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Immediately starting the entry with spoilers, so it all goes under the cut.
There is so much of Mirror Dance I like, but also so much I find difficult/hard to read. Especially on the first read, I was wildly impatient to get to the part with Miles, since I didn’t really like Mark that much yet. And in the middle, the scariest part, the curtains close on Miles! For all that I knew that Miles would make it, the middle part of the novel was so stressful. And I truly did not know if Aral would make it or not, and I was petrified. I really like the characters in this series, and I didn’t want any of them to die. Plus Bujold’s really effective in writing tension.
But to back up – Mark doesn’t even start with his name, although it’s perfectly clear to anyone who’s been reading the series who he is. Probably not a great book exactly to start the series on, though. Bel figures it out pretty fast, and I think it’s a demonstration of how the scam really only worked in Brothers In Arms because it was a short scam. I like the look into the Dendarii Mercenaries via Mark and how much they all look to Miles – no wonder Miles likes his life with them so much. Their devotion sets up some important plot points, too – we already know that Elena and Elli and Bel would try their hardest, but it what about people like Norwood? I also like that Mark is now viscerally uncomfortable with being Miles. Those two or so years away from Ser Galen, and Mark’s face-first exposure to the outside world, have done a number on him. You can’t go back – fortunately.
Despite the fact I was distraught, the most interesting part of the book is the gigantic part in the middle where Miles is dead, we don’t know anything about what happened to him, and Mark is suddenly our only POV character. Though it was hard for me to read. I couldn’t believe at first that he had died; I didn’t see it coming at all, even with the part in the beginning when Miles thinks about how he’s at the top of his powers, which in retrospect is really setting up a character for a massive fall. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened to Miles – and the knowledge we had where he could have been sent anywhere practically in the known galaxy as a helpless frozen corpse, didn’t help. I wasn’t that attached to Mark, either; he was all right in Brothers in Arms but didn’t have the advantage of being the protagonist in ten books prior.
Excising Miles out of the middle of the book means we get a lot of outsider perspective on him. It interests me that we only see first-hand the reaction of a few people to the news about Miles – mostly Simon’s and the Dendarii inner circle. Aral and Cordelia are informed prior to Mark’s arrival, Ivan and Gregor are told off page. They’ve had time to assimilate. Simon doesn’t. I think that scene where Elena tells Simon what happened is one of the most difficult, in a book full of them. Simon has good self-control and his job deals with nasty stuff, but this cracks him open. It’s awful. He breaks three times in that scene alone. I also think of the scene when Elena and Quinn disagree about what needs to be done, and Quinn can’t take the thought of leaving Miles behind and is on the verge of breaking down, while Elena (probably herself just as close to breakdown) is trying to rationally get to more help.
But really, the whole section on Barrayar!
Mark also has a smaller arc about his role as a hero. He sees himself as the rescuer and knows he has good intentions (well, mostly – the episode with Maree is not good), but armed soldiers breaking into your home/school are scary and the right reaction is to be afraid. The narrative doesn’t warp to reward Mark for it. The children and teens are just scared. Lilly-clone, conditioned to want her glorious fate, is clever and determined enough to escape him. At the very end Mark
I like that the Durona Group put in all the work to revive Miles because they wanted his skills in military evacuation, but end up actually evacuated by Mark and his negotiating skills and knowledge of Jackson’s Whole.
Miles recovering from cryofreeze – poor Miles and his neverending medical tortures. It’s his mind that distresses him most though. It makes perfect sense that Miles remembers Pierre first, and I’m glad it’s a good memory, going sugaring in the mountains. When his memory cascades, it’s his parents and Grandda and Sgt Bothari, all together.
Mark’s triumph really comes through an almost inhuman endurance. I avoid re-reading the torture sequences. They were horribly effective, is all I can say. That moment in Ryoval’s office when he realizes that, having accomplished his aim of surviving Ryoval, not giving himself over to the enemy, and finally killing him – and then realizing with exhaustion that he has still yet more to go to rescue himself. It’s also interesting that of all the things Ryoval threatens him with, the thing that wakes up Lord Mark (instead of Killer, or Grunt, or Howl) is the threat of violence to Miles. Brotherhood purchased at the highest price imaginable, but Mark absolutely does care for Miles now.
