Audio book/unabridged. Very good SF story about a race bred to be slaves in zero gravity with hands where legs would normally be. An engineer tries to lead this group to freedom when funding dries up and extermination has been ordered.

It was all right. Heroic engineer leads a revolution of the downtrodden IN SPAAACE. A decent premise but I didn't find the story or the characters very gripping. ( )

Very enjoyable, solid, classic sci-fi adventure. No wonder, of course, it's Lois McMaster Bujold ;) The adventure aside (with quite a bit of excitement there), you have such themes as the moral dilemmas of genetic engineering, human rights, and most of all, the choices we make.
The characters are not as memorable as in the rest of the Vorkosigan universe, but they are alive and you care about them. ( )

This was the first book I read in the Vorkosigan Saga and I really liked it. It had political intrigue, heroism, racism, exploitation, and genetic manipulation set in space with a great story. Fun, fast, entertaining read! ( )

2021 reread via audiobook:
This book is chronologically first but I have previously read the series in publication order. This time, I have reread this book first and it did make a difference. No qualms about giving it the full 4* this time around :)

2019 reread via audibook:
Maybe only 3.5 stars for the book itself. Grover Gardner once again does a marvelous job with the narration -- I am so glad that the whole series has been recorded with the same narrator!

2015 review:
This novel, #4 in the Vorkosigan series, is really a prequel. Set ~200 years before Miles' birth, it explains the origin of the quaddies. I think that I would have liked it more if I hadn't come to it in the middle of reading the series, as I missed Miles & it suffered in comparison to "Miles in Love" which I recently read and adored. It has several features which I generally like in my sci fi/fantasy reading such as the moral dilemma posed by a company creating humanoid workers who are considered the property of the company. I will have to revisit this Nebula award-winner sometime and see how it fares as a stand-alone. ( )