Cordelia's Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold [0]
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 1986 Shards of Honor; copyright © 1991 Barrayar; copyright © 1996 "Afterword"; all by Lois McMaster Bujold.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Book
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
ISBN: 0-671-57828-6
Cover art by Gary Ruddell
First mass market printing, September 1999
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Typeset by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America
CRITICS HONOR CORDELIA
SHARDS OF HONOR
"Superb . . . science fiction . . . adventure and war . . . hugely enjoyable." —Booklist
"This author is bound to becme a favorite on everyone's list." —Romantic Times
BARRAYAR
" . . . a tour de force of topnotch characterization and thrilling adventure." —Rave Reviews
"In the course of an often spine-tingling adventure, Bujold and her heroine deal with these crucial subjects: militarism, feminism, eugenics, and the dead hand of tradition, with a marvelous mixture of grace and cunning. . . . This is sf fully equipped with brains, humor, and heart." —Locus
"All the virtues, including prose that sings."—Chicago Sun-Times
"Bujold has a genius for blending technological speculation . . . classic military science fiction, and cultural anthropology . . . in wonderfully plotted stories. Cordelia is the most competent female protagonist I can remember in one of the most enjoyable books." —VOYA
". . . A phenomenal success. . . . Bujold's Barrayar series has it all . . . carefully plotted and full of action.—Cleveland Plain Dealer
". . . Her best book yet. This is not faint praise; her last novel, The Vor Game, won the 1991 Hugo, and Falling Free won a Nebula in 1989 . . . it's the swashbuckling that makes this story fun."—Philadelphia Inquirer
Baen Books by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Vorkosigan Saga:
Cordelia's Honor (Omnibus)
Young Miles (Omnibus)
Miles, Mystery and Mayhem (Omnibus)
Miles Errant (Omnibus)
The Warrior's Apprentice
The Vor Game
Cetaganda
Borders of Infinity
Brothers in Arms
Mirror Dance
Memory
Komarr
A Civil Campaign
Diplomatic Immunity
Falling Free
Ethan of Athos
The Spirit Ring
Shards of Honor
To Pat Wrede
for being a voice
in the wilderness
Chapter One
A sea of mist drifted through the cloud forest: soft, grey, luminescent. On the high ridges the fog showed brighter as the morning sun began to warm and lift the moisture, although in the ravine a cool, soundless dimness still counterfeited a pre-dawn twilight.
Commander Cordelia Naismith glanced at her team botanist and adjusted the straps of her biological collecting equipment a bit more comfortably before continuing her breathless climb. She pushed a long tendril of fog-dampened copper hair out of her eyes, clawing it impatiently toward the clasp at the nape of her neck. Their next survey area would definitely be at a lower altitude. The gravity of this planet was slightly lower than their home world of Beta Colony, but it did not quite make up for the physiological strain imposed by the thin mountain air.
Denser vegetation marked the upper boundary of the forest patch. Following the splashy path of the ravine's brook, they bent and scrambled through the living tunnel, then broke into the open air.
A morning breeze was ribboning away the last of the fog on the golden uplands. They stretched endlessly, rise after rise, culminating at last in the great grey shoulders of a central peak crowned by glittering ice. This world's sun shone in the deep turquoise sky giving an overwhelming richness to the golden grasses, tiny flowers, tussocks of a silvery plant like powdered lace dotted everywhere. The two explorers gazed entranced at the mountain above, enveloped by the silence.
The botanist, Ensign Dubauer,