Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

The Miles Vorkosigan Adventures, Book 17

De: Lois McMaster Bujold

Narrado por: Grover Gardner

Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan returns to the planet that changed her destiny in a new novel by multiple New York Times best-selling author Lois McMaster Bujold.

Future imperfect: Three years after her famous husband's death, Cordelia Vorkosigan, widowed vicereine of Sergyar, stands ready to spin her life in a new direction. Oliver Jole, admiral, Sergyar Fleet, finds himself caught up in her web of plans in ways he'd never imagined, bringing him to an unexpected crossroads in his life. Meanwhile, Miles Vorkosigan, one of Emperor Gregor's key investigators, this time dispatches himself on a mission of inquiry into a mystery he never anticipated - his own mother.

Plans, wills, and expectations collide in this sparkling science fiction social comedy as the impact of galactic technology on the range of the possible changes all the old rules, and Miles learns that not only is the future not what he expects - neither is the past.

©2015 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Boring

Nothing happens in this book; in fact, the whole story reads like an epilogue, which I first noted when I got to the actual epilogue. The only saving grace is listening to Grover Gardner, who could probably read me his grocery list and make it pleasurable.

a renewed source of gravity and light

It’s been three years since Aral Vorkosigan suddenly died. Since his death his wife Cordelia, who with Aral dragged the Barryaran Empire into the Galactic community, has been attempting to deal with her loss by fulfilling her many duties as Vicereine of Sergyar, one of three planets in the Empire. Her partner in keeping the colony of 2,000,000+ inhabitants on Sergyar functioning and thriving on the backwater still new world has been Admiral Oliver Jole, the man in charge of the space fleet. One of the early interesting developments of Lois McMaster Bujold's Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (2015), the latest entry in her long-running, intelligent, character-driven space opera Vorkosigan saga, is that Oliver was left at least as bereft as Cordelia at Aral's death, because he had been Aral’s secret lover for over twenty years.

It turns out, in fact, that Aral, Cordelia, and Jole had been living in an off-the-record three-partner marriage in all but name, Cordelia and Jole sharing the great man, and that since his death they’ve been like a pair of planets deprived of their common sun. As this novel opens, they love each other as old friends (in all their years together with Aral, Cordelia and Oliver made love to Aral separately and never to each other), but then Cordelia drops a bombshell on Oliver, impelling their relationship into a new phase. Cordelia informs him that she has ten genetic lottery tickets: six frozen zygotes (Aral’s sperm in her eggs) that she’s hoping to turn into six daughters and four frozen gametes that she’s offering to Oliver so that he might add his own Y chromosomes to Aral's X chromosomes inside Cordelia's enucleated eggs ('egg shells') so as to have, in effect, sons with Aral. Oliver, who has never married or fathered any children, is at first stunned and then attracted by the possibilities.

The novel depicts the pair's romance against the backdrop of Cordelia's attempts to move the capital of Sergyar from a terrible location next to a restlessly dormant volcano to a more sensible one despite the opposition of vested interests, and of Oliver's attempts to deal with his impending fiftieth-birthday party and a great job offer that would take him back to Barrayar. Those plot strands are complicated by the surprise visit of Cordelia and Aral’s son Miles Vorkosigan and his wife and six kids, because Miles is curious and keen (and an Imperial Auditor for whom a hint is like a stick in the hands of a boy by a wasp nest). How will Cordelia and Oliver let him know about their plans to become parents and about their new relationship and Oliver and Aral’s old one?

The story is not complicated by any of the hitherto de rigueur Vorkosigan series nefarious plots or empire threatening dangerous developments. It is a novel about love ('What is love but delight in another human being?'), transience ('While you can, take delight'), parenting ('Parents don’t make children; children make parents'), and happiness (what do Cordelia and Oliver want to do after retirement?). This is all fine, because Bujold's characters and world are so appealing and her writing so witty and the reading experience so comforting and familiar.

It is a mostly funny and often moving book. There are some great scenes, especially involving one-on-one conversations, like when Cordelia and Oliver have lunch early on, or when Cordelia shows her grandson some of Aral’s sketches, or when Oliver and Miles talk after the birthday party. It is good to learn more about Aral through Cordelia and Oliver's memories of him. And there are some neat descriptions of the Autumnal romance, as, for instance, when Jole is 'Squinting into the light till the crow's feet seemed to wink at her.' And Miles gets some good lines too, like 'I know I had issues with being an only child, but really mother, NINE siblings?'

