Review updated on 16.02.2017.A buddy read with Choko and Maria.We finally meet the main hero of the series, Miles Vorkosigan. In the beginning of the book he failed his physical test in a military academy - he had a lot of birth defects; their origin was explained in the previous installment. He also happened to be a son and a grandson of great military leaders, as such he was expected to excel in military field and his expulsion from the academy was a huge disappointment for everybody first of

so i was engaging in a favorite pastime on friday night, namely verbal one-upmanship slash sadistically using the power of my oh so mighty intellect to tease my poor innocent friends, when the very drunk birthday boy said "You know you are going to get smacked if you keep on talking like that." i couldn't help myself: i reached up and gave him a very light & friendly tap on the cheek with the palm of my hand while dropping another dazzling bon mot. sadly, in the middle of my witticism, birthday

*** 4.44 ***A buddy read with Evgeny and Maria, because we need some FORWARD MOMENTUM in our lives!I have a new favorite Sci-fi series and this is it! I have been remiss in not picking it up sooner and I am repenting. By reading it a book a week with my friends ☺!I was already in love with the Count and Countess Vorkosigan and I should have known that their progeny would not disappoint either. After all, Miles Vorkosigan is a combination of their genetic material complimented by the influence of...

Are you bored? Are you looking at your evergrowing pile of books to read and can’t decide what to read next? Well, let me help you with that, start reading this book and kill two birds with one stone.It doesn’t matter if you’re not a fan of sci-fi or space operas, this book will give you an opportunity to meet your new favorite character, or at least a new addition to your favorite characters list, Miles Vorkosigan. If I had to compare Miles to a contemporary fantasy character I would compare hi...

Update 1/18/18, Read #3:On some rather belated reflection and tears after this latest read, I have to say that I'm in love with this series. As if three reads wasn't proof enough, right?The beginning and the end is completely scaled back from the wild as hell middle, but that's as it should be. Miles is a brilliant and very flawed character, showing signs of megalomania and depression, or perhaps just being a brilliant bipolar case. :) In that respect, he's a lot like Sherlock.It sure as hell ma...

Impossible or preposterous are words Miles Naismith Vorkosigan neither understand nor wishes to master. I found The Warrior’s Apprentice incredible, hilarious and poignant all at the same time. With every page turned, you will live a spectacular adventure along with Miles (only offspring of Aral and Cordelia Naismith of Shards of Honor) and a delightful group of supporting characters. It’s a perfect example of Lous McMaster Bujold brilliant, inspired writing. Instead of suffering and limitin...

UPDATED 2017.04.02 with Worst Cover Gallery - check down below and feel free to comment! Nature was generous with this one...__________________________________I always knew I'll love Miles Vorkosigan. I only met him once and very long time ago in The Mountains Of Mourning and I recall I liked what I read, but it wasn't a full picture. It still isn't one, considering I have whole series ahead, but The Warrior's Apprentice gave me a nice teaser into what I'm going to get on my plate.Miles Vorkosig...

This unfortunately didn't do it for me. Oh, sure, it's a heist novel (sort of) that is still better written than many others and it was only really slow at the beginning I guess (well, the first 30-40%). However, nobody is criticizing Bujold's craftmanshift. No, my beef is with with the characters, mostly. Even the (former) military personnel was stupid beyond belief. To say nothing of the rest. I can make allowances, of course - initially, for Elena, who simply wanted to get off planet ONCE in

“I've got forward momentum. There's no virtue in it. It's just a balancing act. I don’t dare stop."Carrying on with my reading of the Vorkosigan Saga by internal chronology (could also be a good starting point to the series). This fourth instalment changes the focus from Cordelia and Aral to their son, Miles, who is now seventeen and making do with the consequences of the poisoning attempt on his parents when his mother was pregnant with him. Having a boy with brittle bone disease and of a very

Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my FINISHING THE SERIES! list.I loves me a good series! But I'm terrible for starting a new series before finishing my last - so this reading list is all about trying to close out those series I've got on the go.Is this my favourite book in the Vorkisgan Sa

While this story is better than the last one, I get the sense this may be the peak and the writing not tight enough for me to continue the series. Perhaps after my next 1,000 stories, I'll get back to it. 6 of 10 stars

The Warrior's Apprentice: The first story of Miles Vorkosigan is a rollicking SF adventureIt's a cliche and publisher's catchphrase to call anything a "rollicking SF adventure", but if any book ever was that, this would be it. Lois McMaster Bujold has quietly and steadily created one of the most popular SF adventure franchises of the past few decades with her stories or Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan in Shards of Honor and Barrayar, but it was The Warrior's Apprentice, her second novel, w...

Buddy read with Choko and Evgeny. The first time I read this book I wasn't impressed. I already knew the characters as they appear in later books thanks to the ridiculous way the publishing house in my country had published them. The awkwardness of many of the interactions was off putting and the angst and drama didn't appeal. Over the years I forgot the good parts and when I joined GR and started adding books I gave TWA an unfair rating.This is still my least favourite book in the series. The a...

*sigh* I really wanted to like this book, but... (That disappointed baby is effing adorable though, so I guess this review won't be ALL bad.)Well, it wouldn't be ALL bad anyway. I wanted to like this so much. I liked the idea of this book much more than I liked the actuality of it, actually. I feel like I've been disappointed with almost everything I've read lately, and I was really hoping for this to just wow me, for it to make me want to put everything else on hold and read the series and just...

