Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold

Cryoburn is the first of five Hugo Nominee’s for 2011 that I’ve read. While I have read the majority of L.M. Bujolds books, I have not read the last two or three in the Miles Vorkosigan series simply because I got burnt out on Miles. Those who have read the series can probably relate. So for Cryoburn there was some background info that I had to infer but being somewhat familiar with the universe already, it wasn’t too much of a detraction.

Miles, now Lord Imperial Auditor (prior novels), is sent off to Kibou-daini to investigate NewEgypt and WhiteCrys, both cryrofreezing and cryorevival corporations who have put in requests to open facilies on Barryar and Escoban. However, Miles finds himself part of a botched kidnapping attempt by the local radicals, which lands himself in the underbelly of the City – or better – the catacombs of the frozen. Once up-top again, lost, muddleheaded, he befriends a local boy and then the true nature of Kibou-daini and the corporations comes to the surface.

On one hand, the Miles Vorkosigan series - which are really just fun books to read - do not really embody what I feel is Hugo material. A totally subjective and arbitrary opinion, I completely admit it. But then, if one looks at this book from the stand point of the dead having votes, the living being held accountable for the dead and the ramifications of storing people until a cure for aging, diseases, etc., is developed and what will happen to that population when they are eventually revived – now that can get into some interesting moral discussions.

Too early to give this a ranking. I would like to see what the others are like first:

• Feed by Mira Grant
• All Clear by Connie Willis
• The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
• A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by M K Jemisin