My god this woman can write. I mean I'm sure it helps that I've read a bunch of her Miles books, but to be trite, "she really has a way with words". That said, I got kind of lost in this one, as I have in some of her other books. Starting to think that maybe reading her books in physical form might be a better idea than listening to them on audio. They just get really complex sometimes with lots of characters with strange names and all kinds of intrigue going on.

Though this was a shorter one, especially in comparison to the Omnibus of Cordelia’s Honor, and the characters are just as entertaining as they have been in the past, I felt my attention wavering often. I think the problem is that Miles has now become a vehicle for Bujold to tell the story she wants to tell. In this case, the worldbuilding and conflict going on in the weird genetically powered empire of Cetaganda is super interesting. But there’s a disconnect in that, for the first time in the series, none of the events taking place really connect to anything personal for the protagonist. He ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time in such a convoluted way that he has to resolve an entirely Cetagandan problem to get himself out of trouble. I found this planet interesting, the way that I found Barrayar interesting. But just like Barrayar, “interesting” doesn’t mean “I am motivated to see this space empire succeed.” In the past Bujold overcame Barrayar’s problematic nature by making a lot of the conflicts internal ones. We knew that Barrayar wasn’t perfect, but we wanted some Barrayarans to succeed over others. To her credit she tries to do the same thing here, but I didn’t feel very attached to any of the “good guy” Cetagandans by the end. Nor were their villains particularly deplorable. We’re still reading for Miles.

But if you love him, and you want to go on this adventure with him, he’s here. With all of the wit and planning that would someday make fantasy characters like Kvothe, Tyrion Lannister, and Locke Lamora so likable. Even if the web he weaves isn’t nearly as tangled (or as personally dangerous) as it was in The Warrior’s Apprentice and The Vor Game.

Only a couple of niggling things about this book showed that it’s 25 years old and dropped it from 5 to 4 stars:
- inherent racism of most of the societies described in the series (majority of people described with Caucasian colouration)
- unthinking sexism of Miles (product that he is of a sexist feudal society)
- the choice the author made to describe agender or pan-gender characters as “it” instead of “they”: the thing which most grates the ear and ages the book

Miles and his cousin Ivan are sent to the Empress of Cetaganda's state funeral. There they are swept up in intrigue. Miles stops "the Cetagandan Empire from breaking up into 8 aggressively expanding units." He derails "plans for a war by some of them with Barrayar." He survives "an assassination attempt, and" helps "catch three high ranking traitors." Plus, he solves a murder. 1/1/11

When sent to the Empress' state funeral on Cetaganda, Miles meets a haut Lady face to face and is given the receives the Cetangandan Imperial Order of Merit.

Packed full of interesting themes - Bujold uses the Cetagandan genetic development system to explore this issue of handpicking the genes of your decendents from a really interesting angle. Miles in an outsider but he still gets drawn into a plot to protect the most privileged prejudiced class on the Cetagandan planet. Much of what he sees disgusts him, for example, the Cetagandan aristocracy (Celestial class, lol) practice their genetic manipulations on servants bred without gender first. But he still falls hard for the Empress in waiting at the heart of genetic schemes.

These circumstances were a perfect backdrop to bring all of Miles's worst insecurities to the fore and Bujold revelled in that which was fun.

I don't particularly warm to "mystery" based stories but I still enjoyed watching Miles squirm and wriggle through this one.

Desperately lacking in Cordelia and Aral though.

I've become a big fan of this series. Miles Vorkosigan is a great character, a sort of nicer Tyrion Lannister. Smart, funny, roguish, following his own sense of honor but not entirely trustworthy, all of which he needs to help overcome physical challenges. In this book he's on a routine diplomatic mission to attend a funeral when he's forced into a mysterious plot against him and others. The fun of the story is how he makes his way through it.

This is probably my favorite so far with some dazzling worldbuilding on top of the usual excellent characterization. If I'm honest, the 18th century stylings of Barrayar aren't the most interesting for Science Fiction. Here, the art-techo geneticists of their enemy make a much richer splash in far fewer pages. This is another later one, leading me to think that I'll like Bujold's post-1991 output since my next favorite is [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]. However, the next one I'm reading is one of the first three, [b:Ethan of Athos|990093|Ethan of Athos (Vorkosigan Saga, #3)|Lois McMaster Bujold|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1365244555l/990093._SY75_.jpg|2030693], so wish me luck.

Another good one in the Vorkosigan series!