Miles, Mutants, and Microbes

Vorkosigan Saga (Publication Order) #4, 5.2 & 13

by Lois McMaster Bujold

Content:
Falling free
Labyrinth
Diplomatic immunity
Miles Vorkosigan/Naismith : his life and times.

Two complete novels and a short novel in one large volume:

Falling Free—The Nebula Award-winning novel. Leo Graf was just your typical efficient engineer: mind your own business and do the job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where children had been bio-engineered to have four arms (and no legs) to function in zero gravity. Now that they’re no longer needed, a heartless mega corporation is getting rid of them before they eat into the profit margin. Leo Graf adopted 1000 quaddies—now he had to teach them to be free.

“Labyrinth”—When Miles Vorkosigan is captured while on a secret mission to a lawless world, his only hope of escape is an unlikely pair of allies: a quaddie and a teenage werewolf.

Diplomatic Immunity— Miles Vorkosigan and his wife were heading home for the births of their first children, but a major diplomatic disaster is looming at Graf Station, colonized by the descendants of the original quaddies, and duty calls. Unfortunately, diplomatic immunity doesn’t carry over to immunity from a very nasty biological weapon. The downside of being a troubleshooter comes when trouble starts shooting back. . . .

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Ebooks, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space

592 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Lois McMaster Bujold was born in 1949, the daughter of an engineering professor at Ohio State University, from whom she picked up her early interest in science fiction. She now lives in Minneapolis, and has two grown children.

Her fantasy from HarperCollins includes the award-winning Chalion series and the Sharing Knife tetralogy; her science fiction from Baen Books features the perennially bestselling Vorkosigan Saga. Her work has been translated into over twenty languages.

Questions regarding foreign rights, film/tv subrights, and other business matters should be directed to Spectrum Literary Agency, spectrumliteraryagency.com

A listing of her awards and nominations may be seen here:

http://www.sfadb.com/Lois_McMaster_Bu...

A listing of her interviews is here:

http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...

An older fan-run site devoted to her work, The Bujold Nexus, is here:

http://www.dendarii.com/

Reviews

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Miles, Mutants, and Microbes" is the first of the Vokosigan omnibuses that I do not recommend purchasing, for the primary reason that if you've been reading the Vorkosigan omnibuses, you already read "Labyrinth" in omnibus #3, "Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem." While it makes a kind of sense to gather all the quaddie-centric tales in one volume, it's fairly obnoxious to purchase a book and find that you've already read a third of it. Thus, if you want to know the history of the quaddies, which is good to know before reading "Diplomatic Immunity," buy "Falling Free" before moving on. But honestly, "Falling Free" is an early novel and it shows. Though it was a Nebula winner in 1988, it lacks the narrative sophistication and philosophical subtlety of Bujold's 1989 Nebula-winning novella, "Mountains of Mourning" and features the most mind-numbing info-dumps in the whole Vorkosigan series to date. The plot is simply "here is a dangerously naive thing made really awful by a bad guy, and here is a good guy fixing it. Oh, and here's a love interest for him. TA-DAH!" for all that the world-building and characterization are very strong. "Diplomatic Immunity," by contrast, features the tautly paced, twisty narrative structure that fans of the Vorkosigan series so adore and a fabulous cast of characters. So of the "new" material in the omnibus, "Falling Free" is worth a read if you dig quaddies, but "Diplomatic Immunity" is worth at least two reads. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, go read "Cordelia's Honor" and have a blast with the rest of the books.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Falling Free is a nice universe-expansion (if less than exceptional) and Diplomatic Immunity is a mystery that starts slow and builds to an energetic finish.

[EmBe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zwei wirklich spannende SF-Krimis in einem eher konventionellen Space Opera-Setting (allerdins ohne Aliens). Miles Vorkosigan muss als Auditor Vorfälle im barrayanischen Imperium untersuchen und gerät immer wieder in gefährliche Situationen. Er deckt geheime Machenschaften und Anschläge auf - und klettert fast unfreiwillig die Karriereleiter hoch.
Der zweite Roman wird auch aus der Perspektive von Ekaterine Vorsoisson erzählt, die in den chronologisch späteren Romanen und in Miles Leben noch eine Rolle spielen wird.
Im Gegensatz zum Original ist in der Heyne-Ausgabe die Novelle "Mountains of Mourning"/"Berge der Trauer" nicht enthalten.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is actually an omnibus consisting of the novel Diplomatic Immunity, and the novellas Falling Free and Labyrinth.

