Memory

by Lois McMaster Bujold

Other authorsGary Ruddell (Cover artist), Carol Russo (Cover designer)
Hardcover, 1996-10

Status

Available

Call number

PS3552.U397 M46

Publication

Baen (Riverdale, N.Y., 1996). 1st edition, 1st printing. 462 pages. $22.00.

Description

Dying is easy. Coming back to life is hard. At least that's what Miles Vorkosigan thinks, and he should know, having done both once already. Thanks to his quick-thinking staff and incredible artistry from a medical specialist, Miles's first death won't be his last. But it does take some recovery, a fact he has been reluctant to admit. When he makes the mistake of returning too soon to military duty, he finds himself summoned home to face the Barrayaran security chief, Simon Illyan. But Miles's worst nightmares about Simon Illyan are nothing compared to Illyan's own nightmares. Under suspicion himself, Miles must seek out the answers to Ilyan's nightmares or see the inevitable destruction of Imperial Security and, with it, the Empire.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Raven
This is my favourite Vorkosigan book and probably in my top ten of books ever.

I mean, I love this universe. I read all the other books with enjoyment. But this one was the one that was written for me. No space opera dramatics - but a story that turns around and shows you what science fiction can
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do, what it can tell you about people I mean, first and foremost, this a character piece. The blurbs and the awful covers try and make out it's Dead Excitin', but the plot of the book, such as it is, doesn't kick in until around page 200. Instead, it's Miles taking apart his whole life, inch by inch, moment by moment, and trying to make something new of it. And somehow it's not depressing, although a little saddening: it manages to include all sorts of delicious human drama, small things that the big space opera novels didn't have time for.

There's Duv Galeni and his new romance; Gregor, who's startled his entire family by suddenly acquiring a new interest in life; and Miles's hilarious discovery that food and clothes and transport are not things that just happen. You have to make them happen. And for the first time, you get to see Miles, Ivan and Gregor interacting as adults, and I love that: I love how these three, who have had novels about them when they were aged five and one, and later when twenty and sixteen, are now, finally adults, except so recognisably themselves as we knew them before - and Alys refers to them as "you three young louts" and it makes me laugh, because, really, yes. I really do agree that there's an art to writing a series: not a trilogy in however many parts, but a series, so each novel makes sense but is somehow richer for all the others.

Then, the actual plot, which is itself driven mostly by character. It's about Ilyan, of all people, and I love that too. It's so unexpected, and it ends up making so much sense. Simon Ilyan is a walking, talking plot device. He first appears in Shards of Honor, way back when, in that horrifying scene scene with Cordelia about to be raped by Vorrutyer. That's when he first appears - so naturally, your attention is on other things. And then he crops up here and there in the books following, mostly to dispense exposition, unremarkably. Almost literally, he's a human computer.

And then twenty years pass, both in-universe and since the series was first published - and the author takes a step back, and actually thinks, what would it really mean to be that person, to bear that responsibility, that memory? And she takes this minor character from years before and deconstructs him - and Ilyan's breakdown is so well-rendered, so subtle and carefully drawn. And, I don't necessarily think Bujold is a very good writer - like JK Rowling, she's a very good storyteller and writes decent, unremarkable prose - but she's good at the sucker punch, like so:

"I would rather," stated Ivan quietly, "charge a laser-cannon site naked than be in here by myself."

And then he does it. He does it. It's so easy to read Miles and Ivan as spoiled aristocrats - and the narrative has such fun with that, with lots of reference to the typical Vor response to solving problems being to drown oneself in red wine - and then they stand this vigil with Ilyan because they have to, because no one else can, because Ilyan is going to wake up terrified every five minutes and someone has to be there, and to Miles, this is what being Vor is. Throwing oneself at the problem not because you can fix it, not because it will ever get better, but because you have to.

And there's a point Miles thinks: maybe if Ilyan didn't look so much like an animal, they wouldn't treat him like one - and I love that. I love how Miles redeems himself for his mistakes by being very angry that Ilyan's dignity is being taken away from him. Because it's a small thing, and it's bigger than anything he's ever done. It breaks my heart and inspires my envy at the same time - I wish I could write like this. And, at the same time, this is not a depressing book! It's an uplifting one. Miles, and Simon Ilyan, come out of it different people from how they went in - but the've gone through a crucible, both of them, come out more themselves. It's masterfully done.

