And So On

Our 1st Sergeant is gone. That's about all I'll say just now.

I skipped to the end of When the Devil Dances. There's a good conspiracy tale wrapped up in all that mayhem, but I'm just not digging the mayhem enough to wade through it. The joie de morte just doesn't tickle me. Never really did, but at one time I was willing to slog through to get to the nugget of interesting.

So then I started Cold as Ice which hornedhopper sent me a bajillion years ago. I found the opening a little amusing, because it seemed not to reflect warfare as it's practiced, generally. The assumption that a smart weapon would blow up a lifeboat seemed a little off to me. I think I see what Sheffield's getting at, now, but if I'd been less bored it might have kept me from reading on ;)

And further, why is it there are so few books written from the perspective of the average grunt? I was impressed that Contact Imminent spent time on it, although the grunt in question wasn't really a grunt and on the wrong side and so forth, but it was cool just the same. But I can't think of another book I've read where the military characters aren't officers or Staff NCOs or whatever. Even Tom Clancy, if he deigns to dip low, gets down to about E-5 and stops there. Do we not have cool stories, too?

Of course, then there's the Starship Troopers paradigm, but the average dude gets promoted so fast that they're hardly ever average. Or then there's the super-soldier. I think kaygo is the only one who's figured it out so far... and she had to make hers a baddie twerp ;)