Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

I just finished the eARC of this at 4 AM and I loved it. Adored it. Wanted it to never end. More coherent thoughts after some sleep and reflection.

*****

A few days and a re-read later, my reactions are still overwhelmingly positive, though more nuanced and thought-out than my initial screams of joy. This book feels like coming home again, like meeting old friends and the pleasure in catching up and learning new things about them.

This book is also deeply subversive, and not just in the obvious ways. It's different than almost anything else on the market and if she hadn't already had a large and dedicated fanbase, I doubt that any publisher would have touched this with a ten-foot pole. Because this is a story about living, not about action show more or great things. Rather, it's a celebration of life and love, and that life emphatically does not stop after the end of youth or death.

Now on to the spoilers:
My mind had always shied a bit thinking about Cordelia post-Aral because I didn't want to imagine a life for her, with potentially another half-century to live, without him. But Lois addresses that and shows that one can always find new love, new life, and new happiness no matter the age.

The revelation that Cordelia-and-Aral had been for twenty years Cordelia-and-Aral-AND-OLIVER was not nearly a surprise as it should have been thanks to the Internet spoiling that for me months ago. But in the book, that revelation was handled subtly and deftly so that my mind just made sense of this new configuration of their marriage.

I remembered first meeting Jole in The Vor Game and later wondering why he was never mentioned again, given how close and loyal he was to Aral and his supposed intelligence. And I remember coming across him again as pallbearer at Aral's funeral during the Cryoburn Aftermaths (which I read through tears) and remembering him as Aral's disappeared assistant and wondering what had happened in the intervening years. Now I know.

It was lovely to have Cordelia as a central character again, and especially as a POV character. She is my favorite character and while I love her son, I did miss her inner voice. I had not realized just how much I missed it until this book. She had become this larger-than-life character, a wise matriarch because for upteenth number of books, I had seen her through Miles's eyes. This was a reminder that even our heroes are still human, no matter how tall the pedestal we raise them on. Miles got that lesson with Cordelia's usual manner.

This book was also a reminder that nothing exists in a vacuum, particularly life. The little things that Lois sprinkled through the book were wonderful, from Oliver's past encounter with a certain Captain Thorne, to Miles naming one of his daughters Taura (and did my heart spasm a bit when I read that). Everything--everyone is connected and our past shapes our future as our future shapes our past.

When I first heard what this book was about, I was scared that many fans would hate it because of the revelation of the secret third in the Vorkosigan's marriage. I'm therefore heartened that most of the reactions I'm seeing so far are overwhelmingly positive.

I really want to do another series re-read now, particularly of Shards of Honor and The Vor Game. I want to revisit Sergyar before it was Sergyar, and remind myself about the Hegan Hub War, which was such a large part of the backstory of this book. show less

Lovely, and very Cordelia. It makes me want to reread the first two books again. There is a major retcon that forms the basis of this - I don't remember Jole being even mentioned in any of the other books, even as Aral's aide, let alone the closer relationship (OK, I'm told he shows up in The Vor Game...so I want to reread that too). That would probably bother me more if I'd read the series more often or in order - unlike my usual rule, I've read the Vorkosigan saga more backward than forward, so I'm used to dealing with characters who (from my point of view) come out of nowhere. I like Jole; he's an interesting person, especially as he's dealing with Cordelia's shocker of a gift. It's interesting seeing Miles from the outside, as an show more adult and while he's dealing with his children - not a viewpoint we've really had before. And the family dynamics are going to be _fascinating_, with all the various half-sibs and etc. Most of the story is from Jole's viewpoint, with occasional bits of Cordelia (the scene in the shack, where she's doing the very Betan analysis and totally missing what Jole's saying, is highly amusing). Events range from mildly interesting (the decommissioned ship) to highly amusing (the lake, the first part of the party, a good deal of Jole's interactions with his staff), to minor bits of action (the end of the party, for one!). No deep plots or active enemies (thank goodness, Cordelia's had enough of those. And so has Jole, according to the stories in here). But there are some major personal changes, for several people - mostly Jole, but not only him. I'd be pleased to see another book continuing on from here - the family matters, and the continued development of Sergyar, would both be interesting to read. show less

Finally, a science fiction novel about threesomes and parenting.

https://www.timothyrice.org/gentlemanjole/

Rating: 3.5/5 – Read if you’ve read the rest of the Vorkosigan Saga.
Read the Vorksigan Saga if you like: Optimistic and character driven science fiction.

This was an unusual book. It’s almost completely devoid of anything resembling conflict, instead devoting most of its words to reflection and reminiscence. This is fitting, given its place as the (current) final novel in the Vorkosigan saga Gentleman Jole is more of an extended epilogue than a true standalone entry into the series.

