#Ethan of athos

[intearsaboutrobots]

ok i came into Ethan of Athos with curiousity but also some trepidation as to how this book from the 80s would handle a man from a planet of only men questing into the wider world. i knew that Gender would be happening, but i had not expected it to be used as this sort of lens to examine gendered bias and oppression!!! ty ms. bujold!

[cookie-nom-nom]

I think it would be really great if the first to realize they’re a mind reader on Athos also realized she was trans after accidentally reading Ethan’s mind and going. Wh. That’s a woman?? And then when Terrence tried to do a little chill mentoring and be like hey :) I know your secret :)) she absolutely PANICKED that she’d get revealed as a secret she devil trying to corrupt the lives of innocent brothers or whatever Athos propaganda was like on that front. And obviously bolted.

It’s part way Terrence and Ethan sighing and realizing Adventure tm found them anyway. Like I figure they intended to be very hands off on the grand experiment, a little nudging at most, but also the kid was obviously FREAKED out and having things go very badly very publicly for the first new mind reader could be a bad misstep for the whole project. So they rangled up their gaggle of sons (who were taking an awful lot after Elli for maximum chaos) and declared a manhunt family vacation. It’s a cute look into their domestic life, but also Terrence was obviously feeling really bad about spooking her bc it felt like a ghost of some of his own trauma what with the being hunted down bit.

Meanwhile mind reader was desperately trying to figure out what triggered the sudden ability and how to replicate, if all women were telepaths, and if maybe she could be exorcised??? Could a priest help???? Dealing with a metric ton of internalized transmisogyny and the terrifying idea that maybe people can sense it?? Since that Terrence fellow knew before she did???? And is now hunting her down?!??!????

In proper Bujold fashion she’d probably fall in love with one of their sons, who in his rebellion and desperation to be seen as an adult decided to take the initiative and find what his dads were looking for before they could. He makes her feel like maybe it’s okay to break the mold, she makes him feel seen (and do some introspection on why he’s really acting out). Plus being heterosexual is basically peak rebellion on Athos, though that’s more of a lucky side effect.

It culminated in Terrence and Ethan finally cornering the pair, who are luckily more on the ‘nana can’t catch me’ and ‘oh crap im grounded’ side of things than the previous ‘I’m going to be burned at the stake’ level of catastrophizing. At which point Terrence delivered a long and ambiguous speech of solidarity, lots of ‘I know what it’s like because im the same’ and ‘you’re not a monster or scourge of society’ and enough confusing references to biology and genetics that she cried “thank god the father there’s another woman on this planet!” and started asking a million questions in the trans direction.

only for a very confused Terrence to go “what? No. I’m a telepath like you.”

“oh that….I kinda forgot about that part.”

[highladyluck]

🫢

[vorkosigankinkmeme]

Ethan/Terrence

Telepathic sex

[gender-trash]

THE VANCOUVER TRIP BOOK HAUL POST (in approximate order of acquisition)

from elliott bay book company in seattle:

google reviews lied to me there weren't any used books here. still, this bookstore was open fairly late and for this we must credit them. for some reason there's a thin line between "queer friendly bookstore" and "unsalvageably astrology-pilled woo dispensary" and elliott bay book co is kiiiinda straddling it. on the other hand they stocked swindles 2 AND the hands of the emperor so clearly SOMEONE working there has taste.

massy books:

the problem with becoming bookbindingpilled is i sometimes find myself picking books up from used bookstores purely because the binding is really nice, which is how i wound up with that book in the center of the top row. in my defense it's a folio society edition for cheap how was i meant to resist??

cross & crows:

the proprietress of this bookstore was really nice & chatted with me fairly extensively about the vorkosigan saga books :) for some reason i am under a wizard's curse to own extremely mangled mass market paperback editions of same; e.g. my copy of barrayar has had about a half inch eaten away from the fore edge on both front and back covers by some sort of bug. true to form, this copy of ethan of athos has a hole burned in the front cover.

