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A review by tehani
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold
5.0
Oh my gosh this was AMAZING! I had no idea what to expect, other than that it was a Cordelia-focussed novel and so every single thing that happened surprised and delighted me. I don't want this to be a spoilery review, because it is an advance copy and the book isn't properly out until early 2016, but I have to say a few things!
Bujold is one of the singularly most readable authors I have ever come across, and it's always a struggle to put the darn thing down, and I had to argue stringently with myself not to go back and start rereading very book in the series again because of all the beautiful callbacks to past events sprinkled throughout the story.
One of the (many) things I adore about the Vorkosigan saga is the clever way Bujold uses genre conventions - while every book is science fiction (or space opera, if you will), almost every single one sits gorgeously in another genre as well. Crime, romance, detective, mystery, comedy of manners, nothing is too removed from the SF that Bujold can't incorporate it! With this book, I could sit it as a mature contemporary romance (there is probably a better, more specific, designation, but I haven't read enough romance in recent years to know what it is!) and it's wonderful.
I love that we get Miles and his family, but they are not the focus. I love that it has beautifully domestic scale (by comparison to others in the series, particularly). And I love the characters, the emotional resonance, and the relationships we see.
And it was so very, very hard not to go immediately to my bookshelves and start back at the beginning again. Once you've read the book too, you'll know why!!!
Bujold is one of the singularly most readable authors I have ever come across, and it's always a struggle to put the darn thing down, and I had to argue stringently with myself not to go back and start rereading very book in the series again because of all the beautiful callbacks to past events sprinkled throughout the story.
One of the (many) things I adore about the Vorkosigan saga is the clever way Bujold uses genre conventions - while every book is science fiction (or space opera, if you will), almost every single one sits gorgeously in another genre as well. Crime, romance, detective, mystery, comedy of manners, nothing is too removed from the SF that Bujold can't incorporate it! With this book, I could sit it as a mature contemporary romance (there is probably a better, more specific, designation, but I haven't read enough romance in recent years to know what it is!) and it's wonderful.
I love that we get Miles and his family, but they are not the focus. I love that it has beautifully domestic scale (by comparison to others in the series, particularly). And I love the characters, the emotional resonance, and the relationships we see.
And it was so very, very hard not to go immediately to my bookshelves and start back at the beginning again. Once you've read the book too, you'll know why!!!