On a related note

[james_davis_nicoll]

What should go on a Top Ten "In retrospect, what the hell were we thinking" list of once-popular SF?

Comments

Re: A Gift From Earth

[(Anonymous)]

Absolutely. But it's never suggested that (for instance) the Crew disappear ordinary people who've done nothing against them.

And even with the radicals, their methods are efficient without being cruel: anesthesia followed by dissection, but no torture. (Hell, even when they actively want to get information out of you, they just dump you in a sensory deprivation tank.)

They're evil. But it's evil imagined by someone who has trouble imagining evil, if you get me.


Doug M.

Re: A Gift From Earth

[nelc.livejournal.com]

It's a long time since I read it, but I wouldn't be surprised if the definition of subversive activities varied according to how full the organ banks were. And efficient evil is less to be feared than merely cruel evil?