Next year will see a new installment in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Hugo- and Nebula-winning Vorkosigan Saga! Bujold recently announced on her Goodreads blog that her new novel Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen will be published in February of 2016 (tentatively) from Baen Books.
In a bit of great timing, 2016 will also mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of Bujold’s first three Vorkosigan Saga novels: Shards of Honor, The Warrior’s Apprentice, and Ethan of Athos.
Bujold wouldn’t say much about the plot, not wanting to provide any spoilery information, aside from this:
It is not a war story. It is about grownups.
With the last few books focusing on Miles Vorkosigan, it will be interesting to see Bujold return to Cordelia’s perspective for her new book.
Also coming in July 2015 is Edward James’ full-length study of Bujold’s body of work from University of Illinois Press.
Huzzah! I can’t wait.
Quiet SHRIEK!
*happy dance*
I can hardly wait!
Bujold is my favorite author. Can’t wait!
YAY!
Um, it’s a little odd that the story says the last few books have focussed on Miles. Unless I missed a few, the last book was all about Captain Vorpatril.
Anyway, I’ll read anything she writes.
This is so exciting!
I happen to have just finished a reread of the whole Vorkosigan saga, and the name “Jole” is ringing bells, but I can’t think of from where … I think there was maybe a Captain Jole who was someone’s secretary somewhere (Aral’s, or maybe Ilyan’s). I’m trying to guess where in the series chronology this falls … (“Red Queen” suggests sometime during her viceroyalty of Sergyar, but it’s far from definitive … it would be interesting if it were post-Cryoburn, because we haven’t had any view past the end of that book besides the epilogue).
@8 Lieutenant Jole was Aral’s aide at the time of The Vor Game, and he ended up as an admiral. He was also one of the pallbearers in the <spoiler omitted>.
This has me EXTREMELY EXCITED!!!!!!
I just hope to see me about her time on Sergyar. But then again, I want to see me Drou and teh blonde Commando team, I want more Rioic, I want more Eli Quinn, more Elena, more Ekaterin, and above all, more Lady Alys, who is just about up there as one of my most favoritest (sic) literary characters ever, up there with Lizzie Bennet and Phillipa Sommerville.
*happy bounce* The Captain is back!!!!
Will be back, whatever. It’s not a war story, but it’s about mostly Barryaran grownups, so… Although if it’s the same Jole, then it’s post-Komarr Revolt and the second Cetagandan war. Feh. But that still leaves Sergyar, though I think Jole might be a rather different orbit by then. So some time when Vorkosigan was Prime Minister seems likely. Which means the capital scene! With Lady Alys and Drou and Kou and Gregor and Ivan!!!!!
Please excuse me, I have some expectations to take behind the woodshed.
YEAH!!! I bet it’s going to be all about Chaos Colony and what her and Aral were upto when no one was looking. Hopefully there is a passing mention of Gregor’s children since they were barely mentioned in the last two books. I think there are two and they’re both boys. I can hardly wait for it to arrive.
Jole (no first name known) has been rising in rank through the books from The Vor Game through Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance and Cryoburn. He’s gone from Lieutenant, Commodore to Admiral. And was, in both Cryoburn and Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, assigned to the Sergyar fleet.
According to Ms. Bujold on Baen’s Bar, this book takes place ~spoiler~
Post-Cryoburn
Finally. I’ve been browsing LMB’s blog for over a year trying to figure out what she is working on. This could well be Paladin of Souls, Sergeyar style.
Please, no. I will die for the Vorkosigan books, but the Paladin of Souls books left me less than enthused.
I’m both ecstatic that there’s going to be another Vorkosigan book, and terrified that it’s going to rip my heart out and stomp on it. I don’t know if I’m ready for a book without my favourite character, and with everyone moving on without him. For context, Cryoburn is the first book I’ve cried over since I was 15. I’m talking full-on, running mascara, blotchy-faced, inconsolable mess weeping.
And Toni Weisskopf, High Lady of Baen, posted
To make it up to you,the first snippet from the new Bujold Vorkosigan Saganovel:
It was a good day on the military transfer station orbiting the planet
Sergyar. The Vicereine was coming home.
