Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #620491 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 405 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you relish costume adventure in an intergalactic society starring strong, convincing male and female characters, you'll adore the Vorkosigan Series. If you haven't met Miles Vorkosigan, whose brilliance, manic energy, and unstoppable determination make him a larger-than-life hero despite his dwarfish stature, pick up Komarr and A Civil Campaign. Read them, and then go back and catch the previous nine books (10 if you count Ethan of Athos, which features not Miles but his partner, Ellie Quinn); or read the series in order, starting with the romance of Miles's parents in Shards of Honor.

A Civil Campaign opens where Komarr ends with Miles determined to court Ekaterin. Unfortunately, his approach is described as "General Romeo Vorkosigan, the one-man strike force" by his father. The potential for comic disaster increases when Miles' clone brother Mark arrives. He has brought a brilliant but scatterbrained scientist who has created a bug producing a perfect food: bug butter. They set up a lab in the basement of Vorkosigan House. Mark has also found a nice Barrayaran girl--she even likes the bugs--with whom he got together on the sexually liberated world of Beta. But now Kareen's living at home. Naturally, disaster strikes, repeatedly and on all fronts.

Bujold unfolds her comedy of manners while continuing to explore familiar themes: the difficulties in becoming a strong adult woman in a patriarchy; the need for trust and honesty in relationships between the sexes; the difference between appearance and identity; and the impact of advanced biotechnologies on society. A Civil Campaign is a sure-fire Hugo and Nebula award nominee, likely to add another statue to Bujold's already full shelf. It's charming, touching, and quite funny too. --Nona Vero

Synopsis
The latest in the Miles Vorkosigan saga, in which love, subatomic physics and incompatible sexual politics spring eternal in the Vor Empire. Emperor Gregor's wedding is fast approaching and, together with biogenetics, lack of money and incompatible planetary sexual mores, love is in the air.

Customer Reviews

The Battlefield of Love
Miles Vorkosigan is at it again, merrily planning (and attempting to execute) a very exacting military campaign. The only trouble is, the military objective is inducing his new-found lady love Ekaterin to marry him. His plan includes notable pieces of strategy: not to be too obvious about it, as she is still in mourning for her late husband (see the earlier book Komarr for details); keep other suitors well away; make sure there are frequent opportunities for the two to be in each other's presence; ensure that she becomes aware of all the niceties that would entail from marrying into one of the noblest families on Barrayar. Each piece of his plan, though, runs into one minefield after another, and as he puts emergency stop-losses in place, his situation continuously deteriorates, culminating in a dinner where absolutely everything goes wrong.

The dinner may be the high point of this book - the person who can read this section and not fall over laughing, cringing, and crying all at the same time isn't a real human being. For this book is not about military action, political plots, or single-handed world-saving, but is rather a very witty comedy. The picture of Miles making just about every mistake a lovelorn suitor can is both marvelously funny and very believable, and the picture of Barrayaran society is solidly fleshed out, making the whole a perfect environment in which to play out such a comedy of manners. As usual, Bujold keeps several plot threads spinning at once, whose resolution, while (for once) not at all earth-shaking, makes for a nicely unified wholeness to the basic story.

In another departure for Bujold, this story is told from several viewpoints, not just Miles', which adds a lot to the reader's perspective of the society and situation, and also allows for much greater character development of Ivan Vorpatril, Mark (Miles' clone brother), and Ekaterin than has been the case with previous books in this series.

Perhaps my only real objection to this book was that some of the side plots from the main story just didn't seem to have enough importance and weren't detailed enough to make me really get involved with them, so that their major effect on the final outcome seemed to be larger than justified and a little bit of a surprise. This is a pretty minor quibble, though. Nominated for the 2000 Hugo award, this is a fine entertaining read, full of chuckles and belly-laughs, managing to make Miles into a normal human being without totally losing his aura of impossible competence, engaging and heart-warming. Possibly the best of all the Vorkosigan books.

A Civil Campaign is fun!
Associate Reviewer David Brown writes: Lord Miles Vorkosigan, a recent galactic covert agent & now the youngest Imperial Auditor appointed since the Time of Isolation, is madly in love with the beautiful Vor widow Ekaterin Vorsoisson. She is violently allergic to marriage as a result of her first exposure & Miles comes up with a cunning plan. Both his clone brother & cousin have also devised cunning plans to catch the loves of their dreams & that's when the fun begins.

Fun is what A Civil Campaign is all about! Miles' universe is a rich one: food, drink, atmosphere & relationships. Would I like to be Miles? Absolutely not! Do I like to read about him, oh yes!

In case you haven't got it by now & you're muttering: "Well, is he recommending this book or not?" I am, I am, I am! When I read about Miles Vorkosigan I laugh, I cry, I call him stupid & then I'm immensely pleased when he finds his way out of his dilemma.

Definitely world-class science fiction with a comedic twist.

Is there anything Bujold can't do?
Readers of previous Vorkosigan books will know how Bujold has been able to combine a cracking adventure yarn with serious issues (as in the best in the series, Brothers in Arms and Mirror Dance). Even as Miles has retired from his mercenary fleet, Bujold has kept the series fresh by involving him in the fascinating political scheming of Barrayar and its neighboring worlds (in Memory and Komarr). While A Civil Campaign might seem to be a throwaway volume, focusing on the imperial wedding and Miles's own romantic frustrations, Bujold has managed to fill it with still more political intrigue, interesting ideas on gender issues, and more character development for Miles, as his romantic hopes can only be fulfilled by using strategies different to those which have brought him success in the past. His love interest, Ekaterin, is also a fully developed character, and clone brother Mark and his friend Kareen get much attention as well. Then there's the comic scenes--Bujold has hinted at a skill for these in the past, but the chapters on Miles's first dinner party are classic! While A Civil Campaign is different in tone from other books in the series, it's still written to as high a standard. I hate waiting for the next volume!