Extracurricular Activities

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This is a Tor.com short story, which means that this is a story set in the universe outlined in another Tor book. The short story is, thus, bait for the novel or series. Often-time the short story doesn't pan out because there is just too much backstory missing from the short story, which typically makes the short story confusing.

This one breaks the rule by offering a self-contained story that works as a short story, while, nonetheless, offering tantalizing glimpses into the more richly elaborated universe in which the story is set.

The story opens with young Shuos Jedao being moved to a new station. We learn that he is a spaceship commander - except spaceships are called “moths” for some reason - who is being tasked to perform an intelligence mission involving a former schoolmate taken captive by a rival space power. We are bombarded with a strange social structure, possibly based on Earth Asian culture, where it seems that the military of the power to which Jedao belongs - the Heptarchate - is composed of different “factions” that have their own militaries. How that works is not explained and the political system is mentioned inferentially.

The opposing space power is the Gwa Reality. There are sharp cultural differences between the Heptarchate and the Reality, which are not really explained. This aspect of the story reminded me of Golden Age Science Fiction, perhaps C.M. Kornbluth's “That Share of the Glory” comes most to mind.

I liked this story and I am getting the novel by this author set in this universe.

One aspect of this book that I found problematic was the overt homosexuality of the story. I am willing to accept the homosexuality as a normal part of a different culture, but there was something about the Doe-eyed lusting of our protagonist for the military officer on the spy mission that seemed out of place, too childish, perhaps. Likewise, the running gag about “lube” and the ending which involved who would be on top with the chicken fat seemed unnecessary.

Also, unexplained was the sexuality of the culture. Was everyone homosexual? How were the homosexual characters supposed to provide “extra grandchildren”?

Likewise, I found it confusing that the story referred to “he” and “she” but it took me awhile to figure out that “they” was referring to the hero's friend. Why “they”? Is there a third sex in this culture? Are “they” a group mind? This wasn't explained, although it will probably be explained in the novel.

Long story short, I much preferred the culture-building and the space opera stuff to be far more interesting than the early 21st century moralizing.

[Updated] Okay this is a better read having read 2/3 of the Machineries of Empire trilogy.