This book introduces one of Lois McMaster Bujold's best characters namely Miles Vorkosigan.

I won't repeat the basic synopsis that you can find all over the net, but I will point out that this novel (and Author of course!) is perhaps one of my all time favourites and I've re-read the series at least 3 times by now while waiting for the author to add even more books to the series!

Character development is superb (especially if you follow the series) and Bujold has pure mastery in that she creates characters that you can't help but to enjoy /fall in love with /laugh at /cringe for /fear with etc.

It has humour, insanity, strategy, 'forward momentum', interesting plot developments and a background story/universe that was well thought out and keeps getting richer as you read the rest of the series.

Go pick up a copy at your book dealer or do the eBook thing and get ready to be entertained! ( )

Starting this book, I was basically expecting something light with charming characters. Unfortunately, the charm was just too unconvincing for me here. It's a 'how a less-skilled-in-the-areas-he-wants guy learns his true strengths and how to appreciate them' variety of story, in this case with a handicapped guy who can't be a soldier turning out to be a good leader and strategist.

It's an endearing formula, but the novel never really does much to show you how or why the main character is the supposedly amazing leader and strategist he is. What makes him inspire all this devotion people are tripping over themselves to give him? All we ever really see is that he's fairly nice and intelligent, but that really doesn't cut it. He goes through lots of huge that-should-not-have-worked undertakings and manages to get out because of pure random luck (only not so random, of course, because the author makes it happen that way and it happens ever time), and people pat him on the back like it was because of his excellent smarts. It gets difficult to really care about a character that never actually has to work or act intelligently in order to get things to work out for him.

The story here also sports the common Slightly Feminist Leanings While Still Managing To Privilege Male Characters Over Women Syndrome™. It's got it's token strong female character (extra points for her being an amazing fighter but still sweet and virginal!) whom the main character likes to go on short inner diatribes about since she has such amazing talents but will never get to take advantage of her abilities because of how women are excluded in certain ways in their society. In the end, though, she's effectively just there to be the (quite bland in comparison to the other characters) love interest, who doesn't even get much description of her actions in fight scenes compared to the males, despite supposedly being one of the most skilled among them.

The novel is swift and readable, and while on vacation I got within less than 100 pages of the end just because I didn't want to start reading anything else right before my trip ended. As soon as I was home, though, I quit before finishing without a second thought. There just really wasn't any point. I only read it for a little light enjoyment, but when a book is this empty and unconvincing, there's really not much enjoyment for me to get out of it, anyway. ( )

Lightweight novel about a rich kid (from an aristocratic military family, actually, in a fictitious planet) who is a brilliant strategist but whose body is plagued by genetic defects, so he is neve seen as suitable for a promising military career. The novel follows him as he, following his thirst for adventure combined with his desire to impress a girl, gets in progressively more complex trouble, in the end discovering through this a conspiracy against him and his family, and of course beautifully solving everything in the end. Nothing ever actually goes really wrong for him in the novel, which makes it quite light, and actually enjoyable. ( )

I've read this book at least three times over the years, but I'd forgotten just how fabulous it was. Reading it for the 4th (ish) time while ill this week, I found myself laughing aloud in pure delight.

Miles is cursed with a hyperactive, intelligent mind in a body that forever lets him down. Brittle bones break all too easily, and in a culture that values physical strength and perfection, that's a big problem.

His resentment at being unable to do the things he really wants to do leads him to help another desperate man, and suddenly he's in a situation where one thing piles on top of another and he's juggling eggs in an evermore complex pattern.

Here's where his upbringing comes in handy. Miles has always wanted the military life, he's inherited his father's gift for tactics, but this military life is a trap of a kind that he fails to spot until it is almost too late.

Bujold's characters are wonderful - each of her books usually works as a stand-alone (this one included), but it's great to have extra glimpses of characters whom we've met in the past or will see more of in the future. Her female characters are intelligent and capable of challenging the cultures that surround them.

The book is also funny. Mile's thoughts about his idiot cousin Ivan, his efforts at playing matchmaker, and many other scenes besides.

In a nutshell, the book is wonderful space opera, with great characters. Read it! ( )

Possibly a little too space opera for me, since I simply do not have the kind of brain which can easily follow written descriptions of battles—land, sea, air or space—no matter how clearly they are described for me. I also thought that some of the dialogue, particularly that at the beginning, was rather poorly observed. Still, I did quite like this introduction to clever, vulnerable Miles, who goes on holiday to get over the disappointment of not getting into the military academy and... accidentally starts his own mercenary army. As one does. The Warrior's Apprentice does improve as it progresses, and the ending unfolded neatly (though not tidily), and had some nice character moments. I will continue with the series for the next couple of books, at least. ( )