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A review by kentcryptid
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold
Speaking as a massive fan of the series, unfortunately this really didn't work for me.
Jole is a blandly beige character and I found myself skimming passages because I was so bored being inside his head. I was wishing for Miles' POV (particularly during the final revelatory conversation between himself and Jole), or Kaya's, or Ekaterin's, or anything that wasn't Jole musing about his troubles with concrete for pages on end. And there's a truly excessive amount of detail about reproductive biology, town planning, and god damned toilets.
Finally, the plot just... isn't there. At one point I hoped there might be the gem of something interesting about diplomatic relations with Cetaganda emerging but this led to nothing. It's essentially the story of two people making career decisions and having a boring relationship.
One of the things I love most about the Vorkosigan series is its sense of fun, but sadly there's no fun to be had here.
Spoiler
It's probably the most talky and exposition-heavy of all the Vorkosigan books. Huge amounts of time are expended on characters recounting to each other events from decades earlier, which any interested reader who's reached this point in the series will already know.Jole is a blandly beige character and I found myself skimming passages because I was so bored being inside his head. I was wishing for Miles' POV (particularly during the final revelatory conversation between himself and Jole), or Kaya's, or Ekaterin's, or anything that wasn't Jole musing about his troubles with concrete for pages on end. And there's a truly excessive amount of detail about reproductive biology, town planning, and god damned toilets.
Finally, the plot just... isn't there. At one point I hoped there might be the gem of something interesting about diplomatic relations with Cetaganda emerging but this led to nothing. It's essentially the story of two people making career decisions and having a boring relationship.
One of the things I love most about the Vorkosigan series is its sense of fun, but sadly there's no fun to be had here.