Every time I think that Lois McMaster Bujold has run out of new ideas in her “Vorkosigan Saga,” she finds another twist to explore. Bujold is one of the great writers of characters in science fiction and fantasy, a writer of memorable scenes and dialogue, and a clever plotter. She handles serious drama exceedingly well but she can also be very funny. (Fans and other writers have noticed: she has won 5 Hugo Awards and 3 Nebula awards, among others.)Perhaps even more impressive for such a large series, she has never written the same book twice. She has used space opera, military drama, romance, mystery, feminist stories, a story with a homosexual protagonist, an engineering story, psychological studies, sibling rivalry, political novels, industrial espionage, cultural conflict, and even a drawing room comedy as part of this saga. In the course of these timelines, her characters grow, change, have children, age, and confront death. Even though the series is centered around the hyperactive Miles Vorkosigan, there are several other point-of-view characters, including his mother, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan. This new novel is a Cordelia book.Cordelia has been widowed for three years. Her late husband, Aral Vorkosigan, was one of the most powerful men in the culture of the planet Barrayar, a greatly admired military and political leader. For several years after retiring from Barrayaran politics, they were the Viceroy and Vicereine of the planet Sergyar, a planet on which she had been part of the first exploration team (back in Bujold’s first book, *Shards of Honor*). She has continued to govern the small but growing human colony after Aral’s death; but she has decided it is time to find another focus for her life. In a surprise to her friends and family (and perhaps to the readers), she has decided it is time to have more children, using her eggs and Aral’s sperm, in frozen storage for decades. She also begins to be attracted again, to a long time friend (and Aral’s longtime military aide), Oliver Jole. Jole is now the Admiral of the space fleet which guards Sergyar. Jole himself has several layers of internal conflict which I won’t reveal here (but some of which jump right up in the first chapter).This is perhaps the quietest book in the Vorkosigan series. There is no villain, no great crisis to provide conflict, only the conflict in the hearts of these two older adults, as they try to determine where their future lies; how much to stick with their duty as leaders and (for Jole) as a military officer; how much to open themselves to a possible future with a new generation of children. And though Bujold has often played with different sex roles in romantic couples, there is yet another twist here. Especially for those who have lived the lives of Bujold’s characters through her books, that may be drama enough.Jole, approaching his 50th birthday, has an opportunity to have children himself, separately from any decision he might make about Cordelia. Since I first became a father at about the same age, I strongly empathized with Jole’s conflicts.As usual with a series like this, it is hard to guess how well someone could jump in on a later book. However, I do know that Bujold tries very hard to make each book work as a stand-alone and I know people who have begun the series with several different books as their entry point. If you have read Bujold’s other books, you won’t want to miss this one. If you have never read Bujold, I envy you the chance to read her for the first time, no matter where you start. After finishing this novel, I feel a strong desire to go back to the series and read them all over again.