Concur on basically all points wrt Cryoburn. I was surprised how old Miles acted, as if you get kids and suddenly you're 55. Surely there's a couple of missing steps in there, even for people who have kids relatively late, where, as the old commercial used to go, "Five second rule! That cookie is still good!"

(I also harbor an unending grudge that Bujold obviously never intends to write from Aral Vorkosigan's viewpoint. I think she fetishizes him from without, which tends to indicate she doesn't have the chops to write him from within. But I think the universe would be so much stronger with overt exploration of his pressure-cooker personality and the way he exemplifies-but-rejects a particular old-guard mindset of Barrayar.)