My own personal, completely me-centred review of LMB’s *Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen*.

[emma_in_dream]

I read the first few chapters with a sense of yawning disappointment, but ended it with joy.


At first I thought it was a rehash of better fanfic I have read. Yep, polyamory. Yep, negotiations. Yep, it’s all told in the safest, least challenging way it could possibly be, all in the past and off stage.


I remember at a recent Swancon how there was a panel on women in sf and the people on stage, all authors, were about a million miles behind the audience. At one point someone on stage confused sex and gender and about five people from the audience corrected them. I don’t say this to slam the authors – or LMB – but to say that it feels like fandom has been having really robust discussions about these issues and is now more informed than many of the source creators.


But then there was a twist in *Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen* that totally engrossed me. The revelation was…

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<lj/cut>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

I read the first few chapters with a sense of yawning disappointment, but ended it with joy.


At first I thought it was a rehash of better fanfic I have read. Yep, polyamory. Yep, negotiations. Yep, it’s all told in the safest, least challenging way it could possibly be, all in the past and off stage.


I remember at a recent Swancon how there was a panel on women in sf and the people on stage, all authors, were about a million miles behind the audience. At one point someone on stage confused sex and gender and about five people from the audience corrected them. I don’t say this to slam the authors – or LMB – but to say that it feels like fandom has been having really robust discussions about these issues and is now more informed than many of the source creators.


But then there was a twist in *Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen* that totally engrossed me. The revelation was…






<lj/cut>

*** Spoilers ***








That the Cetagandan invasion of Barrayar had not failed because of the resistance. The Ghem had planned to retreat for a few years, release a virus to kill the population, and move back in. The women in the Star Creche had opposed this plan and executed the Ghem leaders.


Furthermore, the Star Creche could at any time kill pretty much everyone else in the universe with their biological weapons but chose not to.


Which means that the entire thrust of the whole space opera universe was *fundamentally wrong*. All the things that Barrayar values and that we, through Miles’ eyes have valued, are not what kept Barrayar safe. Climbing the slippery pole in ImpSec – meaningless. Being in the military – pointless. All the honour and glory in Barrayar (and our world) was focussed on utterly the wrong things.


Admiral Jole is clever enough to take this in and to see that what was actually important was educating the general population and understanding biology and the natural world. He makes a mid-life career change to enable this and to allow him to become a single parent.


Naturally I like this message because:


1, it fixes one of my problems with enjoying the Barrayar series which is that you end up passionately rooting for terrible things, like a three planet empire rather than a democracy. I was so on Dono’s side when he was joining the Council of Counts, but of course literally no one else on the planet gets any vote at all. Dono is clearly better than Richar, but better still might be an election?
2, and it validates my whole life. I made a conscious decision to give up on a higher status career in order to become a single parent. I even used reproductive technology, though not, sadly, as advanced or easy to access as the uterine replicator. Basically I am Admiral Jole. Since LMB writes him as gorgeous, sexy, competent, intelligent and wise, this makes me very happy indeed.

Or maybe I'm Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan which makes me even more gorgeous, sexy, competent, intelligent, wise and happy.

</lj-cut>

Comments

[transcendancing]

Although the fandom discussion is far advanced, I really did love this book so much. And as a poly person constantly looking for poly in my reading or media experiences that is canonised at all, I'll take it - even if it's past tense and off stage. It still had that sense of present-ness to it too given Cordelia and Jole's ongoing relationship too. I also loved the career change, and the twist that went with it.

[emma_in_dream]

Am now trying to think of other poly relationships in canon. Drawing a blank.

[transcendancing]

Yasmine Galenorn has a series featuring poly, as does Laurell K Hamilton, and a series of Justina Robson's - that's just off the top of my head, there might be a few others but none that come to mind. But yeah, especially from one of my favourite authors who writes one of my favourite series that is *beloved* by so very many... having poly be in the canon even in such a soft way was actually just awesome. And that it involved two male characters in a society like Barrayar's? Awesome. And that it wasn't a 3 way relationship for the most part - it was Aral with two relationships, that was also really great, especially as his other partner wasn't female and it didn't go down that particular pathway of eye-rolling poly/love triangle tropes.