A Heinlein trait that Scalzi adopts, which really annoyed me in both authors' cases, is to make the annoying people die soon after introduction. He establishes the pattern early, then keeps it up through the whole story.
It makes sense as a humorous narrative device, but when presenting something as realistic or feasible, it would have been more consistent with reality (well, what I've seen of it) to have some people have differing points of view and not be proven fatally wrong soon thereafter, and to have some of the utterly reviled characters stick it out somehow until the end of the story.
Oh, another one: the drill instructor saying, "I'm not just pretending I don't like you" and then finding out that he actually was largely just pretending in Perry's case. It felt a lot like someone in a TV show proclaiming, "God damnit, I am not a character in some half-assed TV show - THIS IS REALITY." It falls flat.
Those are really the entirety of my complaints. It is a fantastic, breezy, engrossing novel, and I'll be paying full price for hardcovers of anything else in the series until Scalzi gives me a reason not to.
I haven't read Heinlein yet (I know, I'm horrible), so I didn't realize that was a "trait". The killing off of annoying people didn't bother me so much though, especially in that first case, because I had a feeling of what the Ghost Brigades were. :)
And HA! about the drill instructor. I see what you're saying, but I also think Scalzi set it up plausibly, with the whole tattoo thing. :)
But yeah, good stuff overall. I won't be getting hardcovers cause I'm cheap, but I'm happy to read everything he writes. :)
Start with Starship Troopers, and you'll see all the stuff that Scalzi does that is similar. And since you liked OMW, it's nearly a sure bet that you'll enjoy Starship Troopers.
It makes sense as a humorous narrative device, but when presenting something as realistic or feasible, it would have been more consistent with reality (well, what I've seen of it) to have some people have differing points of view and not be proven fatally wrong soon thereafter, and to have some of the utterly reviled characters stick it out somehow until the end of the story.
Oh, another one: the drill instructor saying, "I'm not just pretending I don't like you" and then finding out that he actually was largely just pretending in Perry's case. It felt a lot like someone in a TV show proclaiming, "God damnit, I am not a character in some half-assed TV show - THIS IS REALITY." It falls flat.
Those are really the entirety of my complaints. It is a fantastic, breezy, engrossing novel, and I'll be paying full price for hardcovers of anything else in the series until Scalzi gives me a reason not to.
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And HA! about the drill instructor. I see what you're saying, but I also think Scalzi set it up plausibly, with the whole tattoo thing. :)
But yeah, good stuff overall. I won't be getting hardcovers cause I'm cheap, but I'm happy to read everything he writes. :)
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