And Lois said
The story begins 3 years after Aral’s death. Cordelia is 76, Jole is 49, and Miles is 43.
Little Egret in Walton-on-Thames
Whelp, so much for the expectations.
Did anyone see where we put the Freaking Right the **** Out bench? I’m planning on huddling quietly underneath it.
Urk. Just realized I posted a major spoiler in my excitement – please delete previous post if possible. Sorry. :(
YAAAAAAAAAAY!
That is all.
I’ve been waiting for a long time for the return of Cordelia’s perspective. At the end of Cryoburn, I was all but certain the next book would be. Not that I didn’t like Ivan’s story, but this is the one I’ve been waiting for, for a long, long time.
There are a lot of stories written about coming of age of young men and women, and a lot of stories about middle aged men finding new purpose in life. As the father of three daughters (one of whom just happens to have a middle name of “Cordelia”) I really want to see a female-written story about a strong woman, past the age of bearing children, who seeks to find new purpose and direction. Kind of like what Lois herself did for Ista in Paladin, only for Cordelia, with the tons of backstory she brings and depth of character already established. It’s a rare thing — as Lois herself says in one of her books, the woman’s saga does not end with marriage and childbirth, so why should stories about women end right there? From other hints Lo has written about I figured this story was all but certain … until she started dropping hints about retirement after Ivan’s adventure. Then I got worried.
About once a month over the last decade or so I’d go to the Internet for rumors about any next Vorkosigan novel. My hopes are finally answered! This pleases me no end.
OMG! I am so happy at this news.
@15 – Curse of Chalion is great. I love it with big happy hearts. I can see why some may have a concern with Paladin of Souls. I like it but it has a weird, nonlinear storytelling approach that can be offputting. Hallowed Hunt, more problematic and not as good as the other two.
In my post @14, I was making essentially the same point as was made in @22 above. There aren’t that many novels with older women as protagonists, both in terms of purpose and in terms of love, and I’d enjoy seeing this book tackle those issues.
Great to hear,
I’m already looking forward to it and another opportunity for a whole reread ;)
I am so glad that Bujold is continuing to write in the Vorkosigan universe, as there were signs that Cryoburn might be the last, other than a few “filling in the gaps” books like “Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance.” And I will very much enjoy returning to Cordelia’s viewpoint. She is a fascinating character, and it will be nice to see her return. Can’t wait!
***Happy Dance***
I’d read anything Bujold wrote, but Cordelia is wonderful, and we know so much about her backstory, her history with Aral, etc. This will be wonderful. I’m looking forward to an older woman story….and hopefully hearing about the other characters we know and love as fellow players on the stage.
Ok, everybody, cover your ears…
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
@27 I am looking forward to this book for many reasons, and the fact that we will be seeing Cordelia in her older years is one of the biggest reasons. It will be nice to follow the adventures of someone that is older and wiser, and closer to my own age than most of the protagonists I encounter in fiction these days.
“It is not a war story. It is about grownups.”
That is funny. Is she saying war stories are for children, or war itself?
psikeyhackr @30
Per Bujold, those are two seperate statements; if they were meant to be related to one another there’d be a semicolon there instead of a period.
Anarra @31
They are separate statements, but that does not necessarily mean Bujold did not deliberately put them in that sequence because she intended for them to be related.
Wonderful news. At 69 I’m a bit old for the starry-eyed fan bit (I have been a LMB fan for 30+ years) yet I find Cordelia always engages my admiration for how she deals with life’s difficulties. Hers and others. (example: in CC her Betan Mind Trick on the Koudelkas, twisting their stubborn heads 180 degrees in 30 seconds). What has the admirable Admiral Joul got himself into that requires Cordelia’s life skills? What’s life like of Chaos Colony? Wait for it…
Actually, my book on Bujold is coming out in 2015, not 2016 as announced above: it should be next month (July 2015)!
@34: Thank you for the correction–we’ve updated the post–and congratulations on the new book!
Best Author on the Planet. Those 100 word stories at the end of ?Cryoburn? cotained one of the most moving lines in Fiction, about “this time” Gregor carrying Aral. Greatness surely, if not Genius and I’m willing to grant that.