white dwarf:

i walked in here hoping to buy some dumbfuck vintage pulp scifi with extremely inaccurate robotics content and i was NOT disappointed.

pulpfiction books:

tor books is periodically like "hey what if we do ANOTHER collection of chinese science fiction and fantasy short stories in translation" and every fucking time i open my mouth like a baby bird. product/market fit babey

macleod's:

google reviews described this as a cave of used books and they were NOT WRONG. this store was barely navigable with all the stacks of books on the floor and had a deranged bordering on nonexistent organizational scheme. lots of rare books with awesome binding. grading on sheer Used Bookstore Ambiance this was by far my favorite. i think that book on dutch golden age paintings weighs like ten pounds by itself.

the paper hound:

i didnt take any pictures of the shelf labels bc i was definitely flagging at this point but they were Deeply idiosyncratic <3 cute little store with quite a lot (especially for its size) of weird obscure shit pertinent to my interests.

(at this point i got on a bus, missed my stop bc i had no cell service and no way to check directions, got on a different bus, took the subway back to where i'd parked the rental car, took every possible wrong turn until i stumbled upon the hotel again, dropped off my books, and took the car to...)

carson books & records:

the checkout clerk commented on my eclectic taste and it was almost 10pm and i'd walked like eight miles while hauling around a suitcase increasingly full of books so i just said 'yeah'.

and now we play the fun game of "which of these are for fic research, which ones are for various hyperfixations, which ones are 'sequels' to nonfiction i really enjoyed, which ones i just thought Looked Interesting, and which ones are things i've seen recommended and hadn't managed to acquire yet"

[cookie-nom-nom]

When I first read Ethan of Athos I was in middle school and had absolutely zero concept of queerness. It just sailed right over my head (as did most romance) (cough cough foreshadowing) and sure some of that was subtle ‘it’s the 20th century we don’t say that’, but I was particularly thick headed. I mean they basically secured their victory by holding Terrence C’s hand and thinking gay thoughts! Regardless, I got to the climax where Ethan and Eli are shoved in a cramped space, buck naked, left to die. And baby me rolled their eyes and was like ‘ugh now they’re going to kiss and somehow that means they save the day’. And Ethan of course is reacting reasonably to the situation and is scared and slightly disgusted. And then the book ends and they’re just friends and I was left reeling because I didn’t know that was an option. It was that baked in assumption that the boy and girl get together at the end that was truly my only understanding of romance. And for a baby aro/ace, realizing for the first time that romance isn’t just the Herero checkbox needed for the happy ending, well. It was kinda life changing. This seed got planted in my head, even if nothing would come of it for longer still. So, sure it took years and a lot more exposure to queer circles for me to take a double take and go oh my god they’re hom of sexuals, but obviously I was already dense enough to barely understand the hetero relationships shoved down my throat. I still found queerness through it even if it probably wasn’t the intended kind. And that was incredibly important for me.

[call-me-rucy]

Beginning by the beginning (1)

I guess this is the start of my "The Vor Game" live blog! Full disclosure, I'm already 15% into the book so I'll be using this post (and maybe some others) to quickly recap my thoughts up to date.

The story so far:

Shards of Honor

Barrayar

The Warrior’s Apprentice

The Vor Game (I am here!)

Cetaganda

Ethan of Athos

Borders of Infinity

Brothers of Arms

Mirror Dance

Memory

Warning: I'm reading the Spanish 2019 edition, and I'm a translation nerd so I'll be commenting a lot of that.

For starters, the title in spanish "El juego de los Vor", already lets us know something that the original doesn't explicitely: the "Vor" in the title is plural. Looking forward to those class dramas.

This edition, although very recent, is a reedition of the first one there was so it's fun to read the prologue: "Barrayar, coming soon in the year way way before you were born even". Man, I've already done and loved Barrayar. The world needs more characters like Cordelia.

Anyway, onto the story.

