Memory

Restored to life after being pronounced dead, Miles Vorosigan realizes that the event has left him with a profound weakness and is dismissed from his job, but things are further complicated when he remembers something that he saw while dead.

Miles Vorkosigan, secret agent extraordinaire and hero of six previous Bujold novels, has made a serious error. Not entirely recovered from the near-fatal injuries sustained in Mirror Dance (1994), he has a seizure while in combat, nearly wrecking the mission. Worse yet, fearing that he will be removed from active duty, he has falsified his report to Simon Illyan, the chief of Barrayaran Imperial Security. Illyan, who has perfect memory due to a computer implant, catches Miles in a lie and so must dismiss him from the Service. Devastated, Miles contemplates suicide. His career as a secret agent has propped up a damaged psyche; can he now live on his own? The Vorkosigan series started out as fairly lightweight space opera, but Bujold has matured as a writer over the years, and in such novels as Barrayar (1991) and Mirror Dance has both moved away from straight action and shown increasing skill as a delineator of character. Now, both Miles's strengths and his weaknesses come into play as he must struggle first with his own failure and then with a mystery that may have a potentially devastating effect on Barrayar itself. Not long after dismissing Miles, Illyan, who holds the safety of the Empire in his hands, begins to forget things and make serious mistakes himself?and only Miles, now a civilian with a serious medical disability hanging over his own head, has the knowledge needed to deal with impending disaster. Three novels in this series, including Mirror Dance, have won a Hugo for Best Novel; expect a nomination, at least, for this compelling new one. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the latest Miles Vorkosigan adventure, the matter of his dual identity as Lord Miles and Admiral Naismith comes home to roost. For concealing a health problem, he is dismissed as leader of the Dendarii Mercenaries--so exit Admiral Naismith. Unfortunately, he has done very little to make his real identity worth much, a situation that promptly changes when a gruesome assassination plot against his mentor, head of imperial security Simon Illyan, comes on the scene. By the time Miles uses the combined experience of both his identities to reveal the plot, he has been granted high official rank in his own person as well as helped the emperor Gregor finally garner a consort. There is so much harking back to previous Vorkosigan tales in this book that it is hardly the place to start on the undersized hero's adventures, yet Bujold fans of long standing will justly hail it as a masterpiece that contains some of her finest prose and characterization. Bujold continues to prove what marvels genius can create out of basic space operatics. Roland Green