Ethan of Athos

Another fun outing from Bujold, and proves it's not necessary to include a Vorkosigan protagonist for the book to be interesting. Loved that an unassuming gay obstetrician was our unlikely hero. I'm becoming more-and-more impressed by this author--lots of writers do action-packed light breezy, but they can seem slight and unimportant, silly even--but Bujold's pretty much pitch-perfect all the way through, balancing just the right amount of plot, characterization, world-building, etc. (Like how marvelous and fresh Jane Austen can seem, compared to some of the drearier Victorians who followed her).

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking show more for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve! show less

In 1986, Gay Rights was a fairly new thing. Some people still knew AIDS as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency), not yet realizing the plague that it would become. Gay marriage? Gay adoption? Not on the radar. It must have been a lot harder to come out of the closet back then. In that context then, “Ethan of Athos” is an important book, stating flatly that gay men are folks just like the rest of us, who can get caught up in surprising space adventures just like anyone else in science fiction. As read today, twenty years later, the philosophical statement doesn’t seem quite so radical, but the adventure is still enjoyable.

Athos is a single-sex planet, and has been for 150 years or so. Due to the philosophy of the founders, the men show more are taught that women are treacherous and highly suspect, to be avoided at all cost. The guys there have jobs and relationships and kids just like anyone else. Ethan is a doctor specializing in making babies. It’s a complex process, obviously, making liberal use of artificial wombs and cultures. Unfortunately, the cultures have a limited lifespan, and they’re beginning to wear out. New genetic material (from women) will be needed. Ethan is a grade-A member of his society, without a rebellious thought in him. So he is chosen to go arrange for more material out in the wider world, where he hopefully will not be corrupted. It’s difficult to arrange these things, since their world suffers under a severe stigma from the rest of the universe, both for their gay culture and for their phobic misogyny.

When Ethan ventures away from home for the first time, it doesn’t take long for things to go wrong. First there’s the frighteningly casual literal gay-bashing scene. Then he is quickly drawn into games of skulking espionage, under suspicion due to something that went wrong with the last package of genetic material that Athos ordered. He is rescued by a woman twice, much to his alarm. He meets other people involved in a widening conspiracy, and generally bumbles through to the satisfying conclusion, learning along the way how to deal with the rapidly evolving situation and the radically different social norms. Importantly, he never “converts” to heterosexuality (although if you think about it, she’s also arguing that being gay is cultural, not genetic, a stance that is possibly more controversial now than it would have been then).

The book reads much like some later Heinlein. The characters aren’t terribly deep, but they serve their purposes well. They’re all very competent and witty. You’ve got your strong female character (more of a leader here than in typical Heinlein), Ethan is our Stranger in a Strange Land, you’ve got mercenary/government bad buys, etc. In setting up such an extreme example as an all-male planet, and then letting it and its representative be fairly normal – not too macho, not bumblingly incompetent or wussy – Bujold makes a powerful statement for gay equality. Also, she can pull off the side effect of extreme gynophobia in a way that isn’t offensive to women and without undermining her argument about gays, a feat that a male author may not have been able to pull off. show less

Summary: Athos is one of the most isolated planets in the galactic community, which is exactly how the inhabitants like it. It's a planet entirely of men, where contact with off-planet sources is strictly limited, and each next generation is conceived in vitro and incubated in uterine replicators. This system has worked for hundreds of years, but now Athos is facing a serious problem: their carefully cultured lines of ovarian tissue, the same cell lines that have provided half of the genetic material of every Athosian for centuries, are failing.

Dr. Ethan Urquhart is the head of one of Athos's District Reproduction Centers, and he is well aware of the grave prospects for his planet's future. When a very expensive order of ovarian tissue show more from off-world turns out to be useless, Ethan is chosen for a vital but unprecedented mission: to go off-world himself, find some replacement cell cultures, and personally safeguard them on their way back to Athos.

Ethan only gets as far as the transfer hub of Kline Station before things start to go wrong. The enormous space station is overwhelming enough for someone who has never before seen, let alone been forced to interact with, women. But Ethan has bigger problems on his plate as he swiftly becomes tangled in a plot that involves spies, military operatives, subterfuge, murder, and a fugitive carrying something that could change the fate of the human race forever.

Review: I'm afraid my reviews of Lois McMaster Bujold's books, and of the Vorkosigan Saga in particular, are in danger of becoming repetitive. My opinion of almost all of her books boils down to: Love her! Read them! And Ethan of Athos is no exception. Bujold's got an uncanny ability to create multidimensional, flawed, and loveable characters in a very short space. Even though Ethan is almost painfully naïve throughout the book, it's hard not to sympathize with him and cheer for him right from the beginning.

Bujold's also got a deft hand with dialogue; the characters have just the right amount of snarky wit to keep things lively without losing the rhythms of how real people talk. The same sense of humor is present throughout the book -- I'm still giggling about one of the parts with the newts -- but it's well-blended with the action, the politics, and the emotional pathos that make up the rest of the story. The whole thing moves along quickly, telling a complete story in a lean seven hours of audiobook -- no unnecessary or wasted scenes here.

