SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

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SciFi and Fantasy Book Challenge > Dawn 6 th sense challenge- comments welcome

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message 1: by Dawn (new)

Dawn | 8 comments I read The Song of Achilles/ It was an interesting retelling of the Iliad, but the book was ruined for me as the first 2/3 was basically a romance. Did I tell you that I despise most Romance? The last third was very good as it mixed action with some very good character development

2. I’m now starting the Forever War


message 2: by Dawn (new)

Dawn | 8 comments I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book, The Forever War. Haldeman quite brilliantly adds surreptitious criticism of the military industrial complex and its financial basis for war. He also makes cogent points about change in society, and how societal change can cause inversions in social status.

It is at that this point that Haldeman tips his hand. It’s quite clear that the young soldier, the main character is his own doppelgänger; therefore the soldiers discomfort with the rise, acceptance and eventual dominance of homosexuality is quite telling. It’s interesting that initially the infantry was heterosexual, and the female soldiers were NOT ALLOWED to deny sexual favors. In Haldemans world, the rise of women in command coincides with the feminization of men and the male lack of easy access to female bodies.Not to mention that there is a “ browning” of the human race were racial categories are eliminated through mixture.

I could go on and on about Haldemans various tells in this book, but the most concise thing I could say is that this book is a dominant males subconscious fears( more like nightmares)of the loss of status, power and supremacy that societal change may bring.


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