Book Review: Memory SPOILERS!

In 1996, Lois McMaster Bujold published yet another entry into the Vorkosigan Saga. This time, as Miles turns 30, 30 hits back in the most unexpected way. Synopsis: Dying is easy. Coming back to life is hard. At least that's what Miles Vorkosigan thinks and he should know, having done both once already. That was when he last visited the planet of Jackson's Whole, while rescuing his brother. Thanks to quick thinking on that part of his staff, and incredible artistry on the part of the specialist who revived him, his first death won't be his last. But his next one might be, a realization he finds profoundly unsettling. Even after he returns to military duty, his late death seems to be having a greater effect than he's willing to admit. Unfortunately, his weakness reveals itself to the world at just the wrong time and in just the wrong way, and Miles is summoned home to face Barrayaran security chief Simon Illyan. But when things begin to go subtly wrong in Imperial Security itself, "Who shall guard the guardians?" becomes a more-than-rhetorical question, with a potentially lethal answer. Things look bad, but they are far worse than Miles imagines, as he discovers his worst nightmares about Simon Illyan don't compare to Illyan's worst nightmares--or are they memories?

Ever since Miles returned from the dead, he's been having weird seizures where he blacks out and doesn't recall what happened. This costs him the mission to rescue courier officer Lt. Vorberg. Vorberg's legs were blown off as a result. Elli Quinn tells Miles that he kneecapped Vorberg during the seizure; Elli figures out that this isn't the first time this has happened since Miles' cryo-revival one year ago, and she verbally rips into him. During refit, Elena and Baz tell Miles they want to resign; Miles is shocked and dismayed, but lets them go, and promotes Captain Elli Quinn to Commodore. Miles goes to tell Elli, but a note from Simon ends up recalling Miles to Barrayar; Sergeant Taura acts as escort. Once back at Barrayar, Duv Galeni visits Miles and tells Miles about his girlfriend Dr. Laisa Toscane. During a State Dinner hosted by Gregor, Miles watches as, despite Duv's shock, Laisa and Gregor talk about the concerns that Komarr Shippers' Syndicate has. Days later, and in ImpSec, Simon lays into Miles for his stupidity in neglecting to mention these seizures; during this, Miles has another seizure and rips off his ImpSec Eyes and throws them at Simon, saying that he resigns--Simon's horrified by this and hopes that he never has to go through something like this again. (This also ruins Simon's plans to have Miles take over ImpSec, something Gregor is also displeased about, though not as angry as he is at Miles' lies.)

Miles hears from Ivan and Duv that General Haroche thought Simon beat up Miles and ripped off the "eyes"; he tells them why he was fired from ImpSec. Miles, in a bit of horror at having to learn how to run the Vorkosigan House and staff it, hires Corproal Kosti's brother, Martin, as a driver, then Kosti's mother as the cook. Alys Vorpatil visits Miles and tells him that Gregor is hosting a lunch and wants Miles there beforehand to talk. After their talk--which is a calmer version of what Simon said to Miles--Gregor asks Miles to stay for the lunch and observe; Laisa is at the lunch, as well. Alys admits her surprise to Miles about Laisa becoming the first Komarran Empress if Gregor is serious in courting her. After a couple of weeks in isolation in the mountains, Galeni calls Miles to complain about Gregor and Laisa's marriage announcement. A day or so later, Galeni drops by the Vorkosigan House and apologizes to Miles and lets him know about Simon being unable to remember simple things and acting extremely out of character. Miles doesn't think much of it until Simon calls a few days later about the Dagoola Mission and Miles informs Simon that he (Miles) was fired by Simon over a month ago; Simon asks Miles if he's lost his mind, then Simon freezes, then hangs up; Miles is terrified. Miles informs General Haroche; Haroche arrests Simon the following day after Simon breaks down int he ImpSec HQ.

