Barrayar

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful space opera in the Miles Vorkosigan series
Review: This is, simply put, a fabulous book, featuring the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan's parents in the period just before Miles' birth. You have not read a climax to a science fiction novel like the one here, as Cordelia Vorkosigan sneaks into the enemy camp and single-handedly puts an end to the Vordarian pretendership. Spine chills of the highest order. I wish Ms. Bujold could write these books faster, is all.

Rating:
Summary: Palace intrigues on a martial planet.
Review: This novel, which won the 1992 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel of the year, is a sequel to "Shards of Honor" (1986), "Barrayar" beginning a day after the end of that earlier novel. It again focuses on Cordelia Naismith, now Lady Vorkosigan of the planet Barrayar. Her husband is asked to serve as Regent for the child emperor of Barrayar and both Cordelia and Aral Vorkosigan have to deal with the plots and palace intrigues of their foes. An assassination attempt fails but seriously affects the growth and development of their unborn child, who will be the main character in most of the other volumes in the series.