A review by tasadion
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold

2.0

This book failed to do the most basic task of story telling: Create some challenge, crisis or drama for the characters. Instead the author chooses to cast some of the characters in a new light with some clever reveals about relationships that were not mentioned in earlier novels. This reveal is well done early on in the novel, but after that _nothing happens_. There is a curious sense that we are reviewing all the past books in a leisurely coda to the series, but without any sense of tension at all. A poor addition to the series, and a story that would have been better mentioned in a paragraph in another (subsequent) book.

The second star was for the wonderful characters (not that they had anything to do) and the easy to read writing style, but this is ultimately only for the Vorkosigan enthusiasts, and even they may need to suck it in.