In Labyrinth we briefly were introduced to the Quaddies, when Miles and Bel met Nicole. In Falling Free we learn the origin of the species and how they got where they are. We also meet a new character that I happen to like.
Diplomatic Immunity has Miles at the home of the Quaddies where he winds up having to both solve a mystery and ensure the survival of himself and several other characters.

[Emily Selleck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh Miles, delightful as always! Until next time, you crazy Barrayaran ;P

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first time I've picked up a Bujold book and not loved it immediately. At its heart, "Falling Free" has a good story, but the way it is presented certainly did not appeal to me. It seemed to be either a story aimed at children with sex and dirty words or a story aimed at adults but with weak, slapstick humour. I don't count the second story in this omnibus either, because I had already read "Labyrinth" in the "Miles, Mystery & Mayhem" omnibus, so that leaves "Diplomatic Immunity", an excellent story, but one out of three means I have really over-scored this book in giving it three out of five stars.

As a footnote, this last story brought home to me a problem I have always had with Barrayaran interrogation methods. Over the last century or so, the USA has toyed with sodium pentathal, lie detectors and, more recently, with outright torture. It is obvious that none of these methods provide results any more reliable than what a good interrogator can obtain anyway. I have always been uncomfortable with "fast penta" so it was good to see Miles demonstrate what can be discovered without barbaric means. No doubt ImpSec and the CIA will continue to play with drugs, magic machines and torture, but this book provides some hope.

[Caprice Hokstad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Labyrinth gets a 5. The best story is the shortest (boo).
Falling Free gets a 3. Not bad, just not great. See detailed review under that title.
Diplomatic Immunity gets a 4. Nice, solid Miles book. Not the best, but definitely better than Cryoburn.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another superlative job by Bujold. These may be little weight, but they are so much fun.

[Sara J. (kefuwa) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Falling Free (4.2.18) - 4

Read Labyrinths in the Miles Errant Omibus (4)

Diplomatic Immunity (11.11.18) - 4

[Kate M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an omnibus edition containing two novels (Falling Free and Diplomatic Immunity) and a novella ("Labyrinth") from the sprawling Vorkosigan Saga. All were tremendously entertaining and peopled with characters worth giving a damn about, as I'd expect from this fun space opera series.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Falling Free, because it's set 200 years before the rest of the series and features no familiar characters. The protagonist, Leo Graf, is a methodical engineer with a personality very different from brilliant trouble-magnet Miles Vorkosigan. Graf has been a company man his whole career, but he discovers that the space corporation he works for has been conducting extreme genetic engineering on people, and their treatment of the resulting young people starts to go from paternalistic and mildly exploitative to something far worse. If I'd read this book a few years ago I might have considered the main villain of the book a little over the top in his small-minded evil, but in the year 2019 that sort of personality is all too familiar. The plot offers a satisfying mix of derring-do, cleverly working the system, and problems solved by, to steal a phrase from The Martian, sciencing the shit out of it. One romance subplot was rather unconvincing, but otherwise this was an excellent novel.

"Labyrinth" was the only part of this omnibus I'd read before, but it was well worth a reread. This is pretty much peak young Miles Vorkosigan: go someplace dangerous while trying to carry out both an overt and a covert agenda, deal with ever-increasing complications, find himself in deep trouble, discover yet another problem that he feels morally compelled to take on, epic speed chess problem solving, eventually swan away with the most important problems all solved and destruction in his wake, and bang a much taller woman.

Diplomatic Immunity features an older and slightly more chill Miles, but given how VERY little chill he started with there are still plenty of hijinks. The plot has elements of a political mystery/thriller. It takes a little while to get going but then gallops along before coming to a conclusion I liked but didn't love. I adored the worldbuilding about Quaddiespace, and I really enjoyed the return of Bel Thorne. There are some wonderfully tense scenes as the real scope of the problem becomes clear. Overall this was a really good read, if not one of the very best of the series.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since this book is an omnibus, with 2 books and one novella in one, it's a bit tough to score. I basically just averaged out the two.

Falling Free - 3.5 stars. This was fine, but a pretty standard story for Bujold. I know it was one of her earlier books, so it doesn't quite hit the heights of her later works. Its a prequel of sorts, set 200 years before Miles' time, telling the story of the quaddie race, so it's pretty disconnected from the rest of the series. It's still a decent read if, at times, a bit frustrating. The quaddies themselves - 4 armed, no legged humans designed to work and live in zero gee -are an interesting race but since they were deliberately sheltered and raised in ignorance of many things, it was tough to get very attached to them. Leo, the main character, is your standard everyman hero. He is out of his depth, overwhelmed, and heroic largely because he's just too ethical to let this slide, which I much prefer to an overpowered, near-perfect protagonist swooping in to save the day.

