It's way past time for a review... Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold - review

Young Miles 
{Warrior's Apprentice}
Lois McMaster Bujold
vorkosigan series
SciFi 1986

Cover - it's trippy, but then it's an older style of cover.  Looking at the cover, at the face makes me feel shallow, because I don't want to read about someone with that face - it's not handsome.  See?  Shallow, it's not supposed to matter what someone's face looks like.  Hell, my face isn't that pretty anymore...  sigh!  But I'm being honest.  The rest of the cover I like - the background colors, the stars, the design, the two images of Young Miles....

This is one of those books that is SciFi, but also reads like a fantasy.  completely different world, many planets, starship travel, feudal systems, different cultures...

There are quite a few novels featuring Miles Vorkosigan - but The Warrior's Apprentice is the first one I've read.  It came in an omnibus titled Young Miles which contains three Miles stories.  Miles is a young man, son of a powerful military man who served as regent for a while.  Miles also is very weak, with brittle bones, short stature, and more from the result of chemically induced birth defects.  The people of his world look on him with a mixture of horror, pity and superstition since usually babies with his problems were either aborted or assisted to die.

In this story, Miles has just broken both legs while in academy - despite his body limitations, he's determined to be in the military and to do what everyone else can.  He ends up at home and from there goes on adventure, eventually getting involved in war.  In trying to solve a dispute, he ends up somehow in charge of many ships and mercenaries.  He also ends up in violation of a treason law.  He also finds out some devastating news about an old and trusted employee and friend.

This novel was well written, with very good dialog.  The inner voice of Miles was humorous and snarky, while his manners were always polite.  The surprises and twists were entertaining, as well as the SciFi 'bits' that were peppered throughout the story.  I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and immediately started the next on in the series.  Lois McMaster Bujold is a hell of a story weaver, building a background of rich worlds and customs, using dialog and atmosphere to help tell the story.  Great reading.