I read the sample chapters of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen before the book was released and thought that it read very much like self-fanfic. That opening section read better to me on the second attempt when I read the whole thing, but the impression is still there. As it is in a few of the later Vorkosigan Saga novels - Ivan's book has a couple of sections that are more interested in dwelling on reminiscence about past events than telling a story that moves forwards too.

I got to quite like some of the new characters, but I kept looking for the plot. Was it going to be volcanoes? Or a raid on the ghost yard of floating decommissioned ships? And then it turned out to be a story about procrastination, about people taking their time to tell other people about things that were changing in their lives.

I also thought that Cordelia did rather overdo it. One or two more children by Aral I can see. But six? You'd be swamped by the crowd and might not ever get to know and enjoy them as individuals sufficiently. Mind you, Miles seems to think the same way. But I think I'd have scaled down the reproduction just a tiny bit.

But I guess what I really miss is Aral. I'd have liked to have seen this setting and some of its events take place during the time when he and Cordelia were running Chaos Colony in tandem. Or have it told partly in the present and partly in flashback to that time, with more showing and less telling. And up the stakes by having an actual crisis.

I didn't hate it. I've even re-read it. I would just like it to have been... more.