profiterole_reads: (Star Trek - Kirk and Spock)
profiterole_reads ([personal profile] profiterole_reads) wrote2025-06-04 05:37 pm

Praxis by David Gerrold

The novella Praxis by David Gerrold (The Man Who Folded Himself) was interesting. In order to escape being sentenced to the Labor Corps, James and José opt to emigrate to Praxis, a colony world with only men, and get fake-married to improve their chances.

Let's talk about wrong expectations. None of the story actually takes place on Praxis, only in the training camp, though the camp is also men-only.

The story isn't exactly m/m, it's more of a queerplatonic relationship at this point, though they talk about maybe having sex in the future.
mothereader: A dark image of a library shelf with a black ladder across it. (books!)

[personal profile] mothereader 2025-06-05 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I adore Vorkosigan series; I read it at least half a dozen times. There are a few queer characters throughout the series: Aral (main character in the first two books, ordered chronologically, and a side character in a bunch more by the virtue of being the main character’s father) is bisexual, Bel is a hermaphrodite (genetically engineered race). Bujold also retconned a polyam relationship that includes Aral and Cordelia (and Jole is also bisexual). It’s such a good idea—I can see it for them—but I hate the execution. There’s probably more, but mostly as less significant side characters.

I’m not sure that I could say that enjoy single-gender planet trope based on one story, but it’s true that Ammonite has been on my TBR list for a while.