The most recent and I think perhaps last Miles Vorkosigan novel. Miles, now 35 or thereabouts is on an outer planet whose main economy is cryogenics investigating a rash of recent economic moves by factions from Komarr. While doing so, he is stunned into oblivion and we actually begin the novel in his consciousness, which is completely frazzled, having hallucinations, and chucked into the underworld looking for clues. He’s able to stumble onto a group of somewhat rogue cryoworkers who not only is able to help him on his feet, but also provides him with an alternative set of mysteries to investigate and provide key information about his own case.
For the first time in a long time, this novel feels not nearly as good as others in the series, for a few reasons. Like Cetaganda, it’s a one-off mystery story told through close mystery perspective, and like Cetaganda, while Miles and we learn information that provides interesting insights into the world at large, except for the epilogue, nothing meta-arc happens in this novel. For example, Memory moves us forward in Miles’s life and Simon Illyan’s life, while also providing an interesting puzzle to solve. This one has the puzzle, but nothing much else. The strength of the novels is the episodic stories that provide coloring to the important characterization we want from them. Unfortunately, however good the mystery, that’s all there is to this one. It’s the reason I am worried it’s going to be the last Miles book. But it might also provide some impetus to tell one final significant Miles story, given how she branched off into Ivan Vorpatril and Cordelia for the next two (and Ekaterin more recently, though I haven’t read that one).
Funnily though, it’s Lois McMaster Bujold just straight up trying her hands at a cyberpunk novel, which is fun of course.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Cryoburn-Vorkosigan-Saga-McMaster-Bujold/dp/1439133948/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1566056382&sr=8-41)