One has to feel pity for the people who get thrown in confinement with Miles. Galen last book, and now Rowan, then Lilly-clone. I like Miles’ pep talk with Lilly, and how he tries his best to talk her into valuing her own life. A complete opposite of what his usual talks are, he notes. But it’s got some parallels to him attempting to talk Mark out of things in Brothers in Arms. He says rightly that destiny gives back, instead of just blotting you out.
On a very minor side note I do think some of the characters are hard on ImpSec. I don’t think you can be mad about them not showing up when you also withhold information from them! On the other hand Mark is not wrong to be irrational about it, given what he’s been through. They drop down as soon as Miles calls them down at Ryoval’s, and he’s only in his Naismith guise. And unlike Mark, who can free himself to pursue the only useful line (“Miles is alive”), ImpSec is obliged to find him, no matter what condition, and must throw resources into all the different avenues. And the empire must keep going besides. I love that Mark gives ImpSec money, despite Miles’s protests, and I love that Simon goes robotic about it. It leaves Mark with a nice million Betan dollars still.
I’d also like to just say that the main disadvantage of reading SF is after you finish the novel, you have to come back to the reality where we still cannot grow organs to transplant. It will be revolutionary, and I hope it’s something that we can do one day soon.
Going from Prime Minister on Barrayar to co-Viceroyalty on Sergyar is not retirement!!
There is so much of Mirror Dance I like, but also so much I find difficult/hard to read. Especially on the first read, I was wildly impatient to get to the part with Miles, since I didn’t really like Mark that much yet. And in the middle, the scariest part, the curtains close on Miles! For all that I knew that Miles would make it, the middle part of the novel was so stressful. And I truly did not know if Aral would make it or not, and I was petrified. I really like the characters in this series, and I didn’t want any of them to die. Plus Bujold’s really effective in writing tension.
But to back up – Mark doesn’t even start with his name, although it’s perfectly clear to anyone who’s been reading the series who he is. Probably not a great book exactly to start the series on, though. Bel figures it out pretty fast, and I think it’s a demonstration of how the scam really only worked in Brothers In Arms because it was a short scam. I like the look into the Dendarii Mercenaries via Mark and how much they all look to Miles – no wonder Miles likes his life with them so much. Their devotion sets up some important plot points, too – we already know that Elena and Elli and Bel would try their hardest, but it what about people like Norwood? I also like that Mark is now viscerally uncomfortable with being Miles. Those two or so years away from Ser Galen, and Mark’s face-first exposure to the outside world, have done a number on him. You can’t go back – fortunately.
Despite the fact I was distraught, the most interesting part of the book is the gigantic part in the middle where Miles is dead, we don’t know anything about what happened to him, and Mark is suddenly our only POV character. Though it was hard for me to read. I couldn’t believe at first that he had died; I didn’t see it coming at all, even with the part in the beginning when Miles thinks about how he’s at the top of his powers, which in retrospect is really setting up a character for a massive fall. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened to Miles – and the knowledge we had where he could have been sent anywhere practically in the known galaxy as a helpless frozen corpse, didn’t help. I wasn’t that attached to Mark, either; he was all right in Brothers in Arms but didn’t have the advantage of being the protagonist in ten books prior.
Excising Miles out of the middle of the book means we get a lot of outsider perspective on him. It interests me that we only see first-hand the reaction of a few people to the news about Miles – mostly Simon’s and the Dendarii inner circle. Aral and Cordelia are informed prior to Mark’s arrival, Ivan and Gregor are told off page. They’ve had time to assimilate. Simon doesn’t. I think that scene where Elena tells Simon what happened is one of the most difficult, in a book full of them. Simon has good self-control and his job deals with nasty stuff, but this cracks him open. It’s awful. He breaks three times in that scene alone. I also think of the scene when Elena and Quinn disagree about what needs to be done, and Quinn can’t take the thought of leaving Miles behind and is on the verge of breaking down, while Elena (probably herself just as close to breakdown) is trying to rationally get to more help.