Labyrinth - 3 stars. I had read this in a different omnibus already so I skipped it this time. Introduces Taura, who becomes a cool character, but I'm not a big fan of this story in general.

Diplomatic Immunity - 4.5 stars - This isn't quite as good as some of the prior books, like Memory, Komarr, and a Civil Campaign, but those were all 5 stars for me, which is hard to match. It's still a great Miles romp. I enjoyed getting to know the quaddies much more here, as they are a true race of their own, with their own planetary space and so on. This is essentially a murder mystery story (my 2nd favorite genre after SciFi/Fantasy) that goes through A LOT of twists and has some fun and interesting callbacks to Miles' previous adventures. I do appreciate that Bujold is not afraid to give her characters consequences for their rash actions. As in real life, dangerous situations take a physical and emotional toll on people, but ultimately, our heroes win the day.

Sad to be getting closer and closer to the end of series. With only 3 books (and one novella) left - only one of which features Miles as a main character - I'm going to be sorry to see it go.

[Terzah Horton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed the Vorkosigan series, with only one not-so-hot book so far. This anthology is all about quaddies. The first book was one of my favorites when I read it years ago. Here we have two additional quaddie stories, one mid-way through the Vorkosigan series and one (I think) toward the end when Miles was married. The stories were very good. While none of the characters were in all three stories (the first one was 200 years before the others), there were several characters that spanned the last two stories in the series. We even get one of the beloved characters from the Miles Neismith days, Bel Thorne. The last story was really interesting, involving Escobar, Quaddies at Graf Station, Barryarrans, and Betan hemaphrodites. All around a lot of fun and I would highly recommend the series.

[Coral · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed under Falling Free, Labyrinth and Diplomatic Immunity.
That’s the last of the omnibus editions. Not the best of the bunch, but always enjoyable to visit this universe.

[Mender · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of 3 quaddie short stories.

The first story didn't do a lot for me, but the second two were ok. I think my memory of the series is too dim to actually appreciate the 20 year jump to the end, since there are a lot of references to events that I have no clue what happened. Not necessarily because I haven't read them, but because of that infant-child sized gap in my memory from a few years back.

This is the last book from the second library I've hit up looking for Bujold, so now I am back in a drought phase for them. I think I might try to figure out which one Mark shows up in and pick up a kindle copy of it next.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't like this book as much as some of the others. The first book (Falling Free) delves into the events 200 years before Miles' birth and the making of the quaddies. Labyrinth is better read as part of the earlier book as it is about finding Taura who is. You need to know that a lot earlier than this book.

The last book (Diplomatic Immunity) is a typical Miles book but I think there was not as much comic relief as in the other books.

Still a good read though and one I will recommend.

[Amy VanGundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its hard transitioning from Admiral Naismith to Imperial Auditor—anyone else feel my pain? But Diplomatic Immunity makes up for it just a smidge. Alas it is only one of the stories/novellas in this omnibus collection. Labyrinth made me wistful for younger Miles and all the adventures he didn’t have as a result of Mirror Dance. Falling Free felt rather bland in comparison but posed some interesting questions on genetic research and whether creatures created by corporations belong to themselves or the companies that created them. McMaster Bujold has some clear thoughts on the matter.

[Genevieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love all the Vorkosigan books. :) For those in this volume:

Falling Free - just a "same universe" story so great option if you want to try Bujold but find the # of books daunting. Love our engineer lead. :)

Labyrinth - Love the story, but between the various individual and collected editions, this is probably the 5th time I've read it.

Diplomatic Immunity - Great, classic hectic Miles- style story. Needs way more Ekaterina though. Be careful if you're trying to read the series sequentially as this happens late in continuity and can really "spoiler" you on the Miles storyline.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I had read all the Vorkosigan books, but clearly I had not read these! It was a good read, the first novel in the omnibus was a bit of a shock after so many Miles-oriented stories; reading something wholly unconnected to either Barrayar or the Dendarii mercenaries was somewhat strange. The second novel is amazing, and is a much better Imperial Auditor story than Cryoburn, so it was awesome to realise that I had one more story left to read.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is three novellas with the overarching theme of what happens when we have an artificial womb and no scruples about tinkering with people. On one hand it can be life saving, on the other hand corporations exploit genetics and slavery.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Falling Free: **** (read Sep 2017)
Diplomatic Immunity: **** (read Dec 2017)

[Tracy Smyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am enjoying these books. Really enjoy the characters

[Kirundo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meh, just three books put together. Guess it being an ebbok I totally didn't get it was an omnibus.

