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The Vorkosiverse is a feast of relationships, not just romances. I love how cousins Miles and Ivan interact like evil brothers who nonetheless trust each other unconditionally. The way marriages mature and change. The way the boy emperor, Gregor, grows into his insanely demanding role. Cordelia, Aral, Gregor, Mark—there are so many marvelous characters who are defined as much by their relationships as by their actions.

The Vorkosigan books aren't genre romances, where the developing relationship is at the heart of the story. Yet the series is romance in the literary sense: a vast and sweeping tale of high adventure. The story of Miles Vorkosigan is a classic bildungsroman, the chronicle of a young man learning about life as he grows to manhood.

And, like most young men, Miles has a natural interest in the female half of the species. (We won't get into Betan herms here.) His passion for Elena Bothari, with whom he was raised, is unrequited, but there will be other women in his future.

Terrific women, too. As a female reader, one of my pleasures in the books is how strong the female characters are. Perhaps this isn't surprising, given that the author is female, but there are never enough great fictional women to take them for granted.

Miles's lovers are always accomplished and interesting. A favorite moment of mine is when clone brother Mark, whose actions have gotten Miles killed, is confronted by the ferocious Amazons that were his clone brother's former girlfriends.

Elli Quinn, whose face was burned off in battle, is given a new face courtesy of the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, and grows into his second-in-command and eventual successor. A "drunkard's dream" of a girlfriend, Quinn is funny, smart, sexy, and a warrior to reckon with.

Sergeant Taura is equally dangerous—bred as a disposable super-warrior, she can terrify with a smile, but inside she's a lonely girl who has never known affection, much less love. Granted, when an eight-foot-tall teenager with fangs and claws wants sex as a price for her cooperation, a man might suffer world-class performance anxiety, but Miles is up to the challenge. Indeed, he and Taura develop a lasting bond they both cherish.

Though Miles tends to be monogamous, sometimes circumstances bring on diversity. His occasional liaisons with Taura when they're far from the Dendarii overlap his long affair with Quinn. And during his amnesia after cryo-revival, there was that fling with Rowan Durona, his accomplished and attractive doctor. Very healing.

Miles isn't the only one who gets to fall in love. When Bujold first takes us to Barrayar, it's a brutal world where women have little status and life is run along hierarchical and militaristic lines. One of the pleasures of the series is watching how Barrayar changes after Cordelia arrives and Aral becomes the Regent. Their rock-solid marriage, based on mutual trust and respect, lays the foundations for a more civilized society.

For that reason, several romances have a feminist and radical subtext. When Cordelia settles in Barrayar, the military is strictly for men, and a girl with warrior aspirations is shut out. Ludmilla Droushnakovi, known as Drou, is the tall, blond, athletic daughter of a non-com. She can't join the imperial forces, but at least she's trained to fight while serving as a bodyguard to Princess Kareen.

Drou is attracted to Lieutenant Koudelka, Aral's war-injured secretary, and vice versa, but the romance almost founders over the issue of a woman's strength. When Kou attempts to confess to Aral that he raped Drou, Aral summons Cordelia and Drou. Drou almost breaks her confused lover in half while proving her point that he couldn't have laid a hand on her if she hadn't been willing.

It takes Cordelia in terrifying Betan matchmaker mode to sort out their misunderstandings and send them toward their happy ending. When Drou and Kou marry at the Imperial residence, Aral comments that every class of Barrayaran society is