Needless to say, ImpSec goes dark. Haroche refuses to let Miles see Simon, so Miles goes and complains to Gregor. Miles continues to complain over the next few days, even with no evidence as to what caused Simon's breakdown--except that it might have something to do with Simon's memory chip. Alys is angered that neither Miles, Gregor, nor Ivan informed her of Simon's condition. THe wounded Vorberg from earlier comes calling at the Vorkosigan House and informs Miles that Simon is asking to see him. After being threatened by Haroche, Miles decides enough's enough and "becomes the Vor lord with intent" as Gregor puts it. Miles visits Gregor and demands an Imperial Auditor be attached to him so he can investigate Simon's illness, but Gregor points out that Miles would constantly be back at the palace demanding more Auditors to overwrite the others and instead appoints Miles as the Ninth Imperial Auditor. Miles requests Ivan as his assistant; Ivan remarks that he always thought Miles needed a choke-chain. Miles, with Ivan, goes to Haroche who finally admits Miles to the hospital; Haroche updates Miles on Simon's condition--but it's clear that Haroche doesn't want Miles there at all. Miles talks to Simon, who relapses through various stages of his life, and states that the chip is melting in his head.

Miles, with orders from Gregor, orders that the chip be removed. Miles has Haroche apologize to Lady Alys; she says she can get ready to see Simon in 15 minutes. Miles and Dr. Ruibal note that Simon's blood pressure dropped when Alys entered the room. The surgery goes through, Simon is fine, and Alys declares that she wants Simon. While the scientists study what caused the meltdown, Miles takes Simon to Vorkosigan House and later fishing. During all this, Miles' doctor has found a way to control the seizures, while Simon goes on a "date" with Alys. During this--cos I'm skipping through the repetitive date scenes, naval gazing, and back and forth "what if it's this"--Miles finds fake evidence of himself visiting the evidence room 12 weeks ago; Miles, slightly confused, asks Ivan to take a good look at it. Ivan finds the mystery infection--a Komarran bioengineered apoptotic prokaryote, it attacks and eats neurochip proteins--in Weapons Room 4 of ImpSec. Miles is slightly insulted that he was chosen to be the scapegoat. At a party, Miles figures out that Alys and Simon are sleeping together and thinks that he'll let Ivan figure it out for himself; Galeni and Delia are also dating. Galeni is arrested at said party for treason by order of General Haroche. Haroche, Miles realizes, is pulling at straws to have Galeni arrested, but without evidence, Miles can't counter Haroche.

Dr. Weddell tells Miles how the prokaryote got loose--it was released into the air. Haroche tries to subtly bribe Miles with his old command; later, Miles muses on it and realizes that Haroche not only tried to bribe him, but also poisoned Illyan with the prokaryote, and goes to check the air filters at ImpSec, specifically Simon's, Galeni's, and Haroche's old rooms. Miles, with Simon, General Allegre, Ivan, and Delia, goes to ImpSec--Miles leaves Delia with Galeni. Dr. Weddell checks and confirms that Galeni's air filter is clear of the virus, and so is Simon's. Miles leads everyone to Haroche's old office and find Haroche in the process of trying to clear his filter. Miles appoints Allegre as acting chief of ImpSec and orders him to arrest Haroche for the capital charge of treason. Galeni is freed and made the head of Komarran affairs, Miles writes up one hell of a detailed report, and Haroche tells all to Gregor, Ivan, Miles, and Simon and then gets court-martialed. It should be noted that "Gregor had grown so neutral as to seem almost gray"--Miles notes that that's what rage looks like on the Emperor. Ivan has a full blown panic attack when he learns that his mother and Simon are dating and rants to Miles; Miles points out that if she's too preoccupied with her own love life, then maybe she'll leave Ivan's alone. Ivan drops the subject. Miles brings Gregor the full report, including the footnotes and Gregor sends it next door. Auditors Vorhovis, Vorkalloner, and Vorgustafson agree with Gregor that Miles will do as the Eighth Imperial Auditor, and this Miles accepts and is made so. Dr. Chenko installs the controlled-seizure device into Miles' brain, complete with a remote control. During the formal announcement of Gregor and Laisa's engagement, Count Aral Vorkosigan offers his congratulations to Miles for earning a captaincy and the rank of Imperial Auditor. Miles hands complete control of the Dendarii Mercenary Fleet over to newly promoted Admiral Elli Quinn, who tries to get Miles to be Admiral Naismith while he tries to get her to be his Lady Vorkosigan; both realize that it won't work and they depart.

