MILES VORKOSIGAN

'Miles Vorkosigan' is the fictional hero of a series of novels and short stories by Lois McMaster Bujold known as the Vorkosigan Saga.

Contents

Biography

Abnormal Name for the Abnormal Lord

Youth

Personality

Ivan Vorpatril

Mark Pierre Vorkosigan

Biography

Abnormal Name for the Abnormal Lord

Miles Vorkosigan is the son of Aral Vorkosigan of the planet Barrayar and his Betan wife Cordelia Naismith. Miles' name - 'Miles Naismith Vorkosigan' is unusual in that traditionally, the name of the first son is a patronymic: the first name is the grandfather's on the father's side, the second the grandfather's on the mother's side, so his name would have been ''Piotr Miles Vorkosigan''. However, when his mother was pregnant with him, she was injured by a poison gas (''soltoxin'') in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate his father. The antidote to soltoxin gas turns out to be a violent teratogen that destroys bone development in the growing fetus. The only available treatment was a fetal transfer to an artificial uterine replicator where his developing body was carefully exposed to calcium and other nutrients. As a result of this, he is quite short and deformed and his bones are abnormally brittle (although once he has finished growing he has surgery to have them replaced by synthetics). Many people on Barrayar are prejudiced against him because they incorrectly believe him to be a mutant. His famous grandfather even tries to kill him as a fetus and later as an infant because he believes that "We cannot afford to have a deformed Count Vorkosigan." It is because of this hostility that Miles is not given his grandfather's name, Piotr, as the firstborn normally would bear. Cordelia instead endowed Miles with her father's full name, Miles Naismith.

Youth

At the age of seventeen, he fails the physical exam to enter the Barrayaran Imperial Military Service. Soon after this, however, he takes a trip to Beta Colony, has (partly unintended) space adventures for a few months, and improvises a force called the Dendarii Mercenaries into existence. This unit later obtains an official, though secret, status as part of the Barrayaran military, and Miles carries out several more missions with them during the course of the series. While in command of the Dendarii, he assumes the persona of "Admiral Naismith", speaking with a Betan accent. Naismith is believed by some to be a clone of Miles Vorkosigan, created by Cetagandan agents as part of a plot against Barrayar.
At twenty-four, Miles' life becomes more complicated when he discovers that he has an actual clone, created by Komarran terrorists with the intent of killing Miles and his family and ultimately becoming Emperor of Barrayar. His friends urge him to kill the clone, but he thinks of him as his brother and lets him go free. Four years later, Miles is killed while trying to rescue his clone-brother, and although he is successfully cryo-frozen and revived, he is left with a condition which causes periodic epileptic-like seizures, particularly under great stress. He tries to conceal this from Simon Illyan, his boss and chief of Imperial Security (ImpSec). Miles falsifies a report after he has a seizure in combat, but this is detected and he is fired from ImpSec, putting an end to his life with the Dendarii.
Almost immediately, he becomes suspicious of a plot against Illyan who has fallen ill and is being kept isolated; he requests the assignment of an Imperial Auditor to help him investigate the situation, but instead, the Emperor surprises him by making 'him' the "Ninth Auditor", a temporary designation by tradition, but nonetheless endowed with full Auditor powers. His handling and solving of the case is reviewed by the other Auditors and his status as Auditor is made permanent.
Shortly thereafter, he accompanies one of his new colleagues, Lord Auditor Vorthys, to Komarr, home to the sole wormhole connecting Barrayar to the rest of the Nexus. (Barrayar conquered Komarr some years before Miles' birth in order to gain control of that vital access). Their mission is to investigate an accident involving the solar energy array orbiting Komarr; the accident turns out to have been caused by the secret testing of a new weapon with which Komarran conspirators hope to permanently destroy Barrayar's access to the wormhole. Miles is quartered with Lord Auditor Vorthys' niece and her husband, a Barrayaran official. In the course of the investigation, Miles survives yet another brush with death although his host, who has become ensnared in the plot, does not survive. To make a bad situation worse, Miles has fallen in love with the man's wife, Ekaterin, who just happens to be on the verge of leaving her abusive husband when disaster strikes. Ekaterin is then instrumental in foiling the plot. The entire affair is classified as secret due both to the political nature of the conspiracy and the new technology of the Komarran secret weapon.
Ekaterin, now professing to be violently allergic to marriage, moves back to Barrayar with her son to stay with Lord Auditor Vorthys. Miles embarks upon a bizarre, if typically complicated, strategy: he will woo Ekaterin without telling her, in the hope that she can be persuaded to reconsider her stance. Miles is hoist upon his own petard during a particularly disastrous dinner party to which Ekaterin is invited. She is initially furious when she discovers his machinations. An additional complication arises when rumors accuse Miles of murdering her husband in order to marry her. Due to the Imperial security concerns, she is not at liberty to refute the allegations, even when her relations attempt to move her son to "safety". This provokes her to drastic action: she proposes to Miles herself in a most public fashion; he accepts without hesitation.
In ''Winterfair Gifts'', they are married during the mid-winter festival that marks the beginning of a new year on Barrayar, and survive yet another attack in which Ekaterin is poisoned by one of Miles' Auditorial victims. The plot is foiled by Taura, one of his many former girl-friends, and Roic, one of his Armsmen.
Their honeymoon is delayed by a considerable period, during which they conceive twins in uterine replicators; while this is by now normal for well-to-do Barrayaran couples, it also conveniently allows the happy couple to leave the planet while their unborn children remain safely at home. In ''Diplomatic Immunity'', Emperor Gregor dispatches his youngest Auditor to defuse a diplomatic crisis at a Quaddie space station. The couple becomes embroiled in yet another deadly, complicated situation involving potential war with Cetaganda. Happily, Miles survives a near-death illness, and they are able to return to Barrayar just in time for their children's birth -- a son named Aral Alexander and a daughter named Helen Natalia.
At this point, Miles' full title is Lord Auditor Captain Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, heir to the Vorkosigan District as Lord Vorkosigan, or possibly Lord Auditor Captain Lord Vorkosigan. It is traditional for retired and discharged soldiers to retain their rank as a title. Additionally, the position of Imperial Auditor seems to attach a Lord at the beginning of the title. It is unknown how to distinguish between an Auditor and one who is also a Lord as a result of being the heir to a District.

