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Yesterday, James Nicolls posted a review of the novel Leviathan Wakes. I liked the novel well enough to buy the sequels, so I thought I'd chime in with my thoughts, including some comments on James'.
First, James expresses great dubiousness at war in space, having issues with people poking holes in space habs. Now, I share his concern, but in reality, modern warfare is so destructive that the distinction between hole in hab and hole in city is not so great. Also, wars tend to be started by optimists, or at least people optimistic that the fighting will be brief and favorable to them. James also riffs a bit on the idea that, in space, one needs to schedule water deliveries. Well, as pointed out in comments, many of the cities of Earth (such as everywhere in the US Southwest) already needs such scheduled deliveries.
On to my thoughts. I can't remember if it's in Leviathan or a later book, but Corey's future holds a massively over-populated Earth - 100 billion people or thereabouts. Most of said Earthlings don't work, merely subsist on Basic, which is free (basic) food and clothing. I have a real problem with that. First, when human women are given the choice as to when to get pregnant, they tend to vote (as a group) for "not often." Second, even if that were not the case, the population numbers cited are just too big.
Having said all of that, Leviathan Wakes is really cool.
First, James expresses great dubiousness at war in space, having issues with people poking holes in space habs. Now, I share his concern, but in reality, modern warfare is so destructive that the distinction between hole in hab and hole in city is not so great. Also, wars tend to be started by optimists, or at least people optimistic that the fighting will be brief and favorable to them. James also riffs a bit on the idea that, in space, one needs to schedule water deliveries. Well, as pointed out in comments, many of the cities of Earth (such as everywhere in the US Southwest) already needs such scheduled deliveries.
On to my thoughts. I can't remember if it's in Leviathan or a later book, but Corey's future holds a massively over-populated Earth - 100 billion people or thereabouts. Most of said Earthlings don't work, merely subsist on Basic, which is free (basic) food and clothing. I have a real problem with that. First, when human women are given the choice as to when to get pregnant, they tend to vote (as a group) for "not often." Second, even if that were not the case, the population numbers cited are just too big.
Having said all of that, Leviathan Wakes is really cool.
