re: #21 piratedan

I think it depends on the writer, while I completely disagree with John Ringo on damn near everything, he writes a compelling story. You can even put Scalzi’s Old Man War in the plucky humanity against the universe setting that many of these Space Opera settings thrive in, some work some don’t.

I agree that when the writer goes into the story with an agenda that almost always fails, because the story is what matters, if the story is engaging just about everything else can be forgiven. I fully believe that Niven and Pournelle just kind of disregarded that in their collaborations.

I always liked David Brin’s way of phrasing it - fantasy is about restoring the old order, nothing really changes. A new king, a new elite but no real difference in the end. Aragorn may be better than Sauron but still no libraries for the masses.

Science Fiction is about dealing with change, realizing we can fix the mistakes of our parents. Even dystopisa usually act as cautionary tales for change.

Many conservatives writing a novel often veer more into fantasy than science fiction, when they let their political views get out too freely. They do not really eant massive change.