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A review by leons1701
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold
3.0
Bujold seems to be on a bit more of a comic turn with her last two Vorkosigan books being the excellent Captain Vorpatril's Alliance and then this. While certainly not the crazy antics of CVA (much less A Civil Campaign) there's definitely a light touch of humor throughout most of the book, which is really a look at how people go on after the loss of a loved one, especially one who was a Great Man. Also of course a look at "Second Acts" (or in the case of Cordelia, something more like third or fourth acts). But of course there's also general drunken mayhem, crooked contractors, teenage rebellion (or at least sullenness), discovering uncomfortable truths about one's parents, and some musing on how the uterine replicator tech changes the whole idea of parenthood. (Mild spoiler: Miles gets a sister).
Bujold's dropped the chronological jumping around from the middle parts of the series and continues things from after Aral's death and the birth of Miles children. Miles is mostly offstage here, the center of the book is firmly on Cordelia and Admiral Jole. There's been some muttering of "retcon" over their prior relationship, but I don't care, nothing here contradicts anything previously published and we already knew enough about both Aral and Cordelia to not really be surprised. And since almost all the previous books were from the viewpoint of Miles, who didn't know, we didn't either. No big deal.
Bujold's dropped the chronological jumping around from the middle parts of the series and continues things from after Aral's death and the birth of Miles children. Miles is mostly offstage here, the center of the book is firmly on Cordelia and Admiral Jole. There's been some muttering of "retcon" over their prior relationship, but I don't care, nothing here contradicts anything previously published and we already knew enough about both Aral and Cordelia to not really be surprised. And since almost all the previous books were from the viewpoint of Miles, who didn't know, we didn't either. No big deal.