In my Vorkosigan reading order, this is the seventh book overall, but the fourth Miles one, though the previous Miles-focused one (Cetaganda) didn't really move the character forward in any kind of way. So here, we have Miles's first progression since what was the second book I read, The Vor Game. However, it's worth pointing out that in publication order, this is the second Miles novel, preceding Vor Game. (Bujold was crazy!)
Brothers In Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold |
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Originally published: 1989 Acquired: December 2022 Read: November 2024 |
Perhaps this is why the opening of Brothers in Arms jars a bit. If you left off with Miles in Vor Game or Cetaganda, you left off with him as a member of the Barrayaran military; he has his links to the Dendarii mercenaries, but his focus is on his traditional military career. It's weird, then, when you begin Brothers in Arms and find not only that Miles is with the Dendarii mercenaries, but this is apparently what he does on a regular basis, to the point of leading them into major combat actions! My vague understanding is that the book I will read next will actually fill this in somewhat; even if it didn't, though, it's the kind of thing one must get used to when reading a series of books about someone's career published out of chronological order; certainly as a fan of C. S. Forester's Hornblower, I am very familiar with it!
Once you get over that initial discomfort (and this just may be the fault of my reading order, not the book), the beginning of the novel is good fun. Miles has been serving with the Dendarii, who are repairing and resupplying on Earth, but finds himself ordered to join the staff of the Barrayaran embassy on Earth while he's there, so he must simultaneously maintain his Admiral Naismith persona and his Lieutenant Vorkosigan one—all the while the Cetagandans are trying to kill Naismith, but the Dendarii need him, and his Barrayaran superior has ordered him to stay away.
It's a recipe for farce, and of course farce is a thing that Bujold is quite good at. But it's more than that; the book itself points out that Miles is always acting: Admiral Naismith is a persona, Lieutenant Vorkosigan is a persona, and so too is Lord Miles. So who, then, is left? Who is he when he's not fulfilling all these obligations to other people? What is the Venn diagram of those people?
Like any farce, though, things must escalate, but to discuss this, I must get into spoiler territory, so look away if that offends you. (I will say, though, that it's a thing I knew going in, being familiar in a very broad sense with the overall outline of the saga.) In order to explain how Admiral Naismith and Lieutenant Vorkosigan can be in the same place even though they're not the same person, Miles invents the idea that one is a clone of the other created by his father's enemies... and what should happen but who waltzes into the situation: a clone of Miles created by his father's enemies! As complications go, it's honestly a bit contrived even if it is, obviously, fun.
Bujold does her best to justify it, but it's not so much the justification that lets her get away with it as what she does with the conceit. Because who is "Mark" (as Miles dubs him), but the blank space in the middle of that Venn diagram, the person that Miles might be without all those obligations weighing on him? So even though his clone wants to kill and replace him, Miles wants to help his "brother" to be the person he never can be.
But it's not true, of course. Mark is no more free than Miles is; in a sense, he's even more a victim of others' obligations than Miles is. At one point, Miles asks Mark to imagine who he might be if he was free of his creators and their plot... but can Miles imagine who he might be if he were free of all his obligations? No, Miles has no idea at all. In this book, he tries to romance Elli Quinn, but Quinn won't come back to Barrayar with him... and Miles just can't imagine himself without Barrayar, even though in doing so it seems he might actually be able to have Quinn. Who are we, Brothers in Arms seems to say, but all our obligations? Or at least, the ethical ones?* In the end, Miles must try to fulfill all his obligations as ethically as he can, because otherwise, there is no Miles at the core of that Venn diagram. That means saving Mark, but not imposing himself on him. Mark will discover his own obligations for himself.
This sounds very pretentious, perhaps, but it's Bujold, so of course it's not. Like I said, the whole thing is wrapped up in a beautiful veneer of farce, with good comedy, fun character moments, and some genuinely tense action sequences. If I have any criticism, it's that it seems to me there's more thematic depth to be mined from the character of Mark than we actually get here, since Bujold's emphasis is largely on the action and intrigue plot. Like yes, all of the above is definitely going on, but it's more of a background element than a foreground one at times. But my understanding (no spoilers for me, please) is that Mark returns in future books. Bujold has a pattern of introducing an idea and then returning to it years later in a more complicated way (Shards of Honor versus Barrayar, Warrior's Apprentice versus Vor Game), so I have faith that this book isn't just a fun action-adventure romp, but also a set-up for something bigger and better later on.
Every five months I read a book in the Vorkosigan saga. Next up in sequence: Borders of Infinity
* Not just via Miles and Mark, but also through the subplot about Miles's superior Galeni, who I loved. I hope he comes back someday.
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