Books Read 2013
1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - F - reread
2. Black Magic Sanction - F
3. Old Man's War - F - reread
I've reached the point where I reread Old Man's War more than Starship Troopers. I always laugh when I run across people who use it to argue Scalzi is a rabid right winger. My personal theory of what offended so many left leaning commenters isn't the stuff they mentioned. It is that the Consu, the big super-advanced tamed a white dwarf and could wipe out humanity in an instant are a race unified by religious beliefs that seem to be a mix of Hindi reincarnation spread by early seventh century Islamic means except that adding land to the Consufate doesn't require they occupy it. They just need to fight there.
In other words, Scalzi was willing to entertain, even if just for the purpose of a good story, the idea that religion isn't something science and progress will render obsolete. Even worse, he put the most scientifically advanced race as one of the two most religiously zealous. It's one of the things I enjoy about the book that pushes it ahead of Starship Troopers (the other is Kathy/Jane especially when Jane sees Kathy in the infirmary...Heinlein never seemed to get love which is odd because he clearly loved Ginny that much).
2. Black Magic Sanction - F
3. Old Man's War - F - reread
I've reached the point where I reread Old Man's War more than Starship Troopers. I always laugh when I run across people who use it to argue Scalzi is a rabid right winger. My personal theory of what offended so many left leaning commenters isn't the stuff they mentioned. It is that the Consu, the big super-advanced tamed a white dwarf and could wipe out humanity in an instant are a race unified by religious beliefs that seem to be a mix of Hindi reincarnation spread by early seventh century Islamic means except that adding land to the Consufate doesn't require they occupy it. They just need to fight there.
In other words, Scalzi was willing to entertain, even if just for the purpose of a good story, the idea that religion isn't something science and progress will render obsolete. Even worse, he put the most scientifically advanced race as one of the two most religiously zealous. It's one of the things I enjoy about the book that pushes it ahead of Starship Troopers (the other is Kathy/Jane especially when Jane sees Kathy in the infirmary...Heinlein never seemed to get love which is odd because he clearly loved Ginny that much).