Barrayar

A Vorkosigan Adventure

By: Lois McMaster Bujold

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Political intrigue, culture clash and romance make a stirring mix in this award-winning follow-up novel to the acclaimed Shards of Honor.

In the wake of interplanetary war, former commander Cordelia Naismith has deserted her own planet to marry the leader of the defeated enemy, Aral Vorkosigan. On his home planet of Barrayar, two rival factions are eyeing the recently vacated throne, and Aral, recently appointed Regent of Barrayar by the Emperor on his deathbed, must stand between them.

Lord and Lady Vorkosigan, Aral and Cordelia struggle to establish stability in a fragile government thrown into confusion by the transition of power and the threat of civil war. When a palace coup endangers the government, their lives, and her unborn son, Cordelia takes action to secure the safety of her new family and new home.

Hi-fi sci-fi: listen to more in the Vorkosigan saga.

©1991 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

1992 Hugo Award, Best Novel

A Hero's Beginning & his Extraordinary Parents

It is amazing how many credits you can blow through when you find an incredible writer & series (or multiple series). I haven't found anything of LMB's that I haven't enjoyed.

This is book 2 about Miles' extraordinary parents and friends. I absolutely adore Cordelia. She is the type of woman that many of us wish to be, honest, strong in will, determined, and she has great taste in mates & friends. Aral Vorkosigan is a man looking for something and someone to live for and Cordelia is the one who helps guide him as well as love & understand him.

I love the back stories of other major characters in the series: Bothari, Illyan, Kuo, Drou, Gregor Vorbarra....

A Good Intro to Vorkosigan series

I enjoyed this book. I was new to the author and the series. The characters and the background to the culture are developed as a byproduct of the story which I like. This allows action to be intertwined with narrative. Well narrated.

Deserves Every Accolade

For those who read the first two novels in the Chalion series (The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls), the fast-paced The Hallowed Hunt will seem a strange end to the series. Set on a different world with entirely new characters, this novel’s “type”—absent the five-fold religion and the supernatural—is a story of political and warring intrigue on a different planet. Instead of saints, there are heroes. Instead of miracles, there are advanced weapons and eighteen artificial wombs brought back from a recent space war with a much different world (perhaps more “familiar” to the modern western reader) that frees women to continue their lives as the baby develops for nine months. Barrayar leans much further toward science fiction and romance (always present in the earlier Chalion books). Fantasy is there only in the terrific world-building. Bujold has said that, in real time, it could take place at the same time or several hundred years in the future of the stories that centered in Chalion and their backdrop of wars with its north-bordering country.

On the World of Barrayar, ruled by a dying Emperor whose five-year-old grandson is next in line, the main characters are a newly married couple. Our point-of-view character is Patricia Naismith Vorkosigan, former Captain of a science/exploration spaceship from Beta Colony, an advanced world of science and gender equality—not classless, but free from hunger and encouraging advancement for all via free access to education and health care. She is recently married (and pregnant) to Aral Vorkosigan, a retired military officer and nobleman in Barrayar’s scientifically advancing but socially Medieval society. They were once enemies until they had to come together against those who would defeat them both. They know each other very well.

Their love and mutual respect are as much the heart of this novel as they are essential to its action. When the son-less emperor dies, leaving a helpless grandchild and his mother as practical pawns in the hidden schisms between the conservative (anti-science, anti-egalitarianism) nobles and the progressive counterparts, Patricia finds herself the wife of the Regent of Barrayar until the little Emperor comes into power at age twenty.

Mayhem and civil war break loose. Kidnappings of the upper-class of Vorkosigan supporters begin, and the enemy takes over the palace.

Pregnant and in a world that she thought that she’d come to love, she takes a gamble to free herself to action. And action is what follows, for the last third of the book is hers.

No spoilers.

The two central characters are beautifully drawn, Patricia particularly. We hear her thoughts, her doubts, her decision-making techniques, her greatest fears, and then the result: her actions. She IS a Captain, after all. Her and Aral’s closest allies are fully developed people with achingly described pasts and their present, painful results.

Bujold has written a marvel of a “space opera” that takes place “on the ground” in every way. I raced through it!

Is Machiavelli required reading on this planet??

The second book in the Vorkosigan saga, Barrayar picks up almost instantly after Shards of Honor. This book is chock full of political intrigue, machinations - honestly, is Machiavelli required reading on this planet? - and murder.

Bujold throws a little romance, social commentary, and ethics into the mix. Also, it's just a great adventure.

The worlds and culture of Barrayar and Beta are wonderfully sketched out. Beta a truly egalitarian society - where access to information is a constitutional right - and Barrayar a more rigid, warrior-centric, and imperial society are good case studies.

I also think this idea that making all the different worlds as direct descendants of Earth, instead of including actual alien civilizations is interesting. All the different civilizations are distinct and different, while all are human.

The characters are wonderful. Not only do you care for them, but you really want to know more about them. A sign of a great storyteller. On to the next!

Lois Bujold's story telling makes my soul happy

I am at a loss to explain how much I enjoy her writing. I need her writing talents to give her just praise and adoration, and if I try, I risk sounding like a potential infatuated stalker. I will say if you enjoy science fiction at its most authentic in scale and quality, you will find no better author to follow today.

Wonderful!

This might be my favorite Vorkosigan book. It’s a delicious mix of humor, adventure, wit, and genuine emotion, with moments that made me tear up and whoop. The narration is sublimely matched to the text and a masterpiece in itself.

Wonderful and very entertaining

Second time to go through this since 2013. It's still a great story and the characters are well developed.

Great read, action packed plot

The author is a master of action packed plots with wonderfully engaging characters. I recommend it.

compelling story dated

the author took a long time to develop the characters in this story. I was beginning to get bored when the real action started. overall I enjoyed the story. however for a science fiction Thriller one expects that it will feature technological advances beyond our imagination. perhaps this was the case when then book was initially written in the 1980s but it appears dated in 2017

Excellent backfill story

An excellent back-fill of Miles' origins. I really liked how characters that play a big role later in Miles' life are introduced and developed here. Cordelia is also interesting as a character on her own - trying to make it in a world very different from her home planet.

There is no confusion as to what political stance Bujold holds, but it isn't overwhelming or condescending. There's enough action and suspense to keep the story moving forward, but the book has a huge character and society development component to it. After the denouement there is still quite a bit of "story" to read - there is no action or suspense in this part, but it's very interesting if you really want to know how Miles (and his compatriots) came to be.

The narrator is the same as in the rest of the Miles' books - he does a good job but, since the main character is Cordelia, it was a bit odd to hear the voice I associated with Miles in the other books when Cordelia was talking.