Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, Fast-Paced Book
Review: Great book. This is the first of the series which focuses on Miles (essentially, as he comes of age). It's fast-paced and makes you want to read faster so you can see what's going to happen. Definitely read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing and superficial
Review: Having just finished "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar", I simply couldn't wait to pick up the first book in the Miles Vorkosigan series. Unfortunately for me, it seems Mrs. Bujold has shifted tones when going from Cordelia to her son Miles.Where Cordelia's novels were sometimes funny, sometimes inclined to the romantic, but as a whole well-crafted and dramatic, "The Warrior's Apprentice" feels more like a running joke. It seems Mrs. Bujold has decided she would show Miles is human by making him whine, cry, puke his guts out and tremble in fear most of the time, 'in aparté' for the reader. Oh, he also lusts after Elena a lot, and shows us his noble streak by going down the 'unrequited love' path. Bleh. What is particularly irritating about the novel is the way things just fall in place conveniently for Miles. Miles' genius is that which comes forth in second-rate novels, where it is not so much the protagonist that is intelligent, but the rest of the Universe that is downright dumb. Miles recruits people by stuttering half-baked lies; he exposes imperial schemes by confronting admirals with his sharp wit; he outwits entire armies by concocting plans full of assumptions that his enemies conveniently fall into. I realize this novel is intended as light reading, but so were "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar". They were light reading, filled with drama, action and humor, and a certain dose of romance. "The Warrior's Apprentice" feels like a bad imitation of all that made the Cordelia books so great, and all the characters from these two books are here only as cardboard cutouts reminding us of the clichés at the heart of the vibrant characters we grew to love previously. I wish Miles were more like his mother.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and superficial
Review: Having just finished "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar", I simply couldn't wait to pick up the first book in the Miles Vorkosigan series. Unfortunately for me, it seems Mrs. Bujold has shifted tones when going from Cordelia to her son Miles. Where Cordelia's novels were sometimes funny, sometimes inclined to the romantic, but as a whole well-crafted and dramatic, "The Warrior's Apprentice" feels more like a running joke. It seems Mrs. Bujold has decided she would show Miles is human by making him whine, cry, puke his guts out and tremble in fear most of the time, 'in aparté' for the reader. Oh, he also lusts after Elena a lot, and shows us his noble streak by going down the 'unrequited love' path. Bleh. What is particularly irritating about the novel is the way things just fall in place conveniently for Miles. Miles' genius is that which comes forth in second-rate novels, where it is not so much the protagonist that is intelligent, but the rest of the Universe that is downright dumb. Miles recruits people by stuttering half-baked lies; he exposes imperial schemes by confronting admirals with his sharp wit; he outwits entire armies by concocting plans full of assumptions that his enemies conveniently fall into. I realize this novel is intended as light reading, but so were "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar". They were light reading, filled with drama, action and humor, and a certain dose of romance. "The Warrior's Apprentice" feels like a bad imitation of all that made the Cordelia books so great, and all the characters from these two books are here only as cardboard cutouts reminding us of the clichés at the heart of the vibrant characters we grew to love previously. I wish Miles were more like his mother.
Rating: 
Summary: It is worth the money to buy this book
Review: Hihger praise I cannot give. This book is worth spending the money to own it. Lois McMaster Bujould developed a character that I care about in Miles. So much so that I have read all of her other books as well. The bad part about it is that I can't seem to put them down. So go ahead, spend the money and enjoy the ride.
Rating: 
Summary: Only for the fan
Review: Hypatia, the recommendation system of Alexandria Digital Literature, said I would like this book. As I had already found many books that I did like through the system, I tried it, but this one wasn't to my taste. Maybe in the future, when the system has 10s of thousands of patrons, the recommender will be right on, but for now, there's bound to be some things a little off. Why? With so few patrons, the number of books that have a large enough percentage of people who have read them is fairly small, so those few books that almost everyone has read (Tolkien, Shakespeare, Twain) will tend to rise to the top of everyone's recommendation list. Because the AlexLit clientele is decidedly SF oriented, this includes the favorites of the genre, such as Heinlein, Card, and, of course, Bujold. The company of Heinlein and Card are apt for Bujold, for her style and plot are quite similar, if I can make generalizations based on one book. The Warrior's Apprentice is the "first" book about Miles Vorkosigan (I have to put first in quotes because on Bujold's timeline, she has actually written prequels which feature Miles' parents). Miles is your classic SF protagonist--a misunderstood young boy with a handicap who has a mind that can solve any problem. I call this the classic because a majority of the science fiction audience can easily project themselves onto Miles without difficulty (that demographic being young boys from 11 to 17, readers who likely excel at math or other problem solving areas, yet are inept at sports). I understand the pull; I was part of this demographic once. That is why I remember Heinlein fondly, because I read him at this particular time in my life. But this is also why I dislike Card's hugely popular Ender's Game and Bujold's equally popular Vorkosigan series, because I encountered them outside of that niche and thus recognized the obvious wish-fulfillment nature of the tales. Aside from the simplistic plot structure, I continually stumbled on the poor prose. I realize that this was one of Bujold's first books, and she may have gotten to be a better writer in later volumes, but this was the particular one recommended to me. How bad is it? Let's look at some examples: "That's right," Miles snarled. [pg. 5]
"That awful holovid," she glowered. [pg. 89]
"The last rate," Miles hissed. [pg. 199] Try to hiss the words "the last rate." You can't. I doubt you can snarl "that's right," either, and don't even ask me how to glower words. These examples were picked by just opening the book at random--I could probably come up with many more in this vein. On style, things aren't much better. Most of the characters are little more than talking heads, who are necessary to pass information to Miles. I can't continue. It was interesting to read one Bujold, to be able to discuss her with reason, rather than simply dismiss her out-of-hand. I'll put her over with Card; two writers who will continue to be popular, but who can safety be ignored by those wanting more than the Hardy Boys in space.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible.
