Falling Free

Miles Vorsokigan, Book 4

By: Lois McMaster Bujold

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Leo Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: mind your own business, fix what's wrong, and move on to the next job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where a group of humanoids had been secretly, commercially bioengineered for working in free fall.

Could he just stand there and allow the exploitation of hundreds of helpless children merely to enhance the bottom line of a heartless mega-corporation?

He hadn't anticipated a situation where the right thing to do was neither safe, nor in the rules. Leo adopted a thousand quaddies. Now all he had to do was teach them to be free.

©1988 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

Nebula Award Finalist, Best Novel, 1988

"Superb....Read, or you will be missing something extraordinary." (Chicago Sun-Times)

"Bujold's best work in my opinion." (Science Fiction Chronicle)

Worth a listen

It is a good novel & and a good listen. If you have read Lois McMaster Bujold, you know that her novels don't usually do scene setting before commencing on meaty bits.
Well, here the listener gets a decent build up of the story unlike her earlier works.

Overall, I think it is a good book, the characters and the scenes are quite unique and has some humourous scenes which are rare in sci fi books. In short, it is a scifi meets dilbert story and while at the end it feels predictable, its humour and interesting characters sufficiently compensate for it.

I would rate it a 4.5 stars rather than 5, but audible's rating system's setting means that I have to rely on other people giving it a 4 stars to make it 4.5.

Thought provoking insights for any project manger.

This author was unknown to me but I was delightfully surprised. I'll hazard a guess that the author or someone very close to her was a life long engineer / project manager. The story does a good job of handling a problem we as humans are sure to face sometime in the near future: what status will genetically modified organisms hold? Are they property? Slaves? A new race or species? While exploring the moral consequences of advanced genetic engineering, the author takes a tongue in cheek stab at project management, the Peter Principle, parenting and even the gravity we take for granted every day.

A fun listen with lots of points to giggle about. Won't change the world and wouldn't even make my 'must read' list but one of life's unexpected little treats!

classic tale of the fight for freedom

people who consider others less simply because they are different have always enraged me. That being the case this story really got my dander up at times. I does a slightly casual view towards sex and such, which I did not appreciate. The story on the whole is very compelling and more than makes up for its short comings.

The intro to the Vorkosigan universe

Lois McMaster Bujold's Falling Free, although a standalone novel that was the first in the Vorkosigan universe, nevertheless is Vor free. The tale tells the story of the origin of the "quaddies" who are humans that have been genetically engineered to replace their legs with another set of arms to enable them to live and work in zero gravity full time. Beginning as a corporate research project, the development of artificial gravity obviated the need for their specialty. As a result, rather than allow to be retired to a gravity well and die out, Leo Graf an uber-engineer develops a plan to carry them off to freedom.

All the basic sci-fi elements of the Vorkosigan universe are in play with many of the familiar planets and star systems frequently mentioned. Bujold presents a solid grasp of space issues with construction as well as biological and medical aspects specific to both zero gravity and replacement of legs with another set of arms.

The narration is quite good with an excellent range of characters of both genders. pacing and tone are well aligned with the plot. This is an easy, short listen that flows effortlessly.

The little lost should have been a series.

this is one of those rare offshoot books that should really have been bolstered up into a full series. I would love to see the Quadies reach their home space. I would also love to see the Quadies begin to explore other systems. We don't think of it, but there's a whole other space that could be explored by the Quadies and not come to the attention of the Vorkosiverse at all. They don't need or want habitable planets, and therefore could be exploring star systems that don't interest "normal" legged humans at all.

Just the descriptions of solar arenas without blue green planets, or even ruck systems without planetary bodies, but with still extant planetary would intrigue mightily.

which is to say that Bujold's Quadiverse has captured my imagination completely, at least for the moment.

Full of Possibility

A Sci-Fi with painfully relatable characters, placed in stunning future possibilities and moral dilemmas. Lois Master Bujold and Grover Gardner work incredibly well together to bring the space stations and other planets to life.

Good story

The book is write very well, the characters are unique and are well thought out. The biggest issue is that the story was a little boring.

A beloved story in audio book format!

The book was as good as I remembered, and the audio performance fit it perfectly! Hurrah!

The development of the characters. I found I cared about them quickly.

How it ended, I felt like the happily ever after moment happened and then it drug on.

The plot was original

Initially it was difficult to get into the story, but it didnt take long to capture my attention