The Vor Game

I was much more taken by the first section of this early entry in Bujold's popular Miles Vorkosigan series than I was with the main plot. In fact I can't help suspecting that I would have enjoyed the book more if the entire thing had been about Miles escapades at the Polar weather station under an incompetent boss and a commander who hated him rather than the whole Miles as undercover spy trying to save the Emperor while countering a nefarious interstellar plot storyline.

Part of the problem probably has to do with the fact that the story railroads the protagonist from one encounter to another without him really doing anything significant. The story is thus revealed in dribs and drabs through random encounters until we reach the dramatic ending in which all is resolved in Miles favour. Miles is an interesting enough character for us not to abandon him and there is enough humour employed to serve us up with some entertainment, but this is certainly the weakest of Bujold's novels that I've read so far. I suppose this would be the point where I express some kind of surprise that this novel won a Hugo Award and compare it with others on the shortlist that year but I shall forbear.