Mirror Dance

Miles Vorkosigan, #6

by Lois McMaster Bujold

First edition, 394 pages

English language

Published March 1994 by Baen.

ISBN:: 978-0-671-72210-4
OCLC Number:: 29184728
ISFDB ID:: 1516

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(10 reviews)

Not everyone would envy young Lord Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, even though he had formed his own mercenary fleet before attending the naval academy, and even though his mother was the beautiful Cordelia, the ship captain who has taught the Lords of Barrayar much about the perils of sexism. Even the fact that Miles is third in line to the throne and personally owns a major chunk of his home planet would not tempt any normal person to change places with him.

When assassins came to rid the world of his father, his mother, pregnant with Miles, was in the line of fire, and Miles was but an egg for the omelet in an all too literal sense. Thanks to heroic medical intervention, Miles survived his near fatal brush with war gas-as a pain-filled dwarf with bones as weak and brittle as some malign composite of chalk and glass. Miles is …

But there is one who does envy him, who wants to be him: his brother, his cloned stranger formed from tissue stolen from Miles when he was a child. For Mark Vorkosigan was created and raised up for only one purpose: to become Miles, to murder and replace him. In Brothers in Arms that conspiracy was routed and Mark made more or less compliant to his new Miles-less fate. But in the intervening years Mark has learned that without Miles he is . . . nothing. The new and better Mark doesn't really want to kill his brother, but still it may come to that: Mark to stay, Miles to go. . . .

14 editions

Nicolas Delsaux reviewed La danse du miroir by Lois McMaster Bujold

Review of 'La danse du miroir' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Dans ce tome, on retrouve Miles et Mark qui vont se retrouver plongés jusqu'à la gorge dans les sales magouilles de l'ensemble de Jackson. Pour détailler un peu Mark va tenter de prendre la place de Miles pour réaliser une opération audacieuse qui n'échouera qu'à peine (suffisamment, en tout cas, pour que les conséquences en soient dramatiques).
Pour ceux qui croyaient qu'[b:un clone encombrant|296182|Brothers in Arms|Lois McMaster Bujold|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173481517s/296182.jpg|1808918] était une oeuvre autonome, ce roman est un démenti flagrant : on retrouve Miles encombré avec son clone su les bras, et c'est pour moi, lecteur, un vrai plaisir. Car dans ce roman, les deux clones vont échanger bien des fois leurs noms, leurs rôles et leurs attributions dans le roman : Mark deviendra parfois le grand frère d'un Miles désarçonné, alors que Miles fera un authentique coup de force pour venir en aide à son frère dépassé par le plan qu'il a conçu.
Enfin, et ça n'est pas le moins drôle, Mark, dans un dialogue que je trouve toujours aussi hilarant, reprochera à Miles d'être un authentique serial-loveur.
Je disais enfin, mais c'est faux, il y a plein de choses à dire sur ce roman exceptionnellement divertissant : des quiproquos en pagaille, des parents Vorkosigan étrangement heureux d'accueillir le clone de leur fils, et soucieux (pour Cordelia), d'analyser toutes les actions du héros de la famille.
Bref, un excellent opus des aventures de Miles, qui ne peut que vous faire passer un bon moment.