The Vor Game (edition 2002)

Straightforward rollicking space opera. Lots of twists and turns to the plot, layers of military strategy and enough humor to keep me snorting throughout. Miles is wonderful, and he's made even better by the strong supporting cast. ( )

I really liked this one, in large part because I liked the Dendarii Mercenaries and I like the tension stemming from Miles’ heritage as Piotr Vorkosigan’s grandson AND Aral Vorkosigan’s son. I wished we had a bit more of Elena in this one. I think in a way I wanted the kind of carefree, amusing Dendarii story that we had in Warrior’s Apprentice, and I didn’t get it. At the same time, I think that was the right choice. All of the characters involved have changed and you can’t just go back to what they were before. Gregor was kind of awesome in this one, and it was nice to see him developed a bit more. [Nov. 2010]

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I didn't like this one as much as [b:the Warrior's Apprentice|61906|The Warrior's Apprentice (Vorkosigan)|Lois McMaster Bujold|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170597854s/61906.jpg|2792]. It was hard to tell who exactly was attacking whom, and why, and where exactly we were.
Even so, it's a pretty damn entertaining read. ( )

3.5 stars

I read this as part of the omnibus edition Young Miles.

We return to Miles while he and Ivan are collecting their first duty assignments after graduating from the Imperial Security Academy. Miles yearns for ship duty. Ivan receives his orders staioning him in the capitol at ImpSec HQ. Miles orders send him to the farthest reaches of the Barrayar arctic as the weatherman for Kyril Island. Miles questions his assignment, especially since he only took one perfunctory meteorology course his first year of academy. He learns the duty assignment is a test to see if he can work with, lead and be lead by common (not Vor) soldiers. If he passes, his carrot is ship duty on the newest ship-of-the-line, the Prince Serg.

Miles' insubordination plays a major them in this story. He stumbles into the most improbable situations and then believes only he is capable of finding a way out of it, ignoring the advice and orders of his colleagues and superiors. It doesn't help that he actually does succeed in saving the day.

I enjoyed the action and intrigue, including more space opera elements, especially in the climactic space battles for control of various strategic wormholes. Parts of the story bogged down, though, especially after Miles removal from the arctic and subsequent detention. And I almost stopped reading when I had to suspend belief almost completely regarding the unlikely scenario of Miles finding Gregor off-planet and working as slave labor on a space station.

It was a fun read, but not as fun as Warrior's Apprentice, yet it won the Hugo in 1991. To date, I've read four novels in Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. I recommend this book as well as the series to all loves of space opera. ( )

This book is almost two separate stories put together -

The first is Miles's first assignment out of the academy, a post as a weatherman in a desolate (and rather chilly) location. It is meant as a test to see if he can shake off some of his insubordination, and if he passes this test, he will be awarded a post on the Barrayaran military's newest ship. He deals with a mad superior and obviously (and unsurprisingly) fails the test.

The second part of the book places him back among his Dendarii mercenaries, as part of an assignment by Imperial Security's head, Illyan. While he succeeds in the spirit (one would say) of the orders his superior on this mission had, he gets himself into a rather complex political situation. I liked this book, because it was fast paced and pretty complicated in some parts, with more twists than any standard novel. I really liked the development of the emperor Gregor as well and I look forward to where the story goes after this book. ( )