{"id":4545,"date":"2022-10-10T14:35:44","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T14:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/?page_id=4545"},"modified":"2022-10-10T15:53:25","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T15:53:25","slug":"gentleman-jole-the-red-queen-by-lois-mcmaster-bujold","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/writing\/book-reviews\/gentleman-jole-the-red-queen-by-lois-mcmaster-bujold\/","title":{"rendered":"Gentleman Jole & the Red Queen, by Lois McMaster Bujold"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gentleman Jole & the Red Queen,<\/em> by Lois McMaster Bujold<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ah, a new Barrayar book. Happy sigh. This one could just as well have been called Moving On<\/em>, or Bujold Ties Up More Loose Ends<\/em>. Miles was promoted to Count with the death of his father Aral (seven years ago, so no apology for lack of spoiler alerts) and that effectively ended his career as an action \/ investigative hero. So what does Bujold do next? Well, she moves Miles to the background, brings other characters forward and fills in a few blanks, that\u2019s what. The last book, Captain Vorpatril\u2019s Alliance<\/em>, got Miles\u2019s cousin and long-term spear carrier Ivan married off. But there\u2019s still the big one. Bujold gave us two of sf\u2019s greatest courtships and romances: Miles & Ekaterin, but before that Cordelia & Aral. So what happens to Cordelia after Aral has gone? Here we find out.<\/p>\n

Though it must be said that while Bujold can do cracking action and cracking sf, she can also do less cracking twee, and this is definitely at the twee end of the scale. Nothing major is at stake apart from the happiness of a couple of people \u2013 which, okay, still counts, but even Captain Vorpatril\u2019s Alliance<\/em> managed to lever in a biological threat to Barrayar to overcome, as well as the whole marriage thing. So I would say it\u2019s for Barrayar completists only \u2013 of which I am proudly one. And as the entire action takes place on the planet Sergyar, which is where Cordelia and Aral met in the first place, it may be a deliberate means of wrapping up the series nicely. We will see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gentleman Jole & the Red Queen, by Lois McMaster Bujold Ah, a new Barrayar book. Happy sigh. This one could just as well have been called Moving On, or Bujold Ties Up More Loose Ends. Miles was promoted to Count … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":368,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4545","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4645,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4545\/revisions\/4645"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}