Ethan of Athos

By: Lois McMaster Bujold

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Dr. Ethan Urquhart is chief of biology at a District Reproduction Center. He delivers babies from uterine replicators. You see, on Athos there are no women. In fact, the planet is forbidden to them.

Isolated from the galactic community by distance and a lack of exploitable resources, the Athosians have peacefully lived their peculiar social experiment for two hundred years. But now, the ovarian cultures dating back to the original settlement of the planet are giving out.

With the future of Athos at stake, Ethan is chosen on behalf of his cloistered fellows for a unique mission: to brave the wider universe in quest of new ovarian tissue cultures to replenish Athos' dwindling stocks. Along the way, he must tangle with covert operatives, killers, telepathy, interplanetary politics, and - perhaps most disturbingly - an indomitable female mercenary named Elli Quinn.

©1986 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Not too bad...

Any additional comments?

I was a little put off when it was revealed that Athos was an all male planet with all that implies. But, that aspect is not explored in depth. This story follows the typical vorkosigan pattern of mystery, machinations, manipulations, all finally tied up in a neat bow. If you're into the series, you won't be disappointed.

Surprising Sci-Fi Favorite

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I cannot believe this book was published in 1986! I had no idea until the copyright information just before the final

very nice

Not a Miles Vorkosigan book, but definitely in his universe. Thought-provoking and well written. definitely worth the effort and time.

No Miles, BUT...

For all you Miles fans - he's not in here. But get it anyway! It was a great story, great narration by Grover Gardner, and Elli Quinn in a pretty good character. I enjoyed it and hope she does some more (after doing another book in the Miles series).

Fast and interesting

The story stands alone from the "series", though there are recurring characters you'll recognize if you've read other books in the series.

The story is fast and interesting. I'm not a big fan of the "women as foreign and misunderstood" theme in it, but I suppose that's the premise of Athos. There isn't much explanation as to why Athos was made into a woman-less world (not sure how one could explain this in any sensible way) or much investigation of the issues that would arise in an all-male world but I suppose the point of the story was to see how Ethan did in the big bad world.

Ethan did alright. The story is enjoyable. There's some fighting and some mystery but no blood 'n gore or sex. I don't recall any foul language either.

The narrator is distinctive. He reads well, and doesn't over dramatize.

A world (but not a book) without women

How would that work? Ethan of Athos, follows naturally on Cetaganda because both stories are a meditation on the nature of reproduction without sex, and the role that men, women, and sex could have in the process; what might happen if the unscrupulous get hold of the process, and so on. Of course, all Bujold's books are also liberally drenched in nail biting action, wicked plot twists, great humor, and excellent characters. We meet Ellie Quinn (sic?) again, for example. I think Bujold is incapable of producing a bad book or character, and Grover Gardner is incapable of interpreting her work with anything less than perfect pitch.

Much less bigotry than I expected, very refreshing

I listened to this because I’m bored out of my mind social distancing, it was free, and I had seen Lois McMaster Bujold compared to Melissa Scott and Tanya Huff (both favorites of mine). I thought it would be fun, but I braced myself for some problematic nonsense—something like Ethan falling for a woman and everything getting “fixed” ala Vandread—that is not what I got.

What I got was some gay fun and while it is problematic in places, (why are future space people so actively homophobic? What is the point of that, some gay bashing, and some instances of homophobic slurs) it was written in the 80s and people were a little less open-minded then (my brain still catches on space homophobia though, like why have the culture at large be so homophobic?). There are also none of the pointless rape scenes that you usually find in LGBT fantasy written by cishets.

I loved Ethan’s innocence, his unconventional application of religion, and his occasional tendency to be a dishrag. He’s just adorable and, no spoilers, but he does have a male love interest and they adorable even though my brain was screaming “KISS HIM YOU DUMB BABY YOUR BOYFRIEND AT HOME IS A DEADBEAT!” through half the book. Anyways it’s just a fun romp through the implications of gender, religion, sexuality, and asexual reproduction.

