Ethan of Athos, “Survival Instinct”
I enjoyed Ethan of Athos, perhaps because I wasn’t expecting much of my last unread LMB novel and one I knew all along had little to do with Miles. The beginning drew me in; I had no clue about Athos until it was made obvious, and I do love a good alien culture. I liked Ethan, especially his prejudices and his conflicted relationship with Quinn. Of course he was no Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, but who is?
I realized back in the second half of The Vor Game that I don’t particularly like the space-opera side of space-opera, and when Ethan of Athos turned into the usual hide-and-seek in spaceship/spacestation corridors, with arrests, escapes, thugs, interrogations and the whole nine meters, I was ready to write the novel off. It reclaimed my interest at the end, though, first with Quinn’s final contribution, then with the trick ending. I love a good trick ending. But then, I never claimed to have taste.
The latest Analog was good all around. I’d skipped the first part of the current serial until I ran out of the rest of the magazine to read, thinking of my bad experience with “Hominid“, which the letters section wouldn’t let me forget. When I started “Survival Instinct” by Ed Lerner, though, I thought immediately that it was a perfect piece of writing. I’m still not sure why, but that’s my recommendation for the month of October. (Sci-fi - it’s the future in more ways than one.)