I love books that reward you for remembering specific details. For example, by remembering from passing comments that Kyril Island is somewhere that no one, no one ever wanted to be asigned to. In fact, wasn't someone sent there as punishment? My boy, what are they gonna do to you this time?

"Very good. But your most insidious chronic problem is in the area of... how shall I put this precisely... subordination. You argue too much." "No, I don't."

So fun, I adore him, your honour. I didn't know the notorious "you see your superiors as cattle" conversation was in this book, it was a nice surprise. They're not wrong lol

Miles not ten minutes into the island, already lying by ommision, pretending he doesn't know barrayaran greek: it's a surprise tool that will help us later.

Also, the sentence about barrayaran greek is the first instance so far of the word "barrayaran", which I looked forward to, since sometimes they translate as "barrayarano" and others as "barrayarés". I prefer the first one, so I'm in luck with this book :D

Overall enjoying the Miles suffering so far, I'm very pleased with the evolution of the character, he doesn't seem as wild and desperate as in The Warrior's Apprentice but he's still him.

(To be continued...)

[wearethekat]

January Book Reviews: A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer

I picked up this book on recommendation from @booksandchainmail. In A Brother's Price, spirited and virtuous young man Jerin lives in a world where women outnumber the cosseted and sheltered men twenty-five to one. When Jerin rescues a princess near his family's farm, he falls headlong in love with her sister--but Jerin's status is too low to honorably marry the royal princesses...

Wow, was this book an absolute blast to read. It's effectively a gender-swapped historical romance, and it turns all the usual tropes upside-down. Spencer doesn't play the reversal cheaply for laughs, either. It's genuinely an excellent examination of gender-based tropes rooted in thoughtful worldbuilding, along the lines of Bujold's Ethan of Athos. Men are kept cloistered because their society has a history of desperate women kidnapping husbands, and because a brother's price can beggar a family of sisters. The focus on sexual purity is rooted in a society where polygamy is a necessity and deadly syphilis is endemic and incurable. Prostitutes are all female, but tend to dress like men for the forbidden appeal. And so on and so forth. It's all very well thought through.

The plot itself is pure classic romance novel fluff with a side of vaguely Old Western flavored political intrigue. Jerin himself is a sweetheart, and Spencer resists the temptation to flatten him into a silly caricature to make a point. When we meet him in the first chapter, we almost immediately learn that he's been single-handedly and highly competently running a household of thirty to forty people for at least a year at age fifteen, from the childcare to the cooking to the laundry. No small task, to say the least, and Jerin handles his suddenly changed circumstances with the same aplomb. I did find that the romances were a touch flattened, which is perhaps a side effect of having to write one for Jerin and each sister. However, I greatly enjoyed the later plotline, with Jerin getting his come-out in the royal city, while simultaneously we begin to realize that there's a long-standing plot against the royal family. Crunchy political intrigue is my favorite thing for spicing up a romance novel.

As soon as I finished reading this book, I immediately checked if there were perhaps four or five more romances set in this world, but to my great sadness, A Brother's Price is a standalone. Rats. A compulsively readable souffle of a novel that gently and thoughtfully examines gendered tropes in the historical romance genre.

[gametriprant]

Not like this, but Lois McMaster Bujold did the "planet of men" thing in 1986, with "Ethan of Athos".

And it's a very interesting take, even if some concepts may be outdated or problematic (not sure), but I think its very well done and fucks with preconceptions.

A fantasy/soft sci-fi story that features a race of creatures who are apparently - for no really sensible reason - all male. And upon encountering humans for the first time, one of them discovers that women exist. And this is an epiphany, and the most splendid news in the entire world as he knows it. Holy shit, women. It takes him some time before he stops making sure that every human he encounters is aware that women exist, it would be a pity if they wouldn't. They do, all of them do, and some of the ones that he addresses are women, who apparently come in a far wider range of appearances than he had previously been aware of. This, too, is amazing.

