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A review by aprillen
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold
4.0
This book is even thinner on plot than Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. Scratch that: It doesn't really have a plot at all. It reads kind of like a short story expanded to novel-length, and is basically a romance, albeit not your run-of-the-mill type of romance.
Still, I really liked it. I kind of loved it. But then I always loved Cordelia, and LMB writes her and the Barrayar-verse with such love and skill, even here. It's full of reminiscences, of little grace-notes, of reverence and irreverence and sweet, funny moments. This book felt like a boon, a gentle gift. The whole saga started with Cordelia, once, and Shards of Honor is still one of the best and most believable love stories I know, as well as a whopping good sci-fi adventure with wonderful characters. And with this story, we come full circle, ending where the whole saga once began, which was then a nameless, newly discovered planet and now is called Sergyar, with Cordelia as Vicereine for Emperor Gregor. It tells the story of what happens (SPOILER WARNING) to the people closest to Aral Vorkosigan when the world only contains a huge, Aral-shaped void, and how they finally find a way to move on from that event horizon. This reveals part of Cordelia's and Aral's story in those years when the narrative was from Miles' perspective, and thus has not been told, since Miles never knew about it. The love story is bittersweet, like a coda to the whole saga. I don't know if this is supposed to be the last of the Vorkosigan stories, but it sure reads like it.
Still, I really liked it. I kind of loved it. But then I always loved Cordelia, and LMB writes her and the Barrayar-verse with such love and skill, even here. It's full of reminiscences, of little grace-notes, of reverence and irreverence and sweet, funny moments. This book felt like a boon, a gentle gift. The whole saga started with Cordelia, once, and Shards of Honor is still one of the best and most believable love stories I know, as well as a whopping good sci-fi adventure with wonderful characters. And with this story, we come full circle, ending where the whole saga once began, which was then a nameless, newly discovered planet and now is called Sergyar, with Cordelia as Vicereine for Emperor Gregor. It tells the story of what happens (SPOILER WARNING) to the people closest to Aral Vorkosigan when the world only contains a huge, Aral-shaped void, and how they finally find a way to move on from that event horizon. This reveals part of Cordelia's and Aral's story in those years when the narrative was from Miles' perspective, and thus has not been told, since Miles never knew about it. The love story is bittersweet, like a coda to the whole saga. I don't know if this is supposed to be the last of the Vorkosigan stories, but it sure reads like it.