But really, the whole section on Barrayar!
- Mark and Ivan’s Outing, with Ivan almost killing Mark in traffic. Ivan hasn’t forgiven Mark for almost killing him in the tidal barrier pumping station, but also I think Ivan just drives like that. And Vorbarra Sultana traffic may simply be like that. Gregor is unworried about his personal safety, but Ivan has to be convinced to stand outside. Then the little history lesson of Ivan’s birth, and Mark getting himself in trouble, Ivan being glad he isn’t going to be Mark’s minder. And the little hints that Ivan’s been growing up too. Ivan observing that the beating that Mark took, which was just unpleasant, would have landed Miles in the hospital for weeks.
- Mark realizing that Miles didn’t have a golden childhood despite the wealth and power and the fact he didn’t have to work to become someone else, that the prejudices on Barrayar run very deep. Beginning to see Miles as a human with all that entails, instead of the impossible project he had to try to complete.
- Cordelia has the advantage of being Betan, plus her own personality is not one inclined to panic or drown in her feelings. She has had three years to know about Mark’s existence, and for all of them she’s hoped her son would come in – even under this worst-case scenario, I think Mark’s arrival on Barrayar is a complete positive. I think she would regard the other factors about Miles to be in addition, not tainting, his arrival. She seems like someone who is very good at compartmentalization. She’s willing to be very honest with Mark, when he asks about Aral – as she says, he’s an adult and he has greater right to know. Aral, on the other hand, comes from a totally different context, and we get some of his struggles. And Aral, in his defense, cares very much whether Mark will be good for the province, and Cordelia doesn’t, though I think he’s most uncomfortable with the clone aspect. There’s the mortifying conversation Mark overhears in the library. I love that Mark blurts out to Aral first thing the whole original assassination plan for Aral, and that Aral is more at ease with this part of the conversation than any of the introductory stuff. But for much of the Barrayar segment, Mark and Aral avoid each other. Their – reconciliation isn’t the right word, they have never met in order become estranged – but relationship building, I suppose I can say, is probably more satisfying for that.
Let us by all means be honest with each other," Mark said bitterly.
"We cannot possibly build anything that will last on any other basis," said the Count dryly.
Aral telling Mark about the cryo-chamber that was found cleaned out and empty is emotionally agonizing. He’s had time to think over the implications, that Miles possibly was just dumped like biological trash out of the cryochamber before resale. Ugh, what a horrible possibility to live with. When he says that he wishes the Cetagandans were involved, just because then they would know what they had and use it for leverage, instead of biological waste…Not surprising the stress gives him heart failure. It’s not like he’s ever lived a stress-free life, and this has got to be the cherry on top.
Aral having heart failure made the stress of reading this book ratchet to 10/10 for me personally. I’m very fond of Aral and was not at all sure he would make it. - Mark coming to the realization that he’d thought everyone, the Vorkosigan clan, Gregor, Illyan, perfect and unkillable, so that his own pain was the only real pain, is one last cascade in a section full of self-realization and coming to understand that he too was part of a family and has a context he may belong to, if he wants. It’s a little like when you grow up and realize your parents are just humans and sometimes didn’t know what they were doing either.
- Cordelia’s opinions on Ivan’s avoidance are interesting. Cordelia’s not always right, despite her analyses, but she seems to be mostly right here. Ivan comes off as average for an aristocratic son – a little thoughtlessly cruel to Cassie Vorgorov, uninterested in the official social events, but he does care a lot about Miles. The scene where Mark finds him trying to blot out the Emperor’s Birthday party is him breaking down too.
