The Warrior's Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga, #2)

by Lois McMaster Bujold

he stretched as if to pull his crooked spine out straight by force of will. He gave a little upward jerk of his chin, balancing his too-large head, a head meant for a man over six feet, on his just-under-five-foot frame,

“My mother was exposed to a poison gas when she was pregnant with me. She pulled through all right, but it wrecked my bone growth.”

fiery red of her hair quenched by natural gray,

Hm not all gingers go grey

His father had been a tailor. A tailor, back when it was all cut and stitched by hand, hunched over all the little detailing . . .” He sighed for the irretrievable past.

Its always weird when a star trek setting has a victorian past in the memory of grandparents. How does lthis work unless barrayar was colonized

Perhaps I shall be a tailor, then. I’m built for it. But they’re as obsolete as counts, now.

People dont wear custom clothes? This is a legit question

The old man twisted his lips in sour negation. His hand closed in anger, and opened in hopelessness. “In the old days no one would have dared question your right . . .” “In the old days the cost of my incompetence would have been paid in other men’s lives.

Lol i thought that was gona cend "in the old days they would have strangled me at birh"

“God, I’ve grown weary of change. The very thought of enduring another new world dismays me.

“I never understood what that was all about.” “What, my name—Miles Naismith, after my mother’s father, instead of Piotr Miles, after both? It all goes back to that uproar when I was born.

As you know Bob the exposition goes like this

Something of the old frankness they had shared as children escaped her lips suddenly.

Ok i dont know how frank they were or why thwy arent anymore

she was an officer for the Betans, and no one thinks she’s strange, or criticizes her for wanting to break the rules.” “On the contrary. She’s so strange nobody even thinks of trying to include her in the rules. She just goes on doing things her own way.”

“I wish I were Betan,” said Elena glumly.

Lol gotta setle for escobaran not that you know you're a half breed

“You should have been born two hundred years ago, too.” “No, thanks. I’d have been slain at birth.”

Thank u

“He never talks about my mother anymore, you know? Hasn’t since I was about twelve. He used to tell me long stories—well, long for him—about her. I wonder if he’s beginning to forget her.”

Lol not since elena jr hit puberty

The deformed were invariably cast as plotting villains in Barrayaran drama.

in eighteen years of residence here, his own mother had never come to regard the Vor system as anything other than a planet-wide mass hallucination.

Ow

You’ve done more for him than anyone, right through Vordarian’s Pretendership, the Third Cetagandan War, the Komarr Revolt—he

The exposition wars yes great and terroble they were off screen

But when his cousin Ivan Vorpatril arrived, in tow of his mother Lady Vorpatril,

?? Aral doesnt have siblings

“How did you know it was me?” Miles asked. “Well, it was either you or—nobody brings me flowers on their knees.” Her eye lingered a moment on the doorknob, unconsciously revealing the height scale used for her deduction.

Miles promptly dropped to his knees and quick-marched across the rug, to present his offering with a flourish.

Lol

I like the window on the street,” she assured him.

Girl u wanna get sniped

“Anyway, I don’t know where it is.” “Oh? How strange. As fixated as the Sergeant is on your mother, I’d have thought he’d be just the pilgrimage type.

“Maybe I can make it out,” Elena offered, misinterpreting his delay. The screen went blank at a twitch of his hand. “Konstantine,” Miles declared without hesitation.

Ugh i hate how miles lies

Miles knew how painfully hard she struggled sometimes for some expression of approval from the old stone carving.

Poor elena

Lucky for me they’d imported those uterine replicators—yes, there they are—they could never have tried some of those treatments in vivo, they’d have killed Mother. There’s

Elena’s voice tensed. “Children of men killed at Escobar? But where are their mothers?”

She smart

He preened. If he couldn’t be a soldier, perhaps he had a future as a detective . . .

Dude she is making a lot of observations too

that egg-sucker Count Vordrozda just arrived, in company with Admiral Hessman. He’ll have trouble ahead if those two are getting in bed together.”

Oh my

Vordrozda’s not a rightist at heart. He’s just personally ambitious, and he’ll ride any pony that’s going his way.

Oh myyyy

“I don’t know why these people can’t write a constitution. Oral law—what a way to try and run an interstellar power.”

Wow that is colossally stupid

I’ve never understood why these people won’t clip their kids’ tubes and turn them loose at age twelve to work out their own damnation, like sensible folk.

She went off toward the library, muttering her favorite swear-word under her breath, “Barrayarans!”

Lol such a witewoman

his second cousin, Ivan Vorpatril.

Ha

Miles raised his voice. “Come!”

Should be come in

She is an important source of order in his life. I owe it to him to protect that order.” “Yes, yes, right and proper, I know,” said Miles impatiently. “But you can’t owe everything to him and nothing to her!”

True dat

all Betans expect to live to be a hundred and twenty, I guess. They think it’s one of their civil rights.”

It could be done subtly enough, even with Bothari hanging over his shoulder.

Dude bothari gonna be hella suspicious

My work has been a blight on you from the very beginning. I’m sorry, sorry it made such a mess for you—” Mess of you. Say what you really mean, damn it.

Apologizing to me again, thought Miles miserably. For me. He keeps telling me I’m all right—and then apologizing. Inconsistent, Father.

Lol that ableism

Permanent contraceptive implants, for the women and hermaphrodites.

Intersex people exist!

Miles pictured the man, huddled in his dim recess, stripped of allies, like the last survivor of a hopeless siege.

Projection is strong with this one

He knew he confused strangers as to his age. At first glance, his height led them to underestimate it. At second, his face, slightly dark from a tendency to heavy beard growth in spite of close shaving, and prematurely set from long intimacy with pain, led them to overestimate. He’d found he could tip the balance either way at will, by a simple change of mannerisms.

“That’s the trouble with the Betan system,” he said after a time. “Nobody takes personal responsibility for anyone. It’s all these faceless fictional corporate entities—government by ghosts.

Security’ll be waiting at the docking bay, with a patrol from the Mental Health Board right beside ’em.

you’ll see me in a month or two, walking around smiling. You’re always smiling, after the M.H.B. gets done . . .”

Lol

if you were to refuse to carry out an order of mine in the heat of battle, I would have the right to strike off your head. On the spot.”

Def klpingons

I’m told my great-grandmother never forgave him.”

Another exposition dump

The Sergeant opened his mouth. Miles, dropping his voice, cut across his beginning roar—by God, it was an effective trick—“Attention,

Elena had her hands over her ears again, lower lip stuck out but trembling slightly.

Thats very childisg

“Relax,” Miles whispered in an aside to Elena. “They’ll bury that guy in files so deep you’ll never see him again.

She did punch him tho?

Might it ease the oppressive constraint that seemed to have been growing between himself and Elena ever since they had ceased to be children?

Ok