Review: Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold

Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold

Published: Baen, 1986

Series: Vorkosigan Saga (order is debateable)

The Book:

“Ethan Urquhart is a head reproductive scientist on the planet of Athos, in a colony that was founded on strong religious and ideological principles.  Due to advanced technology, they’ve been able to create an all-male society, and they believe that women are dangerous and demonic. However, when their new batch of ovarian cultures come in completely sabotaged, Ethan is sent on a dangerous journey to Kline Station, to secure his world’s reproductive future. 

Almost as soon as he arrives, Ethan finds himself in deep trouble, for no reason he can fathom!  Apparently, the sabotaged ovarian cultures were just a hint of the deeper game being played.  Ethan soon finds himself in way over his head, with the beautiful female mercenary Elli Quinn (of the Dendarii mercenaries) as his partner in crime.” ~Allie

I’m in the long-running process of reading the Vorkosigan Saga, but this one is a bit of an oddity. It doesn’t feature any of the central cast of the storyline (though Elli Quinn is a minor character), and it appears to be a one-shot story. However, it was short, humorous, and fun, and it was nice to get a story from another area in the Vorkosigan universe. As a note, I still recommend Shards of Honor/Barrayar (also sold together as Cordelia’s Honor) as a good starting point for the series.

The Book:

Ethan of Athos felt mostly like a side story in the Vorkosigan universe, but it was a light, entertaining read.  Miles never made an appearance, but the story was packed with the same kind of humor, adventure, intrigue and likeable characters that I associate with the series.  The story plays into some common tropes, but always seems to either take them a bit tongue-in-cheek or subvert them entirely.  The main plot is basically a spy thriller, with Elli Quinn as the one experienced in espionage and Ethan as the ordinary guy reluctantly dragged into the mess. I don’t think Ethan of Athos is the most memorable or profound installment I’ve read of the series, but I enjoyed taking a bit of time to read a fun and undemanding adventure.

While many of the minor characters were forgettable, Elli and Ethan were very pleasant characters to follow.  Ethan in particular was a very lovable guy—responsible (ordinarily), nurturing, compassionate, and extremely clueless about international plots and espionage.  Elli, on the other hand, was skilled and resourceful, and newly beautiful as a result of some post-injury reconstructive surgery.  It would have been easy for this novel to feature Ethan realizing women were hot and falling for Elli, and I really appreciate that it didn’t.  He did come to realize that women were not the demons he’d been taught, and he and Elli worked really well together as a team.  However, he never stopped loving his home planet of Athos, and his love interests in the story were never women.

As is probably obvious from the description, some topics addressed through the story were perceptions of gender and culturally imposed gender roles.  This is not new to the series, as previous novels have introduced the extremely patriarchal Barrayar, gender relations in the aristocracy of Cetaganda, and the equalitarian Beta Colony.  In this case, the treatment is similarly unsubtle, but manages not to seem too overbearing or preachy. While the set-up appears quite simple, Bujold doesn’t portray any society as wholly good or bad.  Athos has its problems with misogyny and Kline Station has issues with homophobia, but both societies still seem to produce many perfectly decent and some not-so-decent people.  Ethan needs to come to terms with his bizarre view of women, but the outside world also needs to come to terms with the fact that there’s nothing inherently wrong with the all-male structure of Athosian society.  Overall, I really enjoyed seeing the clash of the characters’ different perspectives, as they made their way from one crisis to another.

My Rating: 3.5/5

 Ethan of Athos is a fun side story to the Vorkosigan saga, one which I don’t think needs to be read at any particular point in the series.  While it may not be the most impressive installment in the Vorkosigan saga, it still had plenty of adventure and humor, and a few really likeable characters.  Most of the story followed the unlikely partnership of the mercenary Elli and a reproductive doctor of an all-male society, Ethan, as he tripped into a heap of trouble while trying to secure an ovarian culture delivery.  The interplay between various characters’ views on gender and gender roles added another interesting aspect to the story. Altogether, it was a light, entertaining novel, and reading it was a fun way to pass a few hours. 