Sometime I want to have a conversation with her about the Theological Lacunae in the 3rd of the Chalion series. If the Gods can only Act at INVITATION, how in gehenna are people getting co-opted without permission for the Animal Channeling? Admittedly I haven’t kept up with her in print on this.
One final comment: ALL things “for adults” are WAR stories. That goes back to Lysistrata. Clausewitz “We see, therefore, that war is not merely an act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse carried on with other means.” “All politics is LOCAL”. The most “local intercourse” is “Adult.”
Re my last “above”. “Adult” should have read “grownups”. LMB uses her words with a Laser Neuro-surgeon’s precision. “Grownups” is not coterminous with “adult” and I should not have substituted the one for the other.
Happy to learn that Ms McMaster Bujold has decided to write another book of her most excellent Vorkosigan Series.
As for what this book will be about, here is my two cents, based on the two clues available so far : the title, and Ms McMaster Bujold “warning” about the book being for “grownups”.
(ALERT if you don’t like spoilers – who does?- and you haven’t read “Cryobrurn” STOP READING !)
Of course I may be completely wrong about all this ! But I doubt it.
The whole Vorkosigan Saga was predicated on the centrality of Cordelia and Aral relationship, in the way it structured Miles character and influenced Barrayaran politics.
Yet, LMB decided to “kill” Aral at the end of Cryoburn, even though it had nothing to do at all with the story.
Just to provide an “emotional coda” to one of her rare books in which there is nothing personal at stake for the main protagonist ?
Somehow I don’t think so. I’d rather think she was setting up the very theme of her next book.
Then, probably because she wasn’t ready to tackle it just after “Cryoburn”, she “side-stepped” the issue by writing the thoroughly envoyable “Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance”.
Now that she chose to make Cordelia the main protagonist of her next book, I can’t see LMB NOT giving the full treatment that the impact of Aral’s demise demands and deserves.
So my guess is that the story will focus on (or, at least, extensively deal with) the way Cordelia copes with Aral’s demise.
Think about it : she has lost her life’s companion, she is well into the second half of her existence with the depressing prospect of growing old alone, and, on the top of it, she is stuck with a Barrayaran lifestyle she never fully accepted and bore only for her husband’s sake ! There is nothing left for her to look forward to : why go on ?
Tell me if that kind of psychological quandary is not right up LMB’s alley ?
And because LMB’s fundamental optimistic outlook on life, you can expect that the “gentleman Jole” of the title (who, as other have pointed out in this thread, is most probably the “commodore Jole” alluded to in previous books), will be the one person who ultimately helps Cordelia to decide that the rest of her life is well worth embracing….
So all in all, I expect a book similar to “A Civil Campaign” centering on the emotions and personal issues of the main protagonists.
But instead of a “comedy of manner” (which was the sub-title of A Civil Campaign) it will most likely be a story of a much darker hue, exploring painful feelings and somber states of mind (something that LMB has never shied from in her previous novels when it was called for).
Hence LMB’s caveat : it’s for “grownups”. Probably no starship battle, no commando action, no military heroïcs in this one…
That is not to say the book wil be devoid of tension, drama, and action, as any good writer, LMB always frames her character’s personal struggles within a larger context.
I expect the story to take place on Sergyar, which has been referred to as “Chaos Colony” in previous books ! So I would be rather surprised if nothing “exciting” happens there….
In her capacity as Vice-Reine of Sergyar (hence the “Red Queen” of the title, BTW) Cordelia will most certainly be confronted with the many challenges and ethical choices raised by governing a human settlement on a xeno-environment. Hard decisions always meet dissent, opposition, strife etc.
Xeno-environment vs human colonization needs has been a recurring theme in LMB’s books (for both Barrayar and Komaar), but one she could only address “in passing” so far. Sergyar would give LMB the opportunity to make this a major theme of her next book.
So yeah, If the master hasn’t lost her touch (perish the thought !) we may be in for a rare treat !
Great finally !!!!! I can’t wait to read it Now my next hope is anot her book on the sharing knife and my dreams will be complete
LOVE IT!!!!!!!