Been listening to the audiobook of Patrick's first published novel The Ark. There's already
a detailed review by
@OtherLastTrainHome, so I'll just say this: Rick is
gaaaaaaaaay!
While Rick's self-insert is the gigachad main character, Bryan
Tomlinson Benson, who will stop at nothing to get to the truth (even down to direct references to Rick's own life like a drowned six-year-old girl), the only section so far that feels like it has any kind of emotional truth is this:
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(image from OLTH's review)
"Because you're enlightened! You're
just so fucking enlightened!"
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Tl;dr: there's a gay character, Feng, who is married to a woman because he wants children. Although the society is totally cool with gays, they don't let them have children because it's not a good use of resources on a colony ship, or something like that. So Feng keeps lying to his wife while secretly having a gay affair, because he just... needs more.
I think this is autobiographical. That's why Patrick's first, better wife left him. When she got pregnant, Rick decided to reveal his dark secret, as he thought having a child together meant there's no backing out for her anymore. Instead, she realized Rick is a psycho who used her, and wanted nothing more to do with him.
While I normally wouldn't say an author is gay just because he writes an in-the-closet character, in this case that's exactly what happened. Ok, not really. But maybe. Possibly. Almost certainly.
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