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Academic Discourse at Havana by Wallace Stevens
All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
Arabella by Georgette Heyer
The Big Pony Race by Erica David
Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton
Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug by Ed Emberley
Camp Buccaneer by Pam Smallcomb
Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks
Child of the Owl by Lawrence Yep
Creole Ladies, Marti the Smuggler, Bullfighting by Maturin M. Ballou
Cuban Sketches (excerpt) by James Steele
Dancing Above the Waves by Susan Walerstein
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
Evergreen by Belva Plain
Enfant Terrible by Scott Dalrymple
Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor
Flight of the Goose by Lesley Thomas
The Frog Prints by B. L. Harwick
Fullbrim's Finding by Matthew Hughes
A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis
Havana Letter by William Cullen Bryant
If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
LoveHampton by Sherri Rifkin
Marlin off the Morro by Ernest Hemingway
The Minister's Wooing by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
My Pet Virus by Shawn Decker
Nana Volume 1 by Ai Yazawa
Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen
The Penthouse Mystery by Ellery Queen
Reader's Guide by Lisa Goldstein
Red as Blood by Tanith Lee
The Roberts by Michael Blumlein
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Sea Gift by John Ashby
Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott
Singing to Cuba (excerpt) by Margarita Engle
Spiders and Scorpions: A Look Inside Series by P. D. Hillyard
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda
Unholy Domain by Dan Ronco
Virus Games by G. L. Sheerin
Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson

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Good Thing We Didn't Have Any Plans

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2 stars: OK
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Borders of Infinity: 07/18/08

I can't even begin to describe in this short entry how much I enjoyed Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold. This limited edition novel is actually made up of three novellas previously published in science fiction magazines. Then a few extra pages were written to wrap the stories together as a series of interviews between Miles Vorkosigan (the protagonist) and Simon Illyan.

The first story: "The Mountains of Mourning" was published in Analog in 1989. It covers Miles time back home after graduating from the military academy. He is sent by his Prime Minister father to investigate an infanticide case in a rural village 4 days walk away. It's a heart-wrenching story that also serves to build Miles as a character and to introduce readers to the world/universe in which he lives. There are spaceships, hover cars and other high tech conveniences. But there are also areas still living in extreme poverty who rely on horses and primitive technology to eke a living.

The second story: "Labyrinth" shows Miles as a mercenary. Although a lieutenant , he works under the pseudonym of Admiral Miles Naismith. He's sent to recover some data that's been implanted in what he's told is a medically enhanced soldier-monster. What Miles finds is nothing at all what he expected.

Another fantastic story!

The final story is the cover title "Borders of Infinity": Here Miles is a POW and must work the other POWs to gain his freedom. The prison, a dome, meets all the criteria to the letter for the IJC's rules but it's hell and inhumane nonetheless. In the process of figuring a way out, Miles lets himself be mistaken for a prophet.

So what does this mean for me... it means I must now read every Bujold book, especially the Vorkosigan Saga, that I can find.

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