Neglecting whatever duties he was supposed to be performing while among humans, he focuses mainly on learning more about women. This leads to learning about human romantic relationships, which leads to discovering polyamorous relationships, and the LGBT community. All of which are splendid discoveries.

Eventually, after having not heard anything of their duty-neglecting emissary for months, the people receive one letter that basically goes "I am ceasing my mission and relinquishing my position in order to make a home here. Do not try to seek me, I am currently living in a household of seven women including myself, and I will fight you if you try to remove me. Farewell."

And these people, relieved to finally get a confirmation that they can get someone else on the task, just look at this letter like "what the fuck is a woman."

[synoddiane]

Books I read in 2024, and awards

This includes some but not all novellas and webfic, based on a vague sense of how booklike they felt to me. Webcomics, manga, and graphic novels aren't included, even when they're really long ones.

In chronological order of when I finished reading them (ordering them by when I started reading them would be fairly different):

China Mountain Zhang, by Maureen F. McHugh

Cleveland Quixotic, by Bavitz

Summer Fun, by Jeanne Thornton

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler

The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

The Summer Prince, by Alaya Dawn Johnson

The Unraveling, by Benjamin Rosenbaum

The Employees, by Olga Ravn

The Past Is Red, by Catherynne M. Valente

OKPsyche, by Alan DeNiro

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (volume 1), by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Trouble the Saints, by Alaya Dawn Johnson

The Gameshouse, by Claire North

Lyorn, by Steven Brust

Ethan of Athos, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Ella Minnow Pea, by Mark Dunn

The Two Doctors Górski, by Isaac R. Fellman

Her Voice Is a Backwards Record, by Ozy Brennan

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, by Marc Levinson

Brothers in Arms, by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Mezzanine, by Nicholson Baker

Checkpoint, by Nicholson Baker

The Hands of the Emperor, by Victoria Goddard

Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism, by Elsa Sjunneson

A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik

Derring-Do for Beginners, by Victoria Goddard

Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov

House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski

The Wish List, by Eoin Colfer

The Memory Theater, by Karin Tidbeck

Tell Me I'm Worthless, by Alison Rumfitt

Three Eight One, by Aliya Whiteley

Bone Dance, by Emma Bull

Mirror Dance, by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud

Watership Down, by Richard Adams

Komarr, by Lois McMaster Bujold

A Civil Campaign, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Hexarchate Stories, by Yoon Ha Lee

Downbelow Station, by C.J. Cherryh

The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick

Awards:

Most Clone Shenanigans: Mirror Dance, by Lois McMaster Bujold Runner-up: Brothers in Arms, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Book I Most Obviously Should Have Read a Long Time Ago: House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski Runner-up: Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov

Most Uses of the Opening of The Haunting of Hill House: Tell Me I'm Worthless, by Alison Rumfitt Runner-up: The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

Hardest to Recommend Without Spoiling It: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler Runner-up: The Employees, by Olga Ravn

Most Constrained: Ella Minnow Pea, by Mark Dunn Runner-up: Three Eight One, by Aliya Whiteley

Best Mosaic Novel: China Mountain Zhang, by Maureen F. McHugh Runner-up: The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick

Most Serious About Games: The Gameshouse Runner-up: Hexarchate Stories, by Yoon Ha Lee

Best Weird Gender Planet: The Unraveling, by Benjamin Rosenbaum Runner-up: Ethan of Athos, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Most Fascinated with Containers: The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, by Marc Levinson Runner-up: The Mezzanine, by Nicholson Baker

There were so many strong candidates for Least Reliable Narrator that I was unable to pick any one of them out as the winner.

[mtr-amg]

checking out by listening to the Bujold episodes of the plot tryst podcast

[thesunlikehoney]

I've got my dad hooked on the Vorkosigan Saga, and it's been amazing. Fantastic. He stayed up til two in the morning sitting in the kitchen finishing Cetaganda. I mentioned hoping someday there would be an adaptation of Warrior's Apprentice and we had a whole discussion about the challenges of adapting Mile's character to a visual medium. He doesn't think it can be done well, because Miles just thinks to fast and too much to capture on film, and-- "a movie would never be better than the book, anyway."