Ethan of Athos also showcases how good Bujold can be at introducing more serious topics in her fiction, without having the story become entirely about The Issues. In this case, the story on the surface is essentially a spy thriller, but there are deeper layers dealing with sexism, the rights of the individual vs. the society, and homophobia. The sexism angle is the most obvious; after all, Athos is a society founded for the express purpose of protecting men from the evil, corrupting influence of women. Watching Ethan deal with the contrast between his indoctrinated beliefs and the reality of meeting actual women was fascinating, and I appreciated that Bujold left him not-quite-converted and still grappling with his prejudices at the end of the book, rather than taking the easier but less-realistic path of a complete epiphany.

I also found it fascinating that while Ethan is dealing with his own sexism, he also has to deal with others' homophobia against Athosians (who are, after all, actually trying to recruit their children to bolster their planet's flagging genetic diversity). There's a very interesting interplay between various characters' perceptions, prejudices, upbringings, and experiences that hums away beneath the surface, raising questions and making the reader think without competing with the narrative flow of the story.

As per usual, Grover Gardner does a wonderful job with the narration. His voice blends seamlessly into those of the characters, making it easy for listeners to lose themselves in the story. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Ethan of Athos is set in the Vorkosigan universe, but only mentions Miles in passing. Commander Elli Quinn of the Dendarii Mercenary Fleet is a major character in this book, but she's introduced well enough that it could easily be read independently of (or as an introduction to) the larger series. show less

The planet of Athos is a one-gender planet. The colony was begun by a group of religious brethren who believed that women were the root of all evil. They brought ovarian cultures with them when they began and have been using them for over 200 years to reproduce. The geneticists remove the X gene so that all babies are born male from replicator machines. The problem is, the original ovaries are running down, dying out and there are no more to use because the planet is extremely isolated from the rest of the galaxy. Hence, Ethan's mission. Go buy some more ovaries.

As a story, it was a lot of good fun. I did get a bit tired of "sparking" eyes. One thing I love about Bujold, is that she stretches your mind about medical ethics and "what show more ifs." This was certainly such a read. What if we had the capability to make a one gender race of people? Should we do it? Would it be healthy? Would it be wise?

The author subtly gets you to think about these questions when she takes Ethan off of Athos and exposes him to women and the rest of the world. This was a pretty great read on several levels. show less

it rules that I don't think anybody ever explains to Ethan about homophobia. he doesn't need to know / he can figure it out from context clues. Anyway this is so great and fun and my only real complaint is one particular plot thread resolving in a way that lets Ethan off the hook way too easily

[b:Ethan of Athos|990093|Ethan of Athos (Vorkosigan Saga, #6)|Lois McMaster Bujold|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180035524s/990093.jpg|2030693] by [a:Lois McMaster Bujold|16094|Lois McMaster Bujold|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1199059582p2/16094.jpg] is a book in the Miles Vorkosigan series that has neither Miles nor his alter-ego Naismith in it (except as an off-stage character).

Ethan is from an all-male planet who manages population replacement and growth with cell lines from imported ovarian tissue and local sperm donations from approved fathers. The cell lines are getting old and decaying and new stock is needed. But when the order is filled, the specimens sent are useless and, in some cases, are not even human tissue.

So show more we have a mystery (what happened to the ordered tissue?) and a problem (how do we get more tissue?), and Ethan is sent to take care of the problem and, along the way, meets females for the first time and solves the mystery. We meet Cetagandan miliary operatives, Elli Quinn (a name from an earlier Miles/Naismith adventure), and Terence Cee (a key to the mystery).

I liked this book a lot and thought it paired well with Cetaganda in the Miles, Mystery & Mayhem omnibus. Both, at heart, are mysteries and have themes of genetic and sociological engineering.

I think Ethan's inner curiosity contributed mightily to how quickly he lost his naivete. Given that he was raised in such a closed society, he was amazinly open-minded. In acting as an operative for the Dendarii Free Mercenaries, I liked the way Elli Quinn consciously invoked "WWND?" (What Would Naismith Do?)

No Miles, but an excellent book! show less

I want to give Bujold chops for writing a book that reverses the hoary old 'planet of women' trope with a planet of men trope, and then manages to treat a culture of gay misogynistic reactionaries with humor and care. But aside from the set-up (which was done to better effect in Cordwainer Smith's "The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal"), there's not much to recommend this Vorkosigan-without-Miles book.

Ethan is a doctor with a problem: His male-only refuge planet of Athos is entirely dependent on reproductive medicine to survive, their centuries-old ovary samples are dying, and the new shipment was replaced with random biological junk. Ethan is sent into the sinful women-filled Galaxy to find out what happened and get a show more replacement. His first stop, Klein station, lands him in a mess of interstellar espionage with mad Cetagandan scientists, humorless station security quarantine personnel, and a freelance spy from the Dendarii Mercenaries, the lovely Elli Quinn from the first Miles novel, who is back with a new face, a promotion, and tendency to ask 'what would Admiral Naismith do?'. Ethan and Elli fall in with the telepathic (and most wanted) Terrence Cee, and run around the station dodging assassins to figure out where a top secret Cetagandan research project has gone, who has Ethan's ovaries, and who is trying to get them all killed. There's some interesting stuff about the importance of biological control on a space station, and how that effects the way you'd go about committing a crime, and some digressions on the very weird planet of Athos, but mostly this book is just running for its own sake.

Unless Terrence Cee plays a major part in future stories, this is probably the most skippable Vorkosigan book so far. show less