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silverflight8Continuing through Cetaganda and two short stories:
Cetaganda
Cetaganda is a much lighter romp than the novels around it. Both within the internal chronology (The Vor Game, Labyrinth/Brothers in Arms -> Mirror Dance), but especially between publication order, where it sits between Mirror Dance and Memory. I don’t have as much to say about it, mostly because while I overall enjoyed it, I didn’t really care that much about the plot. Most of my enjoyment is incidental, concentrated on characterization and a little worldbuilding.
Cetaganda has taken a different path regarding genetic control. Jackson’s Whole just does a free for all capitalism-style; Barrayar is still transitioning from natural births; Beta Colony has exacting reproductive control on anyone and anything that could create children, plus decoupled morality from sex. Cetaganda has as negative a perspective on genetic mutations as Barrayar, and that’s just from the ghem. Except for the deliberate changes that they’ve created in their custom humans. It’s illustrative that the young ghem lady is grossed out by finding out Ivan was a body birth. So uncontrolled! So uncivilized, probably.
At this stage of the internal chronology, it’s a little unusual to have a book that’s all Lord Miles Vorkosigan, all the way through. There’s no Admiral Naismith at all. For once, the Order of Merit goes around Lord Vorkosigan’s neck, although Miles won’t want to wear it for the other reason, i.e. he’s just been given an enemy country’s highest medal for reasons he is unable to explain.
For me the fun part of Cetaganda is Ivan and Miles. Ivan wants to play by the rules, Miles thinks there’s a deeper plot that only he can solve. Miles likes solving puzzles, Ivan does not. I find the political system kind of dull, and eight satrapy planets makes a lot of suspects to remember for a murder mystery, plus any additional suspects. Though on that note, I will say for Cetaganda the empire, they do have a good idea in having term limits, which limits their ability to build up a power base on any particular planet. Probably even more critical for long-lived people. Miles observes that there are some ghem who have been in politics so long they’ve done the entire round of all eight planets. Like Barrayar, their political system seems mildly ridiculous and outside observers wonder how it hasn’t collapsed yet.
On the subject of that kitten tree: I am fond of Ivan, even when he’s a bit of a young lout. He’s a lot better in Cetaganda than The Warrior’s Apprentice. His attempt was ill-thought-out, but his impulse was right, and kindly meant. I can’t hate him for that. I mean, his initial conclusion that it was just a cruel prank isn’t unreasonable. He didn’t know that people would go about making kitten-tree hybrids, how is that even possible?
Also, some of the writing entertains me:
Labyrinth
I like this short story for helping set up Jackson’s Whole. It’s helping set up Mirror Dance, and also giving retrospective grounding to stuff like The Vor Game, where they only pass through briefly, but both Miles and Gregor manage to get arrested on. It’s another contrasting political system, one built off unchecked capitalism. I think the ability to buy arrests is my “favourite”, just what if there was no steering political/moral belief in why we should detain people, just let them fight it out for money? Yikes. Houses specializing in every kind of business that’s illegal elsewhere, it makes me think of the Brust’s Jhereg. Their observation is that every time the Empire makes a law, the Empire creates a new black-market business the Jhereg can exploit.
Murka does a great job of playacting to get them out of the facility once the squad is discovered. I like the little details of Bel that we get here, too, that Bel has figured out Miles is not a Betan.
Labyrinth also continues the theme of creator/progenitor stepping back, which is a big one across the series, with Hugh Canaba and Taura. Barrayar has no issue with abortion, I wonder how Beta feels? Especially as pregnancies can be transferred at almost any stage to a replicator and gene cleaning exists. But infanticide is not acceptable, despite the small pockets of it still persisting in the backwoods of Barrayar…once that offspring becomes a person, it’s no longer in your hands, they are themselves, not your choice to remove, not your source of expiation, either. Elena violently objects to being expiation, and says her life is her own. Hugh think it’s his responsibility to kill Taura because he’s going off planet and won’t be able to “help” her, though personally I feel his argument would be stronger if he was actually helping her… but no matter how much he messed up creating her, that choice is no longer his. You can’t just decide to unilaterally destroy that person.
I love that Miles lets Taura turn the dial to destroy Ryoval’s biological treasure-trove. Ahh, sweet revenge. He’s also honest with her about why he ended up rescuing her, and refuses to let Canaba do his operation under anaesthesia.
The shuttle finally meeting them, after an all-out sprint away from Ryoval’s muscle, is also such a satisfying written moment:
The Borders of Infinity
The third short story – this one with sharper stakes than I expected. The deaths of Murka and Beatrice are completely unexpected.
