Young Miles (collective work) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Miles Naismith Vorkosigan: Son of Aral and Cordelia; Lord Vorkosigan.
• Kostolitz: A Barrayaran Imperial Service cadet.
• Bothari: One of the Vorkosigan family's liveried retainers. Assigned as personal bodyguard to Miles. Formerly a sergeant under Aral's command.
• Elena Bothari: Daughter of Sergeant Bothari; playmate to Miles when they were children.
• Cordelia Vorkosigan: Lady Vorkosigan; married to Aral Vorkosigan.
• Piotr Vorkosigan: Count Vorkosigan and a General; Aral's father.
• Aral Vorkosigan: Lord Vorkosigan, an Admiral, and former Regent of Barrayar, now Prime Minister of Barrayar; married to Cordelia, son of Piotr.
• Clement Koudelka: A Lieutenant; Aral's personal secretary. Called Kou.
• Gregor Vorbarra: Emperor of Barrayar.
• Admiral Hessman: Barrayaran officer in charge of Procurement.
• Ivan Vorpatril: Lord Vorpatril; son of Alys Vorpatril and Padma Vorpatril (deceased). Miles' cousin.
• Simon Illyan: Captain; Chief of Imperial Security.
• Count Vordrozda: A Count on the far-right end of the political spectrum.
• Tav Calhoun: A Betan cargo ship owner.
• Arde Mayhew: A Betan jump-pilot.
• Mrs. Naismith: Cordelia's mother; a Betan.
• Baz Jesek: A Barrayaran deserter.
• Carle Daum: A Felician Major.
• Yuan Oser: Admiral of the Oseran Mercenaries.
• Auson: A Captain in the Oseran Mercenary Fleet. Owner of the Ariel.
• Bel Thorne: Lieutenant in the Oseran Mercenary Fleet; Captain Auson's second-in-command on the Ariel. A Betan hermaphrodite.
• Elli Quinn: An Oseran mercenary on the Ariel.
• Ky Tung: A Captain in the Oseran Mercenary Fleet. Originally from Earth; owner of the Triumph.
• Lieutenant Gamad: A Felician officer.
• General Hallify: A Felician officer.
• Elena Visconti: An Escobaran tech.
• Henri Vorvolk: Count; cadet in the Imperial Service Academy.
• Vorhalas: Conservative Count known for his personal integrity.
• Pym: A Vorkosigan family Armsman.
• Harra Csurik: A young woman from Silvy Vale; married to Lem.
• Lem Csurik: A young man from Silvy Vale; married to Harra.
• Raina Csurik: An infant with a harelip and a cleft palet; Harra and Lem's daughter.
• Dea: Prime Minister Vorkosigan's personal physician; a Lieutenant.
• Fat Ninny: Miles' horse.
• Serg Karal: Speaker for Silvy Vale.
• Zed Karal: Speaker Karal's son.
• Alex: Speaker Karal's deputy.
• Ma Karal: Serg Karal's wife and Zed's mother.
• Ma Csurik: Lem's mother.
• Mara Mattulich: Harra's mother.
• Dono Csurik: Lem's younger brother.
• Esterhazy: A Vorkosigan family Armsman.
• Major Cecil: The decision man in Personnel for the Barrayaran Imperial Service.
• Ahn: Lieutenant; meteorology officer at Lazkowski Base.
• Stanis Metzov: General; Base Commander at Lazkowski Base.
• Olney: Corporal on Lazkowski base; works in the motor pool. Of Barrayaran Greek descent.
• Pattas: Tech on Lazkowski base; of Barrayaran Greek descent.
• Bonn: Lieutenant; in the Engineering department on Lazkowski Base.
• Overholt: Lieutenant; assigned to Imperial Security.
• Jole: Lieutenant; military secretary to Prime Minister Vorkosigan.
• Ungari: Captain; a galactic operative with ImpSec.
• Liga: An arms dealer on Pol Station Six.
• Clive Chodak: A combat-drop-shuttle squad commander on the Triumph in the Dendarii Mercenaries.
• Cavilo: Head of the Randall's Rangers.

Quotes edit see section history

• “--"Women shouldn't be in combat." -- "Why not? Why is that," she jerked her head toward the infirmary, "any more horrible for a woman than a man?" -- "I don't know," Miles groped. "Your father once said that if a woman puts on a uniform she's asking for it, and you should never hesitate to fire - odd streak of egalitarianism, coming from him. But all my instincts are to throw my cloak across her puddle or something, not blow her head off. It throws me off." -- "The honor goes with the risk," argued Elena. "Deny the risk and you deny the honor. I always thought you were the one Barrayaran male I knew who'd allow that a woman might have an honor that wasn't parked between her legs."”

  Miles Vorkosigan and Elena Bothari

• “"If I were killed, you wouldn't leave me out there, would you, my lord?" -- "Huh?" Miles tore his attention from trying to make new constellations. -- "They leave bodies in space sometimes. Cold as hell. . . God can't find them out there. No one could." -- Miles blinked. He had never known the Sergeant concealed a theological streak. "Look, what's all this all of a sudden about getting killed? You're not going to-" -- "The Count your father promised me," Bothari raised his voice slightly to override him, "I'd be buried at your lady mother's feet, at Vorkosigan Surleau. He promised. Didn't he tell you?" -- "Er. . . The subject never came up." -- "His word as Vorkosigan. Your word." -- "Uh, right, then." Miles stared out the chamber's transparency. Some saw stars, it seemed, and some saw the spaces between them. Cold. . .”

