SF/F Review: Brothers in Arms (Vorkosigan Saga) https://t.co/NtqgV3dZjI by Lois McMaster Bujold, Short Review: 7 out of 10 (1/4)— garik16 (@garik16) October 14, 2017
Short Review (cont): A continuation of Miles Vorkosigan's adventures, with both elements of his double life getting into trouble (2/4)— garik16 (@garik16) October 14, 2017
Short Review (cont): when he is forced to flee to Earth & gets mixed up in a plot involving a new danger: His own clone. Fun, as usual (3/4)— garik16 (@garik16) October 14, 2017
Brothers in Arms is the 7th (chronologically, not counting the distant prequel Falling Free) book in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, and the fourth book to feature Miles Vorkosigan as its central character. It should be noted this is one of the early published Vorkosigan Novels (#5) and is thus from a period before my two favorite in the series so far (Barrayar & The Vor Game). That said, while it doesn't live up to those two novels, the book is yet again another fun story with Bujold's great internal and external dialogue, so it's definitely a worthwhile read.
A note: while this is not a direct sequel to one of the prior books in the series (although it is kind of a sequel to the novella "Borders of Infinity"), this is not a book you will probably enjoy as a starting point in the series - you will want to have read The Warrior's Apprentice and The Vor Game prior to this book to get full enjoyment (I'd also recommend reading Ethan of Athos beforehand, as that really reintroduces Elli Quinn.)
And as with the rest of this series (with the exception of Gentleman Jole), I read this book as an audiobook from the library. The audiobook reader for the whole series remains excellent
More after the Jump:
--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
After a Dendarii Mission (described in Borders of Infinity) angers the Cetagandans, Miles is forced to flee with the Dendarii to an out of the way planet before he can collect his pay from Barrayar for the mission. That Planet? Earth. Unfortunately, Earth is not part of his normal chain of command, and payment for the Dendarii, who need the money desperately, does not seem to be coming through promptly. Add to the fact that Miles is hamstrung by a ImpSec superior who isn't too happy to see him and who Miles doesn't want to harm for political reasons, and Miles' growing romantic interest in Elli Quinn, and Miles has some significant problems of his own to deal with.
But well, these problems become compounded, when SOMEBODY takes a shot at Miles on Earth - and it's not clear if they were after Miles for being Vorkosigan or for being Naismith. This is the first time it has been publicly known that both of Miles' identities were on the same planet at the same time, leaving his cover story in grave danger, especially when the assassination attempt brings him unwarranted attention. And Miles' unknown enemies have one more trick up their sleeve.....a clone who might be able to impersonate Miles in either of his identities to perform harm to all of the people who he cares about....
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As I mentioned above, like other books in the series, Brothers in Arms continues the trend of Bujold Novels with snappy fun dialogue (both internal and external) that is a joy to read/listen-to. Miles remains a terrific main character, and his typical supporting cast - Ivan and Elli - are also fairly excellent characters to read about. This book introduces two final major supporting characters in Duv Galeni and Mark, who are also interesting additions and who will both apparently be showing up in future novels.
Moreover, once the story gets going (a bit on that below), the book has a nice breezy fun pace. It's predictable that Miles' plotting would get him into a mess (it always does), but it's a joy to read him get into the mess and the plotting that gets him out of the mess. The finale sequence is a frantic cluster of craziness in particular that matches anything we've had in the series so far (except maybe the ending to Barrayar).
That said, Brothers in Arms is maybe the slowest starting Vorkosigan Novel I've read so far - the assassination attempt I mention above which jump starts large elements of the plot doesn't even come until a third of the way through. This is why I mentioned you really SHOULD NOT start the series with this book - as I already had a vested interest in the characters, the first third of the novel was still enjoyable, but if I did not come into this story with that prior interest, I probably would've put this book down.
It's also oddly the smallest plot of the series I think since Miles took over as the main character. We're dealing with one crisis here, and it's relatively small scale and doesn't really evolve into further crazier crises. Bujold writes it extremely well and again, it is pretty fun, but it feels like a let down after having read The Vor Game and Cetaganda as Miles' earlier adventures (of course those novels were written LATER, which probably accounts for things).
Again though, I really enjoy this series, and the audiobook reader is excellent, so expect to see more reviews of the series in the future.
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