Reluctantly, I subjected myself to "The Destroyers."
Strictly as fiction, without thinking about the obvious allegory, I had mixed feelings. There were some vividly realized characters, but to no real purpose. All they did was talk about events happening off stage. Two stars if I ignore the story's connection to the real world.
The theme of "liberators" causing destuction to those they are supposedly helping is a powerful one, and could have resulted in a strong story. Unfortunately, it's impossible to read "The Destroyers" without becoming aware of what the author is doing.
Once this became obvious, I was able to decode the author's word games. Once in a while, particularly toward the end, there was not any attempt to disguise things. Blue-coated Union soldiers! In other places, the allegory was almost clever. The medicinal plant "cataca" for cotton, for example. Most of the time, however, the author just uses anagrams and puns.
"Xedii" (how is one supposed to say that?) = "Dixie"
"Samas" = "Massa" (!)
"Basom" = "Sambo" (!!)
"Blejjo" = "Black Joe" (!!)
"Tana L'at" = "Atlanta"
"Eeler" = "R. E. Lee"
Most outrageously, the main couple:
"Memi" = "Mammy" (!!)
"Anketam" = "Uncle Tom" (!!!)
I'm sure there are many other examples. My point is that the author knows exactly what he is doing.
I could be generous and suppose that the author is making fun of romantic versions of the antebellum South, but the story's arguments that life for the "workers" in the industrial North would be much worse seem too serious to be taken for satire.
The blurb for the story (from JWC, I assume) set off my alarms:
"Any war is made up of a horde of personal tragedies—but the greater picture is the tragedy of the death of a way of life. For a way of life—good, bad, or indifferent—exists because it is dearly loved...."
Nonsense! There have been people in horrible situations all through history (and now) who endure a "way of life" which is not "dearly loved"!
My copy of "Mating Problems" was unreadable, so I can offer no comment. Given what you have said about "The Best Made Plans," I didn't bother with it.
"The Big Fix" was just light entertainment, but I enjoyed it. I actually liked the wisecracks, and the plot was clever and logical. (The way in which poker was played among psychics was interesting and plausible as well.) I always thought of George O. Smith as a writer of what might be called "engineering fiction," but he seems to have a gift for SF/crime stories as well, given "The Undetected." I'd give this one a solid four stars.
Gone With the Wind
Strictly as fiction, without thinking about the obvious allegory, I had mixed feelings. There were some vividly realized characters, but to no real purpose. All they did was talk about events happening off stage. Two stars if I ignore the story's connection to the real world.
The theme of "liberators" causing destuction to those they are supposedly helping is a powerful one, and could have resulted in a strong story. Unfortunately, it's impossible to read "The Destroyers" without becoming aware of what the author is doing.
Once this became obvious, I was able to decode the author's word games. Once in a while, particularly toward the end, there was not any attempt to disguise things. Blue-coated Union soldiers! In other places, the allegory was almost clever. The medicinal plant "cataca" for cotton, for example. Most of the time, however, the author just uses anagrams and puns.
"Xedii" (how is one supposed to say that?) = "Dixie"
"Samas" = "Massa" (!)
"Basom" = "Sambo" (!!)
"Blejjo" = "Black Joe" (!!)
"Tana L'at" = "Atlanta"
"Eeler" = "R. E. Lee"
Most outrageously, the main couple:
"Memi" = "Mammy" (!!)
"Anketam" = "Uncle Tom" (!!!)
I'm sure there are many other examples. My point is that the author knows exactly what he is doing.
I could be generous and suppose that the author is making fun of romantic versions of the antebellum South, but the story's arguments that life for the "workers" in the industrial North would be much worse seem too serious to be taken for satire.
The blurb for the story (from JWC, I assume) set off my alarms:
"Any war is made up of a horde of personal tragedies—but the greater picture is the tragedy of the death of a way of life. For a way of life—good, bad, or indifferent—exists because it is dearly loved...."
Nonsense! There have been people in horrible situations all through history (and now) who endure a "way of life" which
is not "dearly loved"!
My copy of "Mating Problems" was unreadable, so I can offer no comment. Given what you have said about "The Best Made Plans," I didn't bother with it.
"The Big Fix" was just light entertainment, but I enjoyed it. I actually liked the wisecracks, and the plot was clever and logical. (The way in which poker was played among psychics was interesting and plausible as well.) I always thought of George O. Smith as a writer of what might be called "engineering fiction," but he seems to have a gift for SF/crime stories as well, given "The Undetected." I'd give this one a solid four stars.