Comments on: Neal Asher

By: Neal Asher

Neal Asher — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:19:11 +0000

Of course I have to point out that in the later books there’s more in the way of ‘exotic physics’ (Alcubierre drive and zero point energy), while Earth’s new government is very efficient, though not in a good way. Incidentally, right now The Departure is up for 66p (UK) on Kindle.

By: Paul Marks

Paul Marks — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 22:33:26 +0000

It does not surprise me Michael.

After all Mr Martin’s own politics are vile.

I repeat the case of Richard Wagner and (much later) Austrian corporal.

The Austrian corporal was indeed correct to believe that Wagner was a kindred spirit.

Yet that does not alter the fact that Richard Wagner did good work.

By: Michael Jennings

Michael Jennings — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 20:35:27 +0000

Paul: George R R Martin is indeed a very fine writer. I haven't actually read any of the Song of Ice and Fire books, but I was a huge fan of a lot of his earlier work. On the other hand, Subcomandante Marcos is apparently a fan. This is perhaps going too far.

By: Rob Fisher (Surrey)

Rob Fisher (Surrey) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:35:07 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Neal. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series when I might have more to say. In particular I’m thinking about the way big government destroys wealth and stifles the innovation that would otherwise overcome such things as food shortages.

By: Neal Asher

Neal Asher — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 11:25:16 +0000

“It is obvious that centralisation and misallocation of resources is enough to cause all of the economic problems described in the book.”

Yes, there was some about this in The Departure and there’s more about it in the ensuing books: Zero Point and Jupiter War. For example: the waste from desalination plants poisoning productive land etc.

By: Paul Marks

Paul Marks — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 20:10:15 +0000

FrancisTurner – many thanks.

By: FrancisTurner

FrancisTurner — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:49:16 +0000

May I recommend the recent SF works of Sarah A Hoyt. The first (or 3 so far) won the Prometheus Award in 2011

http://lfs.org/releases/2011Winners.shtml

They are all published by Baen (which is pretty much the only mainstream publisher of SF that is any good) and in my opinion they are getting better. The latest (A Few Good Men) is to be published in a month or so (but I already read the pre-release electronic version) and I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes the idea of liberty and believes it is worth fighting (and dying) for.

By: Rich Rostrom

Rich Rostrom — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 22:40:09 +0000

Some years back I read a novel by the late great Hal Clement which had rather startling unspoken political assumptions.

Clement was one of the finest practitioners of really “hard” science fiction. He was a mild-mannered gentleman whose stories almost entirely avoided violent conflict or romantic drama. But he was a political and economic naif.

In the novel in question, all the characters accept, as a given, state control of (IIRC) a newly discovered array of natural resources. It went by so fast that I had to stop and re-read… It was written in the 1960s, and I think Clement just accepted the conventional thinking uncritically. But it still bothered me.

Other SF authors write with specific political agendas, or speculate based on the truth of some political doctrines. Sometimes these authors become de factor advocates, and if what they advocate is bad, that condemns their work.

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 19:12:48 +0000

I just read “Constellation Games”, a first novel by Leonard Richardson. I think readers of this site will enjoy the politics. It is a first contact by aliens story where the aliens are post-scarcity economics anarchists.

By: Rob Fisher

Rob Fisher — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:02:23 +0000

Paul, I agree up to a point. But SF authors are creating universes. These universes have objective reality. I enjoy reading about them more if this objective reality makes sense to me. If the story is set in a world ravaged by famine because the EU abolished the CAP, I’m not going to enjoy the story as much, even if it has a really good plot unrelated to that detail.

By: Paul Marks

Paul Marks — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:06:50 +0000

Mr Martin (of the “Game of Thrones” series) is a political scumbag – an Obama fan, who pretends that efforts to fight voter fraud are racist “voter suppression” (and on and on).

But I like his work – I think he does good work. And that the books have been turned into good television also (and Time Warner HBO are not political friends of ours – and they often to good work).

Artistic worth and politics are not the same thing.

After all I also think that Richard Wagner produced some good work.

By: Chip

Chip — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 05:42:50 +0000

I skipped the Reynolds book for the same reason. One can wade through only so much conventional ignorance in a lifetime. I stick with Banks despite the ideology because he writes and creates so well.

The catastrophic global warming schtick is so done. The continued denial of empirical evidence regarding CO2 is almost acting like a filter of the lower end of the intellectual gene pool.

How Reynolds can be a phd and still not realize the IPCC’s computer models all failed is a mystery.