Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan can hardly disapprove—he’s been cheating death his whole life, on the theory that turnabout is fair play. But when a Kibou-daini cryocorp—an immortal company whose job it is to shepherd its all-too-mortal frozen patrons into an unknown future—attempts to expand its franchise into the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor dispatches his top troubleshooter Miles to check it out.
On Kibou-daini, Miles discovers generational conflict over money and resources is heating up, even as refugees displaced in time skew the meaning of generation past repair. Here he finds a young boy with a passion for pets and a dangerous secret, a Snow White trapped in an icy coffin who burns to re-write her own tale, and a mysterious crone who is the very embodiment of the warning Don’t mess with the secretary. Bribery, corruption, conspiracy, kidnapping—something is rotten on Kibou-daini, and it isn’t due to power outages in the Cryocombs. And Miles is in the middle—of trouble!
“Fresh, intriguing, and, as always with Lois McMaster Bujold, superb.” —Robert Jordan
“It is such a delight to read something by such a good writer, who now seems to be writing at the height of her powers. . . . I really have seldom enjoyed a book so much . . . I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.” —Diana Wynne Jones
“Living breathing characters who inhabit unusual yet believable worlds.” —Jean Auel
“Bujold successfully mixes quirky humor with just enough action, a dab of feminist social commentary and her usual superb character development . . . enormously satisfying.” —Publishers Weekly
“One of sf’s outstanding talents . . . an outstanding series.” —Booklist
“Excellently done . . . Bujold has always excelled at creating forceful characters and she does it here again.” —
“. . . an intelligent, well-crafted and thoroughly satisfying blend of adventure, sociopolitical commentary, scientific experiments, and occasional perils . . . with that extra spicing of romance. . . .” —Locus