  Miles Vorkosigan and Sergeant Bothari

• “He went through his half of the patterns automatically, while his mind circled again around his real life military dilemma. This was just the sort of thing he would have been taught how to do at the Imperial Service Academy, he thought with an inward sigh. There was probably a book on it. He wished he had a copy; he was getting mortally tired of having to re-invent the wheel every fifteen minutes. Although it was just barely possible there WAS no way for three small warships and a battered freighter to take out an entire mercenary fleet.”

  Miles Vorkosigan (inner thoughts)

• “You own honor by the ocean," she whispered. "I have only a little bucketful. Unfair to jostle it -- my lord.”

  Elena Bothari

• “Heroes. They sprang up around him like weeds. A carrier, he was seemingly unable to catch the disease he spread.”

  Miles Vorkosigan (inner thoughts)

• “<Miles> surged up, sat back down, squeezed his temples with the heels of his hands in an effort to get his brain into motion. Not only was Ivan an idiot, but he generated a telepathic damping field that turned people nearby into idiots too. He would point this out to Barrayaran Intelligence, who would make of his cousin the newest weapon in their arsenal -- if anyone could be found who could remember what they were doing once they closed on him. . .”

  Miles Vorkosigan (inner thoughts)

• “"Your forward momentum is going to lead all your followers off a cliff someday." He paused, beginning to grin. "On the way down, you'll convince 'em all they can fly." He stuck his fists in his armpits, and waggled his elbows. "Lead on, my lord. I'm flapping as hard as I can."”

  Arde Mayhew

• “Only on Barrayar, Miles reflected, would pulling a loaded needler start a stampede TOWARD one.”

  Miles Vorkosigan (inner thoughts)

• “-- "I only wanted to serve Barrayar, as my father before me. When I couldn't serve Barrayar, I wanted -- I wanted to serve something. To--" he raised his eyes to his father's, driven to a painful honesty, "to make my life an offering fit to lay at his feet." He shrugged. "Screwed up again." -- "Clay, boy." Count Vorkosigan's voice was hoarse but clear. "Only clay. Not fit to receive so golden a sacrifice." His voice cracked. -- For a moment, Miles forgot to care about his coming trial. He lidded his eyes, and stored tranquility away in his heart's most secret recesses, to pleasure him in some lean and desperate future hour.”

  Miles Vorkosigan and Aral Vorkosigan

• “--"No fair. . . You had sugar in your pockets."--"Of course I had sugar in my pockets. It's called foresight and planning. The trick of handling horses isn't to be faster than the horse, or stronger than the horse. That pits your weakness against his strengths. The trick is to be smarter than the horse. That pits your strength against his weakness, eh?"”

  Dea and Miles Vorkosigan

• “That's the thing, m'lord. I'm not so in love with facts as I used to be. Sometimes, they bite.”

  Serg Karal

• “Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

  Cordelia Vorkosigan

• “A retreating enemy should be offered all the face he can carry off. Just don't let him carry off anything else.”

  Aral Vorkosigan

• “I once swore an oath to serve an emperor. The most morally dangerous moment for a guardian is when the temptation to become a puppet-master seems most rational. I always knew the moment must. . . no. I knew that if the moment never came, I should have failed my oath most profoundly. It was still a shock to the system though. The letting go.”

  Aral Vorkosigan

• “The cream pie of justice flies one way.”

  Miles Vorkosigan

• “If I don't send you someplace else, you'll be right here.”

  Simon Illyan

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Barrayar: Planet formerly cut off from the wormhole nexus, now connected through Komarr.
• Beta Colony: The most scientifically advanced planet in the wormhole nexus; run on democratic lines.
• Felice: A country on the planet Tau Verde IV.
• Pelias: A country on the planet Tau Verde IV.
• The RG 132: An obsolete freighter.
• The Ariel: An Illyrican ship in the Oseran Mercenary Fleet.
• The Triumph: A dreadnought in the Oseran Mercenary Fleet.
• Vorkosigan Surleau: The Vorkosigan family's traditional country home.
• Silvy Vale: A backwards community in the Dendarii Mountains.
• Vorbarr Sultana: Capital city of Barrayar.
• Lazkowski Base: Located on Kyril Island, near the arctic circle on Barrayar. A winter training base for Barrayaran infantry. Called Camp Permafrost.
• Pol Station Six: A space station in the Hegen Hub.
• Aslund Station: A space station in the Hegen Hub.
• Vervain Station: A space station in the Hegen Hub.
• Hassadar: Vorkosigan District capital.
• Silvy Vale: A small town in the back country of the Dendarii Mountains in the Vorkosigan District.

Organizations edit see section history

• ImpSec: Barrayaran Imperial Security.
• The Dendarii Free Mercenaries: A galactic mercenary fleet.
• The Oseran Mercenaries: A galactic mercenary fleet.
• Randall's Rangers: A mercenary fleet employed by Vervain.
• The Cetagandan Empire: Spanning eight planets; connected to the Hegen Hub through Vervain.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Time of Isolation: The 700 years between the collapsing of the original wormhole route to Barrayar and the discovery of a new wormhole route to Barrayar through the planet Komarr.
• Vordarian's Pretendership: An attempted coup of Lord Aral Vorkosigan's Regency government by Count Vidal Vordarian.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Lois McMaster Bujold (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: 97002168
• Dewey: 813

Notes for Parents edit see section history

There is some violence, including one very brief scene of torture.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Authors, A-Z › ( B ) › Bujold, Lois McMaster
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction › Space Opera
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction › Adventure
• Books › Literature & Fiction

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