Borders of Infinity – Lois McMaster Bujold
This is actually a collection of three other books, all pressed together. The books – The Borders of Infinity, The Mountains of Mourning and Labyrinth do vary in their style slightly, and the scenes surrounding the areas betwixt original stories do feel a little strained at times.
However, the very fact that they vary, and touch on such delicate subjects as infanticide make this collection worth reading. The 1st book is a reasonably predictable PoW story, but you’ll still find yourself cheering Miles on, constantly second guessing what will happen next.
In Mountains of Mourning, Miles is sent out into the wild backwards country, where the old laws of nature often take precedence over any decrees from the Regent – Miles’ father. He is sent out mainly to gain some experience, and to appreciate what a heavy responsibility being a judge can be. His own deformed body is a constant reminder that ‘muties’ (genetic mutations) will experience a tough life outside of the cities, if they live that long.
In the last book, we start to discover that playing with sexual preconceptions will become a running theme for Lois’s books, and for this reason, I couldn’t really recommend this particular book for young children. Obviously this is down to the parents concerned, but I wouldn’t want parents to buy this book for their children without reading it first. Anyway, Miles goes on a mission to pick up a scientist whose expertise are in fields with highly questionable ethics. Nothing goes to plan, and Miles has to escape imprisonment with a creature called Taurus.
It has been a while since I read this last book, but I’m pretty sure a quad (last seen in Falling Free) gets a couple of quick mentions.