Review: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (2016), Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, 2016. Strictly speaking, Bujold's new Vorkosigan novel, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, won't be published until February next year. However, Baen has made an e-book advanced reading copy available for $15 and other than the odd punctuation error I spotted it seems to be the final text.
GJ&tRQ is set three years after - very specifically, around the third anniversary of - Aral Vorkosigan's death, as shockingly but not surprisingly dropped on Miles Vorkosigan and Bujold's readership on the very last page of Cryoburn. Cordelia Vorkosigan is still Vicereine of Sergyar, the Barrayaran colony last seen 45 years earlier in the events of the very first Vorkosigan novel, Shards of Honor. For the first time since Barrayar she is one of the main viewpoint characters, giving us her direct view of her family and her world (or rather worlds) for the first time in four decades in series continuity. As usual, Bujold gives us only one other viewpoint character, Admiral Oliver Jole, Aral's former aide-de-camp and senior Barrayaran space forces officer at Sergyar.
(If there's a noticeable step change in Bujold's writing style, it's at Mirror Dance, when she moves from a single viewpoint to two. Even then, not all of her later novels are told from two viewpoints - Memory is told from Miles' alone, but then it is an intensely personal book about him.)
We're told very soon that Oliver Jole was much closer than just staff officer to Aral, and indeed at times more than just a husband's subordinate as far as Cordelia was concerned. I've seen some discussion of GJ&tRQ based in part it seems on a partial plot summary and a talk by Bujold that boils down to 'Bujold has Aral, Cordelia and Jole having been in a poly relationship, this is a big retcon, and it's not credible because Simon Illyan and/or Miles would have known'. Having read the book, I think that's wrong, or at least not quite right, on several levels.
I know enough people in polyamorous/open relationships to be aware that 'poly' is a very broad term and whilst the set of relationships Bujold describes no doubt falls within it, I don't think it's what many people would assume just from using it as a label. That to an extent explains why this isn't really a retcon; indeed, that Aral is bisexual goes back as far as Shards of Honor, and in terms of consistency, Aral and Cordelia have been pop-in characters or entirely off-screen for a very long time in-universe. That also explains why Miles didn't know about this, although even there it's apparent that it's more the case of finding out that one of the numerous rumours about his parents turned out to be true. And it's clear that Illyan did know, and was ordered to just live with it.
Anyway, most of this comes out in the first chapter or two. As for the rest of the book... well, a very shallow and unkind reviewer might complain that it had no plot. It certainly is very different from the previous Vorkosigan books, in that there is no covert mission, no space opera and no conspiracy. It is a character study of two people making decisions about life and dealing with their feelings for one another. Any Bujold fan who finds that surprising must not have read 'Winterfair Gifts' (forgivable, I don't think it's received stand-alone publication and is most easily available as an audiobook), which is also about two people dealing with their feelings for one another, albeit with a conspiracy plot on top. Remove that aspect of WG, and expand it to novel length, and you have GJ&tRQ. It is certainly very different from the other novels in the series, but it is not as radical a departure for Bujold as one might think. After all, Komarr is a reflective novel about a failing relationship, plus a political conspiracy plot, and A Civil Campaign is a romantic comedy, plus (hang on, let's count) about four added plots. GJ&tRQ is actually the sort of book Bujold has written several times before, just without some crisis for Miles or someone close to him to solve. That may well leave some readers wondering when something is going to happen, but if they pay attention they'll see that once again Bujold is telling us a story of people who adapt to difficult life changes and learn about themselves.
Miles does appear, not until over half-way through, and not as a viewpoint character. As with his appearance in Lord Vorpatril's Alliance, his role is to be someone for other characters to talk about the plot with rather than to advance it, although it's still entertaining to see him from the perspective of his family. There are certainly plenty of references to events in prior books, almost to the point of continuity porn (specifically Type 2 as described here) but we are also thrown some extra background on what was going on at certain times that ought to assuage the sort of reader who might bemoan the lack of action in this book.
I wouldn't recommend this as a good place to start reading the Vorkosigan series - it's very atypical and has far too many call-backs to earlier books - but it makes a pleasant if differently-styled continuation for those familiar with it. Not quite 'for completists only' but those who like Bujold for her characters rather than her plots will probably get most out of it.
