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Book Note: Lois McMaster Bujold, Cryoburn

I read this book about 28-Oct-2010. This is the first time I've read this book. The book is copyright 2010. This note was last modified Friday, 02-May-2014 23:46:38 PDT.

This is book 12 of the "Miles Vorkosigan" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

 

The new Miles novel.

He's dispatched off to a planet we haven't heard of before, to investigate whether the cryo-preservation company from there that's planning to expand onto Komarr is up to anything.

Turns out they are, of course. And while he's at it, Miles finds a major local crime by one of their competitors, and accidentally intersects with a business his brother Mark wants to buy in association with his Durona Clinic project to engineer the clone lords out of existence.

The child Jin is an engaging protagonist. The weird culture developed there is weird. The baddies have the interesting habbit of just freezing their enemies, rather than killing them. I can't think that will last; Miles manages to find several, and have them testify in the trials.

One of the weird things about this novel is that his personal stakes are small. While he's a bit at risk in the first chapter or two, after that there's basically no personal danger involved, no existential threat to Barryar, his family, or anything. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a novel on that scale; but it's not the scale most of the Miles novels work on.

There's a big spoiler, out of thin air, at the end, too (beyond just Mark and Kareen showing up). Big enough, and unconnected enough, that I'm not going to mention it even under a spoiler warning. Yes, that's right; that.


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David Dyer-Bennet