What I really love about this author and this series is the range of stories she manages to work into this world. You never really know what you’re going to get in each book.
This is a very quiet book – it starts with Miles making an incredibly stupid (and uncharacteristic) mistake – he falsifies a report. And he actually gets fired. So the first half of the book is all about him dealing with that. Which, because this is Bujold, is far more interesting than that should be.
The thing is, at this point, being a galactic mercenary really isn’t what Miles needs in his life, so the firing really needed to happen. And the soul searching it also started really needed to happen. But did I mention that covers the first half of the book? The second half plunges right into some intrigue, and Miles has to save the day. He does it in style, and finds himself a new job that’s a more fitting position for the next part of his life.
I had skipped ahead, so I has already read some stories where Emperor Gregor was in the process of marrying his Komarrian wife, so seeing the genesis of that (which managed to be all Miles’ fault) was fun. I’m so enjoying this run that I went ahead and paid full price for the Kindle omnibus that includes the next two stories in time after this book and Komarr. You know I like something when I’ll pay full price.