User:Cyan/To-do list/Miles Vorkosigan

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Miles Vorkosigan - Fictional hero of a series of novels and stories by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers.

In Shards of Honor, Cordelia Naismith, captain of an exploration ship from the extremely liberal and technologically sophisticated Beta Colony, discovers she has been trapped on a newly-discovered planet with the Admiral Lord Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar, notorious throughout human space as the 'Butcher of Komarr'. In this unwelcome situation, she finds Vorkosigan is not at all the monster his reputation suggests and begins to fall in love with him. She subsequently undertakes another mission for Beta, successfully delivering new technology to an ally which results in a Barrayaran invasion being repelled with disastrous casualties, but is captured, again by Vorkosigan. Back on Beta, she is hailed as a heroine until her strangely sympathetic descriptions of Vorkosigan convince Betan authorities she has been brainwashed. Naismith then escapes from Beta and goes to Barrayar, there to become the Lady and later Countess Vorkosigan.

In Barrayar, the Vorkosigans are expecting their first child when the dying Emperor of Barrayar appoints Aral as Regent Elect for the his grandson and heir, the four year old Prince Gregor. Aral, who is at the top of the list of succession after the Prince, at first refuses, as he does not want to be Emperor, even for a short time, but Cordelia convinces the him to take the job to ensure Gregor can safely take the throne. An unsuccessful plot to assassinate Aral with poison gas seriously injures Miles, while still a fetus, and Cordelia undergoes a "Placental Transfer" operation so that Miles can be treated in a "Uterine Replicator", as the treatments he requires need to be performed in-vitro, as they are fatal to the mother if performed in-vivo. While Cordelia and Aral are recuperating, a palace coup occurs but the boy emperor is rescued by the loyal security chief and flown to the Vorkosigans. They escape into the hills on horseback and hid Gregor amongst the rural peasant population. After Cordelia rejoins her husband at a military base they hear that Miles, in his replicator, has been taken to the Palace as a hostage. Aral refuses to mount a special raid in time to rescue Miles, whose treatment programme has been interrupted. When the rival Count who lead the coup assumes the throne, Cordelia convinces her two bodyguards to follow her on a private expedition to rescue Miles. Once in the Palace, Cordelia and her party are trapped and captured. The party overpowers their captors and captures the Pretender to the throne, though Gregor's mother, one of the hostages they hoped to free, is killed. Cordelia has to execute the Pretender to escape the Palace with Miles still in his Replicator.

When Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is born, he a midget, with extremely fragile bones that tend to break under any stress. This has particular consequences on Barrayar, because the planet was colonized with an insufficient gene pool, has had no economic margin for chronic illness, and has fought several wars during which it has suffered nuclear attack, and so mutants and people with birth defects, who in many parts of the planet are still killed at birth, are not considered part of society, certainly not a fitting heir to one of the most powerful titles on the planet. Although Miles is not really a mutant - he is genetically normal, the victim of a pre-natal injury caused by a teratogenic poison - this subtle distinction carries little weight with the unsophisticated masses of Barrayar. His physical weakness also makes it difficult for Miles to engage in many activities of his world's highly martial culture, and prevents his meeting the rigorous qualifications for the Barrayar Space Academy.

After failing the physical for the Space Academy, Miles is on a consolation journey when his space ship is captured by a group of mercenaries(The Warrior's Apprentice). In an inspired improvisation, Miles regains control of his ship as well as the mercenary ships by pretending to be Admiral Naismith, leader of the Free Dendarii mercenary group, and inspiring his captors to mutiny against their current leaders to join the Free Dendarii. Having pretended to be a mercenary admiral, and now finding himself with a crew of mercenaries expecting to be paid, Miles has little choice but to actually become Admiral Naismith, and is off and running for various adventures.

Barrayar has another hold on Miles, however: by law for a member of the nobility to command a private armed force is a capital crime. So Miles agrees to make the Free Dendarii a secret branch of Imperial Security (Impsec), the intelligence and covert operations arm of the Barrayaran government.

In Brothers in Arms, Miles discovers he has a clone brother, who is trying to kill him. The assasination plot is foiled and Miles takes his brother home to meet the family. His mother, Cordelia, accepts the clone, who is thus named Mark in Barrayan tradition, as another son and convinces the Vorkosigan's that the clone is a legitimate family member.

In Mirror Dance, Miles is killed after Mark is captured when he masquerades as Miles and dupes the Free Dendarii Mercinaries into a mission to free clones held "prisoner" on the planet of Jacksons Whole. Although Miles is treated in the battlefield and put into a cryogenic hybernation chamber, it is lost when the assault team has to withdraw and an inovative medic hides the chamber in freight forwarding warehouse. While the Mercenaries negotiate Mark's release from a planetary overlord, Miles is unknowingly resuscitated by the employees of a rival overlord.

By the time of Memory, several years later, Miles' already weak body is showing strains of his adventures. He suffers an epilectic siezure during a combat mission, injures friendly personnel and then falsifies the mission report to cover up his medical condition. He is caught lying by Simon Ilyan, head of Imperial Security. Forced to resign from Impsec, Emperor Gregor Vorbarra appoints Miles as an Imperial Auditor after Miles suspects a plot to destroy Simon Ilyan's career and subvert Impsec is in the making.

In the last 3 Vorkosigan novels, as well as the one to be published this year, Miles is living the calmer (at least by his relative standards) life of a troubleshooter for the growing Barrayaran empire. He is also preparing to settle down and have a family.

Miles Vorkosigan is one of the most striking characters in science fiction, and perhaps in any fiction. Ambiguity is deeply rooted in his life: he has two identities, Admiral Naismith and Miles Vorkosigan. He has an ambiguous status on his home planet, being simultaneously a pampered and powerful aristocrat and a despised outsider. Miles constantly tests himself against the restrictions of his inadequate body, sometimes with disastrous consequences, although more often his mental brilliance allows him to overcome his physical weakness. In the course of what is already a lengthy series, with several more books apparently on the way, Miles has been allowed to grow and evolve in ways most action heroes never do.

While Miles grows, the series background does as well. The large support cast of characters that populate the Vorkosigan novels are well developed. The cultures of the various worlds and locations where the action takes place - Barrayar, Beta, Cetaganda, Komarr, Klein Station, Athos, Jackson's Hole - are distinct and skillfully worked out. Variety also appears in the stories themselves: Miles's challenges are varied from one episode to another, not just a new space battle in each book. These strengths explain why the Vorkosigan series is among the most popular with readers and critics in current science fiction and likely to remain such in future installments.