whimsyful 's review for:

Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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 One of my favs in the re-read. You def get more out of this if you read The Borders of Infinity right before, since this takes place almost immediately after and deals with the repercussions of the Dagoola breakout.

All the family stuff is so good! Miles naming Mark!  Basically the entire sequence of

Miles meeting the secret clone born and raised to destroy him and thwarting the plan through his sheer stubborn insistence, in defiance of all opposition and all circumstances, of treating Mark like his own person and like his real brother

, is one of my fav in the entire series. Miles and Ivan (and Mark)! And even in a way the dark mirror in Duv Galeni & Ser Galen's relationship.  All the identity stuff is brilliant as well.

I'm mostly indifferent to the Elli Quinn/Miles relationship (because it's so clearly not going to work out long term, as Quinn herself states), but her line about how he treated her exactly the same when she had her old face, no face, and her new face was great.

The finale setpiece with

the standoff, Mark killing Galen, rescuing Ivan from a death trap, then capped off with the hilarity of the Barrayar v Cetaganda security stunning each other

out was so so good.