Ethan of Athos (Hardcover)

Ethan of Athos is a difficult book to review because the bulk of the novel is a rather average adventure story set in the universe of Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan stories. It does have some very engaging and thought provoking peripheral details, however.

Ethan is from an all male planet where women are seen as little more than demons. The planet is entirely based on homosexual relationships between males who must form contracts for permission to reproduce. Reproduction is accomplished artificially through the use of ovaries purchased from other planets. Athos is cheated out of a group of ovaries they purchased from Jackson's Whole so Ethan, being the head of one of Athos' reproduction centers, is sent as an emissary to discover what has occurred and to purchase new ovaries. Arriving on Kline Station, Ethan, who had never seen a woman before and views them as evil incarnate, is saved from being abducted by Jackson's Whole thugs by the vivacious Elli Quinn of the Denderii Mercenaries. Elli Quinn, Miles Vorkosigan fans may recall, is the attractive, aggressive, female bodyguard of Miles. Thrown into the mix is a paranoid telepath fleeing the same Jackson's Whole thugs. Each are interested in the missing ovaries for their own reasons. The tenuous teamwork of these three incompatibles sets up humorous interactions as the mystery of the
missing ovaries unravels.

Despite a promising plot the novel unfolds rather tediously. The novel's most engaging characteristic is its exploration of life on an isolated space station. Within such a closed environment there is grave fear of viral and other infectious diseases. Being the number one public safety concern, quarantine of infected persons and items takes precedence over just about anything. Extensive recycling of all kinds of valuable resources and a quite unique air cleansing and oxygen generating system are also norms life aboard a space station. Bujold also explores the abuse and terrible consequences of genetic engineering. These interesting asides, along with brief glimpses of the social life on Athos and the comical, really farcical, nature of the adventure make Ethan of Athos mildly entertaining.

Ethan comes from Athos, a planet founded by misogynists who took their loathing of women so seriously that they founded a planet populated only by men. Uterine replicator have been used for reproduction, but now they are failing and there is a need to import fresh genetic material, so Ethan is sent to Klein Station to pick up new materials.

On Klein Station, Ethan encounters betrayal and conspiracies from galactic powers that isolated Athosians have little understanding of. His only ally is Elli Quinn of the Free Dendarii mercenaries.

Wild adventures ensue, with the usual amount of double-crosses, mysteries, and sudden plot twists, all of which are handled well and are a sufficient reason to read the book. But the greatest pleasure in this story for me is the Bulold's world-building. She has really thought about Athos and about Klein Station, and she creates them as plausible places, showing what they are like. And, as another reviewer has properly pointed out, she shows the uniqueness of these societies not with long chunks of exposition that break up the story, or characters who deliver implausible lectures on the differences between their societies and 20th Century Earth, but by allowing you to see events from the perspective of people from those societies.

This isn't Bujold's best. But it's an illustration that Bujold, even a bit off form, is still better than most and a very rewarding writer.

Because this book doesn't include Miles Vorkosigan and his complicated personal issues, it will be an easier read than most Bujold books for somebody unfamiliar with the series.