One of the refreshing aspects of the story is actually about how much it actually doesn’t matter that they are the same sex. By the end you may care about them and what happens to them.Īnd I guess that leads to the “elephant in the room” for some readers, in that the relationship is a homosexual one. We see how the characters, put in a difficult situation, learn to live with the state of affairs, learn and even love. The reasons for this become clearer through the novel.Īs if this didn’t give it away, the book’s strongest point is that it is, for all of its political trappings, a character-based Space Opera. In contrast Jainan is traumatised, and clearly reticent about the situation, afraid to do anything wrong and both upset his new partner and halt the political process. Despite Kiem’s reputation as a flighty and rather disreputable playboy, he is quite keen to make the relationship work at a personal level as well as a practical one. Much of the early part of the book is about how the two main characters deal with that, having to start a new yet forced relationship, whilst Jainan is clearly still in mourning. Jainan is forced to remarry on behalf of the planet Thea even though it is only a month since Taam’s death. Thea is clearly a subjugated planet dependent on the Iskat Empire for its continued well-being, something which both planets clearly know. Continued trade with the other Galaxies is dependent upon this agreement and so this is overseen by the mysterious Adjudicator who has the final say-so on behalf of the Resolution, who run the rest of the Galaxies and whose role is to decide whether the treaty has been successfully renewed or not. Kiem, and Count Jainan are the designated representatives of the two factions and their marriage is meant to reflect the successful signing of the treaties. The Iskat Empire and Thea are due to renew their alliance by the signing of a treaty on Unification Day in just over a month’s time. What we also have here is a political drama set against these characters. Even whilst Jainan is grieving for his previous male partner, Prince Taam, he is expected to do the right thing and remarry in about one month after Taam’s death. At the beginning of the book Prince Kiem, Prince Royal of Iskat, and Count Jainan of Feria are to be married, and indeed are expected to be so as part of a planetary alliance that is political as well as cultural. It nails its colours firmly to the mast of this new ship. It is basically a planetary romance, in more than one sense of the word, for it not only shows the development of a new relationship but also shows us the landscape and culture of the planet of Iskat. It takes fairly traditional sf tropes but uses them in a way that will be greeted with pleasure by those who have accepted the new. Winter’s Orbit is one of those books of the new generation. Personally, I think that such issues of race and sexuality have been part of the sf field since the New Wave of the 1960s with authors such as Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler and Ursula K le Guin, and whilst undeniably less noticeable in recent years, for lots of reasons for a long while, the new writers of today have been aware of their under-representation and grasped the issues with both hands. Some may see this current trend as ‘a phase’, whilst others will welcome it. Watching from the sidelines (as I usually do), I am aware that these things often happen in cycles, become noticeable for a while and then either blend into the mainstream or disappear. Many of you reading this will know that the last few years have seen a greater prominence of stories that gender-flip or deal with gender-fluid characters in sf-nal situations, which have been greeted either with a collective sigh or just a feeling that the genre is growing up and dealing with issues that have tended to be underrepresented or just ignored in the past.
Things are changing in sf writing, and (to paraphrase Doctor Who) some would say that it’s about time.
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