Miles visits the planet Kibou on a hunch from empress Laisa, but a kidnapping attempt goes wrong and the sedative they give him reacts badly sending him manic and hallucinating into the cryocombs that stretch for kilometers beneath the city. When he makes it back to street level a boy named Jin takes pity on him and give him a place to stay while he recovers. Jin continues to help Miles and it turns out that Jin’s mother may have information that Miles needs. The problem is that she has been cryogenically frozen. Miles tackles this problem with all his diplomatic and covert Ops training, digging to find the coals under all the smoke.
Wonderful book, I love the characters Bujold creates from Jin and his animals, to every different version of Miles as he grows with each story. (And that sphinx!)
~Naomi
Reading Revels 2018 