Lord Auditor Miles Vorkosigan and his new wife Ekaterin (their romance plays out in the wonderful A Civil Campaign which I read recently) are returning home after their much-delayed honeymoon when Miles is abruptly sent to Quaddiespace for a political mission. A routine trade convoy stopped at one of the Quaddie's space stations, and when one of the crew members became enamoured of a local dancer, Barryaran prejudices against "mutants" (the Quaddies have four arms instead of two arms and two legs) surface and cause major political problems. Miles is of course himself a "mutant," being only about 140 cm in height. He's also the Voice of the Emperor (about as high a rank as you can have on Barryar without being the Emperor) and one of the most intelligent people on the planet. But this case turns out to be far more complicated than anticipated ...

The story presented a good mystery, and it slowly unfolded itself, eventually revealing itself to be a disaster of epic proportions. As usual, Miles has to fight through some horrible circumstances. Less usually, there's some comedy and Miles actually catches a break or two in the process. After my many complaints about Bujold making most of the Vorkosigan stories be purely suffering and struggle, this was a pleasant change (although obviously less comedic than the previous A Civil Campaign). A good story, and fun to see where the quaddies had got to 200 years on.