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

4.0

This book is really very different from the rest of the series. Bujold was right to describe it as a book about adults. It explores grief, loss, aging, what it means to be a parent, and what it means to be a spouse. These elements are fantastic. I hesitate to say that the plot falls short because that would imply that Bujold attempted a plot. This novel doesn't even have the skeleton plot that the character-based antics of the Ivan book hung on, and I feel it suffers for that. It certainly isn't a page turner the way the rest of the Miles books are, but I don't think it tries to be. It tries to make you think about very hard, complicated aspects of the adult world.