The Vor Game

Customer Reviews

• Read Me!  Aug 3, 2002 (45 of 47 found this helpful)

  This isn't the first book. Have you read the first book? If not, you should immediately drop everything and order it. Now. Immediately. Right away. Read the whole series.
  Ok, ok. Here's the series:

  Shards of Honor
  Barayar
  (these two books are also combined into "Cordelia's Honor")
  The Warrior's Apprentice
  Short Story: The Mountains of Mourning
  (all short stories are contained in "Borders of Infinity")
  The Vor Game
  Cetaganda
  Ethan of Athos
  Short Story: Labyrinth
  Short Story: The Borders of Infinity
  Brothers in Arms
  The Borders of Infinity
  Mirror Dance
  Memory
  Komarr
  A Civil Campaign
  Diplomatic Immunity

  Now, go start this series at the begining and read it through to the end. No Excuses!

• Will Miles survive? Will his commanding officers?  Aug 23, 2000 (17 of 17 found this helpful)

  In The Vor Game, Miles has graduated from the Imperial Academy, and has been rewarded with a choice posting indeed. Well, okay, it's one of the worst postings on record. He wanted ship duty. He's been sent to Kyril Island, lovingly called Camp Permafrost, to predict the weather. From almost his first moments on the island, he's on a collision course with the commanding officer, which leads to a snowy showdown that Miles both wins and loses.

  Back at home (well, at least his hometown), Miles is recruited into Imperial Security - the infamous ImpSec - and sent off on a mission involving Admiral Naismith. Unfortunately, things go wrong, and soon he's wrapped up in an Imperial problem, flying by the seat of his pants and breaking rules and orders with practiced elan. (Well, after all, this is a familiar position for him.)

  The Vor Game is one of my favorite of the Vorkosigan series; it is, really, the last book of Miles' youth. It is an award-winner, and deservingly so; the characters continue to develop, which is quite the challenge in the fourth book of a series, and the plot is fun. Bujold writes SF with a light hand, and interjects a great deal of humor. It's rare to find an SF writer who knows how to make us laugh.

  Read the Warrior's Apprentice, at minimum, before you read this - but read it.

• also found as the third tale in young miles  Jul 19, 2000 (7 of 7 found this helpful)

  *grin* i can't seem to stop praising Ms bujold because the vorkosigan series is truly one of the best series on earth!

  the vor game is the second major tale in the miles vorkosigan series following the warrior's apprentice and the short story mountains of mourning.

  again, we have a really funny miles novel. after graduating from the academy, he is sent to kyril island (cold hell on barrayar!) as a weatheman for the military base. again he gets into trouble (this is afterall, miles *grin*) and then we slip into the more substantial part of the book where he begins his impsec career and saves the day (and the emperor) with the dendarii. yes, miles is reunited with the dendarii in this book!

  great book, wicked humour, smart plot, engaging chracters. do try the vorkosigan series if you have never before. start with shards of honour (about miles' parents) or jump right in with miles in the warrior's aprpentice or young miles(a collection encompassing the vor game). get it!

• Miles Graduates  Jan 6, 2000 (5 of 5 found this helpful)

  Miles spent more energy getting into the military than any other ten people -- so he should get a lot out of it, right? Right. Miles's finds himself not on board a battleship, but assigned as weatherman in the Barrayar equivalent of Siberia -- not exactly the start of a brilliant military career. Trust Miles to make a bad situation worse, and trust Bujold to keep him hopping. This book has it all, action, pain, humor and Miles succeeding beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Bujold has managed to create a character who convinces me that he is indeed a genius as well as more human than most. Bravo. If you are new to the series, this is probably not the best book to begin with -- try Shards of Honor or The Warrior's Apprentice.

• how can you not like bujold?  Dec 28, 2005 (4 of 4 found this helpful)

  Although the Vor Game is second in the Miles series, it was originally written as two seperate stories. One for Analog, (weatherman) and the other to tie it into the series (gregors escape)Yes, it is lite reading(or listening) in that you don't have to think too much, but the days of hurting your brain ala Asimov have morphed into a sub-genre known as hard sci-fi. If you read hard sci-fi you won't like this book. It is character driven. If you like a good story, well told, with characters that linger to the point they've become a nerd category (like people who can quote the Princess Bride) read this. You'll like it. All Bujolds books are part of a story arc. ALL of them. (except the Chalion books and the spirit ring) You might not like it at first but you'll find yourself going back to it again and again because like a real person, Miles grows up, learns and gets better. And no. It's not a kiddie book. It's got no swearing and sex and gratuitous violence, but that doesn't make it a book for children. It makes it a rarity.