Customer Reviews

Borders of Infinity

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This collection of novellas was my introduction to Miles Vorkosigan, and while I suspect that the first book (The Warrior's Apprentice) Might have been a better opening, it did convince me to read every one that our libraries contained, and finally to begin collecting the series.

This collections contains three complete novellas and a, well, best described as sort-of-a-story to connect the three very different events in Miles' career. This wrap-around story is the main reason I gave the collection a mere four stars; it contains a suggestion of a rather scanty plot against Lord Aral Vorkosigan via Miles' more unusual adventures (Or rather, his monetary expenses), which serves no purpose except to perhaps introduce the idea of the imperial Auditors used in the later book Memory (And much better introduced within that book itself). As another reviewer said, the novellas could probably stand alone safely.

As for the three stories themselves, they vary immensely in theme. "The Mountains of Mourning" is a tale of Miles Vorkosigan's early years, and in theory it is a murder mystery, but the emotional impact on both Miles and myself as reader was quite incredible. This is probably the best of the three stories.

Following this, "Labyrinth" is a bit of a surprise; an almost rollicking adventure of Miles as the little "Admiral Naismith". It was grerat fun, but there was very little real emotional impact. It contained another excellent character, but felt to me like it was lacking depth - it was a plot-driven story, and shamelessly so. Having reread it sicne, it is better than my first impression, but the difference between the two stories was a bit of a shock.

The last story, "the Borders of Infinity", combined the two nicely - a rapid-paced adventure with a strong heart and some emotional twisting. Here Lois achieves something amazing in itself - she shows the story from the point-of-view of the one character who *really* knows everything that's going on, yet doesn't give away her own plot in so doing.

All in all, this hooked me on the little hyperactive madman; I've sought out every book of hers I can since.

This is the complicated book of the lot. It's short stories, which take place in various times throughout the series. I recommend reading them in the time-order of the series, not when the book shows up in the series. I mean, read "The mountains of Mourning" after "The Warrior's Apprentice" but before "The Vor Game", etc. These stories fit together so tightly and seamlessly that you might as well just consider the whole series one long book, and read it that way; just think of the individual books as bite-sized packages for the larger story.

Shards of Honor
Barayar
(these two books are also combined into "Cordelia's Honor")
The Warrior's Apprentice
Short Story: The Mountains of Mourning
(all short stories are contained in "Borders of Infinity")
The Vor Game
Cetaganda
Ethan of Athos
Short Story: Labyrinth
Short Story: The Borders of Infinity
Brothers in Arms
The Borders of Infinity
Mirror Dance
Memory
Komarr
A Civil Campaign
Diplomatic Immunity

Now go forth and read...

This is a collection of stories featuring Miles Vorkosigan. If you haven't encountered Miles before, this is probably the best place to start. Deformed but brilliant, Miles is an aristocrat born into a culture where "aristocracy" still means "duty" rather than "privilege". Unfortunately, it's also a culture that views the handicapped as mutants, objects of hatred and contempt. Miles is forced to challenge, again and again, the preconceptions of those around him. These are brilliant stories, written with wit, insight, and a strong sense of the tragicomic. "Mountains of Mourning" won a Hugo, I think, and one of the others was nominated. Even if you don't like science fiction, you can still enjoy this book thoroughly. If you *do* like sf, you absolutely need to have this book. Bujold's unadorned prose style has been compared to "Heinlein without the preaching", but this may be unfair... to Bujold. See for yourself why this woman keeps winning SF writing awards. Buy this book

Book Review by C. Douglas Baker

Bujold explores the character of Mile Vorkosigan in great detail in Borders of Infinity. This may sound like an odd statement given the numerous books that have been written about Miles, but nowhere else does Bujold really probe into Miles' personality and inner motivations like she does here. The reader also learns more about the psyche of Barrayarans.

