panguitch's Full Review: Lois McMaster Bujold - Borders of Infinity
Lois McMaster Bujold populates her Vorkosigan Saga with lively novels that move fast and never overstay their welcome. Early in her career she departed from this model to write even shorter stories, once in 1987 with the novella "The Borders of Infinity" and again in 1989 with the novellas "The Mountains of Mourning" and "Labyrinth." In 1989 these three novellas were packaged together as Borders of Infinity, with several pages of new content added as a framing device.
These framing passages depict Miles Vorkosigan recovering from a surgery that has replaced some of his congenitally brittle bones with stronger synthetics. He's not exactly in the mood for a visit from a superior demanding justification for extreme cost overruns during his recent missions. Miles may only be a lieutenant in the Barrayaran Imperial Service, but his alter-ego is Admiral Naismith of the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, which Barrayar uses to achieve strategic objectives anonymously. As you might expect, a mercenary fleet accumulates some interesting expenses, and by way of explanation we are given these three novellas.
Is this guy for real?
He thinks he's faking it, but he's not.
"The Mountains of Mourning"
A few years after The Warrior's Apprentice, at about the time of Miles's graduation from the academy and immediately preceding his first assignment in The Vor Game, his father delegates to him a traditional duty of the Barrayaran nobility: he must investigate and resolve a murder case involving peasants in the Vorkosigan's province.
Life on planet Barrayar has at times been rough, and there's little tolerance of weakness. A young wife is accusing her husband of killing their baby because it had a harelip. More than just ruining his vacation, this case becomes personal for Miles. He has himself suffered from severe handicaps since birth and he can't help but identify with the victim. More than just deliver justice, he needs to make an example of these backwoods hicks.
The story is well-written but somewhat of a bait-and-switch. It carries the trappings of a mystery, though it isn't hard to guess whodunit. The real focus is on Miles and how he relates to his Barrayaran heritage. The characterizations of the mountain folk are well done, if stereotypical, and Miles's final resolution is apt, if simplistic. What makes this novella remarkable is the way it grounds Miles in Barrayar. This is crucial for his character development and foundational to his motivation throughout the entire series.
"Mountains of Mourning" received both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. I give it four and a half stars.
"Labyrinth"
At some point between Ethan of Athos and Brothers in Arms the Dendarii Free Mercenaries are assigned to pick up a scientist who is defecting from House Bharaputra of Jackson's Whole and deliver him to Barrayar. This simple operation becomes complicated when the scientist, an experimental geneticist, stipulates that Miles also retrieve some of his property, property which just happens to be embedded in the flesh of a genetically engineered super-soldier.
The portrayal of Jackson's Whole power politics is this story's strong point. The infighting between rival syndicates forms a great background from which a better story could have been written. Instead, it merely adds flavor, with most of the intrigue added as an afterthought to the action.
The most significant character development occurs with Bel Thorne, the hermaphrodite Dendarii captain who is enamored with Miles. Miles himself loses some of my esteem when he takes advantage of a traumatized sixteen year old girl. I must admit I lost some respect for Bujold here too, as the shallow and cavalier episode came off as an example of the kind of thing parents feared their children were reading in the pulp magazines circa 1940. Similarly, the products of genetic engineering felt somewhat hokey, belying Bujold's good intention of not portraying intelligent aliens.
Jackson's Whole seems like an interesting place, but this story I can do without. Two and a half stars.
"The Borders of Infinity"
Immediately preceding Brothers in Arms comes one of the Dendarii's more risky adventures. They have been assigned to liberate a man from a Cetagandan prisoner of war camp and return him to his planet to lead the resistance. To accomplish this Miles inserts himself into the camp, where, being Miles, instead of cutting and running when things fall apart, he decides to up the ante.
This is my favorite of the three stories, and quite unlike the rest of the Vorkosigan Saga so far. The psychology of the prisoners, penned in unusual conditions designed to reduce them to anarchic barbarity, and the way Miles manipulates the situation to achieve his objectives are riveting. An overlay of messianic mysticism makes it doubly interesting. One of the first prisoners Miles meets fancies himself a prophet who is awaiting a savior. Miles takes up this mantle as a screen for his activities, converting the recalcitrant prisoners. Unfortunately, none of the characters takes this seriously with the result that far too little is made of the conceit and it is quickly reduced to fodder for the many quotable passages in the story.
This dash of religion, the story's juxtaposition of wit and trauma, and the attention to psychosocial extremes combine for a flavor reminiscent of Orson Scott Card. It's certainly weightier and more artful than most of Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. Miles's foolhardy magnanimity, together with the losses he suffers, are compelling reminders of why he's more than just your average space opera maverick.
This wonderful story was written very early in Bujold's career and attempts some interesting things. I find myself balking, however, at the way Bujold leaves her audience in the dark as to Miles's ultimate objective. It's entertaining to watch unfold, but I generally don't enjoy it when viewpoint characters withhold information from the audience for the sake of surprising them latter. It keeps us at a distance, farther outside of the character's head than we should be.
More transparency and greater devotion to proselyting prisoners to the religious charade may have perfected the story but I still give it four and a half stars.
– Pangutich
Power is better than revenge. Power is a live thing, by which you reach out to grasp the future. Revenge is a dead thing, reaching out from the past to grasp you.
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