Friday, August 17, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold




Cryoburn is most recent book in the Vorkosigan Saga to feature the series' most prominent hero, Miles Vorkosigan.*  As with the last two Miles adventures, Komarr and Diplomatic Immunity, it features Miles being sent to a new place to investigate what seems like a simple-ish mystery only for him to get involved in something far larger.  And since Miles is a manic nutjob whose brilliance results in him acting quite often on crazy instincts and taking crazy risks, the result is yet again a fast paced and often nutty adventure.

*Two books have been published since - Captain Vorpatril's Alliance which I reviewed previously and features Ivan and Gentleman Jole which features Cordelia.  Miles is in both, but in smaller less central roles.  

 That said, it's probably my least favorite of the books to feature Miles in his second career as Imperial Auditor (as a detective basically).  The world featured in the book is done extremely well, with a really interesting premise: like you might guess from the title, the book features a world obsessed with Cryo-freezing, to the point where its entire political system is based upon the votes of people who are actually frozen.  But the actual adventure featured just doesn't live up to the earlier ones for me, though it's still enjoyable.

Note:  You could in theory start this book as your first novel in the Vorkosigan Saga - as nothing up until the very ending chapter requires any foreknowledge.  That said, I wouldn't begin here, given there are similar entry points earlier in the series which don't have that ending problem (see Komarr, for example).


---------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan came to the world of Kibou-daini, a world obsessed with cryo-freezing, with a mission to investigate a suspicious plan by one of its corporations to expand its business into the Barrayaran Imperium.  But when a bunch of crazy rebels attack the conference he was attending, Miles finds himself drugged out of his mind and walking through streets and tunnels without any clue where he is going.  He is rescued by a 12 year old boy named Jin, whose past is intertwined with the corrupt politics of the world.

Miles has no business dealing with Jin's past and Kibou-daini's internal politics - to the extent they don't interest the Imperium- but when has that ever stopped him in the past?  Soon he will find himself, Armsman Roic, and Jin involved in a deadly game of conspiracy, cryo-freezing, and murder that will change the planet of Kibou-daini forever...assuming Miles doesn't find himself frozen for the second time in his life....
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Cryoburn, like some of the other Vorkosigan books but not all, tells its story from multiple characters' points of view - namely that of Miles, Jin, and Armsman Roic.  Miles and Armsman Roic shoudl be familiar hats to readers of the series - Miles is brilliant but manic and impulsive, though good-intentioned; Roic is a lot calmer and more deliberate and protective of his boss' back while at the same time knowing what Miles is capable of - but Jin is a new POV type for the series, in that well, he's a kid.

Does this work?  In my opinion, it's a bit of a mixed result.  I liked Jin as a character, his scrappiness and resourcefulness in the face of a rough and unfortunate situation and his brand of optimism despite being thrust into the situation is a nice change of pace from the usual cynical point of view we get from Miles.  But his perspective got a bit annoying at times, as he served quite often to simply appear in places and overhear things that he - as a kid - did not understand but the reader would, and this happened often enough to get well...just kind of silly, especially when he was often around the other two point of view characters who could tell that part of the story just as easily.

Many of the other new characters mind you were excellent, particularly the Barrayaran Consul Vorlynkin, who as a straight man caught up in one of Miles' adventure quickly becomes hilarious in his frustration as you can see from the below quote which I loved (and is not at all unique):
Miles: My case budget allows for a lot of discretion, you know.
Vorlynkin: Then I really wish you'd buy some.

And the world of Kibou-daini is very clever - a world so taken by cryo-freezing technology that it not only has become the major export, but the basis for a large portion of their government and infrastructure, not to mention religion (as most people buy contracts early to be frozen upon the threat of death).  The schemes used by the cryo-freezing corporations, both legitimately on their planet and illegitimately, are rather clever adaptations of schemes put forth by well, today's real corporations.  And the schemes put forth by the lower-class people Miles encounters who are living in this world are also rather amusing.

And then there's the ending, which is a whammy for fans of the series (though will do nothing for those new to it).  It's incredibly abrupt, with the epilogue consisting of exactly 500 words, but will cause major feelings in those who have followed the series for some time.

Overall, absent the ending, Cryoburn is still kind of a skippable entry in the Vorkosigan Saga - it's good, solid, but nothing special, perhaps made less impressive due to the incredible company it keeps in the series.

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