This is the next up in this author's Vorkosigan series which
I am intermittently working through, following Ethan of Athos which I reviewed in March. That one was unusual in
that it did not feature Bujold's hero Miles, a junior officer in the Barrayan
Imperial Security service, but he returns in Labyrinth in his role as Admiral Naismith of the Dendarii Free
Mercenary Fleet. He is making a visit to Jackson's Whole, an outlaw planet
divided among several powerful criminal organisations each ruled by an hereditary
lord and specialising in a particular brand of nefarious activity. Miles is
supposedly buying weapons but is actually there to liberate a skilled genetic
scientist from one of the organisations and deliver him to Barrayar. As always,
things do not go to plan with various complications and setbacks until Miles
arrives at an unexpected solution.
Labyrinth is a
novella of only 80 pages but a lot of action is packed into them, with dramatic
tension laced with humour in Bujold's usual style. Also very evident is her
fascination with difference, both physical and sexual, which was so strongly
featured in Ethan of Athos. As well
as the physically handicapped Miles, we have his ship's captain, the
hermaphrodite Bel Thorne; a Quaddie, engineered for a zero-gravity environment with
two extra arms instead of legs; and last but far from least, a ferocious
eight-foot-tall genetically engineered super-warrior who also happens to be a
teenage girl. As is also usual with Bujold, she makes all of her disparate
characters sympathetic (except for the bad guys who do of course receive their
just desserts).
Like all of this series it's an entertaining read and it's
good to return to Miles after a longish break. I have another volume of his
stories awaiting my attention, but they'll have to wait – that book is just one
in a dauntingly large pile of new novels which keeps growing faster than I can
get through them, not to mention the old favourites I want to re-read when I
can find the time!
No comments:
Post a Comment