Two hundred years before the birth of Miles Vorkosigan, in a habitat orbiting the planet Rodeo, a genetically engineered people, nicknamed the “Quaddies”, have been created as a labor force to work in null gravity, their lower appendages being arms rather than legs as in standard humans, or “downsiders”.

The quaddies are not human in the eyes of their creators, they are “post-fetal experimental tissue cultures”, raised in a controlled environment and taught not only space construction but also how to maintain a largely self-sustaining environment in their orbiting home. Though many of the quaddies are technically adults, their carefully structured upbringing gives them the attitude and dependency of children.

The quaddies are a profitable commodity, their bodies engineered so that they do not need time off in gravity as humans do in order to maintain their health. As “property” of GalacTech they are unpaid labor, dependent on their creators for their every need. Leo Graf is a welding engineer, brought to Cay Habitat to teach a select group of quaddies how to build reliable, stable structures in space.

Though only in his 40’s, Graf feels like an old man compared to the eager young quaddies who attentively hang on his every word and whose ability to function in a no-gravity environment is far superior to his own. From his arrival, Graf is set on edge by the attitudes that project manager Bruce Van Atta and psychologist Dr. Sondra Yei demonstrate towards the quaddies and the more he gets to know them the more their condition grates on his sense of what is right and wrong.

Leo Graf can teach these young people how to do quality work that will last a lifetime, but can he teach one thousand quaddies, one thousand children, what it means to be free?

Leo Graf is based on Bujold’s father, Robert Charles McMaster, a Professor of welding engineering and the pioneer of the nondestructive technique. Falling Free won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1998.

Falling Free touches on relevant social and biomedical topics while creating an instant emotional bond with readers through Leo Graf and a few all-too-human quaddies. Though the story occasionally feels rushed and might have benefited from another 50-100 pages to flesh out story threads (it weighs in at 255 pages in the version I read) it stands as a shining example of why Lois McMaster Bujold has developed such a devoted following. I highly recommend the book.

My rating: 9/10 stars

Falling Free will get your dander up, a calculated move on Bujold’s part to make the reader sympathetic to the quaddies plight right from the opening chapter.  The first time Bruce Van Atta calls the quaddies “chimps”, you ache for the magical ability to step into the book so that you can land a punch squarely on his smug jaw.  The story isn’t meant to be subtle, a move that may have been dictated in part because Bujold wrote it to be published serially in Analog magazine, also as a tribute to her father who was a fan of that Astounding-style hard SF.  It is clear from the beginning that this story will be about not only what it means to be human but also will address freedoms and rights and fairness and equality.

It is a measure of great praise that Falling Free never feels preachy or so focused on social issues that it takes away from the story.  Instead Lois McMaster Bujold lays her cards on the table early and then gets down to the business of telling an emotionally engaging, action-packed story that not only offers imaginative science fictional ideas but gives the reader a few well-rounded characters to root for.  On the surface a few of the early-identified ‘bad guys’ are one-dimensional, but Bujold also plays with that in ways that will surprise the reader.  For certain she gives you a character to despise, but she also creates characters with genuine reactions who must wrestle with moral and ethical implications, particularly in the character of Leo Graf.

While I would recommend this story to anyone, it must be pointed out that on a couple of occasions the welding conversations get quite technical.  It is apparent that Bujold did her research and aimed to do her father proud.  However, those scenes fall short of being plot-stoppers in large part because of the way in which Bujold sets the scene.  It is difficult to become too lost with the welding and engineering references when you are imagining a room full of quaddies hovering (literally) in an attentive fashion around their teacher, Leo Graf.

Graf is a great character for the reader to inhabit and quaddies like Tony and Claire, their infant Andy, and Silver (pictured in Dave Seely’s cover image) will steal your heart.  You will start rooting for them early and won’t stop until the exciting finish.  I was tempted at one point late in the book to let out a cheerful “whoop”!

I mentioned in the opening that I wish the story had been somewhat longer.  There are a few scenes in the story that feel rushed, and one that happens off-screen and then is related in dialogue, that if fleshed out would have easily made this a 10/10 story.  From an experiential standpoint, that is exactly what Falling Free was for me.  I can overlook that minor complaint because I liked these characters so much and found the story to have just the right amount of excitement and romance to keep me up until the wee hours of the morning to discover how it would all end. Falling Free comes highly recommended. 

If you have yet to try Bujold, this is a great starting off point.  In researching to write this post I was excited to discover that we learn more about the fate of the quaddies in the Miles story Diplomatic Immunity.

The pictured version of Falling Free is a special edition from the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) Press.  I saw the cover image, painted by artist Dave Seeley, and was drawn to it.  Part of the attraction was that Seeley’s Leo Graf reminded me of Peter Davison (Doctor Who, All Creatures Great and Small, The Last Detective).  Davison is a favorite and it was easy for me to picture him as Leo Graf as I read.  The other attraction was the young girl clinging to him.  I wanted to know who she was and why she was demonstrating this level of affection.  I’m happy to say that those questions were answered to my great satisfaction.  This NESFA Press edition is a really nice hardcover and can be found for a very reasonable price through Amazon.