Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is a protagonist of a series of science fiction novels and short stories known as the Vorkosigan Saga, written by American author Lois McMaster Bujold.
Personality
Traits Miles is depicted as both brilliant (especially in military tactics) and hyperactive; one of his girlfriends describes him as "addicted to adrenaline rushes". He compulsively and constantly challenges the world, sometimes with disastrous consequences, although more often than not, his mind overcomes his physical weakness. As Simon Illyan says to Ekaterin when Miles is courting her in A Civil Campaign, "Do you know all those old folk tales where the Count tries to get rid of his only daughter's unsuitable suitor by giving him three impossible tasks? Don't ever try that with Miles. Just ... don't."
He has a strong tendency to manipulate people and is very good at bluffing. The Dendarii Free Mercenaries, for instance, begin as pure imaginative figment, and through frantic improvisation, he conceals his deception from his recruits; their accomplishments make real his invention. Despite the initial successes of this "lie first, fix later" strategy, it always makes for manic juggling of various falsehoods and stories, and often ends up working against him. For instance: first, he is caught lying about his seizure disorder, and then the widow he loves is enraged when she discovers that he has been attempting to court her by stealth during her socially-recognized period of mourning.
Romance and Sexuality His childhood love interest is Elena Bothari, the daughter of Sergeant Konstantin Bothari, but the feeling is not reciprocated. In the novel Cetaganda (1996), Miles has an unrequited crush on Rian Degtiar, the "Handmaiden of the Star Crèche" who later becomes an Empress of Cetaganda. As his alter ego, Admiral Naismith, Miles has relationships with Admiral Elli Quinn of the Dendarii Mercenaries and Taura, a sergeant of the same mercenary outfit who was originally created as a military experiment and later rescued by Miles in the short story "Labyrinth". In the long term, Miles is looking for a wife who will become the future Lady Vorkosigan, a prospect that drives his non-Barrayaran lovers away. Eventually he falls for and wins the love of Ekaterin Vorsoisson in the novel Komarr (1998).
While Miles primarily falls for women, in Diplomatic Immunity (2002) he is forced to confront and admit his attraction for Betan Bel Thorne, a non-binary and intersex character:
Inspiration In an article in The Vorkosigan Companion,Lois McMaster Bujold, p. 7-40, in Lillian Stewart Carl and John Helfers, The Vorkosigan Companion, Baen Books 2008, Bujold acknowledged several real-life inspirations for the character: T. E. Lawrence, a young Winston Churchill, "a physical template in a handicapped hospital pharmacist I'd worked with", and even herself (the "great man's son syndrome"). She also noted that she and her creation adopted dual personas, she as a housewife and writer, he as an aristocratic Vor scion and mercenary Admiral Naismith. However, she also asserted that Miles developed a personality all his own from the first book, The Warrior's Apprentice.
Reception In the New York Review of Science Fiction, October 1998 (Number 122), Miles is summarized as follows:
Fictional character biography
Traumatic birth Miles Vorkosigan is the son of Aral Vorkosigan of the planet Barrayar and his Betan wife Cordelia Naismith. He has several physical impairments due to an assassination attempt directed at his parents. A poison gas grenade was thrown into their bedroom during Cordelia's pregnancy with Miles but the couple's lives were saved by quick administration of the antidote—a violent teratogen that destroys skeletal development in a growing fetus.
The only available treatment for the fetus was experimental at best, and would have been fatal to the mother. Miles was therefore transferred to an artificial uterine replicator in an effort to salvage his bone development. While in the replicator, Miles was kidnapped from the hospital and used as a hostage against his father by Vidal Vordarian, the leader of the Vordarian pretendership, putting a temporary halt to the treatments. He was ultimately born with "chalk-stick bones, friable as talc", and is described as "wizened as an infant homunculus."Bujold, Lois McMaster: The Vor Game
Appearance Despite repeated corrective surgeries, Miles's height only reaches four-foot-nine at maturity. He has his mother's sea grey eyes and his father's dark hair. Miles is described as winter pale with laugh lines around his eyes and pain lines around his mouth. Miles was slightly hunch-backed, but after his death and cryo-revival, a surgeon managed to straighten his spine a bit, giving him a valued additional centimeter of height. Miles has fine scars running all over his body from having his easily broken bones replaced with synthetics in his twenties. Many people on Barrayar are prejudiced against him because they incorrectly believe him to be a mutant. "Mutants" (real or perceived, which are common on Barrayar due to a small population at the beginning of the Time of Isolation) are highly undesirable on Barrayar, and children visibly carrying a mutated gene are often killed by their families. Though the Time of Isolation is over, prejudice against mutants and the physically disabled is still very high.
