#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

[wolfcooked]

@ofwolfandmuses || we spoke about it!! for matai. cookingggggg!

"hey there, big guy. miss me?" ethan did this once a week, visiting his favorite ranchhand - partially to chat, but also to see behind the scenes for a little. he secretly enjoyed helping out, even if it was just by keeping matai company, or helping with carrying - or something. in exchange, he liked to thing he could stake his claim on meat for his shifts. if matai was the one to deliver, ethan could be sure it was great quality - no stray bones, it was the best.

"sure as hell missed you." he leaned against a fence, his arms & elbows on top. he could watch matai work for hours. "soooooo." deep breath, his lips & teeth making a little sucking sound. "anything new?"

[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...)

[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.

[highladyluck]

Athos: when your misogyny goes so hard you lean into compulsory homosexuality and implement societal support for (male) caregivers

[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"

[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.

[star-anise]

🙄

I read feminist fantasy because I'm a feminist, and I take issue with it sometimes because I don't think it's good to assume that a reflexive animus against everything we personally don't like is automatically good feminist praxis. I understand why skirts feel dumb and oppressive to us now! I am in fact aware of basic historical facts and support the destruction of gendered norms that dictate which people get what freedoms in how they look, dress, and act. (Before you run the risk of thinking you might agree with me, I'm forced to disclose that I think this includes trans people.)

But my other point is: We lose a great deal by assuming that what works for our culture and society right now (and I wear pants 90% of the time, I know how comfortable and warm and safe they are around heavy machinery!) is what should work for everyone everywhere, forever amen.

I wrote this post because I was reading By the Sword, a 1991 novel by Mercedes Lackey about a woman who chooses to become a mercenary captain in a fantasy world. Lackey has written over a hundred books by now, and several of them were incredibly formative to my childhood, as were other feminist fantasy pioneers like Tamora Pierce and Sherryl Jordan.

Lackey got her start writing prose thanks to Marion Zimmer Bradley*, who's most famous for The Mists of Avalon, a 1983 feminist retelling of the legend of King Arthur. However, Bradley was perhaps even more influential for publishing the fantasy anthology series Sword and Sorceress. She put out 17 volumes from 1984 to her death in 1999, curating a space specifically for short stories about strong female characters in the fantasy genre. This launched a number of careers, including Lackey, and materially changed the landscape of fantasy fiction.

Unfortunately, though, a lot of feminist fantasy from the 80s and 90s had this undercurrent that said that only women who rejected femininity completely were able to accomplish anything or be meaningful or important.

And see, when you think most women are stupid sheeple who care about stupid shit and make horrible choices and don't amount to much, I really start to doubt your commitment to feminism.

*Also, despite her contributions to the field and her stated goal of combating sexual violence, MZB sexually abused her own daughter and was complacent about her husband's predation and assaults of young teenage boys. She only saw some kinds of abuse as an issue, and did not imagine how things that didn't bother her could still matter a lot to other people.

Anyway, sorry you can't find feminist fantasy books? Have you tried looking. You might need to get off BookTok and find some works that focus less on internet virality and more on being actually like, feminist and well-written. Perhaps find a search engine of your choice and type in "feminist fantasy". Then hit enter. You might find a thing or two.

Feminist fantasy is funny sometimes in how much it wants to shit on femininity for no goddamned reason. Like the whole “skirts are tools of the patriarchy made to cripple women into immobility, breeches are much better” thing.

(Let’s get it straight: Most societies over history have defaulted to skirts for everyone because you don’t have to take anything off to relieve yourself, you just have to squat down or lift your skirts and go. The main advantage of bifurcated garments is they make it easier to ride horses. But Western men wear pants so women wearing pants has become ~the universal symbol of gender equality~)

The book I’m reading literally just had its medievalesque heroine declare that peasant women wear breeches to work in the field because “You can’t swing a scythe in a skirt!”

Hm yes story checks out

peasant women definitely never did farm labour in skirts

skirts definitely mean you’re weak and fragile and can’t accomplish anything

skirts are definitely bad and will keep you from truly living life

no skirts for anyone, that’s definitely the moral of the story here

[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?