W_L

I woke up late the next morning, curled up in bed with my young sons, Will and Jamie. Francis and Takechiyo did not join us, despite my invitation, vowing to rest only when the Russian phantom legion and rebels inside London were completely wiped out. This goal meant a long night of intelligence reports gathered by men like Thomas Tallis over the years, which had to be reconciled for hidden connections and subterfuge amongst noble houses. If any were suspected of disloyalty or collusion, they wo

When some people read Of Pride and Power and wonder, how is this libertarian? Sure, I have private ownership, organic industrial development, and individual choice, but you aren't allowing capitalistic enterprises from forming, i.e. corporations or generational wealth. That's a choice on my part as I don't think long-term, the concept is good for a free-market. Modern capitalism is an innate weak form of economic theory. As the world exists today, prices are rising, land and resources are becoming more scarce, and ultimately society is unable to deal with varying social issues created by unstable conditions, whether it's racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, religious intolerance, and so much more. At the heart of everything is flawed economics. Let's use a real simple example of this problem: An elder in a small town has spent his life working, building a business, and buying land and homes for himself and his family. He wishes to transfer this wealth and legacy to his children, so they can continue what he has built. Sounds good, it's a traditional dream of many people around the world. However, look on the flip side, due to the lack of business opportunities in the small town and housing due to this one family's accumulation of wealth, prices rise and development is stifled as the value of the "held property" isn't in the market. The laws of supply mean that prices will rise as a result of one person's traditional dream and everyone in that small town is far worse off for it. It can be applied to far bigger issues, replacing the elder with corporations or trusts, and extending legacy concepts with traditional ideals like race-based marriages, heteronormative dynamics, religious continuity, and so on. The heart of the issue with capitalism is the creation of these asset traps, but the common solution with individual taxation is usually insufficient or can cause harm by further weakening individual development as it creates a barrier to entry (more established sellers are big enough to absorb additional costs of managing taxes or hiring people to circumvent them). A better solution would be wholesale taxation based on the seller of goods and services alone, but that only treats the symptoms, not the disease of asset traps and legacy created issues. Ideally, a society needs to be built based on the merit of individuals at a given point in time. Wealth should not be transferrable beyond basic means. At the heart of it, you need a mechanism to enforce things, because people are selfish and will gravitate to hold property/lands. To create a society where individual contracts, individual choice, and individual merit actions can be rewarded properly, you need to fight this kind of capitalism that traps assets and ideas. A government is a tool for enforcement, not the reason for enforcement, a distinction between socialism and my idea. Though collective groups can exist like guilds in my story, they act as marketplaces for individuals, not as an individual onto themselves as modern corporations do. The goal is a society that runs based on individual competition, where each individual's drive is seeking the highest merit reward based on their contributions without regard to background. Of course, in my story, transhuman elements are needed to make sure that such a society and government doesn't stray off-course. Eli and Robert are literally living gods due to their abilities, along with a collection of specialized genetically engineered people serving as their administrators on various subjects.

The culmination of hope, then utter despair. It's no longer a truth in our era, but once upon a time, gay-themed stories were mostly like this, tragic, hopeless, and doomed starcrossed due to society and environment. The author understands the classics of our community, I hope he/she/they continues to explore and expand in their writing.

Fun and charming little christmas story, so glad someone did a Christmas story in July.

Feels like a Law and Order episode, mixed with subtle nods to various characters and their personalities. Dick Wolf would be proud, it's a nice read

A good story with surreal elements and very real issues that will hit you as you realize the true subject matter.

I can see splashes of Don Quixote and a beautiful story about a man struggling with mental illness, while his lover struggles with this reality. It's a great tale with a bit of hope alongside despair.

So much plot going on, weird imaginative characters, and an individual journey through the surreal. You need to be ready for an adventure, but it's a nice read.

Thanks for the thought, I was reading some reviews and it sounded like a romantic comedy setup, but more dark and authoritarian in nature based on its subject matter. Historical drama is interesting, especially lesser known things, no one ever mentions the Franco regime of Spain nowadays. As a student of history, the film's period was an era of unbridled economic development for Spain, which was known as the "Spanish Miracle" (just like Japanese Miracle on the other end of the world), but behind economic liberalism that saw wealth and prestige, there was a conservative cultural undercurrent from Franco's ideological social conservative views. The entire thing crashed in the 1970s towards the end of Franco's regime.

Not your standard aimless teen story on GA, some interesting soul searching and a good message about finding "love" rather than conforming or having anxieties over expectations, people can change and grow to what they want. That's ultimately the principle behind this story. "Finding home" is just as important is "Finding family"

Being Gay isn't what makes us happy, being with someone you love is. Glad Blue understands that fundamental concept

Charming story of "best friends", who may become more, and a pet-sitting gig with some adorable kittens. There's a lot to like about this simple story, wrapped in an easily read package

This has everything in one story: Best friends, love, drama, and kittens.

A short light-hearted modern fantasy story about a singer and his bodyguard. This is a fun offbeat story with things that are common and fantastical. Fans of Urban fantasy will see familiar elements.

Fun and engaging, all the various kins and the talk of enchantment with a contemporary background is nice modern fantasy.

Has anyone seen the netflix miniseries "Someone Has to Die"? It's set in the 1950s Fascist Spain under Franco-Regime with a gay relationships and desires hidden among the wealthy elites.

