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Title:
The Warrior’s Apprentice
Series: Vorkosigan
Saga #2
Author: Lois Bujold
Rating:
4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages:
284
Words: 101K
Publish: 1986
Now
this was more like it!!!! After the start I had with Shards
of Honor, I wasn’t sure if
this series was actually going to be for me or not. Romance in my SF
is not a thing I want, or countenance. Especially when it is lady
romance with “oh, his eyes, oh his smile” kind of thing. But
Admiral General Emperor Bookstooge is glad to report that there was
none of THAT in this book. This was a proper 80’s SF adventure
story.
As
I was reading this, I kept checking things on my mental checklist
that I enjoy.
Coming of age story, Check!
Underdog,
Check!
Smart character, Check!
Adventure
and Action, Check!
Unrequited Love Interest, Check! (of the teen
boy variety, which I can handle)
Winning all the marbles, Check!
Badguy in the background only slowly coming to the fore, Check!
Beating the metaphorical snot out of said badguy, Check!
Yes, this book had it all. As I kept reading, I kept finding more and more things that I liked and it made this read better and better. By the end, I was ready to take over a spaceship myself and go fight some space pirates or something ;-)
The only reason this isn’t getting a 5star rating (apart from the fact that I’m as stingy as Scrooge about 5stars) is that I am not sure if my reaction to this book was bounced from my disappointed of the first book. That’ll have to wait to be determined until the inevitable re-read in a decade or two. But for a first read, a 4 ½ star rating is just about as high as a book can get from me. I am pleased as punch about this and I REALLY hope the series continues in this vein and not the first book.
Because this series is popular, it has been re-released several times and there are a multitude of covers. Most are Baen covers (Baen is the publishing house) and Baen knows who their audience is and as such does their covers accordingly. If it helps, all of Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International book covers are by Baen :-D I chose this one just because it looked cool. I don’t think it actually has anything to do with the story, but that doesn’t matter to me at the moment. A good story, a good cover and I’m happy.
★★★★✬
From Wikipedia
When Miles Vorkosigan is disqualified from joining the Barrayaran Imperial Service Academy because he breaks both his fragile legs during the physical entrance test, he sets about trying to prove himself worthy by other means, especially since he blames himself for his aged paternal grandfather's death shortly afterward. To lift Miles' spirits, his mother sends him to Beta Colony to visit his maternal grandmother. Miles has to take his lifelong bodyguard, Bothari, so he seizes the opportunity to have his mother invite Bothari's daughter, Elena, along to broaden her horizons.
At Beta Colony, Miles comes across a tense standoff: "jump pilot" Arde Mayhew refuses to let anyone seize his obsolete starship, the only one he can fly, barricading himself inside and threatening to blow it up rather than let it be scrapped. Miles defuses the situation by buying the freighter from the creditor, using ancestral family lands back on Barrayar as collateral (neglecting to inform the seller that the region is radioactive, a result of the former Cetagandan occupation). He also acquires a crewman, Barrayaran deserter Baz Jesek. To cover the credit note he used to buy the freighter, Miles masquerades as a mercenary leader (in transit) and takes a risky, but very well-paying job offered by Major Carle Daum: transporting a cargo into a war on Tau Verde IV to the losing side, Felice. Bothari and Elena go along.
The star system, however, is under a blockade maintained by a mercenary fleet commanded by Admiral Oser. When the freighter is stopped for inspection, the man in charge decides to take Elena, so Miles has no choice but to overpower him and his lax, small crew. Miles maintains the pretence of being an influential member of a shadowy mercenary outfit, which he calls the Dendarii, and convinces his prisoners to become probationary members, seeing as he has too few people to guard them safely. As time goes on, Miles uses his military genius to first capture and recruit more and more of Oser's personnel and ships, then subtly sabotage Oser's relationship with his employers. Outmaneuvered over and over again, Oser finally gives up and offers to join the Dendarii, under the command of "Admiral Miles Naismith".
However, that is not the end of Miles' troubles. First, Elena and Baz fall in love, and Baz asks for his permission, as Baz's liege lord, to marry her. Miles, after a confrontation with Elena, reluctantly gives it. Then Miles' feckless cousin Ivan Vorpatril shows up. From what Ivan can tell him, Miles deduces that his father is or will be charged with treason, arising from Miles' acquisition of a fleet; Counts and counts' heirs are permitted only a small personal guard. Miles speeds back to Barrayar just in time to extricate his father. To save himself from the same charge, Miles suggests to Emperor of Barrayar (and foster brother) Gregor Vorbarra that he secretly accept the Dendarii as his own, to be employed whenever Barrayaran forces cannot be openly utilized.
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