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A review by tjoliverbooks
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold
3.0
I waited patiently for another Vorkosigan book to come out and was very surprised to discover Bujold chose to revisit her first (and my favorite) main character: Cordelia. Thank you Bujold for showing her again, in depth, and tempered but fundamentally unchanged despite 40 years in Barrayarian space. She’s ever so much the Betan in this book as she’d been in the first! She’s influenced her husband, Aral, in ways we never knew about in previous books. She knew who and what he was and took him as he was. Gentleman Jole is a darling new addition to explore in this storyline as well.
I cannot help that I was, at first, taken aback by the sudden change in what I perceived as Aral’s proper role in Cordelia’s life. But as I kept reading the change grew to one I could accept, then enjoy. I find it daring for an author to challenge her readers in such a manner, and I can see why fellow fans may find it a betrayal (of a sort).
But this is Bujold’s story to tell, and what a fascinating new direction! I wondered how Miles would handle the news, and he doesn’t fail to behave like one would expect. He’s ever the full-tilt and dogged person we have followed from his cryo-chamber beginnings into a full-fledge Count Vorkosigan in his own right. So much of his mother in him, and his father too. I only wish we had a chance to see more of Mark in this story. I’m curious where Bujold will go next, and it seems she’s created a lot of room for additional tales with this new direction.
I cannot help that I was, at first, taken aback by the sudden change in what I perceived as Aral’s proper role in Cordelia’s life. But as I kept reading the change grew to one I could accept, then enjoy. I find it daring for an author to challenge her readers in such a manner, and I can see why fellow fans may find it a betrayal (of a sort).
But this is Bujold’s story to tell, and what a fascinating new direction! I wondered how Miles would handle the news, and he doesn’t fail to behave like one would expect. He’s ever the full-tilt and dogged person we have followed from his cryo-chamber beginnings into a full-fledge Count Vorkosigan in his own right. So much of his mother in him, and his father too. I only wish we had a chance to see more of Mark in this story. I’m curious where Bujold will go next, and it seems she’s created a lot of room for additional tales with this new direction.