Diplomatic Immunity [Hardcover]

Lois McMaster Bujold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2002

This is a comedy of terrors. A rich Komarran merchant fleet has been impounded at Graf Station, in distant Quaddiespace, after a bloody incident on the station docks involving a security officer from the convoy's Barrayaran military escort. Lord Miles Vorkosigan of Barrayar and his wife, Lady Ekaterin, have other things on their minds, such as getting home in time to attend the long-awaited births of their first children. But when duty calls in the voice of Barrayar's Emperor Gregor, Miles, Gregor's youngest Imperial Auditor (a special high-level troubleshooter) has no choice but to answer. Waiting on Graf Station are diplomatic snarls, tangled loyalties, old friends, new enemies, racial tensions, lies and deceptions, mysterious disappearances, and a lethal secret with wider consequences than even Miles anticipates: a race with time for life against death in horrifying new forms. The downside of being a troubleshooter comes when trouble starts shooting back.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Fans won't find this surprising in the least, but Miles Vorkosigan--the plucky, short-statured hero of Lois McMaster Bujold's beloved series--is uniquely incapable of having an uneventful honeymoon. Between a racially fueled diplomatic dispute, the appearance of a hermaphroditic old flame, and a bizarre Cetagandan genetic conspiracy, Miles just can't seem to get a minute of peace with his new wife, the lovely and resourceful Ekaterin (whom Miles courted in A Civil Campaign).

Miles had hoped to give "hands-on op games" a rest once and for all, but when the Emperor urgently calls on him to resolve a "legal entanglement" in Quaddiespace, diplomacy alone might prove inadequate. (Quaddies, you'll remember, are the no-legged, four-armed free-fallers introduced in Falling Free.) Our newly minted Imperial Auditor almost immediately forgets all about "Baby's First Cell Division" (after the assignment comes in, Ekaterin quickly observes "You know, you keep claiming your job is boring, Miles, but your eyes have gone all bright"), but even Miles feels the heat after his diplomatic attempts devolve into a series of flattering assassination attempts.

Vorkosigan (and family now!) is as winning as ever, with Bujold offering up her usual fun mix of space-opera action and droll social commentary in a character-centered plot. And here's a bonus for Milesophiles and Vorkosiga novices alike: a book-by-book timeline detailing what trouble Miles got into and when. --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

Those who have followed Bujold's superb far-future saga about the undersized and unorthodox warrior, Miles Vorkosigan, will heave a sigh of relief as our hero and his beloved Ekaterin enjoy wedded bliss (including looking at "baby pictures," i.e., a sperm fertilizing an egg) on a belated galactic honeymoon until a diplomatic crisis intrudes. As a Barrayaran Imperial Auditor, Miles must look into a murder whose investigation is complicated by the boorish behavior of the Barrayaran military. When the case develops a host of new angles, Miles wonders, "How many angles can dance on the head of a pin?" A seemingly straightforward crime leads him to mass murder, kidnapping, hijacking, biological warfare and Cetagandan genetic politics, all on an orbital habitat of the quaddies (the genetically engineered four-armed humans introduced in the author's Nebula Award winning Falling Free). Preventing interstellar war is a tough job, but fortunately Miles has his lady working beside him, in the best tradition of Nick and Nora Charles or Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. As usual, Bujold is adept at world-building and provides a witty, character-centered plot, full of exquisite grace notes such as the description of quaddie ballet (hint: four arms and no gravity make many things possible). Established fans will be thoroughly gripped and likely to finish the book in a single sitting. While this isn't the best place to start for new readers, they'll be helped by a concise chronology at the end that neatly sums up Miles's earlier adventures.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 311 pages
• Publisher: Baen Books; First Edition edition (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743435338
• ISBN-13: 978-0743435338
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,272,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the best in the series, but still worth reading, April 26, 2002

By 

David Amann (Redwood City, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Diplomatic Immunity (Hardcover)

As I've grown older, I've grown more selective of the science fiction that I've read. But I still rush to the web whenever a new Lois McMaster Bujold novel comes out. I'm still amazed that Bujold doesn't have a wider following among science-fiction fans. Given her four Hugo awards, Bujold should roll off the tip of the tongue as quickly as Henlein, Asimov, or Bradbury.

DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY is another book in the Miles Vorkosigan series. Like other Bujold heroes, Miles does not conform to the standard space opera hero sterotype. Debilitated by a terrorist attack while in vitro, Miles is a brilliant, devious, hyper-energetic mind trapped in an abnormally short, hunch-backed, fragile body.