Abnormal name for the abnormal lord When his famous grandfather learns of the prenatal damage, he tries to abort the fetus in the replicator, and later tries to kill the infant because he believes that "We cannot afford to have a deformed Count Vorkosigan."Lois McMaster Bujold, Barrayar Count Piotr is thwarted in this by his own armsman, Sergeant Bothari, who is devoted to Cordelia. Vor male heirs are usually named with the first name of the paternal grandfather as the child's first name, and the first name of the maternal grandfather as the middle name, and before the soltoxin Miles was to be named Piotr Miles Vorkosigan. When the Count, frustrated in his attempted infanticide, disinherits Aral and his family from his name and his property, Cordelia instead bestows her deceased father's full name on her son, henceforth Miles Naismith Vorkosigan.Dendarii Library
General Count Piotr is reconciled to his son, daughter-in-law and grandson when Miles becomes able to walk at age five, and shows a forceful interest in his grandfather's beloved horses. This common ground, and observation of Miles' intelligence and determination, earns the boy Piotr's respect and acceptance, and they have a closer though still challenging relationship until the Count's death.
Childhood and adolescence As a child, Miles is highly energetic and enjoys swimming and horseback riding, despite frequent injuries and broken bones. To compensate for the social disadvantage of his appearance, he develops tremendous charm and manipulation skills, even getting the Koudelka girls to march around as a "precision drill team".Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign He has a series of adventures and misadventures, including driving a hover tank through a barn at age 12. His companions when growing up include Elena Bothari, Miles's bodyguard's daughter; his cousin, Ivan Vorpatril; and his foster-brother, Emperor Gregor Vorbarra.
Miles grows up around the corridors of power, and learns to see his father's powerful colleagues not as objects of awe but as fixtures in his home, as he listens to their frank discussions and arguments. This behind-the-scenes perspective will profoundly influence the course of his career.
At the age of 17, he fails the physical test to enter the Barrayaran Imperial Military Service Academy by jumping from a wall obstacle and breaking both legs on landing.Lois McMaster Bujold, The Warrior's Apprentice, chapter 1 To get over this disappointment, he takes a trip to his mother's home world, Beta Colony; has (unintended) space adventures for a few months; and improvises a force called the Dendarii Mercenaries into existence. In the process, his lifelong protector Sergeant Bothari is killed. Miles is charged with treason, exonerated, and (through a little nepotism) accepted into the Barrayaran Imperial Military Service. After graduating he is asked to resolve an infanticide charge in Silvy Vale, a rural area of his father's district (described in "The Mountains of Mourning"). The people he encounters and his experiences there strongly influence his sense of purpose and identity throughout the rest of his life.
ImpSec career Shortly after graduating from the academy Miles is assigned to the worst posting in the Barrayaran Empire: Kyril Island. Kyril Island is a winter infantry training post often called "Camp Permafrost". Miles is assigned as the weather officer for the base. There is an accident where a mutagenic poison is spilled and a few soldiers are ordered to clean it up without adequate protective gear. They refuse the order, and the infuriated base commander orders them to strip at gunpoint and stay outside in the snow until they are ready to comply. Deciding to join the objectors on ethical grounds, a naked Miles convinces the base commander to use an alternative method, but at the cost of ending his career as he is charged with mutiny.
When the full story comes out, Miles's father leans on Simon Illyan to have Miles work in Covert Ops directly under Illyan. Miles is given difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible missions. He works only under Illyan with one rule: "Deliver results or pay with your ass".Bujold, Lois McMaster: Cetaganda Working deep cover missions in the persona of Miles Naismith, Miles is forced to improvise solutions to difficult questions extemporaneously. More often than not Miles talks his way into and out of life-threatening situations. Unfortunately, his physical appearance makes him hard to forget. When cornered by a reporter who sees the similarity between Miles Vorkosigan and Miles Naismith, he says that they are clone brothers.
At age 24, Miles' life becomes more complicated when he discovers that he has an actual clone, created by a Komarran terrorist with the aim of killing Miles, his family, and the Emperor, and ultimately becoming himself Emperor of Barrayar. His friends urge him to kill the clone, but due to the Betan influence on his upbringing, Miles thinks of the clone as his brother and lets him go free. Four years later, Miles is killed while trying to rescue his clone-brother, and although he is successfully cryo-frozen and revived, he is left with a condition which causes periodic seizures, particularly under great stress. He tries to conceal this from Simon Illyan, his boss and chief of Imperial Security (ImpSec). Miles falsifies a report after he has a seizure in combat, but this is detected and he is fired from ImpSec, putting an end to his life with the Dendarii as well. Miles is devastated as the character of Naismith had become the expression of everything he ever wanted, in essence he loses himself and his sense of purpose.
Almost immediately, he becomes suspicious of a plot against Illyan who has fallen ill and is being kept isolated; he requests the assignment of an Imperial Auditor to help him investigate the situation, but instead, the Emperor surprises him by making him the "Ninth Auditor", a temporary designation by tradition, but nonetheless endowed with full Auditor powers. During the course of the investigation Miles confronts his quest for identity and wins.
His handling and solving of the case is reviewed by the other Auditors and his status as Auditor is made permanent. Miles is the first Imperial Auditor in the history of the Vorkosigans.
Mid life—30s on