Argh. It is a good book. I love it a lot.
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LibraryThing member fyrefly98
Summary: Miles Vorkosigan has made a lot of mistakes in his thirteen years of military service, but he’s always been able to bounce back stronger than before. But at the start of Memory, Miles makes a series of errors in judgment that could cost him everything. After his brush with death in
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Mirror Dance, Miles’s cryo-revival procedure has seemingly gone without a hitch… except for the fact that he now has unexplained, unpredictable, and uncontrollable seizures. When a seizure causes some unfortunate friendly fire on an otherwise routine Dendarii rescue mission, Miles tweaks his report to hide the fact, fearing being pulled from active duty and getting stuck on a desk job.

The consequences of his report wind up being even worse than Miles had feared. Simon Illyan, the head of Imperial Security, has an eidetic memory chip that allows him to catch Miles in his lies. Furious at this deception from someone who was being groomed as his replacement, Illyan discharges Miles from the Imperial Military Service… which simultaneously strips away his ability to use his alternate identity as Admiral Miles Naismith of the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet. In one blow, Miles sees all of his future plans – both as Admiral Naismith and as Lieutenant Vorkosigan – stripped away, just days before his thirtieth birthday.

Miles sinks into one of his black depressions, but his self-pity doesn’t last for long; something is going seriously wrong at ImpSec. Simon Illyan appears to be losing his mind… or at least the part of his mind that’s contained in his memory chip. As his condition deteriorates, ImpSec higher-ups are left with a puzzle: is this a natural chip malfunction, or deliberate sabatoge? And even though Miles no longer officially works for ImpSec, he’s determined to get to the bottom of this mystery one way or another.

Review and Reccomendation: Memory is in many ways a transitional novel: the closing of one phase of Miles’s life and the beginning of another one. Yet it’s simultaneously an independent and relatively self-contained story, and I appreciated Bujold’s decision to give this book a plot of its own rather than attempting to hang an entire novel on Miles’s personal development. As a result, though, the plot is somewhat oddly structured: a self-contained mystery novel bookended by large segments of series continuity. The result is that the “real” plot feels like it takes a long time to get started; the crisis that sparks the mystery (i.e., who or what destroyed Illyan’s chip?) doesn’t appear until roughly 3/8s of the way through. Reading about Miles doing nothing except simmering in his deep depression is not uninteresting, per se – Bujold throws in too many nice character moments, callbacks to previous books, and dryly funny bits for that – but it is also not something that I would describe as “action packed.”

Once the mystery starts, however, the plot picks up the pace. It took me a bit to get my footing in the plot – while I’m sure Illyan’s memory chip has been mentioned in the series prior to this point, it wasn’t something that I made any particular note of (not having an eidetic memory of my own), and thus its failure as a key plot point seemed to come from left field.

But my larger problem with the mystery was that I didn’t find it all that mysterious. I’m not a huge reader of mysteries, but in this case, I had the solution pegged – correctly, as it turns out – almost from the word go. Miles is usually so intelligent that as the investigation went on, and clues continued to be dropped, I felt like his failure to see the right answer was a result of his being deliberately obtuse. It wound up making what would otherwise have been highly enjoyable listening – see above re: funny, clever, and excellent character development – more frustrating than it needed to be. If only there were a way to reach into a book and slap the main character around until they remember the basics of criminal investigations...

But, for all that, any time spent in the universe of the Vorkosigan Saga is time well-spent, even when an individual installment doesn’t quite live up to the heights set by some of its predecessors, and I certainly enjoyed the listening experience. The audio production and Grover Gardner’s narration were seamlessly excellent, as always, and I’m looking forward to listening to more, especially given the new path on which Memory seems to have set Miles’s life. 4 out of 5 stars.
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LibraryThing member Fledgist
Miles Vorkosigan dies (sort of) and is revived. Afterwards, he finds that he can't do everything as dashingly as before. Faking a report, he's called on the carpet by his boss Simon Illyan. But then Illyan is the subject of an attack that destroys his eidetic memory, and Miles has to figure out who
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did it. He persuades Emperor Gregor to let him do the job, and Gregor does. In the process, Miles grows up. At last.
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
I've read several of the Vorkosigan series... but long enough ago that I can't recall which ones. Which means that I should probably just read all of them.

I believe that this particular one has more mystery and less action than many of the others in this series, but that was perfectly OK - it's
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still tense, complex, consistently interesting and compellingly readable.

A combination of a medical problem and some remarkably bad decisions causes Miles Vorkosigan to lose his status as a Imperial Security covert ops agent. Ashamed and embarrassed, he leaves his cover identity and his lovers behind and comes home to an empty manor house.