Borders of Infinity is a collection of three stories: the Hugo award winning "The Mountains of Mourning", "Labyrinth", and "The Borders of Infinity". Each stand on their own as a single story. Miles is recounting each to Simon Illyan, his father's security chief, to account for the cost overruns of the auspicious Dendarii Mercenaries. (Read Brothers in Arms for details).

"The Mountains of Mourning" finds Miles' dispatched deep into the Dendarii mountains to investigate an infanticide that has been laid before the feet of Aral, his father. The local authority appears to be stifling the investigation and letting the culprit of the crime go. Bujold uses this story to show Miles in a deeply self-conscious and introspective mood. He is forced to confront his own deformities and what that means both on Barrayar and in the world (universe) at large. Miles has a deep seeded inferiority complex that he overcomes throughout his life and here we see clearly what motivates Miles. Miles is clearly haunted by the reputations of his grandfather and father, who are Vor class military heroes. Miles innately feels he must live up to their reputations as can be seen in his reflections on his own father's stress under the weight of his grandfather's achievements. Yet, Miles has much more to overcome being a deformed, albeit brilliant, young man. He sets out to do so. In this story we see why.

[Minor Spoiler for "Labyrinth"]

In "Labyrinth" Bujold once again explores the implications of genetic engineering, especially without any moral guidelines. The Dendarii Mercenaries are sent to assist a genetic engineer escape his Jackson Whole employers. This geneticist has a variety of interesting genetic samples that are important to his research and refuses to leave without them. Unfortunately he has hidden them in the calf of this part-human,eight-foot tall, incredibly strong, wolfish looking, genetically engineered creature. Worse yet, the creature has been sold to another Jackson Whole entrepreneur and Miles must form a plan to get the material then murder the creature before the geneticist will leave. This sets up a series of very interesting events. In fact, at one point, this reader almost fell out of bed laughing.

Finally, "Borders of Infinity" finds Miles trapped in a Cetagandan prisoner of war camp. The Miles timeline in the back of many Vorkosigan books gives away the plot and if you have not read it avoid doing so. This too is a very enjoyable adventure and shows Miles at his best. We also see Miles has inherited the
empathy and hatred of unnecessary deaths that his mother and father have exhibited.

All three stories in Borders of Infinity are highly enjoyable. And you do not have to be a Miles Vorkosigan fan to enjoy any of Bujold's work (novels or short stories). They easily stand as discrete pieces. I would speculate that once you have read one, however, you will find yourself hooked.

well, borders of infinity features as one of the most confusing book in the back of each vorkosigan saga book, where the times of miles vorkosigan/admiral naismith is shown.

what you actually have here is a collection of 3 stories, written in a style in which miles is telling them to simon. so in between each short story, you have the interaction between miles and simon. so in the end you have four stories!

no! don't skip this book! each story is important and will be mentioned again later in the series! the first of the three stories appears in the collection, young miles, but the other two stories don't appear anywhere else.

if you are new to the vorksigan series, start with shards of honour (about miles' parents) or skip the parents and start at the warrior's apprentice or the collection young miles. this is a fantastic sci-fi series ; funny and interesting. you won't regret reading the series!

Borders of Infinity is a collection of 3 short stories in the "Miles-verse," each taking place at different points of his career. All three stories are different in tone, thus showing multiple aspects of Miles' character. All of them are well done and worth reading. They aren't really essential to get the "whole story" of Miles, but they do get referred to again, so it's nice to actually know what's being talked about.

The first one, Mountains of Mourning, is probably the best of the bunch. Miles has just graduated from the academy, and is on vacation at the family mansion in the country. He helps a woman from a local village get an audience with his father, and in return for that, his father tasks him with solving the murder of her infant daughter.

This is a real growing experience for Miles, and comes at a perfect time for him. He has to deal with the remaining prejudices that still lurk in the less urbanized areas of Barrayar, and especially how they apply to him. Bujold effectively shows his indecision as he starts out wishing he had never gotten involved, and ends up being enormously glad he did. This is an effective character-building story for Miles, and he definitely learns a lot about himself.

