The Riftstones Book

A buddy read with Choko and Maria.

A group of guys from Miles Vorkosigan universe decided it was a good idea to create a man-only planet. The technology at the moment was good enough for such project and thus Athos was born. The biggest and the most obvious problem was procreation. The locals had to get some fresh female eggs from time to time, but it was not a problem and the men lived in practically complete isolation without seeing a single woman all their lives and thinking it was the way it should be.

However a huge interplanetary crisis was coming and the governing committee of the planet "volunteered" a guy named Ethan to go outside for help. The poor guy had bad luck all around: the very first person he met outside of his planet happened to be a dreaded woman. As soon as his shock passed Ethan ended up right in the middle of intergalactic conspiracy. Needless to say his life became very cheap as a result.

I need to get the following off my chest right away: I think this is the weakest book of the series so far; let me count the reasons. I consider Miles, Cordelia, and Ivan to be the best characters of the series - in that order. Well, none of them are here. On a relative note I did not feel any of the characters presented had any depth.

The main villain looked outright wimpy and non-threatening compared to some people Miles encountered. The complete inability of local security forces to keep him isolated became a bad joke by the end of the book. This in my opinion was his only strength.

The novel tried hard to show Ethan's culture shock; this shock can carry the plot only so far. Once again by the end this became old.


On the positive side I learned that a lot of apparently delicious dishes (some of them sounded like outright delicacy) can be cooked from newts. This made me glad I was not living in that world.


The plot is fast-moving and one familiar face appear (actually disregard this: no familiar faces appear; read The Warrior's Apprentice to learn the reason for the paradox). Lois McMaster Bujold is a skillful writer to make even her minor efforts worth reading; 3 stars.