He even read Ethan of Athos. Which is interesting, because my dad is a very conservative Christian of the "you damn well better be neighborly to your gay neighbors but never forget they're living in sin" variety. Honestly I was surprised when he didn't comment on Aral after reading Shards and Barrayar, but instead made a comment on how often Cordelia quotes directly from the Bible, so maybe?? We're making progress on the idea that queerness and religion can co-exist???

I'm just so happy. My dad and I have been trying to find something to talk about for the last ten years and now we finally have, and it's wonderful, and it's some of my favorite books, and it's about culture clash and disability rights and queerness and religion, with plenty of badass sci-fi space battles to keep both of us entertained.

[voyaging-too]

Fics I have written and need to edit and post:

That short Ethan/Terrence scene where I try to write about telepathy. (Ethan of Athos)

Fics I won’t actually write, but I like the idea enough to repeatedly post about the concept:

Die Fledermaus AU with crossdressing!Falke.

Tales of Hoffmann story where the Muse IS Nicklausse.

Strong Female Protagonist fic about Patrick traumadumping on Clevin of all people.

The IT epilogue fic from Richie’s long-suffering manager’s POV.

Back to the Future preferred alternate timeline.

Stories I’m still hoping to write someday even though they are a severely unhinged:

Merchant of Venice Shylock/Antonio. Messed up. Has to happen.

The rewrite of The Thing on the Doorstep. I know it is heinous to rewrite Lovecraft with a happy ending, but in this case, some happiness would let me cram even more eldritch in there.

That novel-length worldbuilding-heavy continuation of Brave New World, exploring the experimental community on the Falklands, and finding meaning in a very meaningless world. Might wait until BNW becomes public domain, and write it for real.

Expand on that Tom-Riddle-redemption-arc story (Tom&Hagrid or Tom/Hagrid?)

Tolkien stories that may or may not fit into a series of in-universe myths:

Eowyn/Faramir story as an excuse to ramble about about memory and myth and trying to invent a new story for an unprecedented age. The two of them “this is not a place of honour”-ing Minas Morgul.

The one where Celebrían is Gil-Galad.

The one where Celebrían is an ork.

The one where the ring is sentient and loves it bearer.

The one about the huge amount of magic Arwen did to support Aragorn.

The one where Finrod is a werewolf.

The one where Emeldir sees (parts of the) future during the flight to Brethil.

The one about Idril being the only one who actually prepared for Gondolin falling.

The one about Nienor Níniel in the Dagor Dagorath at the end of the World.

The one about Borlad son of Bór becoming a legend and defying Morgoth with his death.

The overly philosophical Silmarillion fic where Elrond is looking after his brother’s descendants, with detours about the Snowmen of Forochel and underwater Palantir rituals.

The one about the Blue Wizards (they are both old women!), about them helping the East and South to quietly sabotage Sauron where possible.

The insufferably pretentious weird meta-fic where I criticise Mr Tolkien’s translation of the Red Book.

[mvimes]

Most gender fuckery in sci fi books ever:

1. Ethan of athos, Lois McMaster Bujold

2. Left hand of darkness, Ursula K. Leguin

[havendance]

I have made it through Cetaganda! Yes, the Miles and Ivan interactions are very fun, but also, please never send this kid on a diplomatic mission again. Let him go back to his natural habitat of causing problems on whatever the Vorkosigan equivalent of the outer rim is.

To the Vorkosigan people I have picked up: it looks like the next book in the reading order is Ethan of Athos. Is that a must-read or can I skip it in favor of the next book about Miles and come back?

[highladyluck]

doooooo iiiiiiiit

@highladyluck single-handedly making me want to reread the Vorkosigan saga