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A review by ladynovella
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold
4.0
You know how in “The Force Awakens,” Han and Leia are split up? And the last time we saw them (outside of any expanded universe media, which had since been de-canonized), they were heading to a happy-ever-after? And the idea that their love story could end in anything else was unfathomable, which led many (including me) to say “What the ever-loving crap are you DOING??”
When I started reading this, I kind of felt that way about Aral and Cordelia. I ADORED their relationship clear back in “Cordelia’s Honor” and I’ve loved seeing glimpses of their life and romance together through all the Miles stories. And, yes, I knew that Aral had passed away at the end of “Cryoburn,” and I’d felt a little cheated that we never got to revisit them as a couple. At the start here, I’d look at Admiral Jole and wonder “Who the hell is this guy? Since when did he become so important?”
But as the story progressed, I got a better feel for both Oliver and Cordelia in their post-Aral life. True, it still feels like it came out of left-field and I’m still sort of scratching my head at this ret-con. But I just kind of went along with the story and enjoyed myself.
My favorite parts were definitely after Miles and Ekaterin showed up unannounced with their squadron of young Vorkosigans. The scene of Cordelia showing Alex his grandfather’s drawings was sweet and beautiful and something I would have loved to have seen more of - Cordelia interacting with her grandkids. The conversations between Cordelia and Miles were great too, nice to let them have this time to process where they go from here as a family.
I can definitely see where this book would be a base-breaker (of sorts) between longtime fans of the story, and there was some of that for me as well. But I enjoyed what I enjoyed and left the rest to be picked over by someone else. If this really is the end of this series, it makes a decent enough coda.
When I started reading this, I kind of felt that way about Aral and Cordelia. I ADORED their relationship clear back in “Cordelia’s Honor” and I’ve loved seeing glimpses of their life and romance together through all the Miles stories. And, yes, I knew that Aral had passed away at the end of “Cryoburn,” and I’d felt a little cheated that we never got to revisit them as a couple. At the start here, I’d look at Admiral Jole and wonder “Who the hell is this guy? Since when did he become so important?”
But as the story progressed, I got a better feel for both Oliver and Cordelia in their post-Aral life. True, it still feels like it came out of left-field and I’m still sort of scratching my head at this ret-con. But I just kind of went along with the story and enjoyed myself.
My favorite parts were definitely after Miles and Ekaterin showed up unannounced with their squadron of young Vorkosigans. The scene of Cordelia showing Alex his grandfather’s drawings was sweet and beautiful and something I would have loved to have seen more of - Cordelia interacting with her grandkids. The conversations between Cordelia and Miles were great too, nice to let them have this time to process where they go from here as a family.
I can definitely see where this book would be a base-breaker (of sorts) between longtime fans of the story, and there was some of that for me as well. But I enjoyed what I enjoyed and left the rest to be picked over by someone else. If this really is the end of this series, it makes a decent enough coda.