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A Civil Campaign Mass Market Paperback – August 1, 2000
Lois McMaster Bujold (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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- Print length544 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBaen
- Publication dateAugust 1, 2000
- Dimensions4.19 x 1.1 x 6.75 inches
- ISBN-100671578855
- ISBN-13978-0671578855
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Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
It's spring in Vorbarr Sultana, and a young person's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love ... money ... bio-genetics ... love ... lack of money ... incompatible planetary sexual mores ... love ... District succession scandals ... the Emperor's wedding ... and, of course, love ...
Lord Miles Vorkosigan, youngest Imperial Auditor to be appointed by the Emperor since the Time of Isolation, has a problem all his new power can't solve: unrequited love for the beautiful Vor widow Ekaterin Vorsoisson. Ekaterin is violently allergic to marriage as a result of her first exposure. But as Miles learned from his late career in galactic covert ops, if a frontal assault won't do, go to subterfuge. He has a cunning plan ...
Lord Mark Vorkosigan has a problem: his love for the sunny Kareen, daughter of Commodore Koudelka, has just become unrequited again. But if all his new money can't solve their dilemma, perhaps a judicious blending of science and entrepreneurial scheming might. He has a cunning plan ...
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : Baen; Reprint edition (August 1, 2000)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 544 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0671578855
- ISBN-13 : 978-0671578855
- Item Weight : 7.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.19 x 1.1 x 6.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #505,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8,454 in Space Operas
- #11,953 in Science Fiction Adventures
- #56,260 in Fantasy (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

A science fiction legend, Lois McMaster Bujold is one of the most highly regarded speculative fiction writers of all time. She has won three Nebula Awards and six Hugo Awards, four for best novel, which matches Robert A. Heinlein's record. Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan saga is a massively popular science fiction mainstay. The mother of two, Ms. Bujold lives in Minneapolis.
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Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan has sent his sights on Ekaterin Vorsoisson, a widow whom he met on Komarr while investigating the soletta space mirror destruction. She was not a widow when he met her and her husband died while with Miles, chained in the deadly Komarrian outdoors when his breath mask ran out of oxygen and power.
Unfortunately, due to the influence of interstellar technology, the people on Barrayar elected to have more male children than female children instead of the natural progression of nearly 50:50. The resulting 60:40 split of men to women has left many young men desperate to find a mate. The resulting confusion and one-upmanships has even affected the widow Ekaterin Vorsoisson during her mourning year when she is supposed to be left alone. Not so and even Miles has joined in, treating the pursuit of Ekaterin as a military campaign in his desperation.
Vorkosigan Saga (Chronological) by Lois McMaster Bujold
1. Dreamweaver's Dilemma
2. Falling Free
3. Shards of Honor
4. Barrayar
5. The Warrior's Apprentice
6. The Borders of Infinity (The Mountains of Mourning, etc)
7. The Vor Game
8. Cetaganda
9. Ethan Of Athos
10. Brothers in Arms
11. Mirror Dance
12. Memory
13. Komarr
14. A Civil Campaign
15. Diplomatic Immunity
16. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
17. CryoBurn
18. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
Miles Vorkosigan is in love
Miles has just returned to Barrayar from his first assignment as an Imperial Auditor on the planet Komarr. A woman he met there has returned with him along with her five-year-old son. She is Ekaterin Vorsoisson, widow of a corrupt Barrayaran administrator who died in the course of Miles' investigation. Now Miles, a dwarf, is desperate to find a way to keep Ekaterin close and out of the clutches of the hordes of handsome (and physiologically normal) men he knows will crowd around her. Because Ekaterin is strikingly beautiful as well as extremely intelligent. Miles has fallen deeply in love with her and is determined to marry her when her year of mourning for her late husband is over.
An imperial wedding in a time of political machinations
Miles and Ekaterin have returned mere months before the Emperor Gregor is to wed another attractive and intelligent Komarran woman. Since Miles and Gregor grew up together in Miles' parents' home, and Miles' father served as Gregor's Regent for many years, Miles is unable to escape a leading role in the wedding. He is to be Gregor's Second, or best man. Unfortunately, while the wedding preparations move ahead, complicating everybody's lives, Miles is caught up in local politics. Two very nasty feuds among the Counts of Barrayar have broken out. Because of Miles' prominence as the son of the Regent and an Imperial Auditor, he's forced to play a leading role in resolving the disputes. Both Miles and his cousin Ivan are caught in the middle of both disputes. And ugly days lie ahead. Very ugly.
A clever business proposition
Meanwhile, Miles' clone-brother Mark has returned to Barrayar, too. Mark is the business genius in a family that cares little about money. He has brought with him a scientist who has discovered a way to genetically modify a certain species of insect to produce a highly nutritious substance by regurgitating it. (Miles calls them "vomit bugs.") And Mark has plans to build a huge food-services industry around the discovery. Unfortunately, all Mark's considerable resources are tied up in active ventures. He's out of cash. So, Mark, the scientist, and the "butter bugs" all move into Vorkosigan House, promising considerable complications. And to compound the confusion, Mark has fallen in love with Kareen Koudelka, a young Barrayaran woman who had been studying on the planet where Mark met the scientist—and the young lady's father is dead set against her having anything to do with Mark.
Thus it is that three love stories unfold—Gregor and Laisa's, Miles and Ekaterin's, and Mark and Kareen's—in the midst of a brutal political fight. Lois McMaster Bujold makes it work. The novel is both suspenseful and charming.
I am an avid fan of M. C. Beaton’s large catalog of Regency Romance books, and place this novel as better in all the right ways. From a truly intrepid heroine, and an astonishingly overpowered cast of characters, Miles has to somehow learn how to form a relationship for matrimony, while not destroying it due to his best efforts. And of course Bujold allows delight and dismay free reign to carry the couple’s story to…
Top reviews from other countries