All in all, a very good, decently paced novel. I highly recommend this to any fan of the Vorkosigan saga. Now, onto Komarr and Star Wars: Kenobi. 

Fall Book Reviews and the recent lack of Book Reviews

As you may have noticed, dear readers and viewers, I've not posted anything in the last couple of weeks. I apologize and can only state that I've been busy reading some new books such as John Jackson Miller's excellent Star Wars: Kenobi novel and Lois McMaster Bujold's Captain Vorpatil's Alliance, as well as others, such as James Lovegrove's Age of [insert deity here] series. Doing so has reminded me that I started these book reviews as a way to not only summarize books I've enjoyed but to also give my opinions on them. And in short, I can no longer do that with certain series' that I've started, namely those by Lois Bujold and certain Bantam era Star Wars novels that I've been longing to do.

To start, I'll name the first I will no longer be finishing: The Vorkosigan Saga. This may come as a shock, but I simply do not have the time or resources--or books, for that matter--to track down each of them and reread them. I'm at my limits and have had to come to terms with that. I can, however, briefly summarize Brother's In Arms, Borders of Infinity, and Mirror Dance into a couple of paragraphs. Most of this will be off the top of my head and what I recall happening. Those will be below and the titles of which will be marked in bold. Note, this does not mean I'll abandon almost finished series, such as Lois' Sharing Knife series--I've only got one book left to review, so I may as well finish it.

Another that will take a while will be the Star Wars: X-Wing books by Mike Stackpole and Aaron Allston. First, because I have a strong dislike of Allston's works in that all his characters come across as juvenile wannabe jokers in the maturity range of 13- to 14-year-olds. That and I've loaned them out to a friend who wanted to read them. So they are on hold for a while.

But fear not, for I shall finish the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn as well as most of his books in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. But I shall only do them in the order they were published, not chronologically. To this end, I also state that I will do a couple of reviews for the Vorkosigan Saga, namely those of Memory, Komarr, A Civil Campaign, and Captian Vorpatil's Alliance--three of which I enjoyed and one I'm in the process of reading. Also, I'll be trying to get the review for JJM's Kenobi up soon, but it's a really good book and I can't stop rereading it, folks.

To make up for this, I'll do some special reviews in November for the game tie-ins that I didn't get around to, such as The Force Unleashed, The Force Unleashed II, the Star Wars: Dark Forces novella trilogy by William C. Deitz, the Assassin's Creed novels, and maybe the Resistance novels by Deitz. Now, I'm not promising anything, because I'll be extremely busy with school and work, but I will do my best to get as many of those done as I can for you.

Brothers In Arms
Okay, so this is supposed to be a mystery novel. I can handle those, but frankly, this one does seem rather easy to see through. First off, Miles and some of the members his mercenary gang stop at Earth for repairs, but the funds are delayed. Miles doesn't like this, especially when he's detained and held in the Barrayaran embassy to serve Duv Galeni, who is a nice Komarran chap, except he sees Miles as a threat by ImpSec to get him fired or something. (Remember, I'm trying to recall from my memory here, folks.) A lot of people notice that Miles and Admiral Naismith look alike, but Miles brushes it off, trying to keep both identities separate. Add in the fact that he's also having a sort of hard time keeping them apart and you've got the perfect recipe for disaster. But Miles, being Miles, suspects a couple of Komarrans are up to something and is proved right when he comes face to face with his clone. The clone (later called Mark) is to be take over Miles' job and help free the Komarran's from the rule of the Barrayarans. Naturally, Miles won't allow that and does end up stopping them and their leader, who happens to be a relative of Galeni's. Mark, now free, ends up running away to figure out who he is. Galeni is promoted, I believe and recalled back to Barrayar. This marks the last appearance of Ky Tung, who retires to Brazil on Earth to be with his family.

