Would they be outraged if Jole was a girl?

(I was going to post this on Facebook, but then I remembered I have a very dusty book review blog where it would fit :) )

The latest installment in Lois McMaster Bujold's excellent Miles Vorkosigan series is coming out in February, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.

The publisher, Baen Books, does a very cool thing - they make the "Advanced Reader Copies" of their books (pre-editing versions, basically) available online several months before publication, so if you're a huge fan of a series, you can choose to spend $15 and get an early fix. Of course I took that option - there's a lot of series I'll spend the $15 to get the next book for, but I'd have probably spent a multiple of that for a Vorkosigan book.

Let's start with the non-spoiler part of this review/rant - I loved this book! It's a great look at Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, one of my favorite characters, from the perspective of Oliver Jole, a senior member of her administration and her late husband's long-time aide-de-camp. The "late-husband" part of that is a spoiler for the earlier Cryoburn, but it's in the cover blurb for this book so hard to avoid... Oliver is the main POV characters, although some chapters are from Cordelia's POV as well. Miles makes an appearance for the last half or so of the book, and, as usual, is quite hilarious, especially since he doesn't quite understand what's going on and it's driving him nuts.

Some fans are upset that there isn't much action in this book, but I enjoyed it for its exploration of the planet and the society, and the characters.

Beyond here, this review/rant is going to have some spoilers, although the main point is alluded to in chapter 1, and pretty clear by chapter 2.



Beyond here lie spoilers (and ranting)!




A lot of the books in the series deal with the conflict between Barrayar's very conservative social standards, and the much more permissive norms around the galaxy. The first book about the Vorkosigans chronologically, Shards of Honor, is about Cordelia's meeting with Aral - Cordelia from socially-permissive Beta Colony, and Aral from Barrayar.

It was clear from Shards of Honor that Aral in his youth was promiscuously bisexual, and then happily married with Cordelia.

Where she's from, sexual orientation and interest is something you advertise with your earrings (whether you're male, female, or one of the rare genetically-engineered hermaphrodites) and no choice is "wrong". Barrayar is just recovering from centuries of isolation from the galaxy (their wormhole had closed) where the had regressed to horse-powered technology levels and had a very conservative social framework.

There's a great passage in that novel where a political enemy in arch-conservative Barrayar tries to sabotage Aral's marriage to Cordelia by telling here that Aral is gay. Cordelia, from much much more progressive Beta Colony, responds by saying "he was bisexual, now he's monogamous", not even realizing right away that she was supposed to be outraged at that accusation.

Aral and Cordelia were monogamous for 20+ years, and then Aral started a consensual relationship with his (male and much younger) assistant Jole with Cordelia's knowledge and approval. That relationship eventually expanded to include Cordelia, and she considered Jole to be a co-spouse, a concept which makes perfect sense on her liberal home of Beta Colony, but completely impossible in conservative Barrayar. That relationship lasted 20+ years until Aral's death.

The story is basically about Jole and Cordelia, and how they're adjusting to Aral's death.

If you look at the reviews under "Book Ratings" partway down the eARC page, they break down into 3 camps: "I loved it!" (my review is in that category), "there was no action, so I was bored" (ok, fair enough, although a lot of the later novels in this series are more mystery/romance than military adventure), and then finally the category that drives me nuts, "I didn't like this book because it betrays my understanding of Aral and Cordelia's relationship."

My aggravation is with that last set of reviews. (Edit: A lot of them seem to think Cordelia "lied" when she said Aral was monogamous.  a) that was cocktail party conversation to a political enemy, and b), that was 20 years before he wasn't monogamous - so even if it changed, that doesn't make it wrong at the time.) Why is Aral and Cordelia's relationship made less if they both decide to bring in a 3rd person? It's not something that would work for me, but I don't think their choice has anything to do with me. I don't understand why people are so offended by this.

I can't help but wonder if they'd be as offended if a woman had been brought into the relationship. Would this mysteriously be ok to them then?

Why is A&C's relationship made less by this mutual choice of theirs? They didn't do this until their son was already grown and moved away from home. Though Aral is Jole's military superior, there's no hint that there was any abuse in this relationship - Jole has very positive memories of Aral and Cordelia, and J&C are still close colleagues after his death.

I'm really puzzled by this set of reactions.

If you can explain it to me, please leave a comment!