The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Our Own Corner Of The Library

Posted on | May 28, 2013 | 107 Comments

— by Wombat-socho


I’ve been a science fiction reader for most of my life, starting with a copy of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time I was given in second grade and continuing on through Robert Heinlein’s juvenile novels to Asimov, Silverberg and other grand masters. I’m old enough to remember when the artsy-fartsy “New Wave” introduced annoying literary styles and gratuitous sex to the genre, and the larger cultural change that made science fiction and fantasy acceptable – no longer something to be sneered at by critics or your classmates.
We’re now at a point where, as Thomas Disch remarked, “we’ve won the culture war”, and millions of people line up to pay perfectly good money to see a movie that reboots a TV series that was originally a ratings failure – but a cult classic.


What’s interesting to me is that with occasional exceptions, SF has largely been dominated by socialist or technocratic futures, mostly because it’s been written by authors who want to write about such futures either because they’re inclined that way (Isaac Asimov) or explicitly socialists (John Brunner, Charles Stross). One subgenre of SF, though – and one publishing house in particular that specializes in that genre – tends to be dominated by conservative and libertarian writers, much as country music tends to be dominated by singers and bands unafraid to express their patriotism and love of country. I’m referring, of course, to combat SF, from which Baen Books has made a fair amount of money. One might almost consider Baen the Fox News of SF publishing: they provide a place for fiction that’s not even remotely PC enough for the other publishers.


The question I want to throw out to the readers is this: is there something about military SF that attracts conservative and libertarian authors? Does writing what you know explain why a lot of Baen’s authors who write in this subgenre are veterans? Where do technothrillers fit into this? Why doesn’t Baen have a booth at CPAC? 😉


Comments

107 Responses to “Our Own Corner Of The Library”

  1. DaveO
    May 28th, 2013 @ 7:51 pm

    Treachery has a place on the battlefield. But it is never heroic. The hallmarks of Prognazis are their treachery and eagerness to have others, especially the stupid, martyr themselves. How can you make an enjoyable story if you know nothing of honor and courage?

  2. richard mcenroe
    May 28th, 2013 @ 7:56 pm

    Good Heavens! You mean he might be writing fiction with a moral foundation? Can he do that?

  3. richard mcenroe
    May 28th, 2013 @ 8:08 pm

    The mindless liberal former USMC officer wrote an excellent fantasy series where the characters find redemption through faith, (Paksennarion), one science fiction series where where in an inexperienced young woman finds the courage to rise above failure and defy tyranny (The Vatta series, starting with Trading in Danger), and another science fiction series where the characters place duty and service above desire (the Serrano Legacy series). Missing the mindless liberal in there.

  4. richard mcenroe
    May 28th, 2013 @ 8:12 pm

    He was actually secretary of the YCL. Most of the SF writers who were raised during the depression and the Golden Age of Pulp SF went through a Red or other collectivist phase (read E.E. Smith’s Lensman series: barking fascism).

  5. richard mcenroe
    May 28th, 2013 @ 8:12 pm

    I’m still waiting for the next Peshawar Lancers novel.

  6. laura_PH
    May 28th, 2013 @ 8:42 pm

    Love the Suiza-Serrano series.

  7. SPQR9
    May 28th, 2013 @ 8:48 pm

    But the contrast to the SF socialism writ large theme are stories about individualism and the celebration of humanity contra the oppression of socialist thought.

  8. SPQR9
    May 28th, 2013 @ 8:50 pm

    So the nightwalkers and zombies are just camoflage? 😉

  9. Dai Alanye
    May 28th, 2013 @ 9:20 pm

    Thanks for your interest, though not much “Blood and thunder” as my grandmother used to put it. Mostly humor and light adventure. But there’s some free stuff and plenty of samples on Smashwords or at my site.

  10. Richard McEnroe
    May 28th, 2013 @ 9:37 pm

    Remember the side with the most crazy old ladies wins.

  11. laura_PH
    May 28th, 2013 @ 9:47 pm

    LOL! I’m buying those books for the third time – my family wore out the first set of paperbacks, second set was lost in a flood, and now we’re getting the ebooks. 🙂 Whatever Moon’s political opinions may be, she manages to keep any obnoxious lefty beliefs out of her books.

  12. Quartermaster
    May 28th, 2013 @ 10:16 pm

    Don’t agree with your characterization of Pournelle’s character development. I thought his solo work was quite good. I liked the Mercenary Series, and one of the Mercenary Trilogy was actually recommended for Professional Military reading on Low intensity Conflict.

    Still, for one it may be treasure, and another it’s trash.

  13. Wombat_socho
    May 28th, 2013 @ 10:47 pm

    It’s been done before in SF. See Larry Niven’s “A Night On Mispek Moor”.

  14. Wombat_socho
    May 28th, 2013 @ 10:48 pm

    Apparently so!

  15. Eric Ashley
    May 29th, 2013 @ 1:35 am

    A better (not that that is hard) and more conservative version of GOT is A Throne of Bones by Vox Day.

