Book Review: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen - Lois McMaster Bujold: 3/5 stars (enjoyable but slight)

I read Bujold's latest (and last?) Vorkosigan novel last night and this morning, while nursing a sore throat. The reading experience was peaceful and pleasant, like a warm cup of chamomile tea with honey. It distracted me from my throat without raising any anxiety or tension. If I hadn't been sick, I would have been bored.

( Spoilers, although there's little to spoil )

Media Review: Tremontaine

Second review of the day, now with significantly less queer erasure!

Serial Box's Tremontaine (a serial novel by Ellen Kushner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Joel Derfner, Racheline Maltese, and Patty Bryant) has a delightful premise and terrific setup. In the nameless city of Swordspoint and Privilege of the Sword, perhaps fifteen or twenty years before Swordspoint, Duchess Diane de Tremontaine is trying to protect her privilege and status. Colliding with Diane's plots are Kaab, a lesbian spy from a chocolate-shipping not!Incan family; Micah, an agender autistic math genius; Rafe, a feckless gay university student; and Tess, a lovely forger from Riverside; and, of course, Diane's husband Duke William.

The plots, the swashbuckling, the queerness, and the postcolonial theory inherent in this collective story are all just the sorts of things I like. I read every entry and enjoyed it. ( But... (critique; not really spoilery) )

I will be buying and reading Season 2 of Tremontaine, but I hope for more even writing quality in future seasons.