However, before he knows it, he's assigned to the exalted post of Imperial Auditor (it's good to be buddies with the Emperor) and given a mystery to solve - his old boss (the one who just fired him) has been poisoned, and it looks like someone is trying to frame Miles himself for the crime.
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LibraryThing member reading_fox
Although technically 11th in a series, this actually works well as a standalone whodunnit in space - the background requires a bit of second guessing at times, but I've enjoyed much worse by many other authors, and if you're at all familiar with SF tropes it won't present a problem.

Miles is a
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Imperial Agent, running a fleet of mercinaries when he lies in a report about his mental health. Discharged with only his long standing career mitagating the disgrace. Lost and lonely in his parents mansion, news reaches him that his previous immidate superior is acting strangely. The official news starts to look odd too and Miles decides to investigate personally - fortunetyl he still has some strings he can pull.

Although I guess the culprit before the end, it was a nicely woven plot, without the deux et machina that SF mysteries can lend themselves too. The characters and the relationships between all work well, although I'm sure this works better if the previous books are known. The writing is light and comprehensive without getting bogged down in technological details.

Overal fun and enjoyable mysery in space.
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
This is one of the best books out of a favorite series--nominated for Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel. I don't think it's as winning as The Warrior's Apprentice, as intense as Mirror Dance or as amusing as A Civil Campaign, so I didn't give it a full five stars, but it's still a great read.
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Memory is listed as the eleventh book chronologically in the Vorkosigan Saga, a series that could be described as space opera. The series features one of my favorite fictional characters, Miles Vokosigan. I've seen one reviewer describe him as a "feminist Captain Kirk." Close enough, even if a short, crouch-backed brittle-boned Captain Kirk, although in a lot of ways Miles reminds me more of Kirk's original inspiration, C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower, only a lot more manic.

The description of this book I've seen is: Miles hits thirty. Thirty hits back. In a way, this is a Miles coming of age book. Or rather coming to maturity. The cool thing about Miles is that, unlike many series characters, he doesn't stay static. He does evolve, does have a character arc over the course of the series and this book marks an important transition, with things foreshadowed in prior books finally hitting home. And looking back as well as forward, the title is very apt. The series (and Bujold in general) is also noteworthy for the richness of its secondary characters, and this book prominently featured Simon Illyan, the head of Imperial Security and one of the most intriguing characters in the series.

Mind you, I wouldn't start here. One of the pleasures of this book was catching references to prior events and this novel would act as a spoiler to earlier stories. (And if you read later novels first the solution to the mystery will be obvious.) I'd start instead with either the omnibus book Cordelia's Honor or Young Miles. Better yet, get the hardcover edition of Cryoburn, the 14th book, the one with the CDRom. The CDRom contains every previously published Vorkosigan novel--with the exception of Memory.

This by the way, was the last Vorkosigan novel left I hadn't read. Now I'm going to have to wait for Bujold to write more, and since the latest was published less than two weeks ago, alas I know I'm in for a long drought. I'm going to miss Miles and the gang. That's the what's special about this series. It's not the prose, it's not so much the engaging plots. It's the characters that get you hooked for life.
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LibraryThing member KDSarge
This book is incredible. I read it in Miles-chronological order, so I'd been following him and adoring him for some time when I read it and--wow.

Just...wow. Miles outgrowing the admiral? Moving on and finding something to which he is so ideally suited? I want to write a book this good. (preferably
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more than one, but...)
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LibraryThing member hjjugovic
This is probably my favorite series of all time. I've read it many times, and just finished reading it again. The characters and the world Bujold creates are outstanding, but what is perhaps the most fascinating is the way she uses those characters and setting to tell so many kinds of stories:
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classic space opera, murder mysteries, psychological thrillers, and even straight-up comedy of manners, a la Jane Austen. Her themes are universal and tend to at least touch on the theme of the search for identity in all her books. Memory is not in an omnibus. The writing is elegant, the humor subtle and yet LOL-funny, and the plot satisfyingly original. Her creation of Miles Vorkosigan is a true literary masterpiece, and also I'd like to marry him. Truly, these book are not-to-be-missed. Memory takes the character of Miles to a whole new level. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member fyrefly98
Summary: Miles Vorkosigan has made a lot of mistakes in his thirteen years of military service, but he’s always been able to bounce back stronger than before. But at the start of Memory, Miles makes a series of errors in judgment that could cost him everything. After his brush with death in
Show More
Mirror Dance, Miles’s cryo-revival procedure has seemingly gone without a hitch… except for the fact that he now has unexplained, unpredictable, and uncontrollable seizures. When a seizure causes some unfortunate friendly fire on an otherwise routine Dendarii rescue mission, Miles tweaks his report to hide the fact, fearing being pulled from active duty and getting stuck on a desk job.

