Line #5 Trivia/VorkosiganSaga


1	* AscendedFanFic:
2	** The series has very loose roots in Lois's history in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fanfic; you can see bits of the Klingon Empire in Barrayar, and the Federation in Beta Colony. The first part of ''Shards of Honor'' was originally a ''Star Trek'' fanfic, with the proto-Aral being a Klingon warrior and the proto-Cordelia being a Starfleet officer.
3	** A Vorkosigan Fanfic story, ''Negri's Boys'' by Charles Finlay, was rewritten with the serial numbers filed off as ''The Political Officer,'' and published in ''TheMagazineOfFantasyAndScienceFiction.'' It was also nominated for the [[UsefulNotes/HugoAward Hugo]] and [[UsefulNotes/NebulaAward Nebula]] Awards.
4	* BilingualBonus: The name of the nobles on Barrayar means "Thief" in Russian. Moreover in this form of the world it would have strong connotation with the the high title in the criminal hierarchy: "Vor v zakone". That translates literally to "Thief in law", meaning the criminal living in accordance with the criminal "law" that is the rules like "one should never do honest work" (it's actually considered a serious taboo), "one should never collaborate with the law enforcement", etc. Furthermore, such person can be "crowned" (the same term as for the king) by tattooing particular symbols on the shoulders. Interestingly, in Russian translation the word Vor was changed to For, so Miles is Forkosigan. By the way, even that change has some grounds: for example Volkswagen is pronounced and written Folksvagen in Russian, so For can look like a legitimate substitution following the same principle.
5	* EpunymousTitle:
6	** Several novels have had ''Miles to Go'' as a working title, but it's never made it to publication. "Miles to Go" does happen to be the title for the Bujold section of the Creator/BaenBooks webforum. But the one Baen author who actually ''did'' use it was Creator/DavidWeber in one of his ''Literature/{{Bolo}}'' short stories, who was quoting Robert Frost rather than referencing Miles Vorkosigan.
7	** During its writing, ''Diplomatic Immunity'' narrowly avoided being titled ''Diplomatic Impunity'' - to the vocal disappointment of many in the fandom.
8	*** Frankly, given that a large portion of the book deals with a bioweapon, ''Diplomatic Immunity'' is an even better pun.
9	** ''A Civil Campaign'' was going to be ''Rules of Engagement'' (suggested by Creator/JohnMFord), but when Bujold suggested it to her publisher she was told that Creator/ElizabethMoon already had a book of that title in the pipeline '''at Baen'''; while titles aren't copyrightable, the issues involved with having their mutual publisher ship two different books with the same title at (almost) the same time meant that Bujold had to find a new title.
10	* HaveAGayOldTime: Thanks to...certain demographics, it's difficult to take the name "The Vor Game" seriously in the internet age.
11	* HypotheticalCasting: [[https://www.goodreads.com/questions/751527-i-was-reading-this-article According to Bujold]], Cordelia's looks are modeled after a young Creator/VanessaRedgrave.
12	* {{Shoutout}}: Athos, the planet of men, shares a name with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Athos Mount Athos]], a Greek peninsula with many monasteries and a prohibition on women.
13	* TechnologyMarchesOn: The late-'80s/early-'90s worldbuilding shows particularly in the lack of mobile communication/computing. Nearly all personal communication -- albeit with holographic display technology -- is done via fixed desk-sized comconsoles (which also serve as the primary computing/entertainment hubs). Portable comconsoles do exist, but they seem to resemble the "luggable" portable computers of the '80s. Personal wristcoms and battlefield communicators are typically dedicated circuit devices, as opposed to 21st century cellular or wireless broadband technology. Very little resembling 21st century smartphones or other mobile computing devices are evident, even on the most technologically advanced planets (Earth, Beta Colony, Eta Ceta, etc.). However, one might interpret "lugging" around a portable comconsole the same way one "lugs" around their smartphone, as a virtual ball-and-chain rather than a real heavy object.
14	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
15	** Bujold's original plan was to follow up ''The Warrior's Apprentice'' with a novel about Arde Mayhew, but her editor didn't like it and convinced her to write about quaddies instead.
16	** Another missed opportunity with Arde Mayhew comes in ''Winterfair Gifts'', when Arde comes to Vorkosigan house for a wedding that Cordelia is also attending: Arde was the pilot who Cordelia tricked into giving her a lift to Escobar at the end of ''Shards of Honor''.
17	** Elena Bothari's name was originally supposed to be Nile, after Nile Etland in Creator/JamesHSchmitz's Literature/FederationOfTheHub series, but it was too similar to Miles and likely to confuse readers. Bujold still liked the name, as it was later recycled to be used as Ekaterin's middle name.

Context Trivia / VorkosiganSaga