Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
by Lois McMaster Bujold
2012

Set shortly after (okay, there are a couple books in the Vorkosigan series between them - Diplomatic Immunity and Cryoburn), and closely related to Bujold's A Civil Campaign. The important relation here is that both of these two are military (adjacent ...) SF farces set (mostly) on Barrayar. This one stars Ivan Vorpatril, the same age as Miles Vorkosigan - he grew up with Miles, and has shown up in a number of the Vorkosigan novels ... mostly to be lightly abused and mocked by Miles. Now he has his own starring vehicle, and we learn what you probably already knew if you were paying attention in the other books. Ivan's a fairly smart guy. He's just ... a lot less ambitious than Miles, and his being "less intelligent than Miles" is a qualification he shares with 99.9% of the population.

This novel starts on Komarr, with Byerly Vorrutyer (another recurring secondary character in the Vorkosigan books) convincing Ivan to assist a young woman in danger. Ivan's attempted assistance/seduction goes seriously askew, but he manages to help her out anyway - and in the end, save her from her initial danger by making a highly unusual (and comedic) alliance. Inevitably, it gets more complicated from there.

The book is quite funny, but it felt messier, not as well thought out as A Civil Campaign. The characters are mostly likeable and I did read the book fairly compulsively, so I guess it did something right, but again - not quite as good.