[Squeaky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very fun read, even though I've read all these before!

[Crmaju · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion the book is too entertaining and with excellent content

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This omnibus consists of three works in Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.

Falling Free is marked as the first work in the series, but I don't think it's necessarily the work you want to read first. This is more a prequel to the main timeline of the series. It's known as the "Vorkosigan Saga" because it mostly focuses on the family of that name, and particularly Miles Vorkosigan--who isn't even mentioned in this first standalone story set 200 years before the character that gives this series its name was born. It's also an early work of Bujold, only her fourth published novel, and I think she's one of those writers who only got better with time rather than peaked early. So I'd recommend starting with the omnibus works Cordelia's Honor (centered on Miles' parents) or Young Miles, where Miles finally takes center stage. This is recognizably in the same universe though, and is an entertaining story in its own right. But while Miles Vorkosigan is one of the most memorable fictional characters in science fiction, this merely has likable ones. Leo Graf, an engineer, finds himself teaching "quaddies," a bioengineered species of human with four arms designed to work in free fall who are disturbingly treated like property--and a new tech is about to make their purpose obsolete. The story is good space opera in the tradition of the Heinlein juveniles--but with stronger, more believable female characters. I liked and enjoyed this--but I love lots of the other entries in the series.

"Labyrinth" is a novella set between the events in Cetaganda, the sixth novel, and "The Borders of Infinity." Many of the Vorkosigan stories deal to a great extent on just what it means to be human, to be normal, and to be different. Miles himself is a test of those questions given he was born with physical deformities into a society that prized physical perfection. He's often touchy and bitter about those handicaps as a result. So it was interesting here to see him find a mirror and foil in Taura, an physically strong but emotionally vulnerable girl designed to be a warrior who wishes she was "normal." So when Miles tells her not to try to be normal, but the best she can be, I felt he was certainly speaking as much about and to himself as he was to her. Taura is one of my favorites among the secondary recurring characters in the series.

Diplomatic Immunity is the fourteenth novel in the Vorkosigan Saga, so there's quite a bit of ground covered between the last work and this one. It does tie in closely with the Quaddies we met in Falling Free however. Diplomatic Immunity displays a lot of the hallmarks that makes Miles one of my favorite fictional characters. I wouldn't name this one as a favorite among the novels. I think in the end The Warrior's Apprentice, Mirror Dance and A Civil Campaign are the standouts for me. Which doesn't mean this wasn't greatly enjoyable for anyone who likes a of mix of mystery and space opera. And this particular outing is among the most suspenseful in the series.

[Margot · Rating 5 out of 5]

This omnibus collection was a bit disappointing but also a happy accident that has impelled me on to more and feverish new/old readings. I was not disappointed in the stories themselves, but in the choice of stories. I expected this omnibus to contain the next few stories in the series, and had actually delayed reading this installment for several years in blissful anticipation of Miles and more of his antics. So I was disappointed to discover that I had actually already read two out of the three stories in the collection: Falling Free (which I read previously as a stand-alone) and Labyrinth (which also appears in omnibus #3: Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem). I devotedly read on, and found I enjoyed these two stories as much, if not more, on the second read-through.

However, a second blow of disappointment occurred when I began reading the third story, Diplomatic Immunity, which I discovered jumped ahead in Miles's story line and is (I believe) a spoiler to anyone who hasn't already read the next omnibus Miles in Love. So, I rate and review this collection without actually having read the last story in it. After re-reading the first two, and enjoying them so much, I've decided to re-read the entire series from start to finish.

Update Dec. 28, 2018, after reading Diplomatic Immunity
Following my re-read of the entire series, and reading forward of those stories I hadn't gotten to yet, was finally able to read Diplomatic Immunity and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lois McMaster Bujold is one of the most popular writers in science fiction and the Vorkosigan saga is one of the best-selling space opera series of all time.

Her books for Baen total nearly one and a half million books in print.

Four of her novels have made the New York Times extended best seller list.

She has won six Hugo Awards and two Nebula Awards. Only Robert A. Heinlein has won as many Hugo Awards for Best Novel.

Features a new introduction by Bujold.

