World of the Five Gods (Publication)
More by Lois McMaster Bujold
Omnibus with two complete novels and a novella in one large volume. This collection shows Miles and Ekaterin meeting (Komarr), getting to know each other as Miles tries to court her (A Civil Campaign), and the wedding (Winterfair Gifts), and, of course, Miles dealing with assorted family relationships. Miles deals with political problems along the way plus recounts the loves of his life to Ekaterin. ...none of them would marry him; they all went on to lead successful lives--so unlike her life on Komarr. The last on his list was Rian: "And what does she do now?" ... "Now, She's an empress" ... "Can I take a number and get in line?" ... "The next number up", he breathed, "is one".
Contents:
Komarr: Miles Vorkosigan is sent to Komarr, a planet that could be a garden with a thousand more years of terraforming; or an uninhabitable wasteland, if the terraforming project fails. The solar mirror vital to the project has been shatteredby a ship hurtling off course, and Miles Vorkossigan has been sent to find out if it was an accident, or sabotage. Miles uncovers a plot that could exile him from Barrayar forever - and discovers an unexpected ally, one with wounds as deep and honor as beleaguered as his own.
A Civil Campaign: On Komarr, Miles met the beautiful Vor widow Ekaterin Vorsoisson, who has no intention of getting married after the heartbreak and betrayal of her first experience. But Miles has a cunning plan to change her mind. Unfortunately his clone-brother Mark and his cousin Ivan have cunning plans of their own, and the three-way collision of cunning plans threatens to undo Miles' brilliant romantic strategy.
"Winterfair Gifts": Miles and Ekaterin make elaborate preparations for their wedding. But Miles has an enemy who is plotting to turn the romantic ceremony into a festival of death.
Contains:
The Borders of Infinity
Brothers in Arms
Mirror Dance
Miles Naismith--in the person of his two alter-egos Admiral Naismith and Lieutenant Lord Vorkosigan--embarks on a perilous series of adventures, from the liberation of Barrayaran allies from a Cetagandan POW camp to the rescue of clone children scheduled to be murdered for their bodies.
Alternate cover edition of ASIN B00AERRKHA
New York Times bestseller!
When handsome Ivan Vorpatril reluctantly agrees to help Barrayar’s undercover security keep an eye on a young woman in danger, he is drawn into a tangled network of intrigue and unlikely romance. The job description did not include arrest warrants from the local police or being caught in the endless schemes of warring Houses from Jackson’s Whole. Returning to Barrayar with the young lady, both are faced with choices and challenges neither had expected.
Starred Booklist “For years fans have clamored for Ivan Vorpatril’s story, and at last Bujold delivers something that will thrill the devoted audience and entrance new readers…. Essential for all SF collections and a must-read for Bujold and Vorkosigan fans… In the SF world, a new release doesn’t get much bigger than this one.”
Booklist *Starred Review* (FULL REVIEW)
"Set a few years before the most recent Miles Vorkosigan story (CRYOBURN, 2011), this may be one of the most anticipated and long-awaited entries to Bujold’s acclaimed Vorkosigan saga. For years fans have clamored for Ivan Vorpatril’s story, and at last Bujold delivers something that will both thrill the devoted audience and entrance new readers. For many years, Ivan has been perfectly content to live a quiet bachelor life and serve as a staff officer to a Barrayaran admiral. With no desire for the imperial throne or the types of death-defying adventures that his cousin Miles so adores, Ivan has become a master at avoiding political intrigue and entangling alliances. Asked to look after a young woman during a brief trip to Komarr, Ivan is happy to oblige. But when his attempt to ask the woman out ends up with her handmaiden knocking him out and tying him to a chair, Ivan realizes that something very bad is going on. It quickly becomes clear that the only way Ivan can save himself and his charge is to marry Tej Arqua and bring her home to Barrayar. Longtime readers will love seeing a new side of Ivan as well as hearing his views on many of the series characters. New readers can enjoy Ivan’s story on its own but will miss many of the nuances that add depth and character; best to begin at the beginning. Essential for all SF collections and a must-read for Bujold and Vorkosigan fans. HIGH-DEMAND In the SF world, a new release doesn’t get much bigger than this one. The wait is finally over for Bujold’s followers."
- Jessica Moyer
“Bujold continues to prove what marvels genius can create out of basic space operatics.”
- Library Journal
“Bujold is not just a master of plot, she is a master of emotion.”
- SF Site
“Bujold is one of the best writers of SF adventure to come along in years.”
- Locus Magazine
“A superb craftsman and stylist, Ms. Bujold is well on her way to becoming one of the great voices of speculative fiction.”
- Rave Reviews
"Boy, can she write!"
- Anne McCaffrey
“Bujold has a gift, nearly unique in science fiction, for the comedy of manners.”