That said, it all seems a little too easy compared to other Vorkosigan books. Thanks to the technology of Cordelia's homeworld, Beta Colony, it is easy in Bujold’s sf future to do things like live healthily past 100, to fully enjoy a 50-year-old lover at age 76, to become a mother (multiple times) after age 76, to make babies (artificial conception and uterine replicators mean that women no longer need to conceive, carry, and bear babies), and so on. Another mild kvetch might be that Bujold's seemingly bold move in writing at least half her novel from the point of view of a bisexual character is actually rather tame because Oliver's relationship with Aral is a thing of the past and because he's currently so in love with Cordelia that he seems heterosexual. A more challenging story for Bujold and her readers would depict some or all of the twenty-year period when Oliver and Aral were lovers. . . And Bujold badly uses or under uses the relatively new flora and fauna of Sergyar too much for an sf novel.

Grover Gardner reads the audiobook and continues to be the only person I can imagine reading the Vorkosigan series. He reads with perfect clarity, emphasis, and understanding. He never does accents, whether Barryaran or Cetagandan, etc., which is both a blessing and a pity. A reader like John Lee would be trying hard to give the different cultures different accents based on earth's (Russian, American, etc.), which would probably distract from the story. On the other hand, it's a little disconcerting when Cordelia's broad Betan accent is rendered in the same American English as every other character's.

I noticed that Gardner, like all of us, is aging, and that his golden voice reading this book has a new huskiness. Was it his aging voice or the (relatively) quiet plot that made me wonder if the sun powering Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga is finally running out of energy?

Veterans of the Vorkosigan series would like this book, while new readers should begin with earlier novels like Shards of Honor or Warrior’s Apprentice.

The best What-Happened-After story, ever.

"Have you ever read a folk tale where the princess's mother gets to do anything but die young?"

Over the course of the Vorkosigan saga, Cordelia has done just about everything. This book isn't space opera, bold adventure, clever mystery, or comedy of manners. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen is about grown-ups, and it is delightful.

More Miles!

OK. The story was fine, if unexpected. I knew Miles wouldn't be the central character, but after the last book, starting Ivan, I was hoping for more of the frantic brilliance Miles brings to the universe.

Good. I enjoyed it.

I know lots of people didn’t like it but I’ve now listened to it several times and I enjoyed it each time. It is very different in some ways from previous episodes in this series. It is much more focused on developing relationships and how life changes then on daring-do and adventures. Which, frankly, is my cup of tea. I’ve always enjoyed the Cordelia books and the insights into her developing personality then in Miles’s adventures so maybe I might not be the same as many others.

On the whole, I recommend this, I found the subtle humor hilarious and I’ve become so invested in these characters over the last 20 (30?) years that I appreciate the view of how they are developing. Also, after feeling like Cordelia got cheated on her initial goal of having lots of children that Arel promised her, I am frankly overjoyed to see it beating fruit.

A fitting end

Bujold bring the Vorskin saga to a wonderful conclusion. Focusing on the mother the saga comes full circle.
Thank you

Perfection

His pitch, cadence and inflection allow for just the right balance of wry wit and precision in storytelling needed for recanting the saga of the Vorkosigans.

As for the story? After Cryoburn, Cordelia's life needed a new chapter. How perfect a bookend to close on the planet where she opened, embarking on yet another future.

Not much happened

If you want to catch up with the Vorkosigan family, this is a fun, pleasant story. If you want intrigue and action...skip.

Not for fans of Shards of honor

I've read the two C. Naismith books multiple times. This one was written down to a younger age group. Assuming young teens would be interested in new middle aged love interests and babies. Not reading this one again

Well crafted as always, but...

I have to go with 3 stars. I had 5 star hopes, but 12 hours of late-middle age romance and almost nothing going bang ( the bugs count, I guess... sorta) is just not what I expected from a Vorkosigan novel. I would have liked this better packed into a chapter or two of exposition in another book, entirely.

My Thwarted action junkie expectations aside, Ms. McB does her usual deft job with just everything, and her "usual deft job" is one of the best in any modern genre. Her characters aren't just "fleshed out". They've got bones, muscle, heart and brains. She is a master at creating wholly formed, eminently believable people and putting them in a coherent arc that spans galaxies. I'd just about give her 3 stars for writing a phone book. She'd make it a page turner.

I may have my quibbles with this one, but if you haven't done the rest of the series from bottom to top and side to side I urge you toward it with gentle shooing motions... Go. Go on. You'll thank her for the experience.