I absolutely adore this book! Our protagonist is so earnest and kind and out of his depth, and the supporting cast is entertaining and challenges him immensely. Easily 5 stars!

Salute, Mother.

Many of Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan books have "how much is a person worth/" (be they a mutant, a genetically engineered person, a woman in a male-dominated society, a commoner in an aristocratic society) angles to them. Others look into the question of "How much do we care for our children? How much do we care to want our children?"

The bare-bones answers to these questions are "a lot". In the actual practice and the telling of the story, the simple statement grows to be something for more complex and nuanced, little lines and small speeches showing without telling how important these answers are.

Ethan of Athos, to a certain degree, deals with both of these questions. The book tells the story of a Doctor in an only-male planet whose specialty is obstetrics. When the ovarian tissue they have been using for two centuries to develop blastocysts finally run down and stop producing viable eggs, he is sent out into the big wide galaxy contaminated by women to find and bring back suitable replacements.

A fascinating part of the book which I felt was too soon over was the development of social order in the planet over two centuries. Athos was established by patriarchs (truly founding fathers) who seized mechanical reproductive technology as a method to create a world free from the taint of females. Two centuries later, this has lead to a society with - obviously- no designated male and female roles, but which still has kids to take care of. Child raising labor - women's work, as Elli Quinn calls it with a quirk of her lips - is considered labor, and specialized, highly skilled labor at that. You better be qualified- certifiably qualified to have a child and have someone to help you take care of the child because it is not (as the Athosian government mandates) one-person work. And as for prejudice against homosexuality? Good luck with that in a planet of people who are still mostly (I presume) allosexual.

Athos still has an OMG DRAGONS!!! view of women, but their society is, in contrast, hilariously gender neutral. (I'm pretty sure the founding fathers would be rolling around in their grave and that thought gives me SO much pleasure). It's only mentioned in passing, eclipsed by the larger story arc of Ethan venturing out into the rest of the Galaxy, but good god it gave me world-building orgasms.

Once away from his planet to the space station nexus, Ethan encounters Elli Quinn, whose exquisite reconstructed face and mercenary-trained body fails to arouse any feeling except naked terror in him. (Ethan you see, is as gay as they come; although this is hardly a plot point. For a person from Athos, it's heterosexuality that's madness.) Elli, whose primary trait is probably resourcefulness, uses him as bait for her quarry. Multiple times. Ethan eventually replaces his terror of her and her corrupting ways with sheer exasperation, and it is delightful to watch.

Elli is after a rogue Cetagendan. The rogue Cetagandan is after a biological experiment. The biological experiment is interested in Athos. Plot points collide, things happen. Like anyone who's ever spent time with the actual people of the segment of society their culture and upbringing say are damned, Ethan starts to change his worldview.

Or maybe it's just the goon trying to kill him which did it. Who can tell?

Much like all of Bujold's books, this is a fascinating study in social commentary and SOCIAL whatifs, masked in an adventure filled with mercenaries and renegades. It also does that thing where women are seen unmistakably as people, more for their flaws than for their pure and good hearts.

Go read it. It's a good book.

Oh Ethan. You naive young man you.

This was a really refreshing take on a single gender culture, neither utopia nor dystopia. But I was mostly focused on how much I enjoyed Elli and Ethan's interactions throughout all the shenanigans, and later Terrence.

Basically a nice little story in this series canon.

There are no women on the planet of Athos. The humans who first terraformed the planet considered women sinful and created a society where the very mention of women were a taboo. Reproduction happens in laboratory with ovarian cultures imported from other planets. Our hero, Ethan, is a doctor at such a reproduction facility.

Now, if that sounds like a premises of a cheap pulp sci fi, then you are right, because it is. But Bujold walks the fine line between cheap thrills and deep contemplation masterfully. Take the characters for example. There's the usual moral, accomplished male protagonist, the usual beautiful and shrewed female mercenary, the usual international (or intergalactic, in this case) goons. But the male protagonist is also gay and wants nothing more than to be a dad, the beautiful female mercenary is never reduced to James bond like femme fatale. I found the part about the economics of child bearing especially poignant.

Okay, if it's starting too sound too PC for your taste, don't worry. This was written in the eighties when being woke wasn't a thing. Lois isn't trying to get cookie points from Twitter, she's just a smart author. There's enough humour and twists and explosions in the book as well to keep the story interesting and the plot never takes backseat to the social commentary. Overall, a surprisingly pleasant read.

Corto y entretenido, Ethan de Athos es un buen ejemplo del gran maridaje que Bujold es capaz de hacer con ciencia ficción y cine clásico. Ethan, confundido con un agente secreto como Cary Grant en "Con la muerte en los talones" o Stewart en "El hombre que sabía demasiado" nos lleva por el mejor Hitchcock es busca de un Macguffin en forma de ovarios congelados para un planeta poblado exclusivamente por hombres. Pero como el thriller no es suficiente Grant nos lleva a Hepburn en "La fiera de mi niña y Ethan se ve emparejado con la teniente Quinn de los mercenarios Dendarii.
Una alocada comedia de persecuciones y malentendidos que lleva disimuladas en forma de carga de profundidad un par de reflexiones sobre el papel de la mujer en la sociedad, la intolerancia, el fanatismo y la homosexualidad.
Una gozada

A Vorkosigan series book without any of the Vorkosigan clan. Good story exploring new environments. The first is a planet without women. The second a space station not orbiting any planets. Bujold shows us how different settings really impact the story. Great characters, fast-moving plot, suspenseful situations. A fish out of water story with lessons for us all.

Meet Dr. Ethan Urquart. See him at work, at home, then on a vital mission for his planet far from all he knows. He meets new and different people. Has adventures that he never wanted. And find some special people who will change his life (and possibly the galaxy) forever.

When my book club chose this book I knew nothing about it. The summary confused me. And then, fortunately, I came to Goodreads and learned two things that made my whole experience of this book. First, that this was written during the AIDS crisis. Second, the description of "North By Northwest in Space."

In the end what I got was a pulpy space station romp with a moral about tolerance and learning to be open minded and experience new things. This isn't usually my sub-genre, but it was a lot of fun.

After I'd read the first two Vorkosigan Saga books, Andrew told me this one was next, and described the plot to me, and I was like, "um, that sounds REALLY BAD", so I skipped it, but then on my second read through the Vorkosigan series, I didn't skip it, and damn, it really works and it's a fun book. I don't love it quite as much as the Miles-centric books, but still, Lois is the best and has yet to write a book I don't love.