Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold

I can’t help but enjoy any book that starts out with a really good hallucination.  Cryoburn does, and it just gets better as it goes along.  The hallucination is a allergic drug reaction and the protagonist really isn’t any kind of addict (I know you think this will be dull, but trust me).  He’s an interstellar diplomat named Miles Vorkosigan making an exploratory foray into a world his Emperor (and cousin, if I remember right) is interested in. 

The whole world is nearly a giant frozen mausoleum.  Seriously.

It’s run by a cryonics corporation consortium who freeze the old or sick and keep them pretty much forever.  You can imagine the susceptibility to abuse a frozen person may have…Miles starts looking into the place and the companies that run it and the people owned by it and, well, let’s just say that Miles is lucky to have an armsman named Roic to help him with the rough spots.

There are quite a few rough spots.

This would be depressing if it wasn’t so adventurous and so many great characters pop up in unexpected places, like the well-oiled machine of the shantytown where Miles’ hallucination ends.

For once, the Audible version is cheaper than the CD, so get that and enjoy.  It is a stand-alone read, but part of the huge Vorkosigan Saga which is over a dozen books (or is it two dozen?).  This is the first one I have encountered, but it sure won’t be the last.