Rating: 
Summary: Controversial, but still loads of fun
Review: Yet another of Baen's reprint editions, this one including Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, and the story "Labyrinth" from Borders of Infinity. These stories are less thematically connected than is usually the case with these omnibus volumes. For one thing, Ethan of Athos is one of Bujold's earliest works (and certainly the most controversial), while Cetaganda, which is earlier in terms of internal chronology, and in fact contains the event which leads directly to the action in Ethan of Athos, is a much later and more mature work. "Labyrinth" is not directly connected to either of the other works, and in fact would make more sense being bound together with Mirror Dance, but these reprint volumes stick to internal chronology, rather than following themes. (For that reason, they make an excellent way to collect Bujold's complete works, if some time behind the dates of initial publication. I keep hoping that Baen will eventually offer a complete set in a slip case.)Cetaganda occurs not long after the events in Young Miles. Miles is sent, somewhat to his discomfort, to a state funeral on Cetaganda, a rival empire against which he had waged war in his alter ego role of Admiral Naismith. He has no orders beyond a general instruction to "stay out of trouble!" But, of course, being Miles, he can't. Part of the trouble he gets into leads directly to the trouble in Ethan of Athos, in which Miles' protegé Elli Quinn tracks down a biological puzzle Miles comes across in Cetaganda. What makes it controversial is that the title character comes from a planet inhabited only by men. (One of the technologies in Bujold's universe, the uterine replicator, allows the in vitro gestation of fetuses, which, among other things, allows the development of the quaddies in Falling Free and the continued existence of a world without women.) Many people have called Ethan of Athos "gay" fiction, because many of the men on Athos still act out their sexual desires, only with one another. However, my reading of the work is as an examination (in so far as the homosexuality is discussed at all) of homosexuality as a form of misogyny. In any case, misogyny, rather than homosexuality, is clearly the driving force in Athosian culture. (Along similar lines, some have asked if there is a women-only planet, as the opposite of Athos. But to me, the opposite of Athos has already been described. People tend to find diversity threatening, and two of the dysfunctional strategies for trying to avoid diversity are either to drive out those who are different, which is the case on Athos, or to remove the distinction itself, which is the case with Beta Colony's hermaphrodites.) "Labyrinth" shows Miles doing what he loves best: rescuing captives.
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