Read-Along: Part 4 of A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett

This is, sadly, the final post for the read-along of Terry Pratchett's A Hat Full of Sky.  I have heard that the read-alongs may continue this fall for the second two novels of the Tiffany Aching series, so I'm planning to pick up reading the rest of the series then!  Thank you Dab of Darkness and Little Red Reviewer for organizing this and putting together the discussion questions. I have enjoyed reading everyone's responses, and I hope to see you all in read-alongs in the future! 

This post contains spoilers through the end of A Hat Full of Sky.  A usual review of the novel will appear relatively soon (after Ethan of Athos).

1) Mistress Weatherwax has a philosophy of her job is to make sure everyone today can get to tomorrow - such as letting people believe in water sprites and goblins if it lets them lead a better life. Do you see yourself somewhere in this philosophy?

Expediency over accuracy, provided it gives the same results. I have to admit I do fall into that sometimes in interpersonal interactions.  I'm more of a supporter of Miss Level's strategy, though.  I like to think that I would explain the tiny invisible bugs every time, rather than supporting baseless superstition.  Mistress Weatherwax had a plan for that, too, though.  She was going to send up the wandering teachers, so that they could get a little accuracy in the long run.

2) Do you think Mr. Weavall will be successful with the Widow Tussy? Do you think Tiffany got off light concerning Mr. Weavall's stash?

Realistically, I think he and Widow Tussy will learn that it's very hard to adjust to someone else's habits after living with your own for ~90 years.  The gold can't hurt, though.  I suppose Tiffany got off easy, but I think it will actually stick with her longer.  If Mr. Weavall had yelled at her, she would have felt punished and then probably felt relieved afterward.  As it is, with Tiffany's personality, I think she's going to punish herself with guilt for much longer.  

3) What was your favorite part of Mistress Weatherwax's and Tiffany's bonding time in the mountains with the little picnic and the owls and such? 

Possibly the whole thing where Mistress Weatherwax refused to believe she snored.  I mean, seriously, she was inside the owl, she had to be able to hear it!

4) Petulia Gristle heard Tiffany was going to face something nasty and went out to see if she could use some help. Have you ever had an awkward situation like that? 

This is slightly off the topic of the question, but I really loved how Petulia grew in this last section of the book.  It was great that she was the one who put Annagramma in her place, not Tiffany. Tiffany is still more or less an outsider, after all (she went to one young witch's meeting).  Petulia has probably been putting up with Annagramma's crap for ages. 

As for someone offering you help when you don't actually need (or want) it, I always try to make up something quick and easy for them to do.  People like to feel they're helping, sometimes especially when there's nothing they can do.  The important thing is that they feel useful!

5) Tiffany has her first and last conversation with the Hiver/Arthur. Did you see Tiffany's answer to the Hiver dilemma coming or were you taken by surprise? 

I did not suspect that the hiver wanted to die.  I was taken by surprise.  Also, on a very pleasant surprise, I did not expect to see Death in this book!  Why is Death always a really great character in fantasy stories?  I don't much like it in reality.

6) The Witch Trials are almost like a county fair, a happy outing for the entire family, or so Granny Weatherwax was grumbling about. What about the affair caught your attention?

It seemed kind of like a rural fair.  I liked that half the stuff there wasn't even magic.  They were sharing first aid tips and recipes and such.  Also, Petulia and the pig trick… but with a sausage!  I loved her newfound confidence.

7) In the final chapter, we learn the meaning of the title of the book. Did you feel this was a good wrap up to the novel?

Yes, I think so.  Tiffany ends back at her home, remembering where she'd come from.  In a novel about travel, reputation, and self-worth, I think it was good that she ended up back in her safe place, but with a better understanding of herself.  Also, I assumed the hat full of sky was the invisible hat she'd gotten from Mistress Weatherwax.  I suppose her new hat, the sky, is not too much different! 