I like that the planting of Elli and Elena in the Cetagandan monitor techs helps plug the plot hole improbability of trying to change the mission on the fly from one man extraction to all 10,000. I’d forgotten from the beginning that it’s a prisoner of war camp, so they are all Marilacan soldiers. The breakdown in prison into factions kind of disguised that, I suppose. The implausibility of The Warrior’s Apprentice – that Miles can take a fleet via bluff – is changed here, because he’s got the backup seeded in the enemy’s listening posts, as well as a real mercenary fleet to back it all up. Miles isn’t bluffing this time. He’s got the power to bring it off, if he can just get them organized. It’s an interesting re-read too, because what initially comes off as “Miles is crazy and has too much energy” is well, Miles is still crazy, but he’s got an actual objective to work towards and fulfill, and doesn’t know what time the Dendarii can make a move. Unlike everyone else, who’s gotten worn down into apathy, he’s keyed up. Once things happen, they have to happen as fast as possible, so he also can’t calm down, or let the drill slack.
The Cetagandan choice of imprisonment is brilliantly evil. It saves them so much labour, it risks no Cegatandans to angry/suicidal/insane Marilacans, they barely have to guard or cook anything. Just supply power for the dome, and lay in a supply of rat bars. Fulfilling the letter of the prisoner of war laws, and literally none of the spirit. Though I feel the poison capsules in each prisoner might be violating those. I think the medtech requirement is most evil. The doctor who had no supplies and whose knowledge was pretty much of no use, that must be so awful. To know that all these problems are treatable and pain relief is available, and to not be able to do anything. What’s the point of diagnosis if you can’t do anything about it? Just call it the bloody flux and be done, after all. It doesn’t drain the Cetagandans either, since they don’t have to supply any doctors.
Beatrice’s fate stings most because I think Murka had already just died, and I thought the rest would be okay. They had lifted off and everything! And it takes Miles all the way till Komarr to realize the mistake.
I also went back and requested the Borders of Infinity from the library, which collects “Mountains of Mourning”, “Labyrinth”, and “Borders of Infinity” (all short stories) into one, stitched together lightly. In the omnibus novels I was reading, the short stories are chronologically dispersed to their correct spots, but they skip the frame story. The frame story is untitled and it’s Miles telling Simon about the three events, or thinking of them, while paralyzed in bed recovering from surgery. I think the frame story must be post Brothers in Arms, since he breaks his arms in the mission after that and has them replaced with plastic ones, which is what’s happening here. ImpSec’s being audited because money to fund a small army keeps disappearing into Simon’s budget, and it’s got a dangerous political angle to it. Simon is pretty hard on Miles, and tells him he needs to not just be honest but to appear to be honest, but he’s not privy to all of the details of what happened on Jackson’s Whole or Dagoola IV. Though Miles, whose fault is that exactly? You’re the one who wrote the reports! Cordelia appears with the surgeon to shoo him away. A tiny bit more interaction between the three of them.
Cetaganda
Cetaganda is a much lighter romp than the novels around it. Both within the internal chronology (The Vor Game, Labyrinth/Brothers in Arms -> Mirror Dance), but especially between publication order, where it sits between Mirror Dance and Memory. I don’t have as much to say about it, mostly because while I overall enjoyed it, I didn’t really care that much about the plot. Most of my enjoyment is incidental, concentrated on characterization and a little worldbuilding.
Cetaganda has taken a different path regarding genetic control. Jackson’s Whole just does a free for all capitalism-style; Barrayar is still transitioning from natural births; Beta Colony has exacting reproductive control on anyone and anything that could create children, plus decoupled morality from sex. Cetaganda has as negative a perspective on genetic mutations as Barrayar, and that’s just from the ghem. Except for the deliberate changes that they’ve created in their custom humans. It’s illustrative that the young ghem lady is grossed out by finding out Ivan was a body birth. So uncontrolled! So uncivilized, probably.
At this stage of the internal chronology, it’s a little unusual to have a book that’s all Lord Miles Vorkosigan, all the way through. There’s no Admiral Naismith at all. For once, the Order of Merit goes around Lord Vorkosigan’s neck, although Miles won’t want to wear it for the other reason, i.e. he’s just been given an enemy country’s highest medal for reasons he is unable to explain.
For me the fun part of Cetaganda is Ivan and Miles. Ivan wants to play by the rules, Miles thinks there’s a deeper plot that only he can solve. Miles likes solving puzzles, Ivan does not. I find the political system kind of dull, and eight satrapy planets makes a lot of suspects to remember for a murder mystery, plus any additional suspects. Though on that note, I will say for Cetaganda the empire, they do have a good idea in having term limits, which limits their ability to build up a power base on any particular planet. Probably even more critical for long-lived people. Miles observes that there are some ghem who have been in politics so long they’ve done the entire round of all eight planets. Like Barrayar, their political system seems mildly ridiculous and outside observers wonder how it hasn’t collapsed yet.
