bloodygranuaile (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bloodygranuaile) wrote2025-01-17 11:12 am
bloodygranuaile) wrote2025-01-17 11:12 am
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He's not heavy, he's my brother
According to the reading guide I’m following, the next book up in my Vorkosigan Saga reading marathon was Brothers in Arms, which clearly chronologically takes place after Borders of Infinity, so I guess we’ll see what’s up with that next month.
In this one, Miles and his fleet of supposedly-independent mercenaries have to stop off at Earth to put themselves back together after a successful but very costly mission that has pissed off, unsurprisingly, the Cetagandans, who are now trying to assassinate Miles as Admiral Naismith. Miles also has to check in with the Barrayaran embassy–where, surprisingly to Miles but perhaps unsurprisingly for the reader–his himbo cousin Ivan is putting in some time as second military attache to get himself cultured. Miles Vorkosigan is promptly designated third military attache and ordered to start doing diplomatic duties by the ImpSec captain at the embassy, a somewhat dour Komarran fellow named Duv Galeni.
Miles has two very big problems starting off: one, he needs a big infusion of cash from ImpSec, pronto, and it keeps not coming; and two, his two identities are now hanging out on the same planet, which is not great given how physically distinctive he is. This is how the main shenanigans crop up: after, in desperation, telling a too-observant report that Admiral Naismith is a clone of Lord Vorkosigan–created by the Cetagandans, as far as they know–an ACTUAL CLONE of Miles shows up, as part of a Komarran rebel plot run by, of all people, Duv Galeni’s father. This is bad for Galeni in that he gets kidnapped although good for him in that his father is hesitant to execute him. It is also likely to be very, very bad for his career.
Miles has a lot of feelings about the clone, and the clone has also, clearly, has a lot of feelings about Miles, mostly very different ones. According to Betan law the clone would be Miles’ younger brother and as their mother is Betan, that makes it applicable, as far as Miles is concerned, and if the clone is Cordelia’s son and Miles’ brother then he’s also Aral Vorkosigan’s son, which means his name is Mark Pierre Vorkosigan and he is entitled by Barrayaran law to various things as the second son of Aral Vorkosigan. Mark–who has been going by Miles because his entire existence has been geared toward replacing Miles in a byzantine plot to destabilize the Barrayaran imperium–does not initially seem to like being dubbed Mark but he didn’t like being Miles either. Mark’s, uh, entire life seems to have done a number on him psychologically, which is very understandable.
The introduction of additional family members who are also enemies, for both Miles and our new character Galeni, adds a fun layer to the usual Vorkosigan Saga string of increasingly frantic shenanigans and plots within plots and faction fighting and general Situations with a capital S.
This was honestly perfect sick reading–I read it in a 24-hour span in which I was sick and, completely unrelatedly, had to go to the emergency room–as it both kept my problems in perspective and was also just a fun space romp that I didn’t have to think too deeply about. Nice easy reading; my biggest challenge was not bleeding on Beth’s nice hardback. (I succeeded and the hardback is unscathed.) Excited to see what Borders of Infinity has in store for me.
In this one, Miles and his fleet of supposedly-independent mercenaries have to stop off at Earth to put themselves back together after a successful but very costly mission that has pissed off, unsurprisingly, the Cetagandans, who are now trying to assassinate Miles as Admiral Naismith. Miles also has to check in with the Barrayaran embassy–where, surprisingly to Miles but perhaps unsurprisingly for the reader–his himbo cousin Ivan is putting in some time as second military attache to get himself cultured. Miles Vorkosigan is promptly designated third military attache and ordered to start doing diplomatic duties by the ImpSec captain at the embassy, a somewhat dour Komarran fellow named Duv Galeni.
Miles has two very big problems starting off: one, he needs a big infusion of cash from ImpSec, pronto, and it keeps not coming; and two, his two identities are now hanging out on the same planet, which is not great given how physically distinctive he is. This is how the main shenanigans crop up: after, in desperation, telling a too-observant report that Admiral Naismith is a clone of Lord Vorkosigan–created by the Cetagandans, as far as they know–an ACTUAL CLONE of Miles shows up, as part of a Komarran rebel plot run by, of all people, Duv Galeni’s father. This is bad for Galeni in that he gets kidnapped although good for him in that his father is hesitant to execute him. It is also likely to be very, very bad for his career.
Miles has a lot of feelings about the clone, and the clone has also, clearly, has a lot of feelings about Miles, mostly very different ones. According to Betan law the clone would be Miles’ younger brother and as their mother is Betan, that makes it applicable, as far as Miles is concerned, and if the clone is Cordelia’s son and Miles’ brother then he’s also Aral Vorkosigan’s son, which means his name is Mark Pierre Vorkosigan and he is entitled by Barrayaran law to various things as the second son of Aral Vorkosigan. Mark–who has been going by Miles because his entire existence has been geared toward replacing Miles in a byzantine plot to destabilize the Barrayaran imperium–does not initially seem to like being dubbed Mark but he didn’t like being Miles either. Mark’s, uh, entire life seems to have done a number on him psychologically, which is very understandable.
The introduction of additional family members who are also enemies, for both Miles and our new character Galeni, adds a fun layer to the usual Vorkosigan Saga string of increasingly frantic shenanigans and plots within plots and faction fighting and general Situations with a capital S.
This was honestly perfect sick reading–I read it in a 24-hour span in which I was sick and, completely unrelatedly, had to go to the emergency room–as it both kept my problems in perspective and was also just a fun space romp that I didn’t have to think too deeply about. Nice easy reading; my biggest challenge was not bleeding on Beth’s nice hardback. (I succeeded and the hardback is unscathed.) Excited to see what Borders of Infinity has in store for me.