Review: The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

Published : The Dial Press/Quantum, 1980

Series : Book 1 of the Snow Queen Cycle

Awards Won : Hugo, Locus SF Awards

Awards Nominated : Nebula Award

The Book :

“In the world of Tiamat, power changes hands every 150 years, due to the periodic opening and closing of a galactic stargate.  During the winter cycle, the Snow Queen reigns, and technophile ‘Winters’ live in a society supported by contact with people from the Hegemony, a government that spans a number of worlds.  At the end of this cycle, the Snow Queen and all the world’s technology are sacrificed as the offworlders leave through their closing stargate. Then begins the reign of the Summer Queen, and the primitive, superstitious Summers.

The current Snow Queen, Arienrhod, has no intention of relinquishing her power and watching her technological world collapse. Though she has many schemes to change the cycle, one involves her own clone, a young woman named Moon.  Raised as a Summer and in love with her cousin Sparks, Moon has her own ideas about what her life will hold.  She intends to be a sibyl, a wise woman of the Summers who can channel answers to nearly any question.  However, the fates of Moon, Sparks, and Arienrhod may not be theirs to control…” ~Allie   

 This is the first novel I’ve read by Joan D. Vinge, which makes it my 3^rd novel in the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge.  The Snow Queen is from relatively early in her writing career, four years after her 1976 nomination for John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer for the novelette “Tin Soldier” (published in 1974).  The Snow Queen is the first book of the Snow Queen Cycle, but it stands alone as a novel.  I’m not sure whether or not I will continue the series, simply because the story does seem complete.

My Thoughts:

At its heart, The Snow Queen is a science-fictional retelling of the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.  I thought it was a very interesting idea, moving the basic story of a fairy tale into an elaborate science fiction setting.  The feel of the story included kind of a clash of mysticism with science.  For one clear example, the Winters were a heavily science and technology focused people, while the Summers were more religious and had many mystical beliefs.  The cycles had both a pragmatic purpose for the Hegemony and a spiritual significance for the Tiamatans.  For another example, the purpose and identity of the sibyls had both a scientific and a more spiritual basis.  It was interesting to see how these different perspectives clashed and melded together.

The story was told through many viewpoint characters, each of which was complex and engaging.  Even though the Snow Queen Arienrhod was clearly an evil villain, she still had her own goals and justifications for her actions.  Moon and Sparks are cast in the roles of the main characters from the original fairy tale.  I felt that the story might have been a little too loyal in following the original tale, which gave Moon and Sparks a few personality characteristics that seemed a bit too exaggerated.  For instance, Moon’s innocence and purity of heart led nearly everyone she met to love her and want to help her, and Sparks was ridiculously impressionable. Other viewpoint characters I particularly enjoyed included the police inspector Jerusha PalaThion and the sketchy minor criminal Tor Starhiker.  They may have not always been directly involved with the main plot, but Jerusha’s story of being professionally sabotaged and Tor’s story of trying to make her way in the world were both engaging in their own right.  The cast of the story is enormous, even beyond the viewpoint characters.  While that may have made it a little difficult to get into initially, I ended up enjoying the wideness of the world and the many memorable people that populated it.

The pacing of the story sometimes seemed a little uneven, but I was equivalently interested in the daily politics of Jerusha’s police headquarters as I was in the fate of the Snow Queen and Tiamat.  My curiosity about the lives of each of the characters (event the minor ones) held my interest through the more mundane parts of the story.  I think that if one were singularly invested in the main story between Sparks, Moon and Arienrhod, there are parts that might seem to drag.  In that main story, there were parts of the conclusion that left me unconvinced.  Some things that are acceptable in a fairy tale seem extremely naïve and irresponsible when duplicated within more realistic interpersonal interactions.  All the same, I appreciated how all the viewpoint characters stories came together, and how each of them played a role in the final act of the tale.       

My Rating : 4/5

The Snow Queen moves the well-known Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale into a complicated science fiction setting.  With the combination of the two genres, there is also an interesting merging of atmospheres in the societies of Tiamat.  The story follows half a dozen viewpoint characters and many more interesting minor characters, in a world that seems large and clearly imagined.  For me, the stories of the more minor viewpoint characters sometimes outshone the central story of Sparks, Moon and the Snow Queen.  While I sometimes felt it was a little too loyal to the original fairy tale in terms of events and characterization, there was still plenty to enjoy in the many subplots and characters.