A review by katieinca
Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold

2.0

It's a Vorkosigan Saga book without a Vorkosigan. Ellie Quinn is fun, but a) not as much fun as Miles, and b) she's not our protagonist. That'd be okay, Ethan's not a bad narrator. But this future space society's homophobia is jarring and weird. The mystery/espionage plot works well enough, but it was one of those where things would be kind of explained and yet... I still wasn't quite getting it as early as I was supposed to, and it wasn't being intentionally opaque. I just wasn't getting the clues, or they weren't as clear as she thought they were.
So. It was okay. If you're reading the saga, I wouldn't skip it. But I wouldn't recommend it as a standalone.