Mirror Dance

A Miles Vorkosigan Novel

By: Lois McMaster Bujold

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 1995

The dwarfish, fetally damaged yet brilliant Miles Vorkosigan has more than his share of troubles. Having recently escaped an assassination plot whose tool was a brainwashed clone of himself, Miles has set the clone, Mark, free for a new chance at life. But when he decides to let his clone brother assume his secret identity and lead the Dendarii Free Mercenary on an unauthorized mission to liberate other clones from the outlaw planet of Jackson's Whole, things get really messy.

The mission goes awry, Miles' rescue attempt goes even more wrong, and Miles ends up killed and placed in cryogenic suspension for future resuscitation. Then, as if that weren't bad enough, the cryo-container is lost! Now it is up to the confused, disturbed Mark to either take Miles' place as heir of the Vorkosigan line or redeem himself by finding and saving Miles.

Hi-fi sci-fi: listen to more in the Vorkosigan saga.

©1994 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"[A]s good a story as ever was offered as science fiction, with Bujold's carefully crafted prose, logical working out of even minor plot points, and inimitable wit all very much in evidence. Deserves the highest recommendation and a hoard of eager readers." (Booklist)

"[An] intricate and rousing new installment of the Vorkosigan adventures....Bujold creates a tapestry of variegated human societies dispersed throughout a colorful galaxy. She peoples it with introspective but genuine heroes who seize the reader's imagination and intellect." (Publishers Weekly)

Best of the Best

As others have noted, this seems to be the best of the Miles series. The genius of this book is its focus on Mark, Miles's clone, and the significant time it spends with the characters who are sometimes put in the background. I really thought I was going to miss Miles more... I was almost sorry to see him pop back up.

There are times when this book is hard to read... Mark is far from perfect, and he endures some serious suffering before he can be redeemed, but working through all of this story, including some very graphic and upsetting scenes, pays off in the end. Mark and some of his new friends introduced in the last part of this book deserve their own series. In fact, nearly all the characters in this book do... and I hope Bujold has many many more like this one in the pipeline.

Great action, plot, and characters!

I skipped all the previous novels in this series and picked it up cold from this one. Well this one set the hook. I really loved it! I liked the character development. I liked the action. I found some to detailed torture segments to be too detailed and I admit that on 2 or 3 occasions I fast forwarded because I could not take the hard core torture scenes (and I am an avid 24 series watcher). So that is the only reason I had to give this one 4 stars instead of 5. But all and all I really enjoyed this one and the books after this just got better and better. Love the series! If you like the 'Prince Roger' series by David Weber and John Ringo then you will love these too!

Fantastic

This is another excellent addition to the Vorkosigan saga. Mark is a fascinating character and a worthy addition to the storyline. I love these books and can't recommend them strongly enough. The performance by Mr. Gardner is wonderful and brings life to the books and characters.

great story, good reading, but pronunciation hell

I love the Vorkosigan books and Gardener Grover is in many ways a great narrator for them. He makes each character distinct without being exaggerated, including female characters. In this book I particularly enjoyed his rendition of Sgt Taura, making her an even better character than I had imagined her in my head. But ohhhh the vagaries of his pronunciation! Firstly, with all these books I wish he had been given a guide by Bujold on how to pronounce the names, and/or perhaps some instruction in Russian pronunciation rules since so much of Barrayaran culture and nomenclature derives from Russian. (I about went insane in the previous "Brothers In Arms" with how he mangled Galeni's name in particular.) But secondly, if he could at least be *consistent* with pronunciation, within a book let alone across multiple books, that would help. Switching randomly between saying BARE-ee-arr, Barr-yer, and Barra-yar for example is just aggravating; pick one! And thirdly, it astonishes me how many ordinary words he does not seem to know how to pronounce. (example: "flacid" is fla-sid, not flax-ict as he repeatedly says it.) These may seem persnickety complaints, but I find these problems detract from my immersion in the world and enjoyment of the reading, and seem strange from an otherwise extremely skilled narrator.

Whats with the un-edited mistakes?

Any additional comments?

I love the book, but it's super goofy to hear the narrator goof up and then re-read again. I'm sure this is not the narrator's fault, he does an excellent job.

Some one really dropped the ball delivering this un-edited version.

One of the best Vorkosigan books

Mirror Dance is a wonderfully plotted book with great characters, madcap adventure, tons of tension and plenty of laughs. It won the Hugo Award and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1995. Grover Gardner is amazing.

Best

Any additional comments?

This is by far my favorite book in the series. It does a great job dealing with the ethics of clones and builds rich and distinct personae for both Miles and Mark. This series keeps up the quality storytelling from installment 1 to installment 17. It will not disappointment.

Fascinating as always

The story as usual was intriguing and the characters complex.
Another excellent novel by a master.

Dark matters

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Of course I recommend this book--it has the usual excellent narration by Grover Gardner, and the characters we have come to love. But this is by far the darkest story line in the series, and I'm not sure I'll ever re-listen to it.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

This book explores the motivations behind Miles' character, and the twists that resulted when Marc was given the same genetics but different environments. A real Nature versus Nurture exploration.

Any additional comments?

Lois McMaster Bujold creates such vivid, real characters that I often find myself wondering who she is basing them on.

Excellent book, but needs editing?

Love the Vorkosigan series (and particularly Gardners' narrations) and this is one of the best. Looking forward to the release of Barrayar later this year.

Would definitely recommend finishing some of the earlier titles before starting this one - I would start with "The Warrior's Apprentice" and continue in chronological or publication order but whatever you do, make sure to get through "Brothers in Arms" before this book.

A very small oddity with this book - it's like they forgot to edit it in places. Gardner occasionally repeats himself, at times with different emphasis or other times where he had got tongue-tied and re-read a sentence. However, this doesn't detract enough from the book for me to give it less than 5 stars. Enjoy!