Books like The Vor Game

A buddy read with Choko and Maria.Miles Vorkosigan graduated from the Military Academy despite his handicap. He hoped for a decent assignment, but his superiors thought he had an insubordination problem, so they decided a good way to fix it is to assign him to a remote place which in this case happened to be a military base on an island in the middle of nowhere, far in the north (read - cold). First thing Miles did upon arriving was to insult the base Commander - albeit unintentionally. To be fair the Commander happened to be a real despot even by Barrayan standards, so Miles could not remain neutral for long. Miles' adventures on the island constitute a story called Weatherman that was later incorporated in this novel - word by word. The excitement started when the guy was removed from the base. Sufficient to say he ended up saving a couple of planets (including his own) and preventing a couple of wars. He ended up literally in the middle of the excitement without even trying, but getting beaten a lot in the process. My buddy readers mentioned that Miles' immediate superior officer can kiss their career good-by and I completely agree. Superior officers tend to end up trying - and failing - to clean up the mess the guy leaves in his wake.The novel won a Hugo Award for Best Novel at the time when good writing and plot were more important than political leaning. To make a long story short the novel is good. Speaking about character development: Miles does first and foremost. I like the way the Barrayan Emperor was shown; unlike his previous appearance he behaved like a human being. Space battles, behind-the-scenes manipulations, people of the future with real human emotions and hopes, Miles overcoming yet another seemingly hopeless situation using just his head, good writing - what else a book need to be called good? Nothing; thus 4-star rating.