Partly, I think, by focusing on the cute kid and the cute animals and the sweet romantic subplot. (And positions Bujold for some scathing criticism of a certain country's plutocratic political system.) Add to this situation a cute, animal-loving point-of-view character, eleven-year-old Jin, whose mother has been disappeared by one of the cryocorps in question (frozen because she knew too much) a romantic subplot between mom and a Vor ambassador one of Bujold's trademark complicated plots the hyperactive wisecracking Miles Vorkosigan to power the book’s engine not to mention an appearance by Lord Mark-how could Bujold go wrong? No one else on Kibou-daini wields much at all. These proxy holders turn out to be those who own the cryocrypts with huge blocks of votes and trust funds at their command, they wield significant power, not to mention lawyers. And, since you aren’t legally dead, your heirs don't inherit, and you can still vote-or rather, someone holding your proxy can vote. None of these states get you counted as dead on Kibou-daini. In this case, these hands happen to belong to de facto if not actually dead people, frozen due to illness or encroaching (or actual) death. Cryoburn, the latest in Lois McMaster Bujold's ongoing saga of the Vorkosigan clan, begins with an interesting situation: a planet, Kibou-daini, that has backed itself into an economic corner by putting more and more of its power and wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
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