so a realization that I had upon starting my Vorkosigan Saga reread is that...I'd never actually read Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen the first time around. I bought it around when it came out - but I was having a Bad Time around then, looked at the back, and decided I was not at that point up for what was probably going to be a very well-done but nonetheless devastating exploration of grief and loss, so on my shelf for later it went.
and then. I kind of forgot. it sat on my shelf for so long that it eventually passed into the category of "surely I have read this book I own, the last book in this series I adore." and then I started my reread and was looking something up on the wiki for reference and found:
and went WHAT. WHAT. OKAY I WOULD HAVE REMEMBERED THAT.
so I got impatient and jumped ahead to read that one. and it was delightful. I think I felt like it'd be bleak, but it's not??? the grief is certainly there and it hits when it needs to hit, and there are moments from melancholy to heartbreaking, but it's also funny and hopeful and sweet and charming; I was reading it the whole way through in permanent Good For Her(TM) mode.
some of my favorite moments:
Vorinnis accidentally roasting Jole by making him feel a million years old (mood, brother, college students are doing this to me often. What Do You Mean you were born in 2007.)
the little examples sprinkled throughout about how Barrayaran society is changing (the female officers corp! the medical center in Hassadar!)
"Asssertive, perhaps. As you may recall," followed immediately by Jole choking on his wine (...which could mean anything)
Aral canonically confirmed for kinky as hell, in a grand victory for Fandom Assumptions
every single thing that happens in The Shack oh my GOD
the fact that it apparently took a whole security detail conspiracy to keep the Vorkosigan throuple under wraps and Miles STILL didn't figure it out
Cordelia's joke about Aral being the first Barrayaran to discover the burrowing radials
Jole and Miles's garden talk where Miles is re-evaluating his entire perception of his parents and Jole is meanwhile just. on so so many painkillers (that whole conversation was very sweet)
the two ending lines before the epilogue. the ending lines of the epilogue. THE ENDING.
what a great coda to the series. god. 10/10 would finish at 2 AM and lie awake in bed for the next hour experiencing indescribable emotions again
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