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.

The hero, Miles Vorkosigan, is sent to represent his planet at the funeral of the empress of the planet Cetaganda. While there he becomes involved in a power struggle for the control of software used by Cetaganda's rulers to genetically engineer an entire people. By the author of Mirror Dance.

"Three years after her famous husband's death, Cordelia Vorkosigan, Vicereine of Sergyar, stands ready to spin her life in a new direction. Oliver Jole, Admiral, Sergyar Fleet, finds himself caught up in her web of plans in ways he'd never imagined. Meanwhile, Miles Vorkosigan, one of Emperor Gregor's key investigators, this time dispatches himself on a mission, into a mystery he never anticipated--his own mother. Plans, wills, and expectations collide...

"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...