Appropriately Cordelia leads the cast of characters, now settled on the same planet where she first fatefully encountered Aral Vorkosigan 15 novels show more ago in Shards of Honor. She reprises role as the series’ moral compass, guiding her family and friends through their struggles towards a more realized life

Parenting – a persistent background topic in the Vorkosigan saga – is called to the forefront in this novel. The series has given me some of my favorite quotes on what it’s like to be a parent and Gentleman Jole adds its own description of the tranfiguration all parents endure:

Everybody has it wrong way round. Parents don’t make children—children make parents. They shape our behavior from the first wail. Mold us into what they need. It can be a pretty rough process, too.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Chapter 16
“We become what our circumstances demand of us” is a recurrant message of the Vorkosigan saga. Improving our environment is one of the best ways to improve ourselves, so it our duty to create a better world, for all of us. show less

Summary: Aral Vorkosigan played such an important role in the Barrayaran Imperium that even several years after his death, the repercussions are still being felt. On a more personal level, his widow, Cordelia Vorkosigan, vicereine of Sergyar, is slowly accommodating herself to life without him. She's managing governance of the planet just fine on her own - apart from some squabbles over her plans to relocate the planet's capital - and is contemplating a change to her personal life. She has some genetic samples - frozen gametes from herself and Aral from shortly after Miles was born - and with genetic and uterine replicator technology being what they are, she's considering giving Miles and Mark some much-younger sisters. Also in the show more picture is Oliver Jole, Aral's former aide - and lover - now the Admiral of the Sergyaran Fleet. When Cordelia makes him an astonishing offer regarding those genetic samples, he must make some very tough decisions regarding what he wants his future to look like... and he and Cordelia must puzzle out how the pieces of their relationship fit together around the gap that Aral - the man they both loved - has left behind.

Review: This book was so good. Capslock good. I loved just about every second of it, although it was pretty much written specifically to cater to what originally got me hooked on the Vorkosigan Saga in the first place (namely, Cordelia, who is awesome and I still want to be her when I grow up or at least have her be my best friend so we can sit on the porch and drink a beer and be snarky and awesome together.) I can, however, see how this book might not be to everyone's taste, particularly those people who like the Miles-centric Vorkosigan books more. I did spend the first part of the book a little wrong-footed, trying to pay attention to every detail in case it became important in a Miles-style mystery or political plot later on, before realizing that this book was more of a character study, and the plot, such as it was, was mostly internal to the characters. And again, I was fine with that (a whole book of Cordelia being Cordelia and therefore awesome? Yes please!) but I can see how the lack of an externally motivated plot could be disappointing to other readers.

The Vorkosigan Saga as a whole spends a lot of time exploring the ramifications of technology - specifically reproductive and genetic technology - on various aspects of life. A lot of the previous books have looked at the political and social effects of technology such as uterine replicators, cloning, genetic engineering, etc. But this book, while those same issues are still at the forefront, looks a lot more at how technology affects people on a much more personal level - not regarding death, exactly, but grief, and recovery, and moving on, and love, and interpersonal relationships. I said this book was a character study, but it's not just a study of Cordelia, or even Cordelia and Oliver... it's a character study of Aral, too. Even though he's dead, he's not gone, and we learn more about him by looking at the size and the shape of the hole that his death has left, not just in the Barrayaran Imperium, but in the lives of those who knew him and loved him best.

Perhaps the biggest revelation was about Aral's bisexuality and how that played out in his and Cordelia's marriage. (Revelation is the wrong word; it's a reminder, really, since we've known Aral was bisexual since Shards of Honor, but I tended to forget about it during the Miles-focused books. This is maybe part of the point of the book - that our parents have inner lives that we, as children, even as adult children, are not privy to, and can't really understand.) Specifically, we find out that in the past 10 books or so, Aral and Cordelia have been in what is functionally a three-way marriage with Oliver that was largely an open secret. This blew my mind, yet was somehow also still consistent with what I had known about their characters, although it did make me go back and see whether there was any hint of it in Miles's novels. I'm never entirely sure how much an author has planned from the beginning of the series (particularly in a multi-decade series such as this), and how much is ret-conning. However, judging from what I've read in interviews, and by the publication order of the early Vorkosigan series, I suspect that Bujold does a fair bit of ret-conning, and she's remarkably good at it - it's always seamless; whether or not she'd intended this triad marriage all along, I found it totally plausible that it was occurring "behind the scenes". More specifically, Jole does show up as Aral's aide in The Vor Game... and then not again until he's acting as one of Aral's pallbearers in Cryoburn, representing the planet Sergyar. At the time, I was too busy being emotionally wrecked by Gregor's actions during Aral's funeral to give any thought to the name of some random other dude, but rereading "Aftermaths" with the knowledge of who Jole was, and who Aral was to him, was just heartbreaking. Again, I don't know if Bujold already had this book in mind, or if she just latched onto the name and wove this backstory into the gap, but either way, it was devastatingly effective.

