Barrayar

Barrayar is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold. It was first published as four installments in Analog in July–October 1991, and then published in book form by Baen Books in October 1991.Barrayar won both the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1992. It is a part of the Vorkosigan Saga, and is the seventh full-length novel of the series, in publication order. Barrayar is a direct sequel to Bujold's first novel Shards of Honor (1986), and these are paired in the 1996 omnibus Cordelia's Honor.

Plot summary

Cordelia and Aral Vorkosigan are expecting their first child. When the crafty old Emperor Ezar Vorbarra dies, Aral reluctantly takes over as regent for Ezar's grandson Gregor. A plot to assassinate Aral and Cordelia with poison gas fails, but the antidote, while effective, is also a powerful teratogen that poses a grave threat to the bone development of their unborn son. In a desperate attempt to save the fetus, Cordelia has it transferred to a uterine replicator — an artificial womb — to undergo experimental treatment that may partially combat the otherwise-fatal bone damage. Among Barrayarans, weakness and physical handicaps are culturally spurned; babies with birth defects are routinely euthanized. Aral's father, Count Piotr Vorkosigan, seeks to destroy the fetus rather than have the Vorkosigan name and title passed on to a "deformed mutant." A furious Cordelia keeps him at bay.

List of Vorkosigan Saga planets

This is a list of planets that appear in the Vorkosigan Saga, a series of science fiction novels and short stories by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Aslund

Predominantly agricultural planet connected to the Hegen Hub, which is its only route to the rest of the galaxy. Never seen firsthand in the saga.

Athos

A planet with an exclusively male population with is somewhat isolated and remote within the wormhole nexus. The homeworld of Dr. Ethan Urquhart in the novel Ethan of Athos. The population is maintained by obtaining ova from imported human ovaries, combining them with the father's semen, and incubating the resulting fetus in the ubiquitous "uterine replicator" which appears throughout the stories. Naturally only male babies are born. the receipt of a shipment of bad ovaries sends Ethan off-planet to find what happened to the proper shipment, and into the center of a plot involving Barrayaran and Cetagandan agents.

Most of the men form permanent or semi-permanent relationships to help in raising children, whose birth must be approved by local committees. Some men (who, it is implied, are strongly heterosexual) cannot enter into such relationships. They variously become "confirmed bachelors", monks of a sort, or simply leave the planet. The planet is named for the Mount Athos in Greece, which is home to monasteries where no women are allowed.

Barrayar (disambiguation)

Barrayar may refer to: