The Warrior's Apprentice

3 1/2
This is hard to review because I really did like it yet it was only good too. The things that brought it up were the characters, they were really quite great. Miles stumbles into his role as a merc captain by accident after taking control of a ship, and needing to pay back the owner. The only reason he is here though is because he was failed out of the military academy due to his bone density disability. So physically he just cannot keep up but mentally, he is sharp as a needle prick.

His two beginning companions make this a much more interesting story though. His bodyguard Bothari and his daughter and one of Mile's best friends (and love interest) Elena. Half of the relationship story is of these two and their father/daughter relationship. I didn't really understand why Elena was allowed to come on this trip as it seems to give her more control of her destiny since she is out of the male dominated Barrayar and into Beta colony. I guess they didn't see her as dominate enough to leave home? Well she is tough and that is nice to see in a girl (I say girl as Miles is a boy too) There is a mystery as to who Elena's mother was and how she dies. Miles does some computer snooping and gets a lot more questions than answers. He gets her to come on his trip to visit his grandmother. During this trip they are thrown into freighter owner captain and commander of a fleet by the end. Questions are answered but we are left saddened even though we can see reason too. She gets us to question redemption and can you get it.

Then there is the story of Miles. What he should do after being booted out of academy. Well, building your own mercenary fleet wasn't exactly thought of and in the end might be dangerous. Still his sharp mind figures things out and gets people on his side very quickly. In the end, it is very impressive. Too impressive IMO. Here he is 17, under sized, with no experience but that of his father a great leader and tactician. Yes, Miles is obviously super intelligent but getting people to follow a child just didn't fly for me. Maybe 17 is older in Barrayar years and I had to think this but... they were talking about him needing to get to the end of his growth to do more operations, still growing at 17. hmm...

This starts out very YA to me with the kids getting into the father's computer to try to find out about Elena's parents and then Elena breaking down about this. It is also a bit Victorian in the attitude of women and trying to marry off Elena at 17 years-old, dowry and all. Then we go back to the YA and what to do now that the military has rejected you, study law? OK, lot's of prejudice over Mile's deformity and the brave but self deprecating way he deals with it. He does have a positive attitude. Still, I'm trying to believe that the security and owner of a space freighter is going to let a teenager go negotiate with a pilot, who is holding the freighter hostage. I keep having to pull back from him being so young, which is pointed out several times. So he overcomes his age and disability, it just did float for me. The YA just made that part, the commanding the fleet, good and not great. If he were 20, 21, maybe, 17 just no. There is a lot of growth in those years for boys.

So the ending, which parts were focused on, was great. His figuring out the politics, though some of that again dragged for me, Lois McMaster Bujold can drag the politics, and how to fight it. It was great. I even came to like his not so bright cousin. The epilogue of where he goes from there and how he gets those biased (bigoted) against his disability to his side was fun to see. I would have liked to see an epilogue that had the consequences of Elena and discussing his father about Bothari but we don't get that.

So... I really liked some parts and others were just good. In the end the YA aspect brought it down because it was little too much at points. Still I really liked Mile's and would like to see where he goes. This is the first time after reading this world that I do want to read on to see how the characters progress. My 3rd book of the Vorkosigan Saga.

Ultimately felt a bit stilted; the so-called clever jabs were hammy and overdone, the characters seemed hollow ideas, and the plot seemed forced and superficial. But I've been wanting to read this series for a while, now, so I'm going to give another book in the series a try.

This author has been recommended to me, so I picked this up when I saw it in my neighbor's getting-rid-of box.

Pretty generic and uninspired space opera. For the way the only main female character (Elena) was written, I would have guessed this was a male author. Her complete passivity and lack of an actual personality or motivations was bad enough, without the main character constantly comparing her to a greyhound or thoroughbred horse. Ugh. And then of course her big "I'm going to do my own thing with my life" breakthrough is to marry someone else (someone she's known for a month) instead of Miles. Which he couldn't accept when it was her choice -- he was only able to be all noble about it once he made the choice to give her up in order to save her life. Ugh and double ugh.

Cardboard cutout characters, completely bizarre and unbelievable plot twists, lots of confusing and impenetrable political maneuvering, etc. But the thing that really got me was the insane credulity of every single character aside from Miles -- apparently he's just so charismatic that anyone will believe any damn thing he makes up on the spot! They're all also very dumb, allowing Miles to come off as insanely clever at all times.

This whole thing was basically ridiculous. Like a Heinlein novel only not as good.