Subtitle: A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure

New York Times Bestseller
Audible’s Best of 2010: Sci-Fi & Fantasy

     Something is rotten in the kingdom of Kibou-daini….and Miles Vorkosingan is sent to find the stench in the midst of a planet obsessed with postponing death at all costs.
     Fans have been clamoring for Hugo winner Bujold to pen a new Vorkosigan Saga novel since 2002’s Diplomatic Immunity, and they will not be disappointed by this thoughtful tale.
     Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. But when a Kibou-daini Cryocorp — an immortal company whose job it is to shepherd its all-too-mortal frozen patrons into an unknown future—attempts to expand its franchise into the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor dispatches his top troubleshooter, Miles, to check it out.
     Only five days after arriving on Kibou-daini for a cryonics conference, interplanetary diplomat Miles Vorkosigan narrowly escapes kidnapping.     Drugged, dazed, and alone, he is taken in by Jin Sato, whose mother was the leader of a cryonics reform movement until being declared mentally ill and involuntarily frozen.
    Now Jin lives in a building full of squatters running an illegal cryonics clinic. Under imperial orders to investigate the shady dealings of the cryo cartels, Miles connects the far-flung pieces and exposes a sneaky plot.     He finds a young boy with a passion for pets and a dangerous secret, a Snow White trapped in an icy coffin who burns to rewrite her own tale, and a mysterious crone who is the very embodiment of the warning "Don’t mess with the secretary".
     Bribery, corruption, conspiracy, kidnapping ... and Miles in the middle—of trouble!
    Bujold introduces appealing characters to join familiar ones in exploring the ramifications of a planet-wide culture of postponing death, and her deft and absorbing writing easily corrals the complex plot and softens the blow of a tear-jerking conclusion.

     Denver Post: "Excellently done...Bujold has always excelled at creating forcefulharacters and she does it here again."
     Locus: "An intelligent, well-crafted and thoroughly satisfying blend of adventure, sociopolitical commentary, scientific experiments, and occasional perils...with that extra spicing of romance."

     One of the most honored writers in the fields of Science Fiction and Fantasy, having won five Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.
     Her second novel, The Warrior’s Apprentice, introduced young Miles Vorkosigan, one of the most popular characters in Science Fiction.
     The mother of two, she lives in Minneapolis.

     Director of Blackstone’s Audio Studios, an Award-winning Narrator with more than 650 titles to his credit.
     Named one of the Best Voices of the Century and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine.
     He was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly and has earned more than 20 Earphones Awards.