Lois McMaster Bujold

When a Kibou-daini cryocorp--an immortal company whose job it is to shepherd its all-too-mortal frozen patrons into an unknown future--attempts to expand its franchise into the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor dispatches his top troubleshooter Miles Vorkosigan to check it out.

"Captain Ivan Vorpatril is happy with his relatively uneventful bachelor's life of a staff officer to a Barrayaran Admiral. Ivan, cousin to Imperial troubleshooter Miles Vorkosigan, is not far down the hereditary list for the emperorship. Thankfully, new heirs have directed that headache elsewhere leaving Ivan to enjoy life on Komarr. But when an old friend in Barrayaran intelligence asks Ivan to protect an attractive young woman, Tej Arqua, his chivalrous...

Restored to life after being pronounced dead, Miles Vorkosigan realizes that the event has left him with a profound weakness, and he is dismissed from his job. But things are further complicated when he remembers something that he saw while dead.

Fleeing her family farm after becoming pregnant, unwed Fawn Bluefield encounters a patrol of enigmatic soldier-sorcerers under the leadership of Dag, a knife-bearing, one-handed patroller who comes to Fawn's rescue when she is kidnapped by a dangerous magical entity.

"Miles Vorkosigan makes his debut in this frenetic coming-of-age tale. At age seventeen, Miles, four-foot, nine inches tall, and brittle-boned, after great effort is allowed to take the entrance exams to the elite military academy; he passes the written but manages, through miscalculation in a moment of anger, to break both his legs on the obstacle course, washing out before he begins. His aged grandfather, General Piotr, gradually reconciled to his...

"Penric and Desdemona are back in three novellas from Grand Master Lois McMaster Bujold. Masquerade in Lodi: Bastard's Eve is a night of celebration for most residents in the canal city of Lodi-but not for sorcerer Learned Penric and his Temple demon Desdemona, who find themselves caught up in the affairs of a shiplost madman, a dangerous ascendant demon, and a very unexpected saint of the fifth god. The Orphans of Raspay: When the ship in which they...

"Vorkosigan is having enough trouble keeping his two identities separate--the charismatic Admiral Naismith of the Denarii Mercenary Fleet and a Vor lord of the Barrayan aristocracy--when assassination attempts begin. But are his enemies after Miles Naismith or Lord Miles Vorkosigan? As if things weren't bad enough, the problem of split identities becomes even more confused when a clone of Miles is discovered"--Back cover.

When a corpse is found floating face-down in Vilnoc harbor that is not quite as dead as it seems, Temple sorcerer Penric and his chaos demon Desdemona are drawn into the uncanny investigation. Pen's keen questions will take him across the city of Vilnoc, and into far more profound mysteries, as his search for truths interlaces with tragedy.

"Lakewalker Barr Foxbrush returns from two years of patrolling the bitter wilds of Luthlia against the enigmatic, destructive entities called malices, only to find that the secret daughter he'd left behind in the hinterland of Oleana has disappeared from her home after a terrible accusation. The search for her will call on more of Barr's mind and heart than just his mage powers, as he tries to balance his mistakes of the past and his most personal...

Penric's Demon: On the way to his betrothal, young Lord Penric happens upon a riding accident and stops to help. But the victim is a Temple divine, servant to the five gods of this world. Her avowed god is The Bastard, "master of all disasters out of season." As she lies dying, she passes her strange powers to Penric-and changes the course of his life forever. --from Amazon. Penric and the Shaman: Now a divine of the Bastard's Order as well as a...