Author:	Lois McMaster Bujold
Copyright:	1996
Date Reviewed:	2/26/01
Rating:	7.5

In this, the third Miles adventure and the sixth of the Vorkosigan series, Miles and his cousin Ivan are on a routine diplomatic mission to offer condolences for the late Dowager Empress. At the docking port, they are attacked by a bald androgynous person and remove from the person a gun and a rod with an official seal and unknown purpose. As the cousins travel from event to event, they realize that someone is out to embarrass them. Miles suspects a plot that is tied to the objects now in their possession. This being a Miles adventure, he attempts to solve the plot himself without contacting Imperial Security.

Cetaganda is a wealthy society with a capital planet and eight colony worlds governed by eight governors. It is a class society with much of the power held by the haut, genetically enhanced humans. Below the haut are the ghem, who command the military and civilian apparatus. I ghem man can be ultimately rewarded by being allowed to marry a haut woman whose beauty is beyond description. His children might become haut.

In his pursuits, Miles encounters a haut woman who is in charge of the Star Creech. Part of the creech is the computerized genetic blueprint for all haut, past, present and future. The rod is the key to unlock the blueprint. Without it, the haut can no longer engineer their future. Before she died, the empress put into motion a conspiracy to distribute copies of the blueprint to the eight governors to eliminate a single point of failure. However, one of the governors has conspired to steal the only key in an attempt to usurp the empire. Miles must and does ferret out the traitor who is brought to justice.

This novel was enjoyable but not as engaging as previous Vorkosigan adventures. The plot Miles tries to uncover is somewhat convoluted and we are not provided enough information about the suspects to be able to guess at the truth or even care that much.