Brothers in Arms

Here we come to the real meat of the Vorkosigan series. Brothers in Arms through A Civil Campaigan carry a large part of my fond memories of this series--Mark (a clone of Miles) appears, and both Mark and Miles go through large identity shifts in who they are and how they related to each other and the world.

The initial plot of this novel comes directly off the last novella; there's a lot of costs for the Dendarii mercenaries from their last operation, and Miles comes to Earth for repairs and in desperate need of payment. This is one of the strong points about this series that I like; each story really stands on its own with a driving plot and strong closure, but there's plenty of natural-feeling foreshadowing hooks (both personal and political) and also gradual character development across time.

Goaded, Miles snapped, "Dammit, sir, what would you have of me? The Dendarii are as much Barrayaran troops as any who wear the Emperor's uniform, even if they don't know it. They are my assigned charge. I cannot neglect their urgent needs even to play the part of Lieutenant Vorkosigan."

Galeni rocked back in his chair, his eyebrows shooting up. "Play the part of Lieutenant Vorkosigan? Who do you think you are?"

Talking of character development, if Miles had an insubordination problem earlier where he would disobey orders and lie to his superiors, it's absolutely out of control in this novel. He gets grounded in the Barrayaran embassy with no orders other than to stay put and no pay, and immediately is sneaking off and engaging Ivan in his plans. In Cetaganda, he was breaking rules but he was trying to get away with it as long as he couuld. Here, the bureaucracy is truly just an obstacle and not something he feels any reason to obey other than as a means to an end.

Back to money, I feel that Miles is only able to carry his nobility as a mercenary because he has the financial backing of Barrayar to pay for his idealistic but not financially sound decisions. It's kind of a deus ex machina, that Miles can always lean on the trust and backing of Barrayar from a distance to cut through any "can we afford to save these people" ethical knots. Even Tung jokes about this at the end, that Miles not having to make a profit is an advantage no other mercenary commander has.

"And so you want to maroon me for the rest of my life on a, sorry, backwater dirtball that's just barely climbed out of feudalism, that treats women like chattel--or cattle--that would deny me the use of every military skill I've learned in the past twelve years from shuttle docking to interrogation chemistry... I'm sorry. I'm not an anthropologist, I'm not a saint, and I'm not crazy."

"You don't have to say no right away," said Miles in a small voice.

This book is also the "Elli Quinn romance" book, which really just sets up Miles for needing somebody who loves both of his Lord Vorkosigan and Admiral Naismith selves. To its detriment, I feel like Elli and Elena are both very similar here; both are competent space mercenaries who want literally nothing to do with backwater Barrayar who would waste them. (The next book even lampshades how similar they are.) Sure, Elli is a spacer who wants nothing to do with planets and Elena is a childhood friend (that Miles is still secretly in love with) but they feel like similar letdowns and character arcs on Miles' end.

One thing I do like is that Miles has had enough character development by this time that he can more meaningfully address the question of why he doesn't just run off and become a space mercenary and divorce himself from Barrayar and his Lord Vorkosigan identity. Even if you ignore the money aspect of the backing from Barrayar, his roots and his family and his responsibility are on Barrayar. Elli only wants Admiral Naismith and dislikes Lord Vorkosigan, but Miles needs somebody who wants both.

"You are what you do. Choose again, and change."

The other big piece of this book is the introduction of Mark, Miles's secret clone who replaces Miles in an infiltration plot. I love Mark as a comedic foil for Miles; he is the younger brother forced to live in and chase the shadow of somebody who is impossibly great. Mark barely keeps up with Miles as Lord Vorkosigan, but then also finds out Miles has a second identity on the side that he now has to learn too.

I appreciate that this clone story is not a one-off pulp joke. From the start, Miles treats Mark seriously as his brother and even tells him his name should be Lord Mark Pierre Vorkosigan, since Barrayaran names are a fixed hereditary pattern. Rather than running some scheme for his own benefit, Miles mostly thinks about Mark here, to give him a chance to be his own person and live his own life, even when absolutely everybody else sees him as disposable.