One of the very best books in the Vorkosigan series. Here, Miles is maturing. He's grown out of his younger desperate need to prove himself at every turn. He has a greater understanding of himself and also more understanding of what he wants from life. His maturity matches that of his writer. Bujold was a good writer from the start, but in this book, I found myself reminded of both Jane Austen and Dorothy L Sayers. Her handling of character has become defter and more subtle.

The way Bujold describes Ekaterin Vorsoisson and how she survives in a marriage where duty long ago took over from love is beautifully done.

Miles slowly falls in love, while trying to solve the mystery of how a freighter came to collide with the soletta array that is crucial for the long-term terraforming of Komarr. ( )

Yet another instalment of Bujold's long-running space opera sequence chronicling the life of Miles Vorkosigan: brittle-boned, unnaturally short nobleman and occasional military genius. Earlier in the year I read and reviewed The Vor Game, Brothers in Arms and Mirror Dance; Komarr is a later book in the series (in terms of both publication order and internal chronology), and not really the place for somebody new to the series to begin. At the same time, it continues the impressive improvement in quality I noted in my review of Mirror Dance, and so might be worth trying for somebody who has attempted and been unimpressed by one of the earlier books.

The book introduces an important new character to the series: Ekaterin Vorsoisson, who becomes the first viewpoint character in the series other than Miles or his brother Mark. As the novel opens, Ekaterin is living on Komarr, a planet conquered by a Barrayaran army led by Miles' father a few decades before. Ekaterin is trapped in a loveless marriage with the (thoroughly unpleasant) minor Barrayaran nobleman Tien, and terrified by the fact that her young son has inherited a life-threatening medical condition from his father, a condition which - because of the traditional Barrayaran hostility towards 'mutants', Tien refuses to have treated except in a secret and expensive private operation.

Ekaterin and Miles are brought together when the Barrayaran Emperor dispatches Miles and Ekaterin's uncle to Komarr to investigate an unusual accident that has befallen one of the terraforming satellites that orbit the planet. Readers familiar with the series won't be surprised that Miles ends up unearthing evidence of corruption and conspiracies against the Empire, but in a way, that aspect of the plot, while entertaining, isn't really the point of the book. Rather, Ekaterin is the real star of the story, providing a refreshing counterbalance to Miles' usual antics and giving Bujold the chance to demonstrate rather more mastery of varied characterisation than earlier books in the series might have allowed her to.

Definitely recommended for any fans of the series.

Not as compelling as some of the other Vorkosigan novels, but the characters are as compelling as ever. ( )

I do love Miles when he's being (relatively) sane. I've read this and the immediate sequel several times, so it's hard to capture my original feelings...this time I noticed that he really did give himself away just about completely at the end. She did some powerful selective forgetting to be as surprised as she was in A Civil Campaign. ( )