Fasten your seat belts for this breakneck pacing that entraps one poor doctor against a certifiable maniac who happens to find Miles attractive. Yeah, that's right. It's Ethan of Athos. Synopsis: Dr. Ethan Urquhart, chief biologist from the all-male world of Athos,
must travel to other planets in search of new genetic material, as their
current supply of ovarian tissue is no longer viable.
Ethan encounters what to him is practically an alien species--women!--and also finds himself hunted by Cetagandan ghem lords and helped out by Miles' Dendarii officer Elli Quinn.
The novel opens with Dr. Ethan Urquhart helping to birth a child from a uterine replicator. A shipment of new ovaries arrives on Athos, but they're not the ovaries the geneticists of Athos are looking for; they're just animal parts and garbage. The Population Council sends Ethan to Kline Station to figure out what went wrong. He meets Commander Elli Quinn who puts a tracer on Etham that gets him noticed by Cetagandan ghem-Colonel Luyst Millisor and his men (Captain Rau, Sergeant Okita, and Setti). They capture Ethan and interrogate him for seven hours before deciding that he knows nothing. Okita is tasked with making Ethan's death look like an accident, but Quinn puts and end to that by killing Okita and taking Ethan back to her safehouse, much to Ethan's annoyance. She's on Kline Station after accepting a contract from Bharaputra Labratories (via the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet and on the orders of Admiral Miles Naismith with whom Elli Quinn is suggested to find Miles quite attractive) to kill Millisor and Okita. After spending days cooped up with a female and talking, Ethan figures out that the shipment switch must've happened before it reached Kline Station. They also meet Helda, a pissed off woman angry at her gay son for fleeing to the all-male planet Athos and hates Athosians with a passion. When tempers flare, Ethan leaves Quinn and returns to his place on Kline Station and meets the young man who is also a telepath and whom one ghem-Colonel Millisor is trying to get his hands on, Terrence Cee.
It turns out that Terrence Cee was shipping his dead telepathic sister to Athos in pieces so that the Athosians could use her DNA to recreate her, though cloning is forbidden on Athos. Ethan is disgusted by this news. After Ethan, Cee, and Quinn devise a plan to smoke Millisor and his gang out and after Quinn's cousin, Teki, is kidnapped and tortured by Millisor and Rau, Ethan and Quinn get Helda and two Kline Station security men to arrest Millisor and Rau (Setti is suspiciously missing). It's then that Ethan figures out that it was Helda who switched the ovaries and burned them in an effort to force her son off Athos and marry a woman and as a bonus, kill off the all-male Athosians. Talk about you're psychotic, purely right-wing Republican hell bent on killing homosexuals. Geez, this lady could use some time in the nuthouse. Helda, thankfully, is imprisoned permanently and Ethan is free to go after answering a few questions. Ethan is about to leave Kline Station when he gets a call from Cee, summoning him to a docking area. Before he arrives, Ethan runs into a stranger who gives Ethan a message capsule for Millisore. At the docking area, Ethan finds Cee held at gunpoint by Millisore and Quinn being held by Setti--Setti, dressed as a Kline Station guard, took Millisor and Rau out of the prison and helped them set this up. Ethan and Quinn activate the devise and watch it kill Millisor and his allies. Turns out that the mystery guy was a member of the House Bharaputra and didn't believe Quinn was moving fast enough. After pardons are paid, Quinn goes back to the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet and Ethan with Cee go to Athos. Ethan has what is left of the ovaries via Teki and some new ones donated by Quinn.
All in all, a great paced story with some new insights into Jackson's Whole, genetics, the uterine replicators, and "growing" babies from known male DNA and donated female ovaries. It casts a rather ugly light on how human kind would advance with such a technology, going so far as to program children with telepathic abilities and letting them loose in society without rules.
Ethan encounters what to him is practically an alien species--women!--and also finds himself hunted by Cetagandan ghem lords and helped out by Miles' Dendarii officer Elli Quinn.
The novel opens with Dr. Ethan Urquhart helping to birth a child from a uterine replicator. A shipment of new ovaries arrives on Athos, but they're not the ovaries the geneticists of Athos are looking for; they're just animal parts and garbage. The Population Council sends Ethan to Kline Station to figure out what went wrong. He meets Commander Elli Quinn who puts a tracer on Etham that gets him noticed by Cetagandan ghem-Colonel Luyst Millisor and his men (Captain Rau, Sergeant Okita, and Setti). They capture Ethan and interrogate him for seven hours before deciding that he knows nothing. Okita is tasked with making Ethan's death look like an accident, but Quinn puts and end to that by killing Okita and taking Ethan back to her safehouse, much to Ethan's annoyance. She's on Kline Station after accepting a contract from Bharaputra Labratories (via the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet and on the orders of Admiral Miles Naismith with whom Elli Quinn is suggested to find Miles quite attractive) to kill Millisor and Okita. After spending days cooped up with a female and talking, Ethan figures out that the shipment switch must've happened before it reached Kline Station. They also meet Helda, a pissed off woman angry at her gay son for fleeing to the all-male planet Athos and hates Athosians with a passion. When tempers flare, Ethan leaves Quinn and returns to his place on Kline Station and meets the young man who is also a telepath and whom one ghem-Colonel Millisor is trying to get his hands on, Terrence Cee.
It turns out that Terrence Cee was shipping his dead telepathic sister to Athos in pieces so that the Athosians could use her DNA to recreate her, though cloning is forbidden on Athos. Ethan is disgusted by this news. After Ethan, Cee, and Quinn devise a plan to smoke Millisor and his gang out and after Quinn's cousin, Teki, is kidnapped and tortured by Millisor and Rau, Ethan and Quinn get Helda and two Kline Station security men to arrest Millisor and Rau (Setti is suspiciously missing). It's then that Ethan figures out that it was Helda who switched the ovaries and burned them in an effort to force her son off Athos and marry a woman and as a bonus, kill off the all-male Athosians. Talk about you're psychotic, purely right-wing Republican hell bent on killing homosexuals. Geez, this lady could use some time in the nuthouse. Helda, thankfully, is imprisoned permanently and Ethan is free to go after answering a few questions. Ethan is about to leave Kline Station when he gets a call from Cee, summoning him to a docking area. Before he arrives, Ethan runs into a stranger who gives Ethan a message capsule for Millisore. At the docking area, Ethan finds Cee held at gunpoint by Millisore and Quinn being held by Setti--Setti, dressed as a Kline Station guard, took Millisor and Rau out of the prison and helped them set this up. Ethan and Quinn activate the devise and watch it kill Millisor and his allies. Turns out that the mystery guy was a member of the House Bharaputra and didn't believe Quinn was moving fast enough. After pardons are paid, Quinn goes back to the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet and Ethan with Cee go to Athos. Ethan has what is left of the ovaries via Teki and some new ones donated by Quinn.
All in all, a great paced story with some new insights into Jackson's Whole, genetics, the uterine replicators, and "growing" babies from known male DNA and donated female ovaries. It casts a rather ugly light on how human kind would advance with such a technology, going so far as to program children with telepathic abilities and letting them loose in society without rules.
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