I know it's a lot to work through, but it's necessary for the narrative after the events in London. Don't forget the northern rebellion is still happening at the same time, so the issues from Continental Europe hasn't gone away. Isolation is not an option and the reason for the Russian intervention won't be known for a while. Eli and the Royal Court knew that they had to act fast. Historically, Anglo-Japanese alliance was a fascinating concept that very few people talk about. During the mid-20th century, Japanese nationalists didn't want to acknowledge that the UK played a pivotal role in its rise as a regional power, while the UK didn't want to acknowledge its part in fostering a militarist nation. In addition to fighting Russia, it was also used to counter France and above all else, the United States. We may think UK and US has a "special relationship" nowadays due to Churchill-Roosevelt WWII anecdotes, but the facts were during most of its history the British Empire was prepared to go to war with US again, especially due to competing aims in the Pacific. Japan also was forced into a trade treaty by the US navy, when Commodore Perry's Black Fleet entered Tokyo, so they had existential reasons to ally with British Empire. I was setting up this separate narrative piece for a while now, when I introduced Takechiyo. As for Hohenzollern of Prussia, it's a complex double-edged sword for students of German history. Austria and Prussia have been natural rivals and open enemies for centuries, especially during this period in history. Prussia was also an enemy of the Eastern European alliances of Poland, Lithuania, and predecessor states of Russia. They also played a role in the Catholic-Protestant wars of religion, breaking with the Catholic Church and European Hegemony of that era. We know from hindsight that Prussia is the forefather of Germany, which comes with it a lot of baggage. Britain relationship with Prussia is equally mixed between nominal friendship and rivalry due to competing ideals. I am laying down a lot of backdrop for the final arc of this novel

Jamie and I were escorted by Gard to the bunker where Takechiyo and Will were relocated, along with most of my royal court, after the attack on Whitehall Palace. It was close to midnight and Jamie had fallen asleep in my arms during the steady descent of the hot air balloon. When we entered the secure location, Nicolas Bacon and William Cecil greeted me along with Takechiyo and Will. Will’s lunge to hug me woke up Jamie. Both boys embraced, having not seen each other since breakfast. Will c

You just have to create a story with a character that aims for freedom of action and thought. The Medieval era of Europe might have been socially conservative, but it's economical and ideological background was very collectivist, akin to commune systems of the 20th century. Creating an opposing idea against both the historic facts of Catholic collectivism and Protestant elitist crony capitalism (the nobles who sided with reformation weren't doing it for free, why do you think English Crown is the largest landowners in the world), Libertarian thought is the obvious 3rd choice with a modern outlook at the results of both historical forces. That's why I tagged it the story as Libertarian Sci-Fi. Most people assume Libertarian thought runs in lockstep with conservatives, but it's different. Capitalism is not the end goal of Libertarianism: individual freedom and individual obligations are.

True, surprise no one else has done Sci-Fi Utopia and we're the only ones to tackle Libertarian Sci-Fi.

Dick had bouts of paranoia later in his career from extreme drug use. Ubik is extremely hard to read with a meandering plot; though, it's considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of the 20th century. I can understand your issue with reading his work. His work has influenced a lot of sci-fi writers into modern times with several film adaptations, plus you can draw a direct line between his paranoid conspiracy stories and TV series like the X-Files.

I prefer his sci-fi more rather than his fiction. I do agree Tet. He went overboard with Hogg. Not my cup of tea, either. Maybe it got worse as it went, I did not finish it. Gratuitous rape without a real plot and too much sadism. I think Delaney was angry at the world when he wrote this, representing the entirety of American males across all racial and social backgrounds as rapists, sadists, and pedophiles. As for the other title, The Mad Man is not so bad and has merit to be read, it's partially based on the relationship between him and his partner, who was a homeless gay man. There's also a good historical perspective on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, both pre-HIV and post era. It was normal among gay men back in the day to have hard lives. As for the fetish elements, we know it's out there, most of us don't play in that world (Scat is a hard limit for me), but it doesn't hurt anyone and there's consent. Unlike Hogg, I thought modern gay adult audiences could finish this book.

Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Herbert, and Dick are usually named among the greats of Science Fiction with a lot of their work made into popular media, but expansive science fiction fans have a wider view on this genre of literature. Samuel R. Delaney, a gay African American science fiction author and winner of the 1967 Nebula Award, hasn't seen similar treatment, but he deserved just as much respect as a science fiction writer. His novel, Babel-17, which focuses on the theory of language and perception (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis), is one of the most imaginative concepts that have yet to play a major role in mainstream science fiction, but the idea has led to other writers developing their modern concepts. Give his stories a try, he's one of the great forgotten sci-fi writers of the 20th century. He was even cited as one of the inspirations for "Benny Russell", a fictional avatar of Benjamin Sisko from Star Trek Deep Space Nine's episode "Far Beyond the Stars", pretty cool nod when I learned about it years after the episode. I have read a lot of mainstream sci-fi and dabbled in non-mainstream stuff.

Not sure if he was gay, but he did write about the gay experience in the 1950s with Crooked Man, so possibly in the closet if he was. Of course, he might just be an ally. He did have a wife and son, but during that era and even into our own, it's not uncommon for gay and bisexual men to pass as straight, while have liaisons with their preferred sexual partners on the side for social conformity.

Fun Fact: Charles Beaumont, the famed writer for several Twilight Zone episodes, started getting published in Playboy starting in 1954 and test this was one of his stories, being gay in the 1950s was no picnic. My personal favorite among his Twilight Zone stories is "Valley of the Shadow", he essentially created the transporter, replicator, and force field technologies that we see in future iterations of Star Trek, along with the concept of an advanced civilization hiding in plain sight to avoid the dangers of human technological perversion (aka. "Black Panther" in small town America). It's modern sci-fi at its core.