Queer Romance and Political Intrigue in Winter s Orbit by Everina Maxwell tor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Prince Kiem and Count Jainan have been tasked with a vital political project by the Emperor: to marry one another. Cementing the union between the Iskat Empire and its vassal planet Thea has become more pressing by the day. Not only is the Resolution judging the worthiness of their coalition, but the former imperial representative to Thea Taam, Jainan’s late partner appears to have been murdered. With protests breaking out on his home planet and a spouse to mourn, the last thing Jainan needs is to become a murder suspect. He knows his role as a political pawn well. And marrying the charming and handsome Kiem is sure to fix the emerging cracks in his and the empire’s foundation.
This charming, trope-laden sci-fi romance started life as an original story posted to a fanfiction site, and it wears its fannish influences proudly. Fake-dating? Hurt/comfort? Sunny/grumpy? Yes!
Is there a romance plot more audacious than the fake-dating scenario? Netflix s
Bridgerton recently plumbed the depths of a false courtship in scandal-obsessed Regency-era London to great acclaim. But at its heart, the trope concerns two near-strangers forced into the intimacies of a relationship, and the surprising partnership that inevitably springs from an initially unemotional arrangement.
In her debut novel
Winter s Orbit, Everina Maxwell rockets this surefire premise into space, uniting Prince Kiem (lesser royal of the Iskat Empire) in a political marriage with Count Jainan (from vassal planet Thea) following the unexpected and tragic death of Jainan s husband, Prince Taam. As if himbo Kiem didn t already feel like a poor match for austere widower Jainan, he fears encroaching on Jainan s grief so soon. Alas, neither has much of a say, burdened with the imperial order to make it work.