Sometimes Scifi Authors Really Piss Me Off

The Southern Pundit ^ | 03-14-2006 | Vanity

[JamesP81]

Which is a shame, because I love scifi above all other genres.

John Ringo is one of modern science fiction’s most talented authors. His writing is interesting, entertaining, action-packed, and even thought provoking.

The problem is that his stories are laced with very graphic sex and sexual themes. Call me a prude, but I don’t want to pollute my mind with that stuff. There is a time and place for sexuality; in a book for cheap entertainment is not the time or place.

Ringo has right-leaning politics, which is nice change in a best-selling author...

[JamesP81]

Just blowing off steam. I really hate blowing that much money on something...

[tallhappy]

He's a hack.

[stuartcr]

How many of his books have you bought?

[JamesP81]

How many of his books have you bought?

Fortunately, not many. My step-dad reads them fanatically. I got soured on him with March Upcountry and thought I'd give hime one more try.

Yeah, dumb idea, I know. Make fun of me. I deserve it.

[Yo-Yo]

Then don't read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

[JamesP81]

Slightly OT, but do you know if there is a writer's pinglist on FR? If not, I was thinking about starting one.

Back OT:

It's guys like Ringo that drive me to get published. I'm working on two novels right now, one of them I intend to get published on a Christian label. The other has some of the same themes, but it's not as obvious (think LOTR, except spaceships and aliens instead of swords and orcs).

[JamesP81]

Then don't read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

I doubt Heinlein even comes close to this guy on being graphic. I've read Starship Troopers, and it's tame and prudish compared to Ringo.

[stuartcr]

No, but if you had said you belonged to his book-of-the-month club, I would have been forced to.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Starship Troopers was one of Heinlein's "juvenile" books (that's refering to age, not personality) and a great read. His later stuff got a lot more "adult" to the point where one of his characters goes back in time and has "relations" with his own mother. I pretty much stick to his stuff of the Glory Road and earlier variety.

[Starter]

So was Ringo, actually. Blowing off steam, that is.

The story that's floating around about the "Ghost" books is that Ringo basically wrote that book in between writing some of his other novels. He never intended to publish it; he'd just written it to blow off some creative steam. But his fans heard about it and started asking for him to publish it. And then his publisher started asking. So, they published it, and it's done really well sales wise. (shrug) I can't really blame him for writing stuff that sells, even if I don't care for it.

[nomorelurker]

Something I heard many years ago (so don't ask me to prove it, cause I can't) is that many of the "Golden Age" of SC-FI writers got their start writing porn stories.

[Oztrich Boy]

I've read Starship Troopers, and it's tame and prudish compared to Ringo.

Well du'h! Starship Troopers was a Heinlein juvenile novel.