So, I read OLD MAN'S WAR. It's very finely written, with compelling characters. It also struck me as morally depraved. Humans openly practice wholesale terrorism, theft, colonialism (in the bad old sense), are completely incapable of sympathy for anything but another human soldier, are morally narcissistic to an astonishing and really psychopathic and sociopathic degree, and have colonization policies that amount to ecocide -- the intentional destruction of whole planetary ecosystems to replace them with cattle farms. The one single person who cares about other intelligent species is portrayed as a completely farcical ass who gets his just deserts by being liquidated (literally, shot so many times he is liquified).
This is my first military sf novel in many years. I'm wondering: is this the norm in military SF? Is it all trying to out-brutalize STARSHIP TROOPERS? Is there a division in SF between the military SF readers and the kind of people who read LeGuin or Kress? Can someone enlighten me? cd --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
