Sci-fi novella. The next entry in the Vorkosigan saga, which I am slowly working my way through. The series largely follows Miles Vorkosigan, scion of a powerful house on a planet with a deeply engrained, quite feudal, very hierarchical, and intensely militarist social order that is, in all of these respects, gradually becoming looser, more open, and more equal. Miles is disabled, and his planet’s culture is also very ableist, to the point at times of being openly eugenicist – a fact that he, notwithstanding his immense class privilege, has had to struggle with every day of his life. Not all of the books tackle that particularly directly, but this novella – which won a couple of major awards back in the day – does. A peasant from a remote area within his family’s holdings comes to demand justice for the murder of her disabled infant, and Miles’ father sends him to investigate and dispense justice. It is a good, short, intense story. I think it’s pretty decent politically, but I’m also not sure I’m really getting much past the surface level in how I’m reading its disability-related politics. In any case, I continue to enjoy this series.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.