Side note: The actual title for this, in my opinion, should've been Mirror Dance, seeing as how Miles starts to lose it on Earth. This is just my personal opinion folks, please don't yell at me.

Borders of Infinity
This has got to be the worst of Lois' books. It's an anthology disguised as a novel. Basically, it's three stories wrapped around four very god-awful pages of Miles being interrogated in a hospital room by Simon Illyan which is supposed to ferret out an assassination attempt against Aral. I didn't believe it when I read it and I still don't. Anyway the first one deals with Miles investigating a killing in the backwater parts of backwater Barrayar. Apparently, the grandmother did it to spare the child of growing up with some sort of weird genetic mutation. I can't recall what, excatly, only that it was ludicrously ridiculous and had me rolling my eyes. The second story had something to do with picking up a rogue scientist in Jackson's Whole, but there's a complication--as always--and Miles seeks to rid himself of it. In this, he meets a quaddie, and some other creature whose name eludes me. During this, another rival scientist gets his lab burnt down by Miles and the creature-whose-name-eludes-me, and they manage to escape. Straightforward and simple, this is the longest novella in the omnibus--for that's what Borders of Infinity is--and is an enjoyable read. The last one is set during a war and somehow or another, the person Miles was sent to retrieve has died and so Miles helps the resistance movement--if I recall correctly--and then leaves. I don't recall much of this last one, which should be some indication of how forgettable I found it.

Mirror Dance
Ah, lovely Mirror Dance, and it's wacky plot. Mark, impersonating Miles, gets the Dendarii mercs to go to Jackson's Whole and seek revenge while freeing genetic slaves, something that Bel Thorne hates. Well, things go sour, Miles gets involved, relieves Thorne of command, and then Miles dies. He's placed into cryostasis and left on the planet. Mark, under watch by a tempermental and angry Elli Quinn, head back to Barrayar. Elli reports this to Simon. Mark meets Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan. They treat him like their second son and Mark, unable to stand any of the asinine Barrayaran ways, convinces Elli to help him get Miles back. Meanwhile, a scientist revives Miles and over the course of a few weeks, starts to recall his life. It's only complete when Mark, Elli and the Dendarii free Miles from that and leave Jackson's Whole behind, with Mark--who has fallen for Kareen Koudelka--wants to turn his life around and goes to Beta to begin therapy, or I recall. I know it happened at some point, just not exactly sure which book.

Side Note: the correct title of this book should've been Brothers In Arms, at least, I think so, considering how Miles and Mark fight to rescue each other and how close their sibling bond gets. But maybe that's just me, folks. 

Review: The Sharig Knife 3: Passage SPOILERS!

In May of 2008, Lois McMaster Bujold penned another novel in her Sharing Knife series. This time, more talking and barely a climax await the reader. Synopsis: Volume three in the epic fantasy saga from multiple Hugo Award-winning author Lois McMaster Bujold. Young Fawn Bluefield and soldier-sorcerer Dag Redwing Hickory have survived magical dangers, but the bigotry of blood kin cannot be easily overcome. Leaving behind all that they have ever known, they set off to find fresh solutions to the perilous split between their peoples—a passage that will not be ventured alone. New companions join them on their road: Fawn’s brother, Whit, escaping a hopeless future on the family farm; two novice Lakewalker patrollers fleeing the catastrophic consequences of an honest mistake; a young flatboat captain searching for her vanished father and fiancé; a shrewd backwoods hunter; and a farmer boy unintentionally beguiled by Dag’s growing magery. On an eventful journey to where great rivers join, the ill-assorted crew will be sorely tested and tempered as they encounter a new world of hazards both human and uncanny.