- In a quiet way Elena also gets to make peace with both her mother and father. Very quickly in the beginning Elena mentions getting to spend time on Escobar with her mother. There is the funeral ceremony with Aral at Vorkosigan Surleau, the ceremony that Mark sees but isn’t part of. I’m glad they decamped to Vorkosigan Surleau, it has always felt more like home than all the other residences, and Elena was fostered there as a baby (and presumably as a child). Although it’s really a forced visit to Barrayar, she definitely hasn’t come back since she left, it seems to be a positive thing in the end. It’s been, what, ten or eleven years?
Mark also has a smaller arc about his role as a hero. He sees himself as the rescuer and knows he has good intentions (well, mostly – the episode with Maree is not good), but armed soldiers breaking into your home/school are scary and the right reaction is to be afraid. The narrative doesn’t warp to reward Mark for it. The children and teens are just scared. Lilly-clone, conditioned to want her glorious fate, is clever and determined enough to escape him. At the very end Mark
I like that the Durona Group put in all the work to revive Miles because they wanted his skills in military evacuation, but end up actually evacuated by Mark and his negotiating skills and knowledge of Jackson’s Whole.
Miles recovering from cryofreeze – poor Miles and his neverending medical tortures. It’s his mind that distresses him most though. It makes perfect sense that Miles remembers Pierre first, and I’m glad it’s a good memory, going sugaring in the mountains. When his memory cascades, it’s his parents and Grandda and Sgt Bothari, all together.
Mark’s triumph really comes through an almost inhuman endurance. I avoid re-reading the torture sequences. They were horribly effective, is all I can say. That moment in Ryoval’s office when he realizes that, having accomplished his aim of surviving Ryoval, not giving himself over to the enemy, and finally killing him – and then realizing with exhaustion that he has still yet more to go to rescue himself. It’s also interesting that of all the things Ryoval threatens him with, the thing that wakes up Lord Mark (instead of Killer, or Grunt, or Howl) is the threat of violence to Miles. Brotherhood purchased at the highest price imaginable, but Mark absolutely does care for Miles now.
One has to feel pity for the people who get thrown in confinement with Miles. Galen last book, and now Rowan, then Lilly-clone. I like Miles’ pep talk with Lilly, and how he tries his best to talk her into valuing her own life. A complete opposite of what his usual talks are, he notes. But it’s got some parallels to him attempting to talk Mark out of things in Brothers in Arms. He says rightly that destiny gives back, instead of just blotting you out.
On a very minor side note I do think some of the characters are hard on ImpSec. I don’t think you can be mad about them not showing up when you also withhold information from them! On the other hand Mark is not wrong to be irrational about it, given what he’s been through. They drop down as soon as Miles calls them down at Ryoval’s, and he’s only in his Naismith guise. And unlike Mark, who can free himself to pursue the only useful line (“Miles is alive”), ImpSec is obliged to find him, no matter what condition, and must throw resources into all the different avenues. And the empire must keep going besides. I love that Mark gives ImpSec money, despite Miles’s protests, and I love that Simon goes robotic about it. It leaves Mark with a nice million Betan dollars still.
I’d also like to just say that the main disadvantage of reading SF is after you finish the novel, you have to come back to the reality where we still cannot grow organs to transplant. It will be revolutionary, and I hope it’s something that we can do one day soon.
Going from Prime Minister on Barrayar to co-Viceroyalty on Sergyar is not retirement!!
no subject
Date: Jun. 30th, 2025 09:01 am (UTC)I think you’re right about Cordelia being able to view Mark finding his way to the family as a good separate from the worry over and grief for the potential loss of Miles.
(Sorry confined to phone for the duration so not as voluble / organized / iconed as usual in my vorkosigan glee :)
no subject
Date: Jul. 1st, 2025 02:29 am (UTC)I think you can skip the torture part at least. I...don't know if I've gotten more out of that. But the Barrayar stuff! The little details of the rest of the book! Bel kisses both Miles AND Mark in this book! Gah there's so much good character stuff in here.
No worries, and always welcome to come back later to drop more comments :)