Vorkosigan Group Read: Miles, Mystery and Mayhem

This is the thread for discussion of books/stories in the Miles, Mystery and Mayhem omnibus – Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos and Labyrinth.

  

Rules:
1. All are welcome – you don't need to be doing a category challenge, you can read only one book in the series if you'd like.
2. When you post, please specify which book/story you're posting about.
3. Mark spoilers using LibraryThing's spoiler feature – spoilers go here. This is accomplished by putting spoilers between spoiler tags like this:

<spoiler>spoilers go here</spoiler>

About the books:
Cetaganda and Ethan of Athos are books 6 & 7 chronologically. Cetaganda is about Miles' adventures at a state funeral on the planet of Cetaganda, and Ethan of Athos is a non-Miles book about a sheltered doctor from the ultra-religious planet of Athos.

Labyrinth features Miles and takes place after book 7, Ethan of Athos. It is also included in Borders of Infinity and Miles, Mutants and Microbes, but discussion of Labyrinth hasn't started yet, so if you've read Labyrinth, feel free to discuss it here. If that changes, I will update this post.

Links:
Vorkosigan Saga main thread | Group read wiki page | List of books in publication order | List of books in chronological order

Discussion of the other books:
* Cordelia's Honor (Shards of Honor, Barrayar)
* Young Miles (The Warriors Apprentice, The Mountains of Mourning, The Vor Game)
* Miles, Mutants and Microbes (Falling Free, Diplomatic Immunity, Labyrinth)

I have some comments on Ceteganda that I will add later but am curious what people think about Ethan of Athos. For now I have skipped it since it isn't about Miles and there are so many books in the series. What do you guys think? Is Ethan a must read? Am I missing something in the series?

#2, I think Ethan of Athos adds to the series, and you should read it someday. It's nice to get a non-Vorkosigan PoV and one of the main characters is Elli Quinn of the Dendarii, so it does connect back to Miles. You also find out what the haut lady in Cetaganda was talking about in the scene where she has an urgent matter come up that isn't related to her dilemma with Miles. :)

Also, please do share your thoughts on Cetaganda!

I've just finished Cetaganda and really enjoyed it. Even when Miles isn't looking for trouble he finds it.

I just finished a reread of Ethan of Athos. The first time I read it out of the chronological order since I just wanted more Miles!
This time I read in between Cetaganda and Brothers in Arms and I am very glad I did. When read in this order it gave me insight into two more worlds, Athos and Klein Station, shifting my focus more to the universe than to Miles personal saga. A wider perspective and just as much fun.

I've got the omnibus edition, so will be reading Ethan of Athos, but have only just started it. About two chapters in before I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer last night... But there's a weekend coming up, so hopefully lots of Vorkosigan is in my near future!

Finished the whole omnibus a little while ago, and I actually really liked Ethan of Athos, even if I wanted to slap Ethan himself at the beginning a bit. But he's a decent enough guy underneath his bizarre religious indoctrination of women = evil, and I grew to like him in the end.

Plus, much as I love Miles, he complicates things so much that it's wonderful to have a breather from him, and a slightly less manically twisted plot. (Although Elli is there to complicate things.)

Ethan's story lets us see Bujold's world from a different POV which I found interesting. And I did rather like Ethan.

I really enjoyed Cetaganda. I love the way Bujold takes some cultural inclinations to an extreme, as with the Cetagandans.
I did note a couple of plot gaps, though, which tempered my enjoyment somewhat. I even re-read the last few chapters to check myself, but they were still there. I suppose in this many books it's bound to happen sooner or later.

I have just completed Cetaganda and although not my favorite story of the series, I was enchanted with the world of Cetaganda. The author took a lot of care and throught into her world building with this one.

>10 DeltaQueen50: Indeed she did. What a crazy culture! That took a lot of imagination.

>11 grundlecat: It was so elaborate that I am hoping we get to visit Cetagana again during the series.

grundlecat #9: Please, share more about the plot gaps you found. Always fun to see how others view the books you've enjoyed.

Thanks!

i finished Miles, Mystery & Mayhem this morning... I think that I liked Ethan of Athos best.

I finished Cetaganda and agree with the comments that the world-building was superb! Ethan of Athos is up next for me.

I finished Ethan of Athos recently and loved it. It was strange at first meeting a whole new set of characters and I missed Miles and Cordelia. However, I very quickly warmed up to Ethan and Elli, and there were so many interesting ideas related to reproduction that Bujold explored.

I also enjoyed Labyrinth and was happy to get the back-story for Taura. I'd read the novella Winterfair Gifts early on and had encountered her there.

Cetaganda has always been one of my favorites, probably because of the world-building.

>17 jnwelch: Cetaganda is next on my list for chronological reading of the series. I'm obviously way behind! Hope to start it before too long.