It is perhaps one of the richest explorations of Barrayan society and the inner workings of the Imperium. In a series that is deeply character driven this takes politics to extraordinarily personal levels, character driven plotting to news heights. The story has some extra piquant angles in several courtships (several unexpected) and some key votes that get us appreciating politics in new ways. And Gregor has a role here too, very refreshingly.
For some books it is vital to read them in order and this is one. It is generally a much richer experience if the whole series is read in chronological order. The context is important if subtle. The plots are heavily interwoven and you miss so many ironic digs if you pick a book up at random. This is easier now that the series is on Kindle (No more rarity: hooray! No more omnibuses: Boo!) but the numbering there is badly done and sometimes wrong. Real books often had helpful summaries at the back, but even they were incomplete and in any case usually leave out the omnibus options. To aid Bujold's many admirers, who may have missed a golden nugget here and there, due to a morass of editions-and-omnibuses, here is a guide to the whole Vorkosigan saga, including the omnibus contents:
-Falling Free (Novella: Stands alone. Gives context to 'Diplomatic Immunity' and is also published in the unsequenced Omnibus: 'Miles, Mutants and Microbes' (MMM). 832 pages)
-Shards of Honor (Omnibus 1)
-Barrayar (Omnibus 1: 'Cordelia's Honor'. 596 pages)
-The Warrior’s Apprentice (Omnibus 2)
-The Mountains of Mourning (Omnibus 2)
-Weatherman (only found with Omnibus 2 and the Vor Game)
-The Vor Game (Omnibus 2: 'Young Miles'. 838 pages)
-Cetaganda (Omnibus 3)
-Ethan of Athos (Omnibus 3)
-Borders of Infinity (Omnibus 4 and is also in the two non sequential Omnibuses‘ Borders of Infinity’ (BoI) and ‘MMM’)
-Labyrinth (Omnibus 3: 'Miles, Mystery and Mayhem'. 556 pages – and unsequenced Omnibus 'BoI')
-Brothers in Arms (Omnibus 4)
-Mirror Dance (Omnibus 4: 'Miles Errant'. 741 pages)
-Memory (462 pages, not in any omnibus)
-Komarr (Omnibus 5)
-A Civil campaign (Omnibus 5)
-Diplomatic Immunity (in the unsequenced 832 page Omnibus: 'MMM'. Alone is 283 pages)
-Winterfair gifts (Omnibus 5: 'Miles in Love'. 862 pages)
-Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (432 pages, not in any omnibus)
-Cryoburn (339 pages, not in any omnibus)
-Gentleman Jole and the red queen (528 pages)
-Flowers of Vashnoi (novella 73 pages, not in any omnibus)
Page numbers vary a bit by edition of course.
The whole series is a joy to discover. Rich, intelligent, original, credible and deep.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Frankly this has more akin to Jane Austin with hints of PG Wodehouse than most space opera - albeit with elements of biogenetics and micro-economics, a huge dollop of political machination, uterine replicators and, of course, butter bugs! There are multiple romantic episodes and entanglements, all with quirks and twists.
Reading Miles's letter of apology literally brought tears to my eyes - not a common event while reading space opera ( perhaps occasionally when reading Weber and now, more frequently, Bujold) - this after a dinner party which had elements of pure farce. There is literally something for everyone in this novel. I have not been more diverted by a book in years. I usually combine mostly listening to the audiobook, with occasional reading if I have both media to hand. With "A Civil Campaign" I was compelled to read most of the book so that I could find out what happens next more quickly. ( that's not to say that the narrator was not great as usual! - he was!) I am tempted to say that you would not need to read the previous books first to enjoy this one, but I think you would miss a lot off the back-story references and you would lack the deep knowledge of the main characters which really makes this story outstanding.
Have I made it clear how much I loved reading this book!

The series is long and suggested routes through it can be found in lots of the reviews. This book (12) cannot really be read as a stand-alone, but relies on Komarr (11) to set the scene. You can skip the others and these two together will still make sense.
The risk is that having started, you'll find yourself enthralled and keep going.
Shards of Honour (book1) and Barrayer (book7) also pair really well and are brilliant reads.

If Jane Austen wrote science fiction, it would be like this!

Miles' attempts to court Ekaterin do not work out as he expects, at least not at first. In the meantime his "clone-brother" Mark also has a girlfriend with her own ideas, picked up from the free-and-easy planet Beta, and the subsidiary characters are very enjoyable - funny without being caricatures. The humour is sophisticated and sometimes sly. I am not interested in descriptions of alien technology or battles in space and this book has none of these at all. There is political intrigue and a subtle and realistic interweaving of future technology and human behaviour in a modern feudal society. All done with a light touch and so well-written you feel you have met the characters in real life, or wish you could.