- Chicago Sun Times
“Superb far-future saga.”
- Publishers Weekly on the 'Vorkosigan' series
Bujold's "work remains among the most enjoyable and rewarding in contemporary SF."
- Publishers Weekly
about the
Lois McMaster Bujold was born in 1949, the daughter of an engineering professor at Ohio State University, from whom she picked up her early interest in science fiction. She now lives in Minneapolis, and has two grown children.
Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan can hardly disapprove—he’s been cheating death his whole life, on the theory that turnabout is fair play. But when a Kibou-daini cryocorp—an immortal company whose job it is to shepherd its all-too-mortal frozen patrons into an unknown future—attempts to expand its franchise into the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor dispatches his top troubleshooter Miles to check it out.
On Kibou-daini, Miles discovers generational conflict over money and resources is heating up, even as refugees displaced in time skew the meaning of generation past repair. Here he finds a young boy with a passion for pets and a dangerous secret, a Snow White trapped in an icy coffin who burns to re-write her own tale, and a mysterious crone who is the very embodiment of the warning Don’t mess with the secretary. Bribery, corruption, conspiracy, kidnapping—something is rotten on Kibou-daini, and it isn’t due to power outages in the Cryocombs. And Miles is in the middle—of trouble!
The popular adventures of Miles Vorkosigan, a clever and outlandish science fiction hero for the modern era, continue in these three tales. In The Mountains of Mourning, Miles is dispatched to a back-country region of Barrayar, where he must act as detective, judge, and executioner in a controversial murder case.
In Labyrinth, Miles adopts his alternate persona as Dendarii Mercenary Admiral Naismith for an undercover mission to rescue an important research geneticist from Jackson’s Whole. And in the title story, Miles infiltrates an escape-proof Cetagandan POW camp and plays hero to the most deeply distressed damsel of his colorful career.
Contents:
Frame story that follows Miles' time on Earth in Brothers in Arms
The Mountains of Mourning (1989)
Labyrinth (1989)
The Borders of Infinity (1987)
The Warrior's Apprentice 1
The Mountains of Mourning 373
The Vor Game 465
Author's Afterword 829
IT ISN'T EASY, BEING VOR...
Being a Vor lord on the war-torn planet Barrayar wasn't easy. Being an officer in Barrayar's military wasn't easy. And being the leader of a force of spaceborne mercenaries while maintaining a secret identity wasn't easy—in fact it should have been impossible, to say nothing of being a capital offense on Barrayar. Not that impossibility or great danger would slow down young Miles Vorkosigan much.
The Warrior's Apprentice 1
Discharged from the Barrarayan academy after flunking the physical, a discouraged Miles (17) takes possession of a jumpship and becomes the leader of a mercenary force that expands to a fleet of treasonous proportions.
The Mountains of Mourning 373
Miles (20) is sent to a small mountain village to investigate the murder of an infant, killed because she had a physical defect. Miles must deal with deep-seated prejudice against “mutants” and uncover the real killer in this novella that won both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award.
The Vor Game 465
Miles (20s) faces enormous challenges in this Hugo Award-winning novel as he leads a mutiny against his military commander's criminal orders, rejoins his Dendarii mercenaries, and attempts to rescue Emperor Gregor after Barrayar's royal scion has run off straight into trouble.
Leo Graf was an effective engineer. Safety regs weren't just the rule book he swore by; he'd helped write them. All that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat. Leo was profoundly uneasy with the corporate exploitation of his bright new students... until that exploitation turned to something much worse. He hadn't anticipated a situation where the right thing to do was neither safe, nor in the rules...
Leo Graf adopted a thousand quaddies---now all he had to do was teach them to be free.
Falling Free takes place approximately 200 years before the events in Cordelia's Honor and does not share settings or characters with the main body of the series.
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 . . .
Komarr could be a garden with a thousand more years' work, or an uninhabitable wasteland if the terraforming fails. Now, the solar mirror vital to the terraforming of the conquered planet has been shattered by a ship hurtling off course. The Emperor of Barrayar sends his newest imperial auditor, Lord Miles Vorkosigan, to find out why. The choice is not a popular one on Komarr, where a betrayal a generation before drenched the name of Vorkosigan in blood. Thus, the Komarrans surrounding Miles could be loyal subjects, potential hostages, innocent victims, or rebels ready for revenge. Lies within lies, treachery within treachery, Miles is caught in a race against time to stop a plot that could exile him from Barrayar forever. His burning hope lies in an unexpected ally, one with wounds as deep and honor as beleaguered as his own.
The latest installment in the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan. Miles and Cousin Ivan travel to Cetaganda to play the part of sprigs of nobility doing their diplomatic duty. But when the Empress of Cetaganda dies naturally, and her lifelong attendant dies unnaturally, Miles and Ivan finds themselves in the thick of it.