My Thoughts on Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (non-spoilery)

[beatrice_otter]

Given the very diverse views I've heard on this book (everything from love to hate), I've been quite curious as to what I'd think of the book.  And I can see why some people don't like it; it's very different, in tone and scope and style, from most of the Vorkosigan books.  To top it off, it's part of a genre that there isn't much of, and certainly not within the SF/F field.  Bujold often genre-hops within SF, going from mystery to intrigue to comedy of manners to coming of age space-opera.  All of which are things there are a lot of, both in SF/F and outside of it.  They're things we're used to, things that have defined audiences already.  If you like space opera but not comedy-of-manners, you know to read The Warriors Apprentice and skip or skim A Civil Campaign.  And going into them, you know what to expect.  Within the first couple of chapters there are the cues for what sort of genre it's going to be, and you can calibrate your expectations accordingly.

With Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen ... not so much.  I've tried to think of what genre it is or how to describe it, and I really can't.  There are undoubtedly other works like it out there, but not many, and I can't think of any at all in SF/F.  It's sort of like a middle-aged coming-of-age novel, except that that carries connotations of middle-aged middle-class white guys being douchebags as part of a mid-life crisis, and this is most definitely not that.  It's about two middle-aged people coming to a natural transition point in their lives and figuring out what they want to do with their remaining time.  Sensibly, quietly, maturely, after having had a couple of years to recover from a devastating loss.  There's no huge drama, no great adventure, nothing like that.  It's not domestic enough to be what in fanfic would be called "curtain fic," but it's that sort of thing.  A lot of it is general day-to-day life stuff, albeit with uterine replicators and on an alien planet with really weird biology and foreign diplomats.  A lot of it is about having an interesting internal life when you're of an age that most people younger than you assume you're beyond such things.  A lot of it is about just doing all the mundane ordinary things that any job entails.  Even Miles showing up doesn't result in fireworks, because it's not his story, on a very fundamental level.  There's humor and romance and minor intrigue and minor action, but that's not what it's about.

I really enjoyed it.  I don't know that I would have ten years ago.  And I wonder what I'll think about it when I'm closer to Cordelia and Oliver's age.  It's not even close to my favorite Vorkosigan novel, but I'm glad I read it and I'm glad it exists.

(Note: if you're annoyed by the Vorkosiverse focus on children and parenthood, this is probably not the book for you.)

Comments

[laurajv]

I was very pleased to get to know Jole. Among other things. It was an odd book, but I did like it.

(Still not sure anything will top Memory, for me.)

[beatrice_otter]

It's not the best Vorkosigan book, no. But it's a good book, and the book that it needed to be, and appropriate to the characters involved.

[mmegaera]

It's got more than a bit in common with what's known as "women's fiction." But not enough to call it that.

[beatrice_otter]

Yes. I dislike the "women's fiction" label on principle, but you're right--there are a lot of similarities, but not enough that you can call it that in the way you can call Diplomatic Immunity a mystery.

[jedibuttercup]

I ordered it, but haven't read it yet. I'd heard that Bujold said it's not a book she could have written at the beginning of the series, before she was an older person who'd experienced devastating loss of her own....

It keeps making me think, I used to share every one of the Vorkosigan books with my dad, and it's the first one he's not here to read with me. Just. Weirdly resonant. But I expect to get to it soon, and am glad to read your thoughts on it.

[beatrice_otter]

I know a lot of people have been disappointed with it, but I think that's because they went into it with expectations that led them astray--either that this was going to have the wham-bang adventure of a Miles novel, or that Aral (a noted bisexual) and Cordelia (a Betan) were going to have a purely conventional marriage and that anything else was Wrong and A Betrayal. At least, from the "bad book" reviews that I've read, those are the two main themes.

[jedibuttercup]

I finally got around to reading it, and was quite pleased! It might be my early acquisition of Jane Austen showing, but I love these sorts of novels about interesting people interacting and having internal growth in a nifty setting just as much as I do big action novels. My favorite plot thread might actually have been Jole's delight in the critters in the lake, exploring that new hobby, and Cordelia's opinions about it :)