Winterfair Gifts

A Vorkosigan Adventure

By: Lois McMaster Bujold

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

This Hugo-nominated novella adds a delightful extra chapter to Bujold's acclaimed Vorkosigan series. Falling in between the novels A Civil Campaign and Diplomatic Immunity, it describes the wedding of Miles and Ekaterin and the events leading up to it.

In the festive season of Winterfair on the planet Barrayar, Lord Miles Vorkosigan is making elaborate preparations for his wedding. The long-awaited event stirs up romance and intrigue among his eccentric family and friends, particularly for bioengineered space mercenary Sergeant Taura and shy, diffident Armsman Roic. But Miles also has an enemy who is plotting to turn the romantic ceremony into a festival of death.

Winterfair Gifts offers another of Bujold's witty, character-centered science-fiction plots with a twist of romance.

Hi-fi sci-fi: listen to more in the Vorkosigan saga.©2004 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Miles is one of the most enjoyable characters in science fiction." ( School Library Journal)

how the garden grew

What did you love best about Winterfair Gifts?

meeting Roic (fully dressed)

Have you listened to any of Grover Gardner’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. He's always good, and has corrected some mispronunciations from the earlier books in the series

Worth the credit

It’s a hard to justify a credit to spend but if you really like Miles and these books it’s hard to pass it up. At first I was going to just go to the next book but I felt his wedding would be to big to miss and I’m very glad I didn’t.

A lovely story

A lovely story for Vorkosigan fans, from a new point of view character.
Narration has a problem, Taura's dialog is very quiet and so hard to hear

Taura has a special time at Miles’ wedding

Guests have arrived for Lord Miles’ wedding to Ekaterin and Armsman Roic is tapped to escort Sergeant Taura for dress fittings and running. They’re also drawn into a mystery and a bit of romance. It’s 10 years since Miles rescued Taura and she’s on borrowed time, so it’s really sweet that Taura gets to enjoy the company of some handsome men and feel a bit of that fairy princess magic.
Gardner is just a great narrator.

Silly, typical, but fun

Had fun listening, though I felt that some character developments were a bit forced. It's a good follow up to A Civil Campaign. The story focuses a lot of time on a size relationship when it should have had more of the wedding itself. Still if you're a fan, you'll be grinning the entire time.