    I’ve not been a fan of Dune, myself, which sets me at odds with most SF readers.

  16. Eric Ashley
    May 29th, 2013 @ 1:37 am

    He’s a defender of the virtues of bueraucratic organization. This comes out in one of his Videssos short stories and in the very humorous novel The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump.

  17. Eric Ashley
    May 29th, 2013 @ 1:41 am

    I’d say Drake is a culture is important kind of guy. He doesn’t believe in intervention because it won’t help those who are already messed up become unmessed up.

  18. Eric Ashley
    May 29th, 2013 @ 1:42 am

    Yah. Comedy of Job was just bad.

  19. Eric Ashley
    May 29th, 2013 @ 1:47 am

    Well, you can write a story of darkly humorous sort….one of my favorite DnD games was where my character was a complete ah, twerp. He saw the enemy was many, and ran for the ship and told the captain that ‘everyone’s dead…flee’ and thus left all his former allies on the island with the enemy to protect his own worthless hide. It was hysterical.

  20. Thane_Eichenauer
    May 29th, 2013 @ 2:39 am

    Whether Bujold leans left or not I have always found the lessons to be learned from her Vorkosigan series to be valuable.

  21. Richard. McEnroe
    May 29th, 2013 @ 9:04 am

    He put a Roman Legion in an alternate universe Byzantine empire/orthodox church.No possible. way to write that without a bureaucracy .

  22. Richard McEnroe
    May 29th, 2013 @ 9:12 am

    Heinlein may have started to believe his own press toward the end, a lot of the First Wavers did. But there’s a lot worth stealing from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long. The “wife’s desk” advice, for example. And ttitle was “Job: A Comedy of Justice”.

  23. MarkReardon
    May 29th, 2013 @ 9:48 am

    And I hope it’s a prequel. There’s bound to be a lot more to the libertine Queen than the public knows about.

  24. keyboard jockey
    May 29th, 2013 @ 10:29 am

    One of the reasons modern readers could relate to the Clan of the Cave Bear chronicles 🙂 There is an old cult movie I loved “Quest For Fire” that also romanticized our cave dwelling era. Tommy Chong’s daughter starred in it – from memory.

  25. keyboard jockey
    May 29th, 2013 @ 10:34 am

    It appeals to me, because of my interest in anthropology, history and genealogy.

    I think one of my favorite parts of the book is when Paul is tested by the Rev Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam with the Gom jabbar “humanity test”.

    That and the Ghola Duncan Idaho.

  26. Um, Because That’s Where the Only Money Is? | Daily Pundit
    May 29th, 2013 @ 11:59 am

    […] Our Own Corner Of The Library : The Other McCain […]

  27. keyboard jockey
    May 29th, 2013 @ 2:10 pm

    For your sci fi consideration- including William Shatner.

    Because that’s the way I roll – that’s why LOL

    This has all the makings for a great sci fi novel.

    http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2013/05/covert-hypnosis-somnombulance-lament-i.html

  28. Wombat_socho
    May 29th, 2013 @ 2:37 pm

    The webcomic Erfworld may fit this; the protagonist is a hero who verges on unlikable, but it’s still an absorbing tale.

  29. Gahrie
    May 29th, 2013 @ 3:30 pm

    I love Baen Books…..I’d say at least 50% of the Sci Fi I purchase comes from them. There is a couple of things I’m surprised no one has mentioned yet.

    First of all, Weber. He is one of the most PC writers out there. I believe he is quite open about it. It is not terribly distracting from his writing however.

    Then Ringo. I absolutely love his stuff. All of it. I wish we could clone him so he would write twice as fast. Classical Liberals will love his series that begins with Live Free or Die. However….his Ghost series would make most conservatives quite uncomfortable.

  30. richard mcenroe
    May 29th, 2013 @ 7:56 pm

    On the other hand, if you think the Boy’s Own Book of Knots is a marital aid; Ghost is just the series for you! I was disappointed with the most recent collaboration, though. It read like Ghost fanfic.

  31. richard mcenroe
    May 29th, 2013 @ 7:59 pm

    Weber is PC, OK, we’ll have a word with the Queen and the religious fundies from Grayson about that. But he does one thing that is so commonsensical that no real PC could ever deal with it. In his future, everyone who refers to someone in the third person uses the gender of the speaker or writer. Not only does the PC angle go away, but you immediately know the gender of the person you’re reading.

  32. Wombat_socho
    May 30th, 2013 @ 12:14 am

    Well, not on a societal level, anyway. He definitely believes in personal redemption.

  33. Wombat_socho
    May 30th, 2013 @ 12:17 am

    Which reminds me, I never did get around to writing anything about technothrillers in this post. Maybe next week.

  34. A Shelf Of Our Own | According To Hoyt
    May 30th, 2013 @ 6:20 am

    […] one of you reprobates called my attention to a post in Stacey McCain’s blog, by co-blogger Wombat-socho, about sci fi, mil sci fi, the attraction of sci fi authors to totalitarian philosophies, and the […]

  35. msmischief
    May 30th, 2013 @ 8:21 am

    OTOH — he picked that setting.

