Bujoldian fun

How to talk about a great book that might not match up to the knockout work of its predecessors? Eeeeeech. ? It's tricky. I mean "Cryoburn" is fun. The writing is smooth, Miles is manic as usual and the story keeps moving at a fine pace. Speaking of writing, in this volume of the Miles Vorkosigan saga, Louis McMaster Bujold flows from several points of view with ease- other authors try the same stuff and fall flat- not here. It's a bit annoying that with the stakes a bit lower than inter-planetary war, the story's level of tension doesn't ratchet up as high as some of Miles' earlier adventures. Miles seems comfortable in his Auditor role, so he's not struggling for the personal goals that drove him on for so long; this means the book has less emotional punch overall than earlier Vorkosigan books or the fantastic "Chalion" (rated at 41 Richmans). So this is not the best of the Vorkosigan books. I'm still going to re-read it down the road. I'll take something from Bujold that is less than perfect than the best efforts of a lot of other authors. And I'm ready for the next Miles Adventure- or anything else Lois writes next. "Cryoburn" gets 31.5/42 Richmans.