Comments on: A Few Good Men, science fiction with a gay hero

By: The_Livewire

The_Livewire — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:44:23 +0000

Forgot. If John Carter had been blond, everyone would have assumed he was a Thern. Then the opposite for Carson Napier.

By: The_Livewire

The_Livewire — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:43:48 +0000

Seane-Anna,

For the same reason you make a character straight, or left handed or blond… it’s an aspect of the character which colours his worldview.

If Harry Dresden wasn’t straight, the tension between him and his apprentice Molly wouldn’t be an issue, but it would lead to all sorts of Foe-yay between him and Nicodemeus.

If Vanyel Askeveron wasn’t Shay’ch, then he’d not have the upbringing he has.

If either Inego or the Man in Black were really left handed, the duel would have ended quicker.

[insert creepy paedophile vibe]If Dumbledore had been straight, Herminoe might have been the hero…

By: V the K

V the K — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 17:20:14 +0000

1. If the main character’s homosexuality is “incidental”, why make him gay in the first place?

Thanks for the congrats. I can’t speak for everybody who writes, but I try to build my characters with layers of complexity, and they’ll have a lot of incidental characteristics some of which don’t even figure into the plot, but make the characters more multi-dimensional.

By: Seane-Anna

Seane-Anna — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 15:42:10 +0000

1. If the main character’s homosexuality is “incidental”, why make him gay in the first place?

2.”… the cool kind of gay…” What’s so cool about being gay?

3. “On a related note, got my first royalty check from my eBooks today. Not a lot of money, but still…. people paying to read my work. Teh Awesome!” V the K is a writer? Now THAT’S kool! And congrats on the checks, V!

By: V the K

V the K — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 23:19:08 +0000

In my ‘Worlds Apart’ series, I’ve kept the relationship between David and Trajan very deliberately ambiguous because ‘Are they, or aren’t they?’ is so much more interesting.

By: The_Livewire

The_Livewire — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:33:40 +0000

Interesting points, V.

I know Mercedes Lackey’s Last Herald Mage series caught some attention because Vanyel was gay. Didn’t matter to me, and it was funny that his morals kept him more celebate than a lot of the straight characters in her other books.

In the Dresden Files, it was a bit of fun at Harry’s expence that his (half) brother’s feeding methods made being a hair dresser ideal for non-lethal feeding, and since he and Harry were living together and no one knew they were brothers, Thomas’ clientel thought they were gay.

By: V the K

V the K — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:22:30 +0000

When I did my NaNoWriMo project, I made two deliberate choices with gay characters. 1.) I had a subplot involving a gay character and deliberately limited it to <5% of the total book, just to see if that amount of Teh Ghey overwhelmed the rest of the book. 2.) Decided one of my major characters was gay, but never explicitly revealed it, just to see if it made me write him any differently.

By: The_Livewire

The_Livewire — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:47:29 +0000

That would be “Telepaths Don’t Need Safewords,” ILC.

By: ILoveCapitalism

ILoveCapitalism — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:40:10 +0000

It’s probably just as well that I haven’t jumped into this thread (up to now) to ask if she wrote the hero as a top or bottom.

By: Jhon Doh

Jhon Doh — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:10:19 +0000

Great review will have to check it out. The only other mainstream SF novel I can recall with an overtly gay protagonist is “Ethan of Athos” by Bujold. Again his sexuality is purely incidental (although essential to the plot).

By: mike

mike — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:18:35 +0000

Dan —

You READ when you work out??!?!?
Does this happen anywhere else? I have not seen this before.

By: Nan G

Nan G — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:00:13 +0000

Sounds like my kind of reading.
Right now I’m not buying a thing; getting ready to move out of California.
But when I’m settled in Utah I will definitely pick this book up.
If it is as good as the review, I’ll be getting more from Sarah A, Hoyt, too.
Thanks.

By: V the K

V the K — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 01:55:31 +0000

On a related note, got my first royalty check from my eBooks today. Not a lot of money, but still…. people paying to read my work. Teh Awesome!

By: The_Livewire

The_Livewire — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:18:30 +0000

@V that was one of Donna’s favourite episodes actually.

And there was more than kissing in Miracle Day.

So much that RTD apologized for Jack just being with men, since it was a first look for many Americans at Torchwood and Jack. I quipped in the comments, “Just give us large amounts of Eve Myles nudity in the next one and we’ll call it even.”

By: Burninghiram (Piper)

Burninghiram (Piper) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:40:24 +0000

re#6 My classroom is one of the gathering areas for our GLBT et. kids at lunch and when one of kids said “that is way gay” i asked him “what the hell?” and he told me, not the cool kind of gay where you like guys but the weird kind where you like “my little pony”..for some reason it restored my faith in my kids

By: B. Daniel Blatt

B. Daniel Blatt — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:25:03 +0000

And to note, as per JP’s comment (#5), the hero’s sexuality is incidental to his character. And there is, as per The_Livewires’s comment #3, no graphic description of sex scenes.

By: V the K

V the K — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:21:04 +0000

Live, did you ever see the Torchwood episode “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang?” It had more scenes of dudes making out than that MTV show, “Dudes Making Out.”

By: The_Livewire

The_Livewire — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:58:04 +0000

Cool. It’s not the ‘icky gay sex’ thing. It’s the ‘yawn, ok two people having sex, get back to the plot’ thing

I watched Torchwood, Miracle Day and was unscarred after all.

By: JP Kalishek

JP Kalishek — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:18:54 +0000

Nothing you would worry about in giving the book to a teen or even a smart tweener. The character is gay, and that is mostly incidental.

also if one is not gay and is worried they’d be put off because of it … no, just read it and it fills in some stuff referred to in her other books.

By: Instapundit » Blog Archive » AT GAY PATRIOT, A REVIEW of Sarah Hoyt’s A Few Good Men. Plus, a fitness bonus! “After receiving…

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:54:10 +0000

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