Borders of Infinity
Mar 5, 2006
Borders of Infinity [story] is a short story that was originally published (along with two other short stories: The Labyrinth and The Mountains of Mourning) in Borders of Infinity [novel], which is part of the Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. I’m not sure how much sense this will make out of sequence, but it will still be excellent. Since Borders of Infinity [novel] is now out of print, at least in North America, it’s nice that it’s becoming available online.
“Thanks,” croaked Miles. A week ago, or in a previous lifetime, depending on how you counted time, Miles had dawdled over a selection of wines, dissatisfied with this or that nuance of flavor. His lips cracked as he grinned in memory. He drank. It was perfectly ordinary water, lukewarm, faintly redolent of chlorine and sulfur. A refined body, but the bouquet is a bit presumptuous….
The Mountains of Mourning
Feb 13, 2006
The Mountains of Mourning is a short story that was originally published (along with two other short stories) in Borders of Infinity, which is part of the Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. It’s a really fantastic series; I recommend every book in the series highly. This story makes most sense if you read it as part of the series, but I think it stands very well on its own, too.
Miles grinned wolfishly. “Oh, Karal, I’m a one-man band, I am. I’m a parade.”
“As you say, just so. Ordinary people need extraordinary examples. So they can say to themselves, well, if he can do that, I can surely do this. No excuses.”
“No quarter, yes, I know that game. Been playing it all my life.”
“I think,” said Karal, “Barrayar needs you. To go on being just what you are.”
“Barrayar will eat me, if it can.”
“Yes,” said Karal, his eyes on the horizon, “so it will.” His gaze fell to the graves at his feet. “But it swallows us all in the end, doesn’t it?”