Sunday, November 22, 2009

Military SF

James recently wrote an article in the Spectator criticizing Wikipedia, particularly its exaggerations of the role of Islam in the history of science and philosophy. Humphrey followed it up by criticizing the Encyclopedia Britannica for an entry that uncritically repeats some of the more absurd urban myths surrounding Christianity and the history of science.

I don't mean to contradict either of them, but I would just like to point out that these encyclopedias do serve a purpose. For example, an aimless surfer can discover the Wikipedia entry for John Ringo, a SF author, and discover that nearly everything he's written is available online. I've never read Ringo (here's his home page), but I'm a big fan of military SF; I don't know if that's just my taste, or if it's a product of my worldview or personal history. Anyway, he's a very prolific author who has only been writing for the past ten years, co-writing many books with other authors. Looking at the descriptions of the various series, I think I'm going to start with the Space Bubble series, which looks much more interesting than its title. If I like his writing, I'll go from there to his Legacy of Aldenata series, which consists of many more books.

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