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A fairy tale of MLM romance between a prince and his loyal retainer. I started reading because I thoroughly enjoyed Rowland's "Running Close to the Wind," which was less romance and more adventure and humor than this. While "A Taste of Gold and Iron" still has moments of funny and a fair amount of dangerous knife fights and such, the focus is really on the growing affection between Kadou the prince with the anxiety disorder and Evemer, his emotionally repressed bodyguard. Bonus gay points to Rowland for making Kadou's ex-boyfriend a major part of how the couple solidify their romance. One point deducted because I wanted more swashbuckling and I also wanted Kadou's sister's (she's the Sultan) triumphant return to her court not to happen offstage, as it were. Still, if you want something lighthearted and gay to read, you can't go wrong with this. Rowland has a great knack for letting us observe both her characters' inner and outer states.

With Cordelia and Aral's story mostly backgrounded, we now get to the Miles Vorkosigan stretch of novels. Miles washes out of military school due to his physical disabilities and easily broken bones; he ends up on a trip to Beta Colony as a vacation with his bodyguard Bothari, and Bothari's daughter and Miles' childhood friend Elena.

This was the first book in this series I ever read, and I almost bounced off of it the first time through. My partner also stopped reading two thirds of the way through and then came back and finished much much later. This book has big "it gets better in season 3 I promise" energy.

For me, it's a weaker book than the two Cordelia books prior in a number of ways, and honestly there's really only so much I can take of teenager Miles. It's partially his self-loathing--internalizing the way that Barrayar treats anybody who looks like a "mutant" or is at all disabled, and also coping with his own military failures in the eyes of his family. But it's also his constant teenage lusting after his friend Elena or even later with Elli Quinn. My memory is that Miles interacting with any women are a low point in other books too all the way up to Ekaterin, unfortunately. It's not "breasted boobily" levels of lecherousness, but there's a desperation for attention in all of his actions.

Positives, instead. The joy of this book is how instantly the chain of chaos starts when Miles is involved. An example: he makes it to Beta Colony and in the brief period of time that he is out of Bothari's vision after customs he immediately adopts a pilot (plus ship) as his armsman, and then must come up with a scheme to pay off said ship by sneaking weapons through a blockade. Cut to being in space and Miles hatches a scheme to pretend to be leader of the (fictional) Dendarii Mercenaries in order to recruit mercenaries that they had just captured (once they shape up, of course). This creates a wild chain of lies and fabrications as Miles tries to keep it all together, keep his actual identity secret, and keep himself and his people safe.

This book feels meant to be funny and ridiculous. Why does nobody suspect the 17 year old with no combat experience leading mercenaries into battle? I think it's almost believable that these folks are so down on their luck that the version of reality that Miles presents (and creates) is compelling enough that nobody asks too many questions (even if they give some side-eyes). And maybe they handwave past the age with a rumor of mythical Beta Colony rejuvination treatments that make him look really young.

The delight of Miles is his manic energy and the way that he energizes the people around him to be bigger and better than who they were; it's also the balancing flip side of his secret identity trying to keep Barrayaran politics in mind and trying to live with some aristocratic Barrayan honor.

I think this book is still a good introduction to Miles, and I'm glad that he quickly grows up a little bit after this one. The main gripe for me is that this book is just not as neatly plotted or tight thematically and it feels a bit off the rails (even if it sticks the landing with a delightful courtroom ending). I really don't know that I would recommend this book, but it also sets the initial trajectory for the series so strongly that it would be impossible to skip.