Advertising in Locus

Four-color flyer for the Vorkosigan series featuring new covers

Contains teaser for The Vorkosigan Companion

Two complete novels and a short novel in one large volume:

Falling Free—The Nebula Award-winning novel. Leo Graf was just your typical efficient engineer: mind your own business and do the job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where children had been bio-engineered to have four arms (and no legs) to function in zero gravity. Now that they’re no longer needed, a heartless mega corporation is getting rid of them before they eat into the profit margin. Leo Graf adopted 1000 quaddies—now he had to teach them to be free.

“Labyrinth”—When Miles Vorkosigan is captured while on a secret mission to a lawless world, his only hope of escape is an unlikely pair of allies: a quaddie and a teenage werewolf.

Diplomatic Immunity— Miles Vorkosigan and his wife were heading home for the births of their first children, but a major diplomatic disaster is looming at Graf Station, colonized by the descendants of the original quaddies, and duty calls. Unfortunately, diplomatic immunity doesn’t carry over to immunity from a very nasty biological weapon. The downside of being a troubleshooter comes when trouble starts shooting back. . . .

[Jesus Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miles, Mutants and Microbes
3 books in 1
1- Falling free- no Miles, the story of a groups of genetically modified humans to have 4 arms and no legs, called quadies, that become suddenly obsolete for space work and their plan to scape, really good story, and raises quite a good number of questions, are lab-made modified human to get the same right as the “normal” humans, what about the money invested in raising and training them, what about the expenses of the corporation, what about the desires and freedom of the quadies, what about their will to do, what about the the culture they were raised on, and many more, makes you think, that makes Falling free a great story. 5 stars
2- Labyrinth- Miles goes to a planets of Criminal Syndicates to smuggle out a scientis working for one of the syndicates, but while he waits for the contact, he is mixed with the rescue of a slave quadie and a mutant girl-soldier-werewolf. He manages to scape and complete the mission in usual Miles style, fun to read and fill with action. Also the dilemma posed by the girl-experiment is interesting, and quite related to the previous story. Good one 4-stars
3- Diplomatic Inmunity – Miles now married end in a Quadie station, where the Barrayn Ships are detained following an altercation between Barrayar soldiers an quadie police, his mission to release the ship paying the minimum fees, but once there he discovers a plot that goes beyond and could end destroying the Quadie world and causing Interstellar war. Luckily Miles always find a way to solve things even if his is the most unorthodox method. Nice seeing Miles play detective as opposed to Admiral Naismith, still ot of fun read and intrigue, Good book. 4 stars

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

'falling free' tells the story of the quaddies, experiments in genetic engineering designed to have 4 hands rather than pairs of arms and legs to make them more dexterous (literally) in zero-gravity. the story is interesting and the pacing is good, but unfortunately it utterly lacks subtlety. villains are dastardly from the get-go, and the smart but quiet good guy is appalled by the moral issues as soon as he sees them. if I was reading this as being written by someone else, I probably would have liked it more, but I'm spoiled on how awesome I usually expect LMB to be.

the novella is a repeat from earlier in the omnibuses, where Miles discovers and rescues Taura, included here because of the quaddie musician also rescued.

in 'diplomatic immunity', Miles has to sort out a mystery taking place in quaddiespace, the corner of the universe these guys ultimately carved out for their own. though he has more mature things to be thinking about (impending fatherhood, being an imperial official), Miles runs around jumping hands-first into the line of fire, throwing his life on the line because he can do it best and think faster than anyone. he's not a rash kiddo anymore, but he acts like it again more than a bit here. I'd be ok with him growing up some and leaving the actual death-defying to some clever protege, so here's hoping he can keep from directly risking his life for a while.

[Maureen E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miles, Mutants and Microbes: This includes Falling Free, “Labyrinth,” and Diplomatic Immunity. The three stories are linked by their subject: quaddies, a genetically engineered form of human with two sets of arms and no legs. The first novel tells the story of their origination and initial struggles. Out of all of the non-Miles stories in the series, I enjoyed this one the most. Leo was a very different character, but a compelling one in his own right. “Labyrinth” isn’t my favorite story, but it does provide some history for various character whom we encounter in other novels. Diplomatic Immunity was lovely, although it sent me on an immediate search for “Winterfair Gifts”, the story that precedes it chronologically. I remain an Ekaterin fangirl (because she is awesome). It was nice to have some more of Bel, who I’m very fond of. However, I went from reading this one straight into reading “Borders of Infinity” (the short story), and it gave me Cetagandan whiplash. In Diplomatic Immunity, they’re not sympathetic characters exactly, but they’re also not out and out villains in the way they’re shown in “Borders of Infinity.”