Amusing side story

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

Athos is a planet of men. No women are allowed — they are evil and they ruin good men. Since there isn’t a lot of immigration to Athos (their advertising campaigns just don’t seem to be very effective), they need to create baby boys to keep the population from dying out. Dr Ethan Urquhart is one of the men who’s responsible for using stock ovarian cultures to create and incubate male babies in uterine replicators. When the ovarian cultures begin to give out, Ethan orders new stock, but when it arrives it is full of the wrong kind of material. Something has gone wrong. Now Ethan must be sent off-planet to find new ovaries. Ethan is pretty nervous about his quest — he knows that there are women out there and that they are all out to capture and degrade men. He plans to stay well away from them, get his job done, and return to the safety of Athos as fast as he can.

But Ethan gets tangled up in interplanetary politics — someone has some dastardly plans for Athos and it has something to do with the wrong ovarian cultures Ethan received. Now he’s in mortal danger. Fortunately, he’s not alone because the beautiful mercenary Elli Quinn, who we know (and love) from most of the other VORKOSIGAN books, has been investigating this plot from the other end. If Ethan wants to stay alive, he must work with Elli (a woman!) to solve the mystery.

If you can get past the silly premise (an all-male planet) which, of course, is meant to be silly, you’ll find that Lois McMaster Bujold has not only provided us with a fun story (how can this not be fun?) with all the usual Bujold elements (genetic engineering plots, shooting, hiding, torture, escapes, rescues, etc.) but has also provided us with a little more substance than this type of unisex planet story has received by pulp writers in the past. Bujold lets us see an all-male culture at work.

Unlike the better VORKOSIGAN books, Ethan of Athos is somewhat predictable and has a naively incompetent protagonist, but it’s still a worthy read. Here we get to know Elli Quinn better and we learn how she feels about Miles Vorkosigan (the main protagonist of the series) and why she admires him so much. Miles never actually appears in Ethan of Athos, though Elli talks about him a lot.

Ethan of Athos is the third book that Lois McMaster Bujold published, but the events related in this story occur much later in the VORKOSIGAN SAGA, between Cetaganda and The Borders of Infinity. It doesn’t really matter when you read Ethan of Athos, though, because it’s more of a side story. New readers could even start here, if they like, or it could be skipped all together. It’s not important to the rest of the series, but it gives us more insight into Bujold’s world and allows us to get to know Elli Quinn better. Plus, it’s amusing. I read Blackstone Audio’s version narrated by the excellent Grover Gardner.

Miles-less but still wonderful

Ethan fits very nicely into the Vorkosigan series though not at the beginning, even though this was the first of the books to be published. If you delight in the wit, wisdom and tight plotting of Bujold's masterful Vorkosigan stories, you will be pleased with this piece despite the fact that Miles never appears directly in the narrative.

LMB is entirely original, consistently surprising the reader with her inventiveness while remaining unerringly consistent in her rendering of a very complex and fascinating world and a marvelous cast of characters. In addition, her stories are always deeply human, based on problems which rise naturally and honestly from the motivations, confusions, fears and aspirations which we all share. Happily she does this without wallowing in turgid inner monologues, maintaining instead a light and entertaining style which is never far from a smile or a chuckle. As a result, there is always a lot more wisdom present in her writing than we notice at first blush.

EXCELLENT Book

This is one of TWO books of Lois Bujold that I think are her very best work. The other being "Falling Free". (note that I really enjoy all of her books) I noted that one reviewer objected to the phrase "strange perversion" or something which pertained to the All Male Colony of Athos. this is like objecting to and wishing to eliminate the n-word from the works of Mark Twain in the theory that it is not politically correct. and like Twain, Ms. Bujold gives her characters life and meaning BEYOND the stereotypical. Making such stereotypes nonsensical. Ethan is a sympathetic character who is trying to help his home cope with serious problems. To do this, he travels into the unimaginable and terrifying Galaxy where not only is he a stranger in a strange land, but he has to deal with those difficult and dangerous FEMALES! Of whom he is terrified because of the militant evangelical fervor with which his home world denounces them as creatures with unimaginable powers and hidden abilities to destroy a man! they may be right! I would Be FASCINATED to hear the back story about Athos! Why are they so repulsed by Women? What happened to their founders to cause them to create a planet where women are forbidden? And how is this so very different from the world of Barrayar and it's nearly pathological anti Female military? And how much of our OWN prejudices does this reveal!

I want BACK STORY! I want MORE INFORMATION DAMMIT!

I really love this book. It is fascinating and fun. Bujold at her very best. Only Falling Free may be better!