Cetaganda

Miles Vorkosigan and his cousin Ivan travel to the Cetagandan Empire, one of the galaxy's most formidable and culturally impenetrable civilizations, to represent Barrayar at the funeral of the Cetagandan Empress. What should be a ceremonial exercise in diplomatic endurance turns complicated almost immediately when a Cetagandan imperial official is murdered and Miles finds himself in possession of something he was never meant to have. Untangling the succession intrigue at the heart of the empire requires Miles to be cleverer than everyone around him, which is fortunately his most reliable talent.

Grover Gardner's narration is one of the great partnerships in science fiction audio, his voice perfectly calibrated to Miles' particular combination of relentless intelligence and barely contained chaos. The Cetagandan court sequences give Gardner room for a subtler range than the series' more action-heavy entries, and his rendering of the cultural gap between Barrayaran bluntness and Cetagandan indirection adds a comedic dimension that fits the novel's lighter tone. At under ten hours, the production is among the more accessible entry points in the Vorkosigan Saga.