Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

In this series, a lot of loose ends were tied off neatly in [b:A Civil Campaign 12779339 A Civil Campaign (Vorkosigan Saga, #12) Lois McMaster Bujold https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446998868l/12779339.SY75.jpg 1093445]; apart from Captain Lord Ivan Xav Vorpatril, if you regard a 34-year-old bachelor as a loose end. Bujold apparently does, and decided to devote this book to him.Ivan is tall, handsome, and healthy, and it makes a change in this series to have a protagonist with no medical problems. He seems somewhat lacking in drive and ambition, but he's a decent fellow, intelligent and hard-working, and I find myself wondering why his girlfriends never seem to last long.In this story he encounters two young women on the run, and his attempt to protect them lets him in for complications, discomfort, and some degree of danger. However, overall this is a good-natured and amiable book, which I suppose could be called a romantic comedy science-fiction thriller. It has a number of amusing scenes and rereads well.Considering that they're the central characters of this novel, Ivan and Tej are both relatively uninteresting compared with the other characters. Despite coming from families that are both abnormal, in their different ways, they've somehow turned into nice, almost-normal adults who are pleasant but not fascinating to meet. Although it's of some interest how they react to the abnormal events of the story, and to each other in that context.The first half of this story is delightfully amusing and entertaining, after which we have to plod through a relatively dreary phase, before it livens up again for the finale. In case you wonder what happened to Ivan and Tej after the excitement was over, we then get a rather odd little epilogue answering that question.