On the subject of that kitten tree: I am fond of Ivan, even when he’s a bit of a young lout. He’s a lot better in Cetaganda than The Warrior’s Apprentice. His attempt was ill-thought-out, but his impulse was right, and kindly meant. I can’t hate him for that. I mean, his initial conclusion that it was just a cruel prank isn’t unreasonable. He didn’t know that people would go about making kitten-tree hybrids, how is that even possible?
Also, some of the writing entertains me:
Pel let him out of her bubble in another private nook, in an unobserved moment, and drifted away again. He pictured her reporting back to Rian—Yes, milady, I released the Barrayaran back into the wild as you ordered. I hope he will be able to find food and a mate out there…
Labyrinth
I like this short story for helping set up Jackson’s Whole. It’s helping set up Mirror Dance, and also giving retrospective grounding to stuff like The Vor Game, where they only pass through briefly, but both Miles and Gregor manage to get arrested on. It’s another contrasting political system, one built off unchecked capitalism. I think the ability to buy arrests is my “favourite”, just what if there was no steering political/moral belief in why we should detain people, just let them fight it out for money? Yikes. Houses specializing in every kind of business that’s illegal elsewhere, it makes me think of the Brust’s Jhereg. Their observation is that every time the Empire makes a law, the Empire creates a new black-market business the Jhereg can exploit.
Murka does a great job of playacting to get them out of the facility once the squad is discovered. I like the little details of Bel that we get here, too, that Bel has figured out Miles is not a Betan.
Labyrinth also continues the theme of creator/progenitor stepping back, which is a big one across the series, with Hugh Canaba and Taura. Barrayar has no issue with abortion, I wonder how Beta feels? Especially as pregnancies can be transferred at almost any stage to a replicator and gene cleaning exists. But infanticide is not acceptable, despite the small pockets of it still persisting in the backwoods of Barrayar…once that offspring becomes a person, it’s no longer in your hands, they are themselves, not your choice to remove, not your source of expiation, either. Elena violently objects to being expiation, and says her life is her own. Hugh think it’s his responsibility to kill Taura because he’s going off planet and won’t be able to “help” her, though personally I feel his argument would be stronger if he was actually helping her… but no matter how much he messed up creating her, that choice is no longer his. You can’t just decide to unilaterally destroy that person.
I love that Miles lets Taura turn the dial to destroy Ryoval’s biological treasure-trove. Ahh, sweet revenge. He’s also honest with her about why he ended up rescuing her, and refuses to let Canaba do his operation under anaesthesia.
The shuttle finally meeting them, after an all-out sprint away from Ryoval’s muscle, is also such a satisfying written moment:
The Ariel's combat drop shuttle roared up over the ridge and descended like the black hand of God. The pursuing aircars looked suddenly much smaller. One veered off and fled; the second was smashed to the ground not by plasma fire but by a swift swat from a tractor beam. Not even a trickle of smoke marked where it went down. The drop shuttle settled demurely beside them in a deafening crackling crush of shrubbery. Its hatch extended and unfolded itself in a sort of suave, self-satisfied salute.
"Show-off," Miles muttered. He pulled the woozy Thorne's arm over his shoulder, Taura carried the stunned man, Nicol's battered cup stuttered through the air, and they all staggered gratefully to their rescue.
The Borders of Infinity
The third short story – this one with sharper stakes than I expected. The deaths of Murka and Beatrice are completely unexpected.
I like that the planting of Elli and Elena in the Cetagandan monitor techs helps plug the plot hole improbability of trying to change the mission on the fly from one man extraction to all 10,000. I’d forgotten from the beginning that it’s a prisoner of war camp, so they are all Marilacan soldiers. The breakdown in prison into factions kind of disguised that, I suppose. The implausibility of The Warrior’s Apprentice – that Miles can take a fleet via bluff – is changed here, because he’s got the backup seeded in the enemy’s listening posts, as well as a real mercenary fleet to back it all up. Miles isn’t bluffing this time. He’s got the power to bring it off, if he can just get them organized. It’s an interesting re-read too, because what initially comes off as “Miles is crazy and has too much energy” is well, Miles is still crazy, but he’s got an actual objective to work towards and fulfill, and doesn’t know what time the Dendarii can make a move. Unlike everyone else, who’s gotten worn down into apathy, he’s keyed up. Once things happen, they have to happen as fast as possible, so he also can’t calm down, or let the drill slack.
The Cetagandan choice of imprisonment is brilliantly evil. It saves them so much labour, it risks no Cegatandans to angry/suicidal/insane Marilacans, they barely have to guard or cook anything. Just supply power for the dome, and lay in a supply of rat bars. Fulfilling the letter of the prisoner of war laws, and literally none of the spirit. Though I feel the poison capsules in each prisoner might be violating those. I think the medtech requirement is most evil. The doctor who had no supplies and whose knowledge was pretty much of no use, that must be so awful. To know that all these problems are treatable and pain relief is available, and to not be able to do anything. What’s the point of diagnosis if you can’t do anything about it? Just call it the bloody flux and be done, after all. It doesn’t drain the Cetagandans either, since they don’t have to supply any doctors.
