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From: tom@rlgvax.UUCP (Tom Beres)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: James P. Hogan
Message-ID: <893@rlgvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Jul-83 18:58:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.893
Posted: Mon Jul 25 18:58:38 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Jul-83 23:39:42 EDT
Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA
Lines: 22

I like Hogan's attempts at scientific accuracy.  If they are not totally
accurate, they are close enough for me.  Consistency is what counts.

What bothers me about his works are his human, psychological, and emotional
inaccuracies.  Good guys are ultra-good, and ultra-smart, too.  Bad guys
are the opposite.  Not only are his characters a bit shallow, but
his societies are too!  His idealism, while noble, is naieve enough
to make me blush -- more important, it injects a substantial amount of
disbelief into the story.

Actually, that is my complaint about most science fiction -- after spending
all the effort to make the science credible, individual characters and society
are shallow, stereoptyped, and portrayed in an unbelievable manner.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Hogan's works, and I enjoy sf.  However, it is
the stories which use strange new worlds, characters, and situations to
point out or develop a point of psychological/emotional insight (even if it
is non-human) that I cherish.  Ursala LeGuin's (sp?) "Left Hand Side of
Darkness" was such a book.  I need more.  Anyone got some to recommend?

- Tom Beres
{seismo, allegra, brl-bmd, we13, mcnc}!rlgvax!tom