The Warrior's Apprentice [Mass Market Paperback]

Lois McMaster Bujold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1991

Discharged from the Barrarayan academy after flunking the physical, a discouraged Miles Vorkosigan takes possession of a jumpship and becomes the leader of a mercenary force that expands to a fleet of treasonous proportions. Reprint. AB.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The pace is breathless, the characterization thoughtful and emotionally powerful, and the author's narrative technique and command of language compelling. Highly recommended". --Booklist --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Publisher

This volume is a high-quality hardcover reprint of the novel previously published by Baen in mass-market paperback form. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Baen (February 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067172066X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671720667
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

388 of 397 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this., August 3, 2002

By 

A. Trotter (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Warrior's Apprentice (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm getting tired of writing reviews about how absolutely perfectly wonderful these books are; there's like, twelve of them, and then there are books where they compiled two into one and gave it a different name... So just read the list below and go get the first book or books, and then go buy all the rest of them because you won't want to stop reading them, and annoy your friends because you miss what they were saying because you were too busy reading and didn't really want to go out Friday night anyways because you've still got another 3 books in the series to read.

Ok? Ok.

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 click on the bit where it says I was very helpful with this review, only it's a lie because I just got you hooked on something that's gonna take up a whole bunch of your time reading and make people think you're a complete geek when you want to do nothing but talk about how wonderful these books are.

66 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Miles kicks off, August 23, 2000

By 

Ivy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Warrior's Apprentice (Mass Market Paperback)

The Warrior's Apprentice is the third book in Vorkosigan series - if you're going by internal chronology - and the first book with Miles as the main character. Although Shards of Honor is excellent, and Barrayar is quite good, Warrior's Apprentice is where this series really takes flight.

Miles is one of the classic characters of modern SF - Bujold has created someone who is exceptional in many ways (brilliant strategist, painfully intelligent, lucky as hell) and who is still likeable, because she allows him to have flaws and weaknesses - quite a few of them, in fact. Unlike, for example, Honor Harrington in David Weber's series, Miles is fully three-dimensional, and such a fascinating guy that it would be interesting to read *anything* about him.

In Warrior's, Miles' character is still developing. He's on a trip to his mother's homeworld after failing the entrance exam for the Imperial Military Academy when he decides to intervene in a Betan police problem. This leads, inevitably, to his involvement in another system's civil war. Will Miles be able to hold together his fictious group of mercenaries, keep track of his prisoners, earn enough money to redeem his mortgaged land, win the girl, and get back to Beta Colony before his parents find out what he's doing? (He gets himself into situations like this all the time - that's Miles for you.)

In my opinion, the best Vorkosigan books are those that focus on character development rather than plot - ones like Shards of Honor, Warrior's Apprentice, and Memory. In these, the plot is still strong, but it is interwoven with the building of a new character or a new aspect of a familiar one, and that is where Bujold really shines.

If you're just starting out with Lois Bujold, Warrior's Apprentice is a good place to start, despite its chronological position. And if you haven't read this book yet, I envy you - you've got quite a treat in store.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very well written space opera, March 26, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Warrior's Apprentice (Mass Market Paperback)

This was the first of Lois M. Bujold's "Miles Vorkosigan" books. This series has won two Hugos for Bujold, and with good reason. They are very solid, well-written adventure stories with excellent characters and fascinating plots. This book is a bit pulpier than the others -- Bujold was still finding her voice -- but still quite good, and the proper place to start if you want to read Miles' adventures in chronological order