Falling Free

By Lois McMaster Bujold

GalacTech engineer Leo Graf arrives at the remote Cay Project to teach quality-control welding to a workforce he soon learns are genetically engineered quaddies: four-armed, legless humans bred for permanent free-fall labor and treated by the company as owned equipment rather than employees. As Leo grows close to his students, including the young couple Tony and Claire and their infant son, he becomes increasingly troubled by the tightly managed education and complete corporate control shaping their lives. When company plans threaten to separate the family for reproductive scheduling, Leo watches as his own hard-won ethic of professional integrity collides with a system built on unquestioning obedience, setting the stage for a crisis over what, if anything, the quaddies are owed.

Description community-written - CC BY-SA 4.0.

Series

• Vorkosigan Saga (chronological) - book 1

Guides

• Chapter-by-chapter recap of Falling Free
• Falling Free character guide

Genres: hard-science-fiction, science-fiction, space-opera

Recordings