My friends and I used to have 90210 parties. We'd let the show run in the background, adding kitsch to the atmosphere while we enjoyed each other's company. Somewhere I'm sure a group from the next generation is doing the same with The OC. The preposterous drama that supposedly ensues when privilege and youth are combined seems to be a timeless theme, resonating all the way from the lishny chelovek (superfluous man) of nineteenth century Russian literature to the vulgarity of Melrose Place.
I'm not sure exactly where Lois McMaster Bujold's SF series about Miles Vorkosigan fits in, but The Vor Game does feature two young men of privilege who don't have anything better to do than feel maudlin and cause interstellar incidents.
Premise
The second novel to star Miles Vorkosigan begins with the young cadet's graduation. With his classmates from the Barrayaran Imperial Military Academy he eagerly awaits his first post. Will it be ship duty? Imperial Security? Whatever it is, fans can safely assume that with Miles involved it will quickly grow into something more.
Although being a weather officer for an isolated base in the frozen north sure sounds boring. Can even our plucky little hero make this worth reading about? Never doubt it! With the help of a dangerously unbalanced general, Miles soon finds himself accused, imprisoned, and then sent on a covert operation to a tinderbox situation in the Hegen Hub, where several planetary governments are posturing in preparation for the climax of a rousing game of power politics.
Miles's chums the Dendarii Mercenaries happen to be involved, and he's simply supposed to use his old contacts to gather information. Of course, nothing's ever that simple. And when Emperor Gregor vanishes in the thick of things, we should expect no less from Miles than his taking matters into his own hands.
Characters
In many ways The Vor Game runs parallel to The Warrior's Apprentice. But something gets lost in the repetition. Miles, the crippled genius who just wants to be a soldier like his pa, is still a great protagonist. His resourcefulness, daring, and disregard for regulations remain entertaining. But something is missing, and I think it's the weakness and self-doubt that colored the fringes of his thoughts in the previous novel.
Other characters are even more significantly lessened. Elena becomes flat. Mayhew is little more than a name. Baz barely makes an appearance. Admiral Oser and Captain Tung get plenty of face time but mostly reprise their earlier roles. The only returning character who gains in substance is Gregor, and he does add positively to the mix. In a way it is his coming of age story that's playing in the background.
Two new characters figure largely. General Metzov is like R. Lee Ermey on crack, if less verbose. But for all his formidableness he ends up playing the patsy both to the hero and to the real villain, a voluptuous and merciless (aren't they all) woman who goes by more than one name and seems to be in the middle of whatever is really going on in the Hegen Hub. This brilliant psychopath also happens to be almost as short as Miles. She's an interesting foil for him, a sexy Darth Vader to his rambunctious Anakin.
Coincidence
Watered down characterizations can be overlooked in a good page-turner. And to Bujold's credit, I raced through The Vor Game faster than anything else she's written. This despite an overlong first act featuring Miles's diversion to the arctic. But even as I devoured the book I sensed the nagging aftertaste of implausibility. This was also a problem with The Warrior's Apprentice, where Miles reeled from one astonishing feat to another. There, at least, an accumulating sense of Miles losing control was served. In The Vor Game the credibility is stretched not by the action but by coincidence, and convenience is the highest purpose served.
I will not speak specifically, as these coincidences could also be called "twists," but it boils down to several important characters going their own way on several occasions only to coincidentally run into each other again at just the right time to make the plot interesting. Or manipulative, depending on your point of view.
Recommendation
I loved the thought of Miles getting assigned to a backwater so that he can learn to follow orders and accept the mundaneness that life in the military is supposed to be. It's exactly what the little upstart needed, and shows a nice touch of self-aware humor on Bujold's part. Some of that same awareness could have helped mediate the overburdening of the story with convenient coincidences.
Despite its weakness, The Vor Game delivers more of what Vorkosigan fans want, at least on a superficial level: Miles navigating surprisingly tight situations with nothing but his wit to go on. On this strength it won Bujold her first Hugo for best novel. Such things often reflect an appreciation for an author's greater body of work more than for any specific book, which must be the case here. The Vor Game is only a stepping stone in the Vorkosigan saga.
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