Think Galactic- Borders of Infinity

For the September meeting of Think Galactic, we read Borders of Infinity, a collection/fix-up by Lois McMaster Bujold, set in her expansive Vorkosigan universe, and centered on Miles, its primary character. Extremely brief notes below!

• This collection was picked for ease-of-entry into the Vorkosigan books, which might be one of those "better in aggregate than any individual book" kind of series.
• Noted a truly tragic typo in one edition—"Morning" for "Mourning".
• Noted some very unselfconscious use of "our plucky intrepid hero" tropes.
• Debated whether we buy "the thing with the hat". It's a fun scene, at least.
• "It can't be a woman writing this character", and some sexual conduct issues.
• Some questions/problems with "science fixes", the monarchy/capitalism & charity ideas.
• Noted obsession with both Cordelia & possibly Bujold for "the babies".
• Are any of these stories, or others elsewhere in the series, standalone? Not really maybe?
• Contrasted with other sprawling but less-linearly-dependent series, like Cherryh's—we read 40,000 in Gehenna a while back.

Fun discussion, a bit mired in how much Miles' character/story relies on being part of a much larger cloth, which isn't all imparted to a reader of just this collection.