This entry was originally posted at http://major-clanger.dreamwidth.org/41199.html, where there are
comments.
GJ&tRQ is set three years after - very specifically, around the third anniversary of - Aral Vorkosigan's death, as shockingly but not surprisingly dropped on Miles Vorkosigan and Bujold's readership on the very last page of Cryoburn. Cordelia Vorkosigan is still Vicereine of Sergyar, the Barrayaran colony last seen 45 years earlier in the events of the very first Vorkosigan novel, Shards of Honor. For the first time since Barrayar she is one of the main viewpoint characters, giving us her direct view of her family and her world (or rather worlds) for the first time in four decades in series continuity. As usual, Bujold gives us only one other viewpoint character, Admiral Oliver Jole, Aral's former aide-de-camp and senior Barrayaran space forces officer at Sergyar.
(If there's a noticeable step change in Bujold's writing style, it's at Mirror Dance, when she moves from a single viewpoint to two. Even then, not all of her later novels are told from two viewpoints - Memory is told from Miles' alone, but then it is an intensely personal book about him.)
We're told very soon that Oliver Jole was much closer than just staff officer to Aral, and indeed at times more than just a husband's subordinate as far as Cordelia was concerned. I've seen some discussion of GJ&tRQ based in part it seems on a partial plot summary and a talk by Bujold that boils down to 'Bujold has Aral, Cordelia and Jole having been in a poly relationship, this is a big retcon, and it's not credible because Simon Illyan and/or Miles would have known'. Having read the book, I think that's wrong, or at least not quite right, on several levels.
I know enough people in polyamorous/open relationships to be aware that 'poly' is a very broad term and whilst the set of relationships Bujold describes no doubt falls within it, I don't think it's what many people would assume just from using it as a label. That to an extent explains why this isn't really a retcon; indeed, that Aral is bisexual goes back as far as Shards of Honor, and in terms of consistency, Aral and Cordelia have been pop-in characters or entirely off-screen for a very long time in-universe. That also explains why Miles didn't know about this, although even there it's apparent that it's more the case of finding out that one of the numerous rumours about his parents turned out to be true. And it's clear that Illyan did know, and was ordered to just live with it.
Anyway, most of this comes out in the first chapter or two. As for the rest of the book... well, a very shallow and unkind reviewer might complain that it had no plot. It certainly is very different from the previous Vorkosigan books, in that there is no covert mission, no space opera and no conspiracy. It is a character study of two people making decisions about life and dealing with their feelings for one another. Any Bujold fan who finds that surprising must not have read 'Winterfair Gifts' (forgivable, I don't think it's received stand-alone publication and is most easily available as an audiobook), which is also about two people dealing with their feelings for one another, albeit with a conspiracy plot on top. Remove that aspect of WG, and expand it to novel length, and you have GJ&tRQ. It is certainly very different from the other novels in the series, but it is not as radical a departure for Bujold as one might think. After all, Komarr is a reflective novel about a failing relationship, plus a political conspiracy plot, and A Civil Campaign is a romantic comedy, plus (hang on, let's count) about four added plots. GJ&tRQ is actually the sort of book Bujold has written several times before, just without some crisis for Miles or someone close to him to solve. That may well leave some readers wondering when something is going to happen, but if they pay attention they'll see that once again Bujold is telling us a story of people who adapt to difficult life changes and learn about themselves.
Miles does appear, not until over half-way through, and not as a viewpoint character. As with his appearance in Lord Vorpatril's Alliance, his role is to be someone for other characters to talk about the plot with rather than to advance it, although it's still entertaining to see him from the perspective of his family. There are certainly plenty of references to events in prior books, almost to the point of continuity porn (specifically Type 2 as described here) but we are also thrown some extra background on what was going on at certain times that ought to assuage the sort of reader who might bemoan the lack of action in this book.
I wouldn't recommend this as a good place to start reading the Vorkosigan series - it's very atypical and has far too many call-backs to earlier books - but it makes a pleasant if differently-styled continuation for those familiar with it. Not quite 'for completists only' but those who like Bujold for her characters rather than her plots will probably get most out of it.
This entry was originally posted at http://major-clanger.dreamwidth.org/41199.html, where there are
comments.