Barrayar continues right after the events of "Shards of Honor". Cordelia and Aral Vorkosigan are now in their new political leadership roles in Barrayar. We spend most of the time inside Cordelia's head, and I loved it! She is trying to adapt to barrayaran cultural standard while trying to change a few things. We get a lot more worldbuilding that is expertly done as the story develops. There are excellent interactions between characters: they grow and evolve. There are heart-breaking moments, but also good action-packed scenes. It plays with this duality of technologies of birth and death. But there is so much more: motherhood, cultural differences, warfare, love, vengeance. It was so exciting to see Cordelia taking charge of things in the end and being just bad-ass (that's the scene where she "goes shopping" - if you know you know). It was a very good read!