Miles Vorkosigan

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 an unsuccessful plot to assassinate Aral with chemical agents seriously injures the fetus. Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is born 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 insufficent 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 - 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.

By the time of Memory, several years later, Miles' adventures, including one where he was actually killed and resuscitated, have strained his already weak body and he is caught by Simon Ilyan, head of Imperial Security, lying in a mission report to cover up his medical condition. Forced to resign from Impsec, Miles is named by Emperor Gregor Vorbarra as an Imperial Auditor. 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.