In this addition to the series, the Emperor of Barryar interrupts Miles and his new wife on their honeymoon to embroil him in a convoluted diplomatic struggle involving the 'quaddies' (a race of humans genetically modified for optimal zero-G living who have arms in place of legs), the Cetagandans (the ancient enemies of Barryar), and a mysterious cargo. As Miles pulls the threads to this knot all hell breaks loose, and Miles must use his lightning wit and endless energy to somehow prevent a new war between his planet and the Cetagandans and a bio-terrorist threat on the entire quaddie race.

Bujold has chalked another of my sleepless night up to her exciting and fast-paced novels. Even though I was vastly entertained, I found this book a little disappointing. While other Miles books often had a more serious undercurrent of the difficulties of Miles living in the militaristic Barraryaran society and his unquenchable desire to succeed despite his handicaps, this book is more of a straight adventure story with little character growth. While one of the weaker books in the entire series, fans of Miles should still find this book very entertaining and a worthwhile read.

As a note for those new to the Vorkosigan books, don't start here. Instead, check out the collection of the first Miles books in YOUNG MILES or start off even earlier and learn about Miles's parents and the Barraryaran society in the collection CORDELIA'S HONOR.

Dav's Rating System:
5 stars - Loved it, and kept it on my bookshelf.
4 stars - Liked it, and gave it to a friend.
3 stars - OK, finished it and gave it to the library.
2 stars - Not good, finished it, but felt guilty and/or cheated by it.
1 star - I want my hour back! Didn't finish the book.

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspense, History and Anticipation..., April 22, 2002

By 

Carl Malmstrom (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Diplomatic Immunity (Hardcover)

Lois McMaster Bujold's first new Vorkosigan novel in two and a half years not only moves the story line to nearly two years after Miles and Ekaterin have been married (a story, presumably, to be chronicled some time in the future), but is the first novel since Mirror Dance to take place primarily outside the Barrayaran Empire.

In brief, it is a story of Miles playing troublshooter for a diplomatic incident gone horribly wrong in Quaddiespace - home of the quaddies first introduced in the novel "Falling Free". With tensions between quaddie and the Barrayarans stretched, tensions between Cetaganda and Barrayaer taking a turn for the worse, tensions between the trader Komarrans and the militarstic Barrayarns never far below the surface and a deadline for Miles and Ekaterin to return home for the birth of their first children, and deaths reported on the Quaddies' Graf Station, everything seems stretched to the breaking point even in the first chapter. As Miles investigates the situation, a relatively simple murder mystery rapidly transforms into a very palpable suspense with ties to many aspects of Miles' past.

As implied, it helps greatly to be familiar with Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga universe before reading this book. In particular, the events of "Falling Free", "Cetaganda", "Mirror Dance" and "A Civil Campaign" all feature with varying degrees of prominence in the story. While one could take the novel on it's own merits and probably enjoy it very much, it is much more effective when taken within previously established history.

While not her singularly finest Vorkosigan book to date, it is nonetheless quite good and is certainly better than the majority of science fiction available today and ranks in quality with most of the rest of her series. It weaves together old strands of plot - perhaps eternally tying up one or two - while leaving other others wide open to, undoubtedly, bedevil Miles in the future. I most certainly recommend this to the Vorkosigan fans eagerly awaiting the next installment of the series, but I would steer first time Lois McMaster Bujold readers back to "Shards of Honor" or, perhaps, if not wishing to go back quite so far, "Komarr".

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Light reading, May 20, 2002

By 

Juan Suros "jsuros" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diplomatic Immunity (Hardcover)

I'm not used to reading an entire Bujold book during a flight, but this one is rather short. This a "Vor" novel in Ms. Bujold's space opera universe of the far future. Miles Vorkosigan, her greatest creation, is the the protagonist in an adventure far outside the Barrayaran Empire of her previous few books.

"Diplomatic Immunity" is a bit of a puzzle. It is a murder mystery of sorts, as well as the sort of fiendishly complicated trap that Ms. Bujold likes to set for Miles. It includes both his wife Ekaterin & Miles old friend Bel Thorne, though they don't really do much to speak of. It gives some great backstory on Miles' bodyguard Armsman Roik and seems on the brink of using him for much more than the "beefcake" roll of the previous Vor novel, but then backs away for no apparent reason.

The villain, while not a total rehash of a previous book, is pretty close. I am doubtfull whether a new reader to the series would understand the motivations of the villain, and equally sure that a longtime reader will find nothing new here. Nothing that makes sense, that is. This book advances a new theory of the basis of power in a neighboring galactic empire that makes much less sense than that implied in a previous book. The quaddies, and especially their opera, are woefully underused and I finished the book knowing very little new about them and their society.

This book is worth reading if you are a long time reader desperate for some new Vor material, but would be very confusing to a new reader. ...