Personality

Miles is one of the most striking characters in science fiction. He is both brilliant (especially in military tactics) and hyperactive; one of his girlfriends describes him as "addicted to adrenaline rushes." He compulsively and constantly challenges the world in spite of (or because of) his stature: sometimes with disastrous consequences, although more often his mind overcomes his physical weakness.
He has an ambiguous status on his home planet, being simultaneously a pampered and powerful aristocrat and a despised "mutie." At times he contemplates running away from Barrayar and its prejudice against disabled people, but he never acts on this impulse, perhaps because of his loyalty to his family and his Vor code of honour.
He has a strong tendency to manipulate people and is very good at bluffing. The Dendarii Free Mercenaries begin as pure imaginative figment, and through frantic improvisation he conceals his deception from his erstwhile recruits; their accomplishments make real his invention. With the early success of this "lie first, fix it later" strategy, he does not become fully aware of its ethically dubious nature until over a decade later, when (finally) it blows up in his face: first he is caught lying about his seizure disorder, and then the widow he loves is enraged when she discovers that he has been attempting to court her by stealth during her socially-recognized period of mourning.
By the later novels, Miles is living the (relatively) calmer life of Imperial Auditor, a sort of cross between special investigator and special prosecutor, for the growing Barrayaran empire. He is also preparing to settle down and raise a family.
In the course of what is already a lengthy series, 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 supporting 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 Colony, Cetaganda, Komarr, Kline Station, Athos, Jackson's Whole, Graf Station (Quaddiespace) — 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.

Ivan Vorpatril

Main articles: Ivan Vorpatril

No description of Miles is complete without mentioning his cousin, Lord Ivan Vorpatril, also known as "that idiot Ivan" or "Ivan, you idiot". Ivan has been, since childhood, Miles' foil, burden, workhorse, and (until Miles has children) his formal heir. He is everything Miles is not - tall, handsome, and athletic. He is a graduate of the military academy and gets assigned one plum posting after another.

Mark Pierre Vorkosigan

Main articles: Mark Vorkosigan

Mark Pierre Vorkosigan is Miles's clone brother.