Okay, I’m cheating again, but you’ll soon see that I am thinking of mystery, despite the science fictional theme of the author’s book series.
Lois McMaster Bujold is the author of a series of space operas about a man called Miles Vorkosigan, the son of Prime Minister Aral Vorkosigan on the planet Barrayar and his wife Captain Cordelia Naismith of Beta Colony.
Miles was born badly formed due to a murder attempt when his mother was pregnant. Despite his problems, he has managed to get medical treatment for his fragile bones, among other things, and is very bright.
The first several books in the series show him as a space mercenary, working also for Impsec(Imperial Security), but eventually he loses his job due to lying to his boss, Simon Illyan, in a novel called Memory. However, he solves the mystery of why Simon has been behaving strangely and forgetting where he never did before - he has a chip in his brain that is supposed to keep everything in his memory. As a result, Miles is appointed an Imperial Auditor, with the job of finding out things that seem fishy on the planets of the Empire. So the novels from then on are mysteries, which Miles uses his brain to investigate. There are mystery elements in other books set in this universe, such as Cetaganda, in which Miles and his cousin Ivan represent Barrayar at an Imperial funeral on the title planet. There is a murder and the theft of a vital object. Miles investigates and, of course, finds out whodunnit.
If you like an unusual mystery set in the far future, this series is a lot of fun.
Alas, the author has ended the series and focused on secondary world fantasy, but there is still plenty to enjoy.
2 comments:
I love a good space opera from time to time.
So do I! And if you also enjoy mysteries, this is the series for you,
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