Comments on: Our Greatest Political Novelist?

By: Bruce Charlton

Bruce Charlton — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 22:20:30 +0000

“Our Greatest Political Novelist?”

Objectively, it would have to be George Orwell, since he is the only one that a lot of people read.

(Although personally I don’t much like either of his two great political novels; I do love his essays, however.)

By: Abelard Lindsey

Abelard Lindsey — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:54:30 +0000

The problem with Kim Stanley Robinson is not his politics. It’s that he is boring. I stopped reading his novels for the simple reason I could not finish them due to sheer boredom.

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 04:04:20 +0000

I also started and didn’t finish the Mars trilogy.

The point where I quit was when the evil capitalists priced weight lifting gyms out of the reach of people — resulting in people permanently adapting to lower Martian gravity and so being forced to stay on Mars forever — for better or worse.

Apparently no one on Mars could smelt iron into discs with holes in them.

By: Faze

Faze — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 01:46:26 +0000

The “cruelties” of the free market are far outweighed by its unintentional but real kindnesses. The cruelties of government are one of those “longest books ever written”.

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 23:52:24 +0000

I read the Mars trilogy back in my young(er), semi-progressive high-school days and barely managed to get though it all. I think I was more interested in the descriptions of the expedition equipment and the terraforming process than in the political aspects, though. It hasn’t left much of an impression, all in all. About the only things I remember are Saxifrage Russell’s uber-spergness and being annoyed at the Martian preservationists.

Oh, and the little thermal windmills :D