The novel opens with Dag and Fawn--exiled from the Lakewalker camp--head back to Bluefield farm. Dag tries to explain to Fawn's family about teaching "farmers"--non-magic using humans--to recognize malice signs so they can warn Lakewalkers, but Dag fumbles in this even with Whit's help. When Fawn and Dag leave, Whit goes with them. At Glassforge, Whit sells the horses--except for Copperhead--so they can travel with the glass wagon drivers; Whit's taking the job to move at his own pace. After Hod attempts to steal from Dag--and Copperhead breaks his knee--Dag heals him with ground work, killing a tapeworm in the process. The wagon train passes through Pearl Riffle Camp; Dag talks with some young Lakewalker patrollers--two of whom are Barr and Remo. Fawn and Whit arrive at Pearl Bend's wharf boat and meet Boss Berry and Jos; Whit falls in love with Berry at first sight. Dag arrives and learns that Whit plans on joining him and Fawn. Whit finds out that Berry's father, brother, and fiance Adler went missing and she means to look for them. Hod shows up, beguiled out of his mind, and joins.

Dag berates two Pearl Riffle patrollers for not educating farmers in their ways and they call him mad. Dag (and Lois) later performs oral surgery and tells everyone how groundwork works to a mob and a sick woman. Dag and crew then set sail and Remo chases after them. Remo works for his passage, at least until Boss Berry gets to Silver Shoals. Dag starts ground-ripping oats to see what would happen. He also helps Whit continue with his bow work. Hod purposely breaks a knee; Dag, angry and seeing a way to potentially get rid of beguilement, has Remo perform groundwork and heals Hod's knee. Passing by a river town, Berry, Fawn, and Whit hear of former cargo boats going missing; Dag helps Remo sense farmers with his ground. Dag practices ground-ripping on Fawn's pie and gets sick; he decides to go back to oats. Dag--with Fawn, Remo, and Hod--discovers why farmers become beguiled: Lakewalkers don't take farmer ground when they "heal" and that creates beguilement. Dag "heals" Hod's knee and takes Hod's ground and the beguilement disappears. Remo's partner, Barr, chases after them and begs Remo to return before Pearl Riffle Captain Amma blames Barr.

Remo says it's not his problem and decides to stay. Barr tries his best to persuade Berry but Remo and Whit hit him, and Berry kicks him off the Fetch. Barr tracks them down and Dag takes him aside and makes him see sense; Barr apologizes to everyone and Berry lets him back aboard--Barr works for his passage. Along the way, they rescue Captain Chicory and his remaining crew from being stranded in the river. Eventually, Berry finds her Adler, but Adler and his crew want to leave because Crane doesn't want them to mess with Lakewalkers. Adler tells Berry that her father, brother, and Briar Rose were killed in a storm--but everyone and their dog (except Berry) know it's not true; the Lakewalkers can sense it. Dag forces a confession and everyone learns that Adler and his crew are boat bandits (pirates) who work for a Lakewalker names Crane. Crane leads these bandits. Dag, Whit, Chicory, and others go and assault Crane's lair. Fawn tells Berry that Adler isn't beguiled and Berry can't decide if that's worse or not. Crane comes for Adler and starts killing Bo's pets; Crane takes Fawn hostage. Dag and gang arrive and Crane threatens to kill Fawn.

Dag ground-rips Crane's spinal cord just below the neck. Whit kills Crane's bandits and Berry smacks Adler overboard with an oar. Dag learns from Crane why he did what he did; Crane tells Dag to "bury my bones." Fawn gives Whit advice on how to help Berry heal from losing her family and Adler. During the trials, Dag explains Lakewalker rituals and kills Crane to prime a sharing knife. Dag and company travel onwards. Whit asks Berry to marry him and she says yes.

All in all, a slow paced book (but then again, this is Lois McMaster Bujold) and as soon as there's some hint of conflict, she repeatedly bashes it over the head to eliminate it. Enjoyable only for those who love river boating, otherwise it remains a weak mediocre novel that does little except help Dag learn how to get rid of beguilement.