Miles Naismith Vorkosigan was not a mutant, though he was often mistaken for one. His home, Barrayar, was a militant world shaped by a bitter history and political strife. Yars earlier, an assassin had chosen poison gas for an attack on Aral Vorkosigan, former Regent of the Barrayaran Empire - now Prime Minister - and the pregnant Lady Cordelia. They survived: unborn Miles was the terrorist's only real victim. Cursed with brittle bones that neither grew nor healed properly, a dwarf-like body and a face prematurely lines with the agony of too many corrective surgeries - and too many people who could not accept his difference - Miles, refused to hide behind his Vor rank. WIth a brilliant mind, courage honed by a desire for adventure, and an ever-ready sense of absurd, he carved out his own place in the galactic scheme.