Miles' lies and old injuries catch up with him and he is expelled from the Barrayaran Imperial Security. That means he loses his admiral Naismith alter ego, or at least has to choose between it and his real identity as Miles Vorkosigan. He now has to figure out who he really is and what he wants to do with his life. In the meantime, shortly after firing Miles, Simon Illyan's memory chip fails, and chaos ensues in ImpSec.

This is another quite entertaining book, even though there is no space action. It's mostly a mystery, but when the hyperactive Miles Vorkosigan is the detective you can be sure that the investigation won't be boring. Also, Miles finds a new role in Barrayar, possibly more appropriate for his qualities than ImpSec field agent.

This is the ninth book in my reread of the series, not counting the short novels, and it's still going strong. It's not the place to look for deep science-fictional concepts. This series is just fun adventures with a truly great main character, but what it does it does incredibly well. ( )

Om nom nom...can’t...stop ( )

Mostly a story about how the space soldier/secret agent protagonist recovers from injuries and changes careers. There's also a mystery to solve along the way. This book wouldn't work for people who haven't read the earlier stories in this series, but it's worthwhile if you've become invested in those characters over the previous books. I didn't like how the main character got dismissed for filing a false report, then was appointed as a special prosecutor through nepotism; that felt forced. But I enjoyed the book overall. ( )

I have already read my print copy of McMaster's Memory more than once. It's one of my favorite books in the Vorkosigan Saga. I'd already listened to Mr. Grover's narration from the two audio books in the series that my local library owns, as well as my own four, so I had no fear of having my listening pleasure ruined by the narrator.

This eleventh book is a mystery recounting the end of one career for Miles Vorkosigan and signaling a new direction for his life.
The mystery itself is good, but the real fun (enjoyable through this listening as it was during my rereading), is Miles' efforts to work out whodunnit.

Of course Miles figured out who the perpetrator was and caught the evildoer with indisputable proof. The guilty party may have been very smart about some things, but a real twit about others. Okay, said twit couldn't have known that the man he was trying to frame was the beloved of one of the daughters of Emperor Gregor's highly regarded former bodyguard. Still, since there's never been any indication that Gregor dislikes or hates his former foster parents, the Count and Countess Vorkosigan, a little thought might have suggested that Gregor just could be fond of his foster brother, Miles. If so, repeatedly referring to Miles as 'that git' during the confession is unlikely to help one's case.

I highly recommend this audio book. ( )

April 2021 reread - Still a solid 4*. I found myself quite annoyed with Miles in the early parts of the book, more than I remembered being before.

August 2019 reread - The tension was a bit less this time around, knowing the outcome, but it was still a solid 4*.

4.5 stars. Grover Gardner did a terrific narration of this 10th or 11th entry in the Vorkosigan series. Very glad that I decided to check this audiobook edition out of the library! ( )