Review: I have never before read a story - a space opera story - quite so lacking in dramatic impetus. The irritating genius hero (Miles) spends months waging a military/subversion campaign against a supposedly experienced mercenary army who do effectively *nothing* to stop him, merely reacting with all the intelligence of a 'Doom' zombie. Ugh.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite of the series
Review: I have now devoured all the books in this series (not in 'chronological' order) and I have to say that this one, the last that I read, is my favorite. It contains the humour and witty repartee that make all the books so enjoyable, but also has a dark side giving the work more substance.
Miles has failed - through his own fault, basically (he is usually more careful to circumvent his physical difficlties) - to pass the physical admission tests to the Military Academy and so is thwarted in achieving his only, and devoutly wished-for, ambition. He feels that the disappointment causes his grandfather's death and, depressed as all heck, flees to visit his grandmother Naismith in Beta Colony. Once there, however, he picks up a couple of'strays' and, taking responsibility for them, sets off on a crazy adventure ...picking up more 'strays' on the way. These 'strays' are molded, by sheer force of personality, into the Free Dendarii Mercenaries. It IS 'rip roaring adventure' but it is also about picking yourself up and getting on with your life and about taking responsibility for your actions whether or not you intended the consequences. It shows one of Miles' greatest (and, perhaps most endearing) talents; getting other people to overcome their handicaps and achieve their own full potential. I found it exciting and upbeat despite the dark side of the story and heartily recommend it.
While I may have enjoyed it more as the result of reading the other books, it is certainly 'stand alone' and it may well be that it will the book I recommend to Vorkosigan beginners to start on!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite of the series
Review: I have now devoured all the books in this series (not in 'chronological' order) and I have to say that this one, the last that I read, is my favorite. It contains the humour and witty repartee that make all the books so enjoyable, but also has a dark side giving the work more substance.
Miles has failed - through his own fault, basically (he is usually more careful to circumvent his physical difficlties) - to pass the physical admission tests to the Military Academy and so is thwarted in achieving his only, and devoutly wished-for, ambition. He feels that the disappointment causes his grandfather's death and, depressed as all heck, flees to visit his grandmother Naismith in Beta Colony. Once there, however, he picks up a couple of'strays' and, taking responsibility for them, sets off on a crazy adventure ...picking up more 'strays' on the way. These 'strays' are molded, by sheer force of personality, into the Free Dendarii Mercenaries. It IS 'rip roaring adventure' but it is also about picking yourself up and getting on with your life and about taking responsibility for your actions whether or not you intended the consequences. It shows one of Miles' greatest (and, perhaps most endearing) talents; getting other people to overcome their handicaps and achieve their own full potential. I found it exciting and upbeat despite the dark side of the story and heartily recommend it.
While I may have enjoyed it more as the result of reading the other books, it is certainly 'stand alone' and it may well be that it will the book I recommend to Vorkosigan beginners to start on!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent adventure
Review: I have read the whole series and love it. This book is no exception. I hope A Civil Campaign is not the end of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Read this.
Review: I'm getting tired of writing reviews about how absolutely perfectly wonderful these books are; there's like, twelve of them, and then there are books where they compiled two into one and gave it a different name... So just read the list below and go get the first book or books, and then go buy all the rest of them because you won't want to stop reading them, and annoy your friends because you miss what they were saying because you were too busy reading and didn't really want to go out Friday night anyways because you've still got another 3 books in the series to read. Ok? Ok. Shards of Honor
Barayar
(these two books are also combined into "Cordelia's Honor")
The Warrior's Apprentice
Short Story: The Mountains of Mourning
(all short stories are contained in "Borders of Infinity")
The Vor Game
Cetaganda
Ethan of Athos
Short Story: Labyrinth
Short Story: The Borders of Infinity
Brothers in Arms
The Borders of Infinity
Mirror Dance
Memory
Komarr
A Civil Campaign
Diplomatic Immunity Now click on the bit where it says I was very helpful with this review, only it's a lie because I just got you hooked on something that's gonna take up a whole bunch of your time reading and make people think you're a complete geek when you want to do nothing but talk about how wonderful these books are.
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