Now OT: Scalzi was Re: [LMB] (chat) series and titles

[Mark Allums]

alayne at twobikes.ottawa.on.ca wrote:
> _The Ghost Brigades_ contains huge spoilers for _Old Man's War_, so, yes, 
> you should read them in order.
> 
> However, if you take my advice, you will leave both of them strictly 
> alone. I have never been so digusted at a book in many years as with these 
> two. OMW in particular was xenophobic and continually used straw-man 
> arguments to try to make its points. I considered it intellectually 
> dishonest. It tries to be an updating of Heinlein's _Starship Troopers_ 
> (the book), losing the morality completely. Regardless of whether you 
> agree with ST or not (and I don't), I think you have to admit that 
> Heinlein's moral system is self-consistent and had been well-thought-out. 
> Scalzi's future society and morality have huge logical holes in them. 
> Comparing the books is like comparing Gen. Eisenhower with some more 
> recent president.

Old Man's War is not meant to be taken seriously.  It's a send-up of 
Heinlein, not an update.  It's reviewers who make that claim about the 
book, particularly Cory Doctorow and his ilk.  Haven't read the sequel, 
so I am prepared to be told off for being wrong, but I think the success 
of the first may have led Scalzi to begin to take it seriously himself. 
  Also:  The xenophobia is the characters', not Scalzi's.

--Mark Allums