The consequences of his report wind up being even worse than Miles had feared. Simon Illyan, the head of Imperial Security, has an eidetic memory chip that allows him to catch Miles in his lies. Furious at this deception from someone who was being groomed as his replacement, Illyan discharges Miles from the Imperial Military Service… which simultaneously strips away his ability to use his alternate identity as Admiral Miles Naismith of the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet. In one blow, Miles sees all of his future plans – both as Admiral Naismith and as Lieutenant Vorkosigan – stripped away, just days before his thirtieth birthday.

Miles sinks into one of his black depressions, but his self-pity doesn’t last for long; something is going seriously wrong at ImpSec. Simon Illyan appears to be losing his mind… or at least the part of his mind that’s contained in his memory chip. As his condition deteriorates, ImpSec higher-ups are left with a puzzle: is this a natural chip malfunction, or deliberate sabatoge? And even though Miles no longer officially works for ImpSec, he’s determined to get to the bottom of this mystery one way or another.

Review and Reccomendation: Memory is in many ways a transitional novel: the closing of one phase of Miles’s life and the beginning of another one. Yet it’s simultaneously an independent and relatively self-contained story, and I appreciated Bujold’s decision to give this book a plot of its own rather than attempting to hang an entire novel on Miles’s personal development. As a result, though, the plot is somewhat oddly structured: a self-contained mystery novel bookended by large segments of series continuity. The result is that the “real” plot feels like it takes a long time to get started; the crisis that sparks the mystery (i.e., who or what destroyed Illyan’s chip?) doesn’t appear until roughly 3/8s of the way through. Reading about Miles doing nothing except simmering in his deep depression is not uninteresting, per se – Bujold throws in too many nice character moments, callbacks to previous books, and dryly funny bits for that – but it is also not something that I would describe as “action packed.”

Once the mystery starts, however, the plot picks up the pace. It took me a bit to get my footing in the plot – while I’m sure Illyan’s memory chip has been mentioned in the series prior to this point, it wasn’t something that I made any particular note of (not having an eidetic memory of my own), and thus its failure as a key plot point seemed to come from left field.

But my larger problem with the mystery was that I didn’t find it all that mysterious. I’m not a huge reader of mysteries, but in this case, I had the solution pegged – correctly, as it turns out – almost from the word go. Miles is usually so intelligent that as the investigation went on, and clues continued to be dropped, I felt like his failure to see the right answer was a result of his being deliberately obtuse. It wound up making what would otherwise have been highly enjoyable listening – see above re: funny, clever, and excellent character development – more frustrating than it needed to be. If only there were a way to reach into a book and slap the main character around until they remember the basics of criminal investigations...

But, for all that, any time spent in the universe of the Vorkosigan Saga is time well-spent, even when an individual installment doesn’t quite live up to the heights set by some of its predecessors, and I certainly enjoyed the listening experience. The audio production and Grover Gardner’s narration were seamlessly excellent, as always, and I’m looking forward to listening to more, especially given the new path on which Memory seems to have set Miles’s life. 4 out of 5 stars.
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LibraryThing member wfzimmerman
Perhaps the very best of Bujold's unexcelled Vorkosigan series. I hope she doesn't keep writing these silly romantic fantasies (THE SHARING KNIFE) and comes back to Vorkosigan series for more than just one book.
LibraryThing member ShiraC
One of the best books in the series. Miles destroys his career with the Dendarii Mercenaries. (The low point of this book is very low indeed.) He is rescued by duty, and offered the first step into what will become a new career.
LibraryThing member infjsarah
Another excellent read from Ms Bujold. Miles encounters something he cannot overcome. He loses one job and finds another. Like most people he find change hard to handle but for the first time he finds out who Lord Miles Vorkosigan is and could be.
LibraryThing member jadelennox
This is, for me, the most painful Miles adventure, marking the series' turning point from space opera adventure to character pieces. Miles' series of appalingly bad choices here are thoroughly cringe inducing (though thoroughly in character). Of course, being Miles, he still comes out on top and
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saves the Empire for Truth, Justice, and the Barrayaran way.

