeling Bujold will have me turning the pages till late in the night yet again.On a 1-10 scale, I gave it a 9, so on a 1-5 scale, it would be a 4.5.
—Kathi
This was a nice space opera yarn, but I'm a little surprised that it won the Hugo Award for best novel. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't nearly as good as some of the other Hugo-winning books I've read. Perhaps competition wasn't very steep for the award in 1991.This book continues the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan, now that he has graduated from the Academy on Barrayar. The story seemed to jump around alot, even though it's told from Miles' exclusive point of view and follows a chronological outline. Perhaps I was expecting Miles to remain at his first post -- a remote island near Barrayar's south pole -- for most of the book. Bujold did, after all, create a fine mystery about a body stuck in a drainage pipe that was not satisfactorily resolved and introduce several characters living on the island that were never heard from again. Instead of telling a story about Miles learning to get along with "the regular guys," which is honestly where I thought Bujold was going, after a few chapters on the island, we have a chapter or two of Miles holed up in the Imperial Security Center and then, just as abruptly, travelling around the Hegen Hub, from one station to the next. The constant scenery changes were a little jarring. I think Bujold is a great writer, who is especially good at great, inciteful dialogue, but she has a few quirks that annoy me. First, as mentioned above, she will spend time establishing characters that simply vanish from the story, after an elaborate set up. Other times, she will reintroduce characters that were only mentioned in an off-hand manner 100 pages earlier and expect you to remember who that person was -- often times, that person becomes a major character. On balance, however, this was a good story with a satisfying rescue and then a space battle (told from an original perspective, I thought) at the end, with a nice denouement and set up for the following Miles novels.I will definitely keep reading the Miles stories, and not just because I will have to if I want to meet my goal of reading all of the Hugo and Nebula award winning novels. I truly think Bujold is a great writer (Curse of Chalion was one of the best fantasy books I've ever read), but I may give it a while before I tear into Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem. None of the three stories in that omnibus book -- Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, and Labyrinth -- are award winners, but I'll read them anyway so I can know what's going on in the subsequent, award-winning novels in the series. I'll also read them because I'm sure their fun.
—Aaron
