[Radtgaeb]

Originally Posted by Iron Budokan

It was unbelievable...embarrassingly so. He makes the mistake a lot of writers make who have little or no experience in speculative fiction. He thinks coming up with an idea without any grounding in economic or political reality is good enough. It's not.

I finished Crush Depth, and I have to admit I liked the battles between the subs and I was interested to see his concern about the ecological damage a war of this type would inflict on the world's oceans. But from a political standpoint the framework he posits for this "future war" is laughable. The biggest howler: The people of America, now at war with France and South Africa, listen to music from WWII because of the nostalgiac quality. Puh-leeze. That's not only bad extrapolation that's downright lazy plotting and little more than a passing nod (if that) at world building.

But if you could overlook all that, the writing itself both technically and grammatically was pretty good, as were the depth of personal characterizations throughout the book. A nice change from the typical "machine is character" thrust we so often see in technological novels of this type.

I won't ever read another Joe Buff novel. One was enough. But it's not because he's a terrible writer...it's because the universal conflict he posits simply would never occur, and it really shatters the suspension of disbelief.

p.s. And fer Gawd's sake, don't even get me started on Clancy....

My first thought was "Dear Lord....the Boers? Are you kidding me?" LAFF! :rotfl: