Ethan of Athos

Executive Summary: After a slow start, I thought it finished much stronger. 3.5 stars, rounded up.Audiobook: Grover Gardner once again does a good job. I don't think he really does voices (I find myself drawing a blank as I write this), but I enjoy listening to him. The volume and inflection is good, which for me is often the most important thing anyways. I plan to continue this series on in audio.Full ReviewThis is a pretty short book. It's only about 8 hours in audio. It started a bit rough for me. Ethan isn't a very likeable character, in particular because of his prejudices towards woman. Athos as a society is just so strange to me. My initial thought was this was an inspiration to those Men's Rights idiots, except they want women to be subservient to them, and not to have nothing to do with them at all.I had to look up the year this book was published. A society where homosexuality in book from 1986 seems pretty progressive. Although the attitudes of other characters in the book towards that seems appropriate to that time, so maybe not all that progressive.Once Ethan got off Athos and met up with Elli Quinn the book got going a bit more to me. However it took awhile to really get a feel for what was going on, and care all that much about poor Ethan and his quest for new Ovarian samples with which to sustain the population of his planet.There is mention of Miles Vorkosigan, but sadly he doesn't make an appearance. Ethan is a poor substitute for me. He did grow on me, and grow (albeit very slightly) as a character in this book, but not enough for me to care too much about him or his planet.Overall I did still enjoy this book, but not nearly as much as [b:The Warrior's Apprentice 61906 The Warrior's Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga, #2) Lois McMaster Bujold https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1170597854s/61906.jpg 2792]. I'm hoping to continue on with [b:Falling Free 61915 Falling Free (Vorkosigan Saga, #4) Lois McMaster Bujold https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386922931s/61915.jpg 2277408] soon, although that looks like it's another book without Miles. That's what I get for insisting on reading them in publication order however.