The other members of the Cay project, particularly its boss, Bruce Van Atta, see nothing wrong with treating the Quaddies as property. This extra set of hands allows the Quaddies to be twice as efficient at most tasks in zero G, thus making them the perfect workers… especially since they’re not technically human, so GalacTech can treat them as mere inventory: tools to be used as they are needed. and, most noticeably, a second set of arms where their legs should be. When he arrives, he’s shocked to discover that the workers are not your average students, but are instead have been genetically engineered to be ideally adapted to working in zero G: bones and muscles that don’t lose density while in free-fall, inner ears stabilized to prevent the nausea that so often afflicts “downsiders”. Show More Habitat, and to teach safety inspection and welding to a new bunch of workers there. So if you don't find yourself entranced by this one, do try Young Miles before giving up on the series. I liked and enjoyed this-but I love lots of the other entries in the series. The story is good space opera in the tradition of the Heinlein juveniles-but with stronger, more believable female characters. Leo Graf, an engineer, finds himself teaching 'quaddies,' a bioengineered species of human with four arms designed to work in free fall who are disturbingly treated like property-and a new tech is about to make their purpose obsolete. But while Miles Vorkosigan is one of the most memorable fictional characters in science fiction, this merely has likable ones. This is recognizably in the same universe though, and is an entertaining story in its own right. So I'd recommend starting with the omnibus works Cordelia's Honor (centered on Miles' parents) or Young Miles, where Miles finally takes center stage. It's also an early work of Bujold, only her fourth published novel, and I think she's one of those writers who only got better with time rather than peaked early.

Show More Miles Vorkosigan-who isn't even mentioned in this standalone story set 200 years before the character that gives this series its name was born.

Falling free bujold