Miles Errant (Vorkosigan Omnibus, #4)

I was a little hesitant going into this one. I'd read some things, both here and on wikipedia, that made me worry about the direction the series was headed. Two-wheeled motor vehicles over apex sea predator sort of directions.

I should have known, to borrow a phrase from Nathan Lowell, to Trust Lois.

In the first novel in this collection, Brothers in Arms, Miles attempts to cement the cover story of his Bunburying, Admiral Naismith, by claiming to be a clone of himself. Little does he realize that he has an actual clone, Mark, who wants to take over the Vorkosigan identity that Miles so readily abandons. In the second novel, Mirror Dance, Mark changes tactics, becoming Naismith with Miles isn't looking in an attempt to play the hero.

In both cases, hilarity briefly ensues from Mark's attempts at being Miles. Then, in each case, with a simple turn Bujold manages to twist the entire story around, taking the story into some very Dark, Serious places. Those turns are gut-wrenchingly effective, moreso because of the frivolity of the comedy of errors that preceded them, and show how skilled Bujold is at creating characters that the reader connects to.

Deeper than that, though - this collection makes me worry about our young Vorish prince. The Naismith/Vorkosigan division always seemed like a fun little game - Bunburying, as I said earlier. Here we get our first real glimpses that there's something more going on, that the traumas and stresses of Miles' life have started to induce a case of Dissociative Identity Disorder on him. The same thing happens to Mark at the end of Mirror Dance in a much more obvious way, although he seems to be able to rein in his other selves by the end of the book. I eagerly await seeing where this story goes next.