I realize that all this rambling isn't exactly reviewing the book. So, short version: it's great. It's got Bujold's great sense of humor and compelling characters and a sensible worldview and a wonderful love story and a very cool idea for see-through canoes (which actually exist and now I really want one) and some interesting technically-sci-fi-but-not-that-implausible issues to think about (on that note, while the cover art initially left me cold, after reading the book I absolutely love it). The audiobook is narrated by Grover Gardner, who, when I first listened to Shards of Honor, I thought it was weird to have a man narrate a book from a woman's POV, but at this point, I couldn't imagine anyone else doing nearly such a good job with Bujold's words. In short, I loved the whole thing, and I'm so glad for every chance I get to live in the Vorkosigans' universe for a few hours. 5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Not at all a stand-alone. Basically, if you loved Shards of Honor and you love Cordelia and Aral and got excited every time they popped up in one of Miles's books, even for just a scene, then this book is for you. If you love Miles and are looking for space battles or a mystery then... maybe not so much. But if you're anything like me, even a Vorkosigan book that's not your personal favorite flavor of Vorkosigan book is still usually pretty darn good. show less

With time, Lois M. Bujold has started giving romantic plots more weight in her novels. For a time this has not affected my enjoyment of the Vorkosigan saga. Books like A Civil Campaign work quite well as a romantic comedy mixed with action. Here we have several problems. It's a romance, but it does not really have other plot threads to make it interesting for readers who are not fans of the romance genre. Besides, even as a romance, it is quite unexciting. Admiral Jole is just dull, and even Cordelia is much less interesting that in much earlier novels like Shards of Honor or Barrayar. Unlike other reviewers, I was not bothered by the revelations about Cordelia and Aral's sexuality, but reading this felt like a chore. I love this show more series, but I should have given this one a miss.

Perhaps the author has run out of things to say about these characters (I'm glad to see Miles happy as a father and husband, but it does not make for exciting reading). Or perhaps Bujold is losing her touch with age, as happens to some authors. Seeing some of her recent work, I'm afraid it's the latter. Still, she has written many great books, so I'm still grateful and full of admiration for her. show less

Everyone loves books about Cordelia and Aral, right? And despite Aral being dead, this is a book all about Cordelia and Aral. Most particularly, their relationship with Oliver Jole.

I spent a fair chunk of the book wondering if I'd just forgotten a giant chunk of Cordelia and Aral's history. But I don't think I had - while Jole has been on the fringes of other stories, I don't think I just forgot his relationship with Aral and Cordelia, I think telling that story is the point of this book. It doesn't feel ret-conned, but it does feel a bit fan-fic-cy, and a part of me shares Miles's 'why are you just telling me this _now_?'

It is very Babies Are The Happy Ending. It's interesting thinking about it with the genders reversed, if Cordelia show more was male, and had seduced a woman 20 years her junior, and persuaded her to pass up a major promotion to stay home and have babies and be happy. But Bujold addresses these complicated stories with interest and nuance.

It is also very 'love stories about old people'. If you don't want to think about people older than 50 falling in love and enjoying it in a variety of ways, this is not the book for you. But the older I get, the more pleased I am there are stories about old people who are still people!

I guess I have seen too many interesting and non-canonical relationships to feel as intrigued and titillated by the three-way relationship as I might as a younger reader. But it is an interesting take on it. Thinking about poor Oliver navigating Aral's death with no acknowledgement of what he meant to him. Watching Oliver and Cordelia renegotiate their own relationship, with the missing lynchpin of Aral. Watching Miles react to the revelations about his parents' lives.

It is very nostalgic of the rest of the series, with lots of nods to events in previous books. I might have preferred _slightly_ fewer nods to previous events and more events in this one!

It is all very Cozy. I was expecting some Cetegandan Plot, or some Great Scheme to be thwarted, but actually, the Mild Peril is mild, and comes from frustrated drunk young men and local wildlife. It is not the high space opera of early books, it is family and hog roasts and fireworks. That is nice.

And there are some really lovely bits. The crystal hulled boats, and the wildlife of an entire unexplored world dancing under the surface of a shimmering lake.

And the time with Cordelia and her grandson, Alex, exploring how he feels about the Academy and being the Next Count Vorkosigan, is beautiful. And I laughed out loud at 'And here's Admiral Jole too. I suppose you'd have to practice drawing both men and women.' Bujold's family scenes are full of warmth and exquisitely drawn.

Oh loves, take delight in one another
While you can, take delight show less

I've seen several reviews from die-hard Vorkosigan fans crying foul that Lois McMaster Bujold is ret-conning the relationship between Aral and Cordelia and betraying the series' integrity. As a casual reader of the series, I don't have such serious loyalty to Vorkosigan canon. I found this book to be a charming, beautiful reflection on grief, aging, love and parenting. The plot is heavy on relationships and light on swashbuckling action, but it is still filled with trademark Bujold humor and wisdom. And what a pleasure to read about a sexual relationship between two adults of a mature age that isn't played for laughs.

Yes, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen provides a different perspective on the relationship between Aral and Cordelia show more that began in Shards of Honor and that may make some readers uncomfortable. But watching Cordelia find happiness again (not to mention having a glimpse of Miles Vorkosigan's bewilderment at being father of six) is a very satisfying experience. show less