Beatrice’s fate stings most because I think Murka had already just died, and I thought the rest would be okay. They had lifted off and everything! And it takes Miles all the way till Komarr to realize the mistake.
I also went back and requested the Borders of Infinity from the library, which collects “Mountains of Mourning”, “Labyrinth”, and “Borders of Infinity” (all short stories) into one, stitched together lightly. In the omnibus novels I was reading, the short stories are chronologically dispersed to their correct spots, but they skip the frame story. The frame story is untitled and it’s Miles telling Simon about the three events, or thinking of them, while paralyzed in bed recovering from surgery. I think the frame story must be post Brothers in Arms, since he breaks his arms in the mission after that and has them replaced with plastic ones, which is what’s happening here. ImpSec’s being audited because money to fund a small army keeps disappearing into Simon’s budget, and it’s got a dangerous political angle to it. Simon is pretty hard on Miles, and tells him he needs to not just be honest but to appear to be honest, but he’s not privy to all of the details of what happened on Jackson’s Whole or Dagoola IV. Though Miles, whose fault is that exactly? You’re the one who wrote the reports! Cordelia appears with the surgeon to shoo him away. A tiny bit more interaction between the three of them.
no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2025 02:14 am (UTC)It's also been a while since I've read the two novellas, but I'm surprised how well I remember them from your reviews! I think that I reread them a few different times; I really liked Taura, and also the prison camp setting in Borders of Infinity.
no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2025 11:47 pm (UTC)Yes, I really like Taura! She must have been SO hungry down there :( I became fond of Suegar quickly.
no subject
Date: Apr. 17th, 2025 09:59 pm (UTC)Mirror Dance was actually the first book in the series I read, believe it or not. I was in college at the time, and I had a habit of browsing in the campus bookstore when I was killing time between classes, just wandering in there to use it as a free reading room, as you do when you're 19 and broke. The cover of the Mirror Dance paperback must have intrigued me (it is a really intriguing cover!) so I ended up reading it in the form of bits and pieces over a series of days to the point where it finally occurred to me that since I kept picking it up to read more, and I was getting actually invested, I should just buy the book. xD
Of course then I went and read all the previous books from the library. I think Cetaganda might actually have been the first new one to come out after I started reading the series, which may have been part of the difficulty I had with it. Anyway, I really should reread!
no subject
Date: Apr. 17th, 2025 10:18 pm (UTC)It's funny how we come across books, isn't it? I know I definitely read books because they were propped up on the library shelf, or were simply Available. Prior to the internet to figure out what book came first - and no real way to buy them - I just read whatever was on hand, and usually learned afterwards if it was book 3 or what. Now I'm so much pickier and start with book 1, lol. And yesss reading books in pieces over time! I think I read an entire book in segments while waiting for my mom shopping in the mall once. lol
You should re-read and then tell me your thoughts :)
you could re-read the whole series!no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2025 04:07 pm (UTC)Houses specializing in every kind of business that’s illegal elsewhere, it makes me think of the Brust’s Jhereg.
Ooh! Jackson's Whole is absolutely Planet Jhereg! I'm not sure I ever made that connection explicitly, but it so is.
"The Borders of Infinity" short story is probably one of my top 5 favorite stories in the Vorkosiverse, and I think the one that makes me like Miles the most. It's just Miles, stripped of all privilege, inborn and accidentally acquired, entraining people by sheer force of personality -- I mean, he does have the backup, but no PROOF of it down on the planet, so effectively it's still just him.
And it takes Miles all the way till Komarr to realize the mistake.
That was a powerful moment for me, and one of my favorite bits when I (re?)read Komarr after reading BoI. It's really interesting tome that for all of Miles's FORWARD MOMENTUM, moments like that, his "failures", are so at the forefront of his mind.
no subject
Date: Apr. 17th, 2025 02:27 am (UTC)Some of the Cetaganda worldbuilding is interesting and of the characters I suppose I like Pel but otherwise...eh. I'm with Walton, I like Barrayar. The vast majority of the (important) relationships Miles has revolves around Barrayar, so it's kind of unsurprising.
Oh, that's a good thought! Yeah, Miles only carries in his own personal experience and personality. To cajole, argue, and persuade :D And his clothes all get stolen right away (rude).
Yeah. Always our failures seem magnified and our successes are just like, well, okay. Plus he's always taken all the deaths super personally. He also has the realization in the frame story that Beatrice is a tall redhaired woman and then looks at his mother and wonders ohgod is that why it's extra traumatic???