Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down -- but wasn't what I wanted...
Review: Don't get me wrong -- I love Miles. I love Ekaterin. I love parts of this book. (Especially the letter of abject apology and the scene in the Council of Counts.) But I missed the action and danger of the previous novels. At the very least, I expected those horrible bugs to infest Vorbarr Sultana... and it didn't happen. I agree with one of the other reviewers who didn't believe that a man with Miles' experience in covert ops would have told every person on the planet about his "secret plan" to woo Ekaterin. I look forward hopefully to the next novel, in the expectation that Miles' continued romance with Ekaterin will be interspersed with a return to Vorkosigan's fascinating duties as Imperial Auditor.
Rating: 
Summary: Bujold becoming the Jane Austen of science fiction
Review: Lois McMaster Bujold has been the best writer of characters in science fiction for years, but with this book she moves completely away from action and into the never-before written area of drawing room-SF-comedy. Delightfully plotted, wonderful characters, great plot twists. It's as good as her best books (probably *Barrayar* and *Memory* -- but my opinions change depending on what I read most recently). It seems odd to say so, but this is the closest to a Jane Austen book ever attempted in science fiction, I'm sure.Over the years, I've read each of Lois's books at least twice. Her weakest books are still pretty entertaining, and her best books shine in the memory for weeks afterwards. At times the world of Miles Vorkosigan seems as real as my own. You can't start with this book; but please go back to her earlier books. And don't plan anything else for a few weeks.
Rating:
Summary: Whimsical, touching, and delightful.
Review: _A Civil Campaign_ is simply wonderful. Bujold has come up with science fiction's answer to Jane Austen (and Georgette Heyer, Dorothy Sayers, and Charlotte Bronte, to whom she's dedicated the book). Miles is dithering--madly in love with Ekaterin and desperately wanting to court her, but not wanting to pressure her. Mark is busy juggling true love and entrepreneurship. Gregor is finally getting to marry his lady-love, so long as they survive all the pomp and circumstance leading up to the wedding. And poor Ivan! His new commanding officer is his mother, and his old flame, Lady Donna, isn't quite what she used to be. Buy this book now, pick up some pastries at the best bakery in town, and treat yourself to a Ma Kosti-type tea and a lovely read.
Rating:
Summary: I love every book in this series!
Review: Even without the epic battles and blood and gore of earlier books, Bujold still kept me completely enthralled for the entire book, and I had already read the first ten chapters on the Baen Books web page. It can get expensive when you buy a hardback book and then read it in one sitting, but I couldn't put it down. Miles has finally found happiness by age 31! I look forward to her next book expectantly, I pity the poor fool who'll take Miles Vorkosigan on now that he has matured into a power in and of himself.
Rating:
Summary: Bujold triumphs again - Go, go Miles!!
Review: Wonderful, Hilarious, she does it again. Normally sequels turn out to be very disappointing but hers are ever better. I nearly fell off my chair laughing during the account of Miles's dinner party - the "faux pas'" to end all. All the loose ends get neatly, and usually hilariously tied up, and the dialogue is, as ever, superb. I sincerely hope that this will not be the end of the series, but it will certainly be a very difficult act to follow even for an author as accomplished as Bujold. I would respectfully suggest that Sergyar, with Cordelia and Aral in charge, could be a very rewarding sequel. Bujold is the only author that I will buy in hardback the day her new one comes in, and I anxiously await the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Not as inspired as some of the preceeding Miles novels
Review: Every now and then a dream comes true. There it was, a brand new Miles saga on the shelf! Glad as I am to have it, I nonetheless felt it was more in the style of "Cetaganda" than the rip-roaring "Brothers in Arms" or "Warrior's Apprentice." It is indeed a regency romance, with shades of a gothic governess who only seems to own two dresses. Characters do grow (Ivan may blow his cover at this rate) and the society faces mixed blessings with Galatic technologies. How ya gonna keep 'em down on the District after they seen The Orb? While I may quibble about some predictable slapstick with the bug butter, there were still marvelous, breath-taking moments of amazement and laughter as when Ekaterin briefly meets Admiral Naismith(!) As always, Bujold inserts lessons for living, in this case how to recognize when strengths are inappropriately used and become liabilities. Question: is that really supposed to be Gregor and Laissa on the cover?? I thought Mark had lost weight and gotten leg bones extended---and it sure looks more like my image of Kareen than the short, pleasingly plump new Empress. Average for Bujold would be anyone else's masterpiece. I will cheerfully read anything she writes. Long live the Vorkosigan saga!!
Rating:
Summary: Just another rave
Review: There haven't been too many negative reviews, and LMB doesn't deserve many. This isn't the book to introduce Miles to your friends who haven't already met him. This book is neither Brothers in Arms or Memory, the two best books in the series. But it is very, very good. I especially liked the fact that she has finally taken the time to show that the one thing you really don't want to do is engage Ivan. Once, through Miles' viewpoint, the remark was made about his having a sharp but lazy mind. Well, once you stub your toe on his sense of right and wrong, he becomes as bad a person to cross as Miles himself. I'm waiting for a book about Ivan. Recently, I read a review which remarked that the purpose of a novel has usually been to bring two young people to the altar. Here we are. Miles and Ekaterin are going to marry; Gregor and Laisa are married, Duv Galeni and (god help us) Team Koudelka are married off. Let's see what can be done with Ivan. I've always liked and sympathized with Ivan. I adore Miles, and I would actually allow myself to be locked up with him for a week. Which is why I keep re-reading all these books. But let's see what can be done with poor Ivan, and who is he going to marry? Loved it, just admitted it wasn't Memory.
Rating:
Summary: It became one of my all-time favourites
Review: Ms Bujold does it better and better! I must admit, that I had already considered Ms Bujold to be on my top writers list and was prepared to buy just about anythig as soon as it is out in hardback. But even after pice-by-piece readin of first 20 chapters I was not completely prepared for such a glorious as a whole book. I think now, the best way to get hooked on Bujold is to read Memory, than Komarr and than, for a killer - A Civil Campaign. The storylines are seemingly predictable, but you can never be absolutely sure..The dialogues are brilliant, some characters are so real you can say, Hey, that's my Sgt. Bot! And .. well.. you should read it!
Rating:
Summary: The best book to date by SF's best series writer
Review: A joy. Easily the most finely plotted book she's written, and also the funniest: bringing characters from the dozen-odd previous books in the series together to deeply satisfying effect. Bujold fans will have seen this one coming a long way off - the book where Miles finally sorts his love life out, yes! - and will have high expectations. Bujold exceeds them. Love, politics, high drama... and, of course, butter bugs.
Rating:
Summary: My faith is restored!
Review: I rushed out to the bookstore as soon as I could for "A Civil Campaign", and I was not disappointed. I felt that both "Memory" and "Komarr", while still very good, were somewhat substandard for the Vorkosigan series. All the lesser characters who make the series tick, notably absent in "Komarr", are back in force. Cordelia, Aral, Ivan, the Koudelkas, Emperor Gregor, Illyan, etc. reach new heights of characterization in this book, as we watch Miles truly grow into a man. "A Civil Campaign" is basically a romantic comedy, but Miles and his antics always keep me on the edge of my seat. While not as literarily beautiful as "Barrayar", or as fast-paced as "The Warrior's Apprentice", "A Civil Campaign" is definitely a worthy installment in the series, infinitely entertaining as always. Anyone who has not read the entire series should do so IMMEDIATELY; it's that good. A word to students, though: don't expect to get any homework done.
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