I want to give Bujold chops for writing a book that reverses the hoary old 'planet of women' trope with a planet of men trope, and then manages to treat a culture of gay misogynistic reactionaries with humor and care. But aside from the set-up (which was done to better effect in Cordwainer Smith's "The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal"), there's not much to recommend this Vorkosigan-without-Miles book.

Ethan is a doctor with a problem: His male-only refuge planet of Athos is entirely dependent on reproductive medicine to survive, their centuries-old ovary samples are dying, and the new shipment was replaced with random biological junk. Ethan is sent into the sinful women-filled Galaxy to find out what happened and get a replacement. His first stop, Klein station, lands him in a mess of interstellar espionage with mad Cetagandan scientists, humorless station security quarantine personnel, and a freelance spy from the Dendarii Mercenaries, the lovely Elli Quinn from the first Miles novel, who is back with a new face, a promotion, and tendency to ask 'what would Admiral Naismith do?'. Ethan and Elli fall in with the telepathic (and most wanted) Terrence Cee, and run around the station dodging assassins to figure out where a top secret Cetagandan research project has gone, who has Ethan's ovaries, and who is trying to get them all killed. There's some interesting stuff about the importance of biological control on a space station, and how that effects the way you'd go about committing a crime, and some digressions on the very weird planet of Athos, but mostly this book is just running for its own sake.

Unless Terrence Cee plays a major part in future stories, this is probably the most skippable Vorkosigan book so far.