You know, I love David Weber's Honor Harrington books, but...

[TheMightyFavog]

Reading a bit about how on Manticore, (The "good guys" of the series) tax forms are just "a single page -e-form" and that in order to be eligible to vote, a citizen of the Star Kingdom of Manticore must "pay at least one cent more in taxes than he receives in government transfer payments and subsidies." It makes me groan and roll my eyes. I swear I almost considered rooting for the Republic of Haven after reading that line.

Are there any other sci-fi fans out there who feel this way?

[DetlefK]

1. Oh, I can top that.

That "one extra cent" reminds me of Starship Troopers where only people who have served in the military are allowed to vote.



There was this other military sci-fi-series. Forgot the name, I only read one book. It was a psot-apocalyptc future where mankind had created mystical beats (e.g. dragons, mermaids, Orks...) via genetic manipulation. Nice idea, but it was realy, really, really on-the-nose with his chivalrous United States and the perverted Europeans.



And there's a fantasy-book by IIRC Sergej Lukashenko. Some humans have magical powers and once these powers awaken, the person gets automatically sucked into a fantasy-realm.
Nice idea, although you could tell that the russian author is a bit weird: a strong, smart, female character (ruler of a powerful Clan of mages) gets raped by another ruler at business-meeting and she treats it like an instance of boys-will-be-boys.
Oh, and the author had to shove in that the pervy old man who tries to molest the underage-girl protagonist is from Poland.
-> Raping women is no big deal. That's life. The poor guy couldn't resist her beauty.

[malthaussen]

2. I had to give up on that series...

... the ham-handed allusions to the French Revolution, and the extreme libertarianism of the author stick in my craw. Since it's a novel, he can do whatever he wants, and it's clear what fairy tales matter to him. Notice how all the liberals on Manticore are corrupt and disloyal to the point of treason, and all the conservatives fine, upstanding people? It's actually rather a mirror-image of the situation in the USA today.

-- Mal