The second story, Labyrinth, isn't quite as effective. There really isn't a lot of emotional involvement, though it does have some touching scenes. Again, in some ways, Miles has to learn about prejudices and first impressions as he gets involved in the retrieval of a genetic experiment gone wrong. It's very interesting watching Miles' attitude change toward Taura as he learns more.

With the exception of a few scenes in the middle, though, this story is straight action-adventure as Miles has to continually use his brains to get himself out of sticky situations. It's certainly not a bad story (the story of Taura is actually kind of touching), but it's the weakest in the group.

Finally, there is Borders of Infinity. I have to agree with another reviewer in saying that I marvel at how Bujold wrote this completely from Miles' point of view without actually revealing any of the planning. However, once you know what's going on, a lot of the stuff shown previously actually makes sense. It was very intriguing.

This story really showcases Miles' ability to think on his feet and talk people into things they might not otherwise have agreed to. There are also quite a few incidents that show just how physically fragile he is, though. You hear about it a lot in the books, but they haven't really shown it that often, but this story does.

The framing story serves its purpose. It's not really that interesting (though Simon is a great character), but it introduces the stories very nicely. I'm reading these chronologically, so I was a bit worried when I found out the framing story takes place after Brothers in Arms, but there's really nothing in it that spoils Brothers.

All in all, this is a very effective set of stories. There's an emotional one, an action one, and one that's a bit in between. Variety is the spice of life, as they say. While not crucial to your enjoyment of the Miles books, this collection is certainly worth your time to read.

I usually can't stand short stories because I just NEED that lengthy feel of a novel to be able to get into the author's mind. But from reading Bujold's previous works, it was no problem to get the feel of Miles' world - I already knew it by heart.

Ironically enough, I think Bujold has done her best characterization in the Borders of Infinity and in Ethan of Athos - her shortest works. At times the tone is light-hearted but the overriding themes were truly compelling.

I LOVE Borders of Infinty (the short story), I love it, love it, LOVE IT - Especially the moment when Miles bows down with the hat and does that poetic dance in front of the women.

I can't believe how well and how completely Bujold created a world within the dome. Read it, you'll know what I mean.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series is one of my favorites. It's superbly well written, and has everything from space opera to romance to mystery and more. "The Borders of Infinity" is one of my favorite parts of that series. It's compelling, with both an action plot and an exploration of human nature at its most basic level. I love Miles' courage, and his intelligence, and his ability to inspire. This novella was originally released as part of the anthology "The Borders of Infinity," which contained two other novellas. It has also been released as part of the omnibus "Miles Errant (Miles Vorkosigan Adventures)" (the e-book version of that has to be purchased from Baen Books, I think, but there's no DRM and it's available in any format you want, and Baen ebooks are always reasonably priced). Ms. Bujold has several of her Vorkosigan novellas for sale separately as ebooks on Amazon; they all stand alone, but if you're reading them together I would suggest this order: "The Mountains of Mourning (The Vorkosigan Series)," "Weatherman (The Vorkosigan Series)," "Labyrinth (Miles Vorkosigan Series)," "The Borders of Infinity," and "Winterfair Gifts (The Vorkosigan Series)"

Don't read this book first. You need to go back and read Shards of Honor, and Barrayar. And then Warrior's Apprentice.

But this was just about my favorite. I loved it. Fast packed, funny, Intelligent. Everything you expect from Miles.

I'd love to see more shorts from Bujold.

A friend suggested the Vorkosigan series and after a lot of hesitation (it's hard to find something good after Weber, Drake and Ringo.) I thought after reading The Vor Game I wouldn't be shocked by anything Miles does. Then I read Borders of Infinity.

Mountains of Morning has to be one of the more sentimental stories I've read, with a powerful finish that's both humorous yet shows Miles determination. Labyrinth was full of typical Miles humor, especially the wolf-girl. Then Borders of Infinity blew me away both in it's psychological depth and Miles utter insanity of brilliance.

I'd reccomend this book after reading the first few, but definitely once you're read up, get this.