Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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91 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic!, May 30, 2003
What an absolutely fantastic book!Young Miles is a compilation of 2 books and one novella. The three parts of the book are: The Warrior's Apprentice, Mountains of Mourning, and The Vor Game. They have all been published before, so if you own them, don't buy this book expecting anything new. Is it the book's fault some people don't know what they're buying when they purchase it? Cordelia's Honor; Miles, Mystery, & Mayhem, and Miles Errant are also compilations. This book is the first of the Vorkosigan saga with Miles, a cripple, as the main character, and it starts with him dropping out of military academy because of a broken leg. A member of the Vor (a military caste) class, his father the Prime Minister (former regent)of Barrayar, and living in a society that revolves around the military: this shatters Miles' dreams for his future. That is, until he accidently finds himself the "admiral" of a mercenary fleet and reveals a conspiracy against his father and himself. Unfortunately, being the leader of a private army on Barrayar is punishable by death. In The Mountains of Mourning, Miles is sent to investigate a case of infanticide, with the motive for the murder being an infants deformities. In The Vor Game, Miles has several other adventures, including attempting to stop an interstellar war and save his emperor. The first book I read by Bujold was Cordelia's Honor, which is a compilation of Shards of Honor and Barrayar. It tells the story of how Miles' parents married and how he became crippled. Cordelia, Miles' mother, was affected by a gas grenade thrown into her room when she was pregnant. Although she survived, her son's bones became twisted and brittle. So, Miles, the hero of this compilation, is 4'10" and has a curved spine, a head the size of a normal 6' person, and brittle bones that snap at the worst times. He's also extremely bright and hyper. Bujold is an excellent writer that makes each character come to life. There is no such thing as a two dimensional person in her world; each one is so incredibly different and deep. The reader can't help but get attached to some characters, crying and laughing along with them. I found myself giggling hysterically at some points in Young Miles, much to the confusion of those around me. Young Miles, like Cordelia's Honor, is also a page-turner. I read half the night away, only stopping when my eyes couldnt' stay open any longer. It's fast-paced adventure full of politics and military strategies. I often felt like my mind couldn't think fast enough to keep up with the story! It was absolutely wonderful! For those who have not read anything from Bujold, this is a great starting point in the Vorkosigan saga. It has characters from Cordelia's Honor, but Bujold doesn't expect people reading Young Miles to know everything about them. She does a great job keeping each story independent yet in line with the other stories. I started with Cordelia's Honor, which isn't quite as fast-paced (at least Shards of Honor wasn't) as Young Miles, but it's still an awesome book. It also gives a more in-depth look at Cordelia, Aral, and Bothari (Miles' bodyguard in Young Miles). What's great about these compilations is you get 2-3 books in one! Saves money, and it saves the reader the time it takes to run to the book store to get the next one (which you feel you must have the moment you finish a book). I can't wait to start Miles, Mystery, & Mayhem! Anyway, this is an excellent book in an excellent saga. A must read for any sci-fi lover! Even if you don't like sci-fi, you're bound to love this saga.
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70 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best starting points for discovering Bujold, July 1, 2002
If you have already discovered Bujold, and are still in the stage of trying to acquire copies of everything she's written, then you might be frustrated by the reissue volumes, each of which includes two novels, and frequently a novelette. This volume includes The Warrior's Apprentice, "The Mountains of Mourning" from Borders of Infinity, and The Vor Game. Thus, there is nothing new here for the collector. On the other hand, this makes an excellent introduction to Bujold's work for the newcomer, because it introduces Miles Naismith Vorkosigan as he first creates his alter ego Admiral Naismith, then gives some revealing insights into his Barrayaran background, and finishes up with Admiral Naismith being given a permanent role in his life. Many of the later Miles books, while excellent in and of themselves, probably won't have as much resonance as they should have if you do not have this background in mind. (Which is not to say that these are something you need to suffer through to get to the good stuff. The good stuff starts right away. Why are you even wasting time reading this review? Read the book!)Note: the other reissue volumes are Cordelia's Honor, which includes Shards of Honor and Barrayar, and Miles Errant, which includes Cetaganda and Ethan of Athos, as well as "Labyrinth" from "Borders of Infinity."
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Compilation for Vorkosigan Fans, June 10, 2002
"Young Miles", by Lois McMaster Bujold is the second compilation of the Vorkosigan saga. The first compilation combined the novels "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar", to tell the story of Miles' Mother, Cordelia, his Father, Aral, and ended shortly after Miles' birth."Young Miles" is an outstanding compilation, consisting of two novels, "The Warrior's Apprentice" and the Hugo award winning "The Vor Game", divided by a novella, "The Mountains of Mourning, which won both the Hugo award and Nebula award for best novella. At the end is an afterword by author Lois McMaster Bujold, which is an interesting piece in its own right, telling the story of how these works came into existence. All three tales are available in seperate forms, the two novels by themselves, and "Mountains" is included in "The Borders of Infinity", but this definitively compiles the present tales of Miles as he embarks on his early career. Most would envy Miles Vorkosigan's position in life. The "Vor" at the start of his name signifies he's a member of his planet's nobility. He is heir to his father's title of Count, destinied to be one of the members of the ruling legislative body of his planet. He's foster brother to the Emperor. His father was the Regent in the Emperor's youth, and now serves as Prime Minister. Wealth, power and nobility; a grand and enviable destiny. But no one would want to be Miles Vorkosigan, especially not on Barrayar, a planet which had been isolated from the galaxy at large long enough to lose much of its technology, including medical technology, until the past few generations. A planet where mutated children were killed at birth, so that precious resources would not be wasted. For Miles is a mere 4'9" tall, hunchbacked, a mishapen head, and with brittle bones which break with alarming regularity. Not a mutant, despite the epithets he deals with daily, but the victim of a poison gas attack on his parents while he was still in his mother's womb. The adventure starts with "The Warrior's Apprentice." 17 year old Miles washes out on his attempt to join Barrayar's military academy because of breaking a leg during the physical testing stage of the entrance process. Discouraged, he ends up taking a trip to Beta Colony, to visit his grandmother Naismith, to accompanied by his bodyguard, Bothari, and Bothari's daughter, the beautiful Elena. Along the way, he picks up two additions, a mad jump pilot, Arde Mayhew, and a Barrayaran deserter, Baz Jesek. Events result into a jump into a war zone. Events further result in the creation of the Dendarii Mercenaries, by Miles, and led by Miles Naismith, an unexpected creation of Miles Vorkosigan. "The Mountains of Mourning" tells the tale of a newly minted Ensign Miles Vorkosigan forced to investigate an infanticide in the back country of his father's district, a child killed simply for having a deformed mouth, for being a mutant, a matter of personal significance to the deformed Miles, and to his parents. "The Vor Game" has Miles receiving his first assignment after graduation from the military academy, unexpectedly to a desolate frigid base as a meteorolgist. Dealing with an insane commander results in his arrest and confinement, which ends with his going on a mission to Miles' Dendarii Mercenaries. But there's more to it, as Miles ends up stumbling on an old friend, an extremely important old friend, in the most unlikely of places. If you already have these three tales in their seperate incarnations, fine. But this compilation is truly exceptional and should be obtained whenever possible.
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