Began reading SciFi in the 1960s, but in recent years have all but given it up, due to the drivel that gets published in the name of SciFi nowadays.
Knowing that the Baen imprint might assure me of something readable is reassuring.
For me, the worst part of the more recent SCiFi and Fantasy books is the huge amount of dialogue and intricate detail describing the most insignificant action. A two page description of a thunderstorm, for instance.
Mr. Flint is as wordy as any other, if not more so. In his favor, though, his wordiness goes back many years, and is among the best done.
“Began reading SciFi in the 1960s, but in recent years have all but given it up, due to the drivel that gets published in the name of SciFi nowadays.”
I’ve been going to Amazon and downloading the collected works of different writers. I’m reading H. Beam Piper right now and just finished Andre Norton. Many of the are free.
I've been a big fan of Baen publishing for years. I like most of their authors a lot. I've known that Eric Flint was a flaming socialist for years as well, as he comes right out and says it in an afterwards in one of his early books.
That doesn't stop me from reading his stuff though, because I like him as an author. Jim Baen was a great publisher in that he cared less about the politics of his authors than he did about the revenue a good story will generate.
One of the reasons I like Baen is because very early on it took a very strong stance against DRM in its ebooks. They even have a section on their site called the "Free Library" where you can download many of the first (and sometimes second books from most of the series that they publish. (On the theory that like any good drug dealer, the first one's free.) This is a great way for you to read an author or series that you might be unfamiliar with, at no cost to you beyond the time it takes to read it.
IMO, all of this 'controversy' stems from the simple fact that Baen does, in fact, have some conservative folks writing from them. The whacky left can't stand the thought that conservatives even exist, and will do anything they can to destroy anyone who has the nerve to actually employ one.
These days, I seriously doubt that a fellow like Tom Kratman could get published at all, because he is obviously not a leftist. He penned a scathing indictment about 'transnationalists' as the afterward for a book he co-wrote with John Ringo in the 'Alendata' series. I think I posted an excerpt from that afterward here on FR some time ago.
This whole thing is crap, and I hope it doesn't adversely impact Baen.