Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have read pretty well all of Ms Bujold's novels, both the science fiction and fantasy ones. I've always loved the Miles Vorkosigan stories, and the writer's daring in having an odd little man as her main protagonist (after the original Cordelia and Aral stories). What a guy! Not to mention how funny some of the books have been, while others were so intense they brought tears to my eyes. But I must say this latest outing in the Vorkosigan saga was deeply disappointing. As other commenters noted, there was next to no plot here, except - for this reader - a surprising desire that Cordelia decides to pursue after her husband Aral's death. Nor was I particularly impressed to hear about the bizarre intimate shenanigans revealed about Cordelia and Aral's marriage. There had been no real foreshadowing of any of this in the earlier books, and quite frankly seem more to do with the author deciding to explore gender-related theories for her own amusement. This seems a rather self-indulgent approach to writing a book, and had the author not been such a well regarded writer in the genre, I can't imagine a publisher would have printed it. Read this if you've been following the series, and want to know what happens to Cordelia (a rather colourless Cordelia here), but definitely don't read if you are new to the Vorkosigans. It won't make much sense, and nothing much really happens to move the story along.