The mystery plot is excellent and well developed, and would carry the novel even without the character development.
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LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
Magnificent as usual. I haven't read Memory in quite a while, and as usual remembered the plot without remembering all the little things that make it so good. Some of Ivan and Miles' exchanges, for instance; the fishing scene; the Koudelka sisters, foreshadowing A Civil Campaign; Cordelia arriving
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home; Miles' reaction(s) to his home when it isn't full of his parents...lots of lovely bits. In many ways, this book tells the most about Vor society - in Miles recovering himself within Vor, in the Komarran (Duv and Laisa) and non-Vor (Illyan, Allegre, Haroche...) reactions to things - a lot of the assumptions underlying the Vor come out very strongly and clearly here.
There's a song that tells the story of this book - I actually heard the song before I ever read it. It's called Two Falls Out of Three, by Cat Faber of Echo's Children. It's a total spoiler - tells the villain's name, what he offered Miles, even the inspiration that Miles uses to catch him - and it didn't spoil the book for me at all. Of course it helps that the guy's name isn't spelled like it sounds at all, so I didn't recognize it when I read it. But still. Mirrors and smoke.
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LibraryThing member JenneB
I stayed up all hours reading this and was almost late to work.
This book rewards those readers who've been following the whole series--it's not just another Crazy Miles Adventure but instead takes the character in a whole new direction.
LibraryThing member sageness
Best yet of the series.
LibraryThing member Rubygarnet
I feel that between "Mirror Dance" and this, the series's purview expanded and gained depth.
LibraryThing member satyridae
Blisteringly wonderful. One thinks, going in, that Bujold writes straightforward space opera. One sees a shelf of books called "The Vorkosigan Saga" and one draws these erroneous conclusions.

Bujold is a splendid writer who in this book explores the human condition and what it means to decide who
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one is. What it takes to become wholly the person one wishes to be. What it means when one's agency is taken away, and what loyalty and love are all about. She doesn't miss a beat, either. Miles is one of my favorite fictional people, and he comes into his own in a big way here.

Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member iayork
Another Hit For Miles: After the superlative "Mirror dance", "Memory" was almost bound to light up a little, but happily, it didn't :)

Miles has returned to active duty, working as Admiral Naismith, the ImpSec identity - but his crio-revival wasn't so succesful as formerly believed, and he bungles
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a mission... Illyan finds out about it - and about the lies in the report Miles presented - and gives our Lord Vorkosigan the boot. Unemployed, depressed - almost suicidal -, and going 30, Miles has to turn to other horizons for his hyper-active personality.
The only thing is, there is no need for his special talents, and the salvation, when it comes, is actually a huge problem: Illyan's eidetic chip has been sabotaged and Miles' former chief is about to lose his mind or die... So Gregor gives Miles the prop he needs - the Imperial Auditor rank - to solve the problem, and he does solve it, Miles-like: quick, neat, completely.

The story is action-packed, the characters well-developed, the rhythm flows...

A superb writing, another extraordinary Vorkosigan adventure!!
Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member michaelcruse
Awesome, awesome, awesome!

Miles blows his brains out and then has to find them again.
LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
This is the Miles book mysteriously missing from the collection available online, and it's not really one to miss, because it's the point where the series shifts entirely from military sci-fi to a broader variety of genres. As a book in itself, it's a little odd - I certainly wouldn't recommend it
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as a starting place - but it does what it sets out to do, character-development-wise, and I'm glad I read it, even out of order.
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LibraryThing member thesmellofbooks
Having built an adoring fan base with her previous books in the series, Bujold is in the unique position in modern day genre fiction of being able to write a lengthy novel in which the inward struggles of the characters and their place in their world is of prime importance. The adventure part of
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this book doesn't even begin until well after page 300, but this reader never thought, when is it starting?! Engrossing, human, and very well developed. Bujold is a master of her craft.
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LibraryThing member therhoda
The best of the miles series my favorite for the character development.
LibraryThing member caedocyon
I'm not sure why I initially gave this 3 stars. I've re-read it half a dozen times now, and I've come to believe it's one of the best single books in one of my absolute favorite series. The pace of the plot seems uneven when you read it first, but there are good reasons for that.
LibraryThing member 4hounds
One of my favorite books ever. The mystery, Miles' character, the dialogue - it's all perfect, funny, and highly emotional in places. Just...perfect.

Awards

Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1997)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1997)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1996-10

Physical description

462 p.; 6.5 inches

ISBN

0671877437 / 9780671877439
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