Lois McMaster Bujold

Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is the hero of a series of science fiction novels and short stories by Lois McMaster Bujold known as the Vorkosigan Saga. In an article in The Vorkosigan Companion, Bujold acknowledged several real-life inspirations for the character: T. E. Lawrence, a young Winston... Churchill, "a physical template in a handicapped hospital pharmacist I'd worked with", and even herself . She also noted that she and her creation adopted dual personas, she as a housewife and writer, he as an aristocratic Vor scion and mercenary Admiral Naismith. However, she also asserted that Miles developed a personality all his own from the first book, The Warrior's Apprentice. Miles Vorkosigan first appeared in Bujold's novel The Warrior's Apprentice , although his parents had appeared in an earlier work, Shards of Honor , set before Miles's birth. According to The Vorkosigan Companion, the internal sequence of the books featuring Miles is: Miles Vorkosigan is the son of Aral Vorkosigan of the planet Barrayar and his Betan wife Cordelia Naismith.
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Cordelia Naismith is the name of two fictional characters by Lois McMaster Bujold. One is the titular character from a Victorian era Sherlock Holmes short story entitled "Adventures of the Lady on the Embankment" included in her anthology Dreamweaver's Dilemma. The other is from the science fiction... series the Vorkosigan Saga. Cordelia Naismith awakens as an amnesiac on a river embankment, wet and naked. Scotland Yard calls in Sherlock Holmes to help piece together her story and history. Cordelia Naismith, who first appears in the novel Shards of Honor, is a citizen of Beta Colony, and was a member of the Betan Astronomical Survey, which was converted into the Betan Expeditionary Force during wartime. The homeworld of the Vorkosigan Saga Cordelia Naismith first appears in the short story entitled "Dreamweaver's Dilemma" which is also included in the Dreamweaver's Dilemma anthology that contains "The Adventures of the Lady on the Embankment".
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Sergeant Taura of Dendarii Mercenaries started life as genetics experiment. She was developed as a super soldier on the planet of Jackson's Whole. She was the only eventual survivor of the experiment, that seems to have used some animal genes spliced into the human genome. In particular, she is... "equipped" with fangs and claws. Taura suffers from a massively accelerated metabolism, giving her extremely fast reflexes and responses and very great strength, compounded with her 8-foot height and matching mass. Unfortunately this accelerated metabolism will also sharply reduce her life time - something she is very much aware of. All attempts to find a medical way around this situation have had only marginal success. The last time she was seen in the series, in the novella Winterfair Gifts, she states that the doctors give her one more year to live, but also that they've said the same thing for the last four years. She is not concerned about it, deciding to live each day for its own sake. Admiral Naismith of the Dendarii was supposed to kill her to save her suffering at the hands of her new owners and save her a painful death when her metabolism failed, however when he realised that she was a human being despite her looks, he switched his mission to rescue her, a "damsel in distress" instead. She then joined the Mercenaries as a commando Squad Leader.
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Mark Pierre Vorkosigan is a character in Lois McMaster Bujold's sci-fi Series, the Vorkosigan Saga. Taken from its original location as a sidebar to Miles Vorkosigan Lord Mark Vorkosigan is Lord Miles Vorkosigan's clone-brother, born six years after Miles. He is created in a plot by Ser Galen, a... Komarran terrorist, to replace Miles, assassinate Miles' father Aral and Emperor Gregor Vorbarra, claim the Imperial Throne, and foment chaos and revolution. Miles, under the influence of his mother's Betan upbringing, refuses to kill Mark or even hinder him, and only desires that he come to Barrayar as a true Vorkosigan. Mark, after he kills Ser Galen refuses, and goes his own way. Mark looks a bit different than Miles because of crude attempts to simulate the effects of the chemical Miles was exposed to in utero that affected the development of his bones However, after a few years, Mark resurfaces and infiltrates the Dendarii Mercenaries by posing as Admiral Miles Naismith, planning to send them on a mission to liberate more than 40 clones who are scheduled for body harvesting.
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Taken from its original location as a sidebar to Miles Vorkosigan Captain Lord Ivan Vorpatril, also known as "That Idiot Ivan" or "Ivan, You Idiot" , is a character in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. He is Miles Vorkosigan's second cousin, foil, burden, workhorse, and until Miles has... children, his formal heir. He is everything Miles is not - tall, handsome, and athletic. He waltzed into the military academy and waltzed right back out into one plum posting after another. He inhabits any uniform - even the Dendarii's - like a second skin. When last seen, Ivan was a Captain in the Barrayaran military, but had been detached to serve as aide to his mother, Alys Vorpatril, in the planning for the upcoming Imperial wedding. Although not an heir to a Countship, Ivan is addressed as "Lord Vorpatril," rather than "Lord Ivan" or just "Vorpatril," presumably because of his descent from an Imperial daughter, though he provides much amusement for Count Falco Vorpatril, Ivan's distant uncle.
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