Book Review - Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold

Sharon, my editor on Curled Up With a Good Book, just posted a ton of my reviews (ok, just 5...but it feels like a ton), so I thought I would make this Book Week in my Buttoned-Up Mind. I can't fit them all into one post and do them justice.

Doesn't mean I won't post other stuff, but there will be one book review a day for the rest of the week.

Let's start the week with my favourite of the bunch: Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold.

I've been a huge Miles Vorkosigan fan since the early 2000s, and was really disappointed when Bujold left the Miles story to go on to other things. I enjoyed the other things she wrote, but I missed Miles! In my review of this book, I call him a "pint-sized cyclone of chaos," and it's certainly true.

The Miles Vorkosigan books are science fiction books taking place on the planet Barrayar and in its surrounding area of space. There are a number of planets named, but Miles is part of Barrayaran aristocracy.

Reproduction on Barrayar is mostly done through in-vitro fertilization and uterine chambers that carry the fetus to term, but Miles wasn't born that way. His mother was injured in a chemical attack while she was pregnant, resulting in Miles having an extremely brittle body and being, well, pint-sized.

From my review of Cryoburn:

"Seven years after the events of Diplomatic Immunity, Miles has a growing family back home on Barrayar. However, his position as Lord Auditor for the Emperor Gregor, galactic problem-solver for Barrayar’s interests, has brought him to Kibou-daini, a planet heavily invested in cryogenically freezing the dying. Ostensibly attending a convention on the planet, Miles hopes for a bribe attempt from one of Kibou-daini’s massive cryonics companies which may be making a move on Komarr, one of Barrayar’s planets. He gets more than he bargained for, however, as he stumbles upon another, far more sinister scheme. With the help of a young boy whose mother was taken away and frozen eighteen months ago, Miles must get to the bottom of what’s going on. Corruption, kidnapping, illegal freezing - Miles has to learn quickly and try to stay one step ahead of the scheme, or it will roll right over him."

I loved every page of Cryoburn. While I have missed Miles, I didn't realize how badly I had until seeing him in action again.

The characters are so well-done, Bujold's writing is wonderful, and she definitely has not lost her touch with Miles. While the book covers a serious topic, it's also very humorous as well. Who can't help but smile as they see Miles getting in deeper and deeper over his head? Watching him scramble to keep all of the plates in the air is a wonder to see.

This book is fabulous, but I'll let you read the review to find out why.

Let me know what you think! And if you're a Miles fan, leave me a comment and we can gossip about him.