  36. Wombat_socho
    May 30th, 2013 @ 11:47 am
  37. Luscinia
    May 30th, 2013 @ 2:23 pm

    It’s hard to imagine A Throne of Bones as better than anything, except for maybe The Eye Of Argon, and that’s only because Vox had access to a spell checker and used most of the words more or less correctly.

  38. Luscinia
    May 30th, 2013 @ 2:30 pm

    And Michael Marshall Smith is a better writer than Heinlein. Funny, that.

    To be honest, a lot of people are. Too many to count.

  39. Luscinia
    May 30th, 2013 @ 2:31 pm

    If you recommended me Ringo or Pournelle alone, we wouldn’t be friends anymore.

  40. HopeyChangey
    May 30th, 2013 @ 3:00 pm

    WisCon has a segregated safe room for people of color and anti-racist panelist Jaymee Goh refers to whites on Twitter as “sour dough-faces.” What’s crazy about that?

  41. Anthony Pacheco
    May 30th, 2013 @ 3:42 pm

    “Quest for Fire” – ha! I remember watching that with my girlfriend and she quipped, “Well, someone had to invent the missionary position.”

  42. Julie Pascal
    May 30th, 2013 @ 3:49 pm

    “Remnant Population” is my favorite, I think. The hero in it is a grandma.

  43. Suburbanbanshee
    May 30th, 2013 @ 5:26 pm

    That’s the “picaresque.” Like Sancho Panza, or one of the other guys in old stories who tooled around just doing stuff and trying to escape consequences of stuff they did.

  44. RES
    May 30th, 2013 @ 7:04 pm

    Baen is looking for people who can tell a story. Painting pretty prose pictures is “writing” but it doesn’t sell books.

  45. HopeyChangey
    May 30th, 2013 @ 7:10 pm

    Luscinia Halfhatz

  46. Luscinia
    May 30th, 2013 @ 8:06 pm

    If that counts as writing.

  47. Eric Ashley
    May 31st, 2013 @ 3:25 am

    Luscinia,

    Isaac Asimov (like drinking a glass of water), Poul Anderson, Greg Bear, Ben Bova (depressing), Arthur C. Clarke (no Childhood’s End was not that good), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game is very weird), Stephen Donaldson (for those whose idea of a fun time is spending fifty pages describing a raft trip down a river), Lawrence Watt Evans(quite amusing), Eric Flint(the Fabled Creature, a good Commie), Alan Dean Foster(the Ladyfaire likes him, I find him depressing), William Gibson, David Gerrold(for those who like Heroes with Swords), Neal Gaiman(Bleh), RAH, L. Ron Hubbard, Dean Ing (Hope I read all that book, but I may have, probably did skip through it), Robert Jordan, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Damon Knight, Tom Kratman, Nancy Kress, Keith Laumer, Stephen Lawhead, George R.R. Martin, L.E. Modestit jr., Michael Moorcock, Elizabeth Moon(The Deed of Paksennarion is AWESOME), Andre Norton, George Orwell, H. Beam Piper, Jerry Pournelle, Frederik Pohl, Terry Pratchett(best humor writer of the current days in print), W. T. Quick (aka Bill Quick of ‘he named the blogosphere fame’ and a cranky libertarian), Melanie Rawn, John Ringo, Kim Stanley Robinson, Joel Rosenberg, Fred Saberhagen, Carl Sagan, John Scalzi, Charles Sheffield, L. Neill Smith, Melinda Snodgrass, E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith, Christopher Stasheff, Neal Stephenson (I was reading Snow Crash when my wife to be introduced herself), S. M. Stirling, Charlie Stross, Harry Turtledove, Kathy Tyers (Shivering World was awesome),

    Sadly no ‘U’ authors I can list now that I’ve read.

    Vernor Vinge, Jules Verne, A.E. van Gogh (the Weapons Shop has one of the greatest ending lines in any book), H.G. Wells, Michael Williamson (an intelligent libertarian aka someone who does not expect that his utopia means the end of politics), David Weber (Me want Honor Harrington movie),

    X….not sure. Y…may have read Jane Yolen.

    Z is Timothy Zahn with his Cobra stuff, and Roger Zelazny with the One True World of Amber or my knock-off parody, the Card Heads from Amethyst.

    And I’ve read many more. So, yeah, Throne of Bones is pretty decent.

  48. Eric Ashley
    May 31st, 2013 @ 3:30 am

    In the short story with the ‘gulled’ and ‘tern’ puns, he had his hero explain that the virtue of a bueracracy is that it keeps on going at a decent level even when the emperor is bad, whereas the barbarians fluctuate from horrible to decent based on their leader. So even tho’ right at that moment the barbs had a great leader, he’d still defend the ‘crats.

  49. Eric Ashley
    May 31st, 2013 @ 3:31 am

    Right, societal.

  50. Wombat_socho
    May 31st, 2013 @ 8:38 am

    Pretty much everything?