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Books like Cetaganda

Cetaganda

A buddy read with Choko and Maria.It all began innocently enough. An Empress of a mighty Empire which had fairly bad attitude towards Barrayar (the former tried to conquer the latter and got their butts kicked bad - this kind of situation does not usually bring strong alliances) died of natural causes. Miles was sent to the funeral ceremony as a diplomatic representative of his planet accompanied by his cousin Ivan who was supposed to keep his relative out of troubles. To keep a long story short Ivan failed miserably. The lower middle picture is sooo Miles...I have to be fair and admit that the first trouble found our heroes practically the moment they landed on the capital planet of the Empire. From that moment on the events began unfolding so fast poor Ivan did not have enough time for his favorite hobby: meeting new girls. Miles practically had to juggle running chainsaws trying to prevent several interplanetary wars and Barrayar's neutrality (neutrality for outsiders' view that is). Cataganda - the Empire in question - is highly original and fascinating. The best description would be Geneticists Gone Wild. Actually scratch that - "gone wild" is too mild an expression for the description. I was really shocked several times when the Barrayars (and the reader) stumbled upon yet another aspect of Catagandian culture; it was never boring though.The fast-moving plot was never boring either. I thought I would give the book the highest rating practically until the end. What stopped me? Miles' motivations - that is what. In the previous books he ended up in sticky situations with no one around to help him: for different reasons. So it really was up to Miles to get out of them resorting to his own resources. This time I felt his motivations were pure selfish and the ready help was available. There is unavoidable insubordination and there is direct disregard one's superior officer orders. It is all fun and toys until you realize that if the entire Barrayar army would behave like Miles a single enemy armed with a slingshot would be able to conquer them. In the end Miles received exactly the reward he deserved and I feel there is hope for him. 4 stars is the final rating.

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