shoot-em-up
Jul. 7th, 2007 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittyI think the nonfiction kick is officially over. (And I still haven't read Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea! Maybe I'll have to make an exception.)
This week I read Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky. First in the popular VI Warshawski series. Boy, was this book ever written in the 80s. The descriptions of clothing and decor kind of made me cringe. But I enjoyed reading it. I've been in a mystery mood, so I think I'll pick up some more in this series. I was not able to predict the plot. Three stars.
Yesterday I finished There Will Be Dragons by John Ringo. I was intrigued by the premise - humans have become utterly dependent on technology for everything, but now it's stopped working. Now, knowing what I already knew about this author (who writes military sci fi) I expected that the book would be not entirely in line with my views about the world. I wasn't wrong, that's for sure.
Here are some of the ideas contained in this book:
- After thousands of years of human evolution, men are stronger than ever. Even women have now attained a level of physical strength similar to that of men in the 13th century.
- Some women make up for their lack of physical strength through smarts. However, even smart women are nowhere near as smart as men, and must count on men to rescue them and solve their problems.
- Psychology and religion are scams.
- The only way to avoid tyranny is to have a law-abiding society in which everyone knows how to use firearms.
- For that matter, if you don't know how to use firearms, you shouldn't be able to vote.
- If you don't work, you don't eat. Dependence on welfare leads to decadent societies. (Luckily for Ringo, there are no disabled vets in his world to make things complicated.)
- Trauma fallout is something that only happens to women. Also, only women get raped.
- Despite the fact that humans have not cooked their own food for thousands of years, women are much better at cooking than men.
- Despite the fact that no human has raped another human for thousands of years, men raping women is epidemic again just a few days after the grid goes down.
I could go on. I wish I hadn't enjoyed this book as much as I did - it makes me want to read the sequel, at least, even though the worldview it's based in gives me an intense headache. I wonder if right-leaning folks feel this way when they read Charles de Lint?
This week I read Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky. First in the popular VI Warshawski series. Boy, was this book ever written in the 80s. The descriptions of clothing and decor kind of made me cringe. But I enjoyed reading it. I've been in a mystery mood, so I think I'll pick up some more in this series. I was not able to predict the plot. Three stars.
Yesterday I finished There Will Be Dragons by John Ringo. I was intrigued by the premise - humans have become utterly dependent on technology for everything, but now it's stopped working. Now, knowing what I already knew about this author (who writes military sci fi) I expected that the book would be not entirely in line with my views about the world. I wasn't wrong, that's for sure.
Here are some of the ideas contained in this book:
- After thousands of years of human evolution, men are stronger than ever. Even women have now attained a level of physical strength similar to that of men in the 13th century.
- Some women make up for their lack of physical strength through smarts. However, even smart women are nowhere near as smart as men, and must count on men to rescue them and solve their problems.
- Psychology and religion are scams.
- The only way to avoid tyranny is to have a law-abiding society in which everyone knows how to use firearms.
- For that matter, if you don't know how to use firearms, you shouldn't be able to vote.
- If you don't work, you don't eat. Dependence on welfare leads to decadent societies. (Luckily for Ringo, there are no disabled vets in his world to make things complicated.)
- Trauma fallout is something that only happens to women. Also, only women get raped.
- Despite the fact that humans have not cooked their own food for thousands of years, women are much better at cooking than men.
- Despite the fact that no human has raped another human for thousands of years, men raping women is epidemic again just a few days after the grid goes down.
I could go on. I wish I hadn't enjoyed this book as much as I did - it makes me want to read the sequel, at least, even though the worldview it's based in gives me an intense headache. I wonder if right-leaning folks feel this way when they read Charles de Lint?