The case is not as simple as it first appears, and despite there being little action per se, tension is maintained throughout.
The rural setting of the story makes a nice change from the usual hi-tech cities and spaceports, and the supporting cast is uniformly well-drawn. And so he sets off with only a couple of men for backup, attempting to not only bring justice but also to change the attitudes of generations. It's a crime that obviously resounds with Miles, himself left stunted and brittle of bone by a chemical attack in the womb. It seems that the infant daughter of one of his subjects has been murdered by her own father, apparently for the crime of being born deformed. This short novella follows Miles Vorkosigan, the author's intelligent, determined protagonist from the last book (The Warrior's Apprentice) being assigned a task by his formidable father. Pleasingly, Mountains of Mourning proves that she has just as much facility with a shorter medium.
Up until this story, I had only read Bujold's full-length fiction, and enjoyed it very much. My beloved Aral proves he is still the master strategist and Miles lives up to expectations by pulling everything together in the end. The villagers (who I suppose you’d call Hillbillies) are written as complicated, judgmental at times, and ignorant due to their lack of opportunity, but never as stupid.Ĭount Piotr’s legacy is still pronounced in this outing and I love how LMB continues to make him an important character in the series. As usual, LMB manages to add a lot of heart and sadness into the deceptively simple plot effortlessly.Ĭlassism, prejudice and poverty are all covered, along with the obvious one (considering Miles’s appearance), ableism. It’s more Miles’s birth (now some 20 years previous), his physical impairments, and the effect of both for the entire population of the Vorkosigan district, which underpins the main plot.
#TOR BOOKS THE MOUNTAINS OF MOURNING SERIES#
Oh, the reader will likely be guessing as to who committed the crime, but I don’t think it is vitally important to the theme and forward momentum (hee) of the series and characters. (I once again preferred Barrayar as the setting to space though.) It also does not really have a twisting mystery plot either. The book is light on when it comes to scifi, with only a couple of passing mentions of anything scifi in nature. Aral sends Miles off to the remote village to play detective, judge and jury, and if necessary, executioner. The Vorkosigans, as nobility of the region, are occasionally required to step in and resolve such cases. The Vorkosigan Saga hero Miles is enjoying a short break at his family house before he begins his first official military assignment when a woman from one of the mountain villages arrives at the estate to report a murder. However, I think a lot of this book’s contents would be lost without reading Barrayar at least beforehand. As a standalone, you technically don’t need to read it in the suggested chronological order. This novella squeezes in between the main series proper books of Warrior’s Apprentice and Vor Game.
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