This review is for my reread of the Vorkosigan Saga with SpecFic Buddy Reads during 2017/18. I read this for the first time sometime during the 1990s directly after the Cordelia books and as a follow-up after reading much later books in the series (Memory and onwards).Miles Vorkosigan is the teenage son of Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan. He has several physical issues because of the treatment for soltoxin gas exposure that his mother had to undergo while he was in utero. These include brittle bone...

Forward momentum. That’s the key here. Miles has it. So has this novel. It’s easy to see why this series is such a fan favourite. This is a story that tells itself – the reader is only along for the ride. And it’s a rollicking one too. Not many books have this kind of impeccable pacing. The story is finely balanced between the scampering plot and the ridiculously good character development of the physically challenged Miles Vorkosigan / Naismith. The supporting cast, though not as thoroughly dev...

I thought this was excellent. One of my favourite reviews for this is Mark Monday's where he talks about Miles: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... I agree with what Mark says about Miles being the archetypal side-kick who is finally cast as a main character. Hallelujah!I particularly like that Miles is not unconcerned or unaffected by his physical limitations. He isn't cast as a plucky go getter who thinks nothing will hold him back. He knows there are lots of things that will if he doesn'...

Having just finished "Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar", I simply couldn't wait to pick up the first book in the Miles Vorkosigan series. Unfortunately for me, it seems Mrs. Bujold has shifted tones when going from Cordelia to her son Miles.Where Cordelia's novels were sometimes funny, sometimes inclined to the romantic, but as a whole well-crafted and dramatic, "The Warrior's Apprentice" feels more like a running joke. It seems Mrs. Bujold has decided she would show Miles is human by making him w...

Wonderful in dialogue situations and in introspection of the main character. Bujold's light and witty hand does wonders there.But the story itself couldn't grip me.

I always thought that boys of Miles age (his age as in "The Warrior's Apprentice," that is) are particularly chafing in their self-centeredness, in their self-absorption which prevents them from understanding that their inoffensive acts of "proving themselves" are in actuality harmful to the people they love. Ms. Bujold creates such a believable character that two thirds of the book, I wanted to castigate and point out to him the consequences of his "quest." He is young, consumed by self-doubts

RTC maybe, if 'll find more time.For now I'll just say it's a fun light sci-fi adventure (space opera) and I totally agree with my friends who compare main character Miles to Locke Lamora or Tyrion Lannister.

Miles is the best MC I've come across for a while! I'd heard that Miles is a popular character in this series, but he was much more original than I imagined he'd be! Fantastic story!

This is the second (by publication order; fourth by internal chronology) volume of Vorkosigan saga. The main character is now the son of Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan named Miles. From the previous book we know that during the pregnancy Cordelia was affected by toxin that made Miles bones brittle (and stunted his growth). The book was read a part of Vorkosigan challenge at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group.The story starts as 17-year-old Miles tries to enter the military academy bu...

“Huh. Didn’t they give you any medical treatment?” "Oh, sure. I’ve had an Inquisition’s worth. That’s why I can walk around today, instead of being carried in a bucket.”After meeting baby Miles at the end of Barrayar, I finally got to know the main protagonist of the Vorkosigan Saga.Part of buddy reading the series with SpecFic in chronological order.This book didn't pull its punches and got right into the middle of the action. Still, I felt no great need to keep going and it took me a week to j...

The Warrior’s Apprentice introduces Miles Vorkosigan as the ongoing lead protagonist of this book series, following on from his parents who were the leads in the previous two books. A lot of people say you can start the saga with this book but I would definitely recommend reading Shards of Honour and Barrayar first. I think you’d definitely be confused by quite a few aspects of Warrior’s Apprentice if you hadn’t bothered.The beginning of the book is fantastic. 17 year-old Miles desperately wants...

A rolling stone gathers no moss. Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, with his favourite saying at the ending of the book being “Forward momentum,” will never grow any moss. At the end of Barrayar, Miles is a small, brittle-boned child with a reluctance to sit still and preternatural speed for finding the next predicament to get into. He is able to keep three or four adults hopping and still regularly break his bones while performing these antics.The Warrior’s Apprentice introduces the reader to Miles, th...

5.0 stars. Absolutely superb introduction to one of the top 10 best SF characters ever created, Miles Vorkosigan. Highly recommended.

Wonderfully fun!‘The Warrior’s Apprentice’ is book two in the Vorkosigan Saga by publishing date, but I think it is actually book three, following the two books Shards of Honor and Barrayar chronologically in time. ‘Shards of Honor’ and ‘Barrayar’ show how the character Miles Vorkosian’s parents meet, and why Miles has a deformed body. The rest of the series after these two books follow Miles primarily in his adventures. Miles clearly is a rascal character similar to Hans Solo of the Star Wars m...

A total delight. A space opera full of comedy while wrapped around tragedy, a social satire, and a coming of age tale. Though third in the Vorkosigan series, it is the first in the series with Miles Vorkosigan as the star. Son of a plantetary Prime Minister, Miles at 17 gets booted out of the Imperial Academy due to limitations of a birth defect affecting his legs and soon finds a secret pathway to fulfill his ambitions for accomplishments while on an interstellar excursion. From a small act of

You can't step in the same river twice, and this SF coming-of-age novel reads very differently in my 40s than it did in my 20s. Frankly, it's even better now than the beloved treasure it used to be. The Warrior's Apprentice is a comedy in the Shakespearian sense: while frequently laugh-till-you hurt hilarious, it's a rich study of character and culture.Shakespeare would've loved young Miles, who's a goodhearted Richard III, if one can imagine, an off-the-leash lunatic with a gift for persuasion,...