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rfmcdonaldUnpacking books at work the other day, I was surprised to come across the latest novel of John Ringo, Watch on the Rhine, co-authored with Tom Kratman. Watch on the Rhine is another novel in Ringo's Posleen series, until now notable for the massive carnage inflicted upon the Earth by alien-aided humans set up against the cannibalistic Posleen hordes. Watch on the Rhine is of lasting interest only because it features the rejeuvenated survivors of the Waffen SS as heroes, as a Germany rendered decadent turns to its greatest military heroes in the time of its greatest need.
It's difficult to underestimate just how repellent--and also, repellently stupid--this book is. Anyone who isn't a far-right extremist is a enthusiastic collaborator with aliens willing to eat everyone; almost anyone who is such is a noble person unfairly tarred classified as belonging to the ranks of the génocidaires. Of course, outside the morally-akimbo Ringoverse the Waffen SS is ranked with génocidaires because it was, in fact, a criminal organization deeply implicated in the worst crimes of Nazi Germany. It's difficult to understand why a military body most noted for its ability to round up and massacre Jews and other üntermenschen by the hundreds of thousands could ever be redeemed, or how a military formation most notable for its successes against unarmed civilians would even be capable of any sort of headway against sixty years after its formation. But then, the whole Posleen series can best be understood as a series of books inspired by the same factors which motivated the Nazis, of a final confrontation between the good people of the world and the barbarian inferiors who surround them, a conflict that must be fought if only for the honour of the great and good. Ringo and Kratman make this point explicitly in their afterword, directly connecting the ruthlessness of their book's chosen heroes to the War against Terror (tm) and the need for the West to be strong in the defense of its prerogatives after (one logically concludes) the fashion of the Waffen SS. It's a sad, sad day for science fiction when some of its most popular books potentially have the same sort of relationship to a War against Terror gone horribly wrong as the Western novels of Karl May do to Hitler's dreams of a great German empire on the vast open spaces of Europe, the main difference being that the Posleen novels do so much more directly and dangerously and with rather less empathy save much more directly and dangerously and with much less empathy for their real-world victims. Germany's interest in the novels of Karl May is reflected in a broad vein of sympathy for the First Nations of the New World, after all.
The utter moral nihilism aside, A Watch on the Rhine and other books of its ilk reflect a worrying trend in science fiction, as military science fiction books start to crowd out more worthy and interesting titles. Military science fiction is as valid a subgenre as any, and when done well can be good. Haldeman's Forever War comes most immediately to mind, though others more interested in this sub-genre can doubtless name other candidates, titles marked by strong characterization, good plotting, effective writing styles and an appreciation for the costs of war. Too often, though, this popular sub-genre lacks any sort of appreciation of the requirements of good fiction and is simply interesting in describing a future devoid of anything but killing on galactic scales, a universe of civilizations distinguishably mainly by the calibres of their weaponries, an existence offering nothing but death on a massive scale.
Science fiction is a threatened genre, perhaps a dying one, lacking the large markets and much of the potential for critical respect enjoyed by other genre fictions. The decision of a recent reviewer of a major science fiction novel in the Toronto Globe and Mail to note in passing that this title's awkward writing tyle was about as badly written as other titles and that this was normal says it all. Who is going to be attracted to science fiction if some of the most popular titles are marked by nothing but an immorally amoral fascination with death? There are other genres out there, after all, perhaps more respectable ones in the eyes of some. Genres have lost their popular audiences before. If there ever comes a time when science fiction is intrinsically less deserving of respect, science fiction deserves to follow suit. Ringo, bless his soul, is doing his best to ensure that this day comes.
UPDATE (12:17 AM) : I posted a rough draft on rec.arts.sf.written.
It's difficult to underestimate just how repellent--and also, repellently stupid--this book is. Anyone who isn't a far-right extremist is a enthusiastic collaborator with aliens willing to eat everyone; almost anyone who is such is a noble person unfairly tarred classified as belonging to the ranks of the génocidaires. Of course, outside the morally-akimbo Ringoverse the Waffen SS is ranked with génocidaires because it was, in fact, a criminal organization deeply implicated in the worst crimes of Nazi Germany. It's difficult to understand why a military body most noted for its ability to round up and massacre Jews and other üntermenschen by the hundreds of thousands could ever be redeemed, or how a military formation most notable for its successes against unarmed civilians would even be capable of any sort of headway against sixty years after its formation. But then, the whole Posleen series can best be understood as a series of books inspired by the same factors which motivated the Nazis, of a final confrontation between the good people of the world and the barbarian inferiors who surround them, a conflict that must be fought if only for the honour of the great and good. Ringo and Kratman make this point explicitly in their afterword, directly connecting the ruthlessness of their book's chosen heroes to the War against Terror (tm) and the need for the West to be strong in the defense of its prerogatives after (one logically concludes) the fashion of the Waffen SS. It's a sad, sad day for science fiction when some of its most popular books potentially have the same sort of relationship to a War against Terror gone horribly wrong as the Western novels of Karl May do to Hitler's dreams of a great German empire on the vast open spaces of Europe, the main difference being that the Posleen novels do so much more directly and dangerously and with rather less empathy save much more directly and dangerously and with much less empathy for their real-world victims. Germany's interest in the novels of Karl May is reflected in a broad vein of sympathy for the First Nations of the New World, after all.
The utter moral nihilism aside, A Watch on the Rhine and other books of its ilk reflect a worrying trend in science fiction, as military science fiction books start to crowd out more worthy and interesting titles. Military science fiction is as valid a subgenre as any, and when done well can be good. Haldeman's Forever War comes most immediately to mind, though others more interested in this sub-genre can doubtless name other candidates, titles marked by strong characterization, good plotting, effective writing styles and an appreciation for the costs of war. Too often, though, this popular sub-genre lacks any sort of appreciation of the requirements of good fiction and is simply interesting in describing a future devoid of anything but killing on galactic scales, a universe of civilizations distinguishably mainly by the calibres of their weaponries, an existence offering nothing but death on a massive scale.
Science fiction is a threatened genre, perhaps a dying one, lacking the large markets and much of the potential for critical respect enjoyed by other genre fictions. The decision of a recent reviewer of a major science fiction novel in the Toronto Globe and Mail to note in passing that this title's awkward writing tyle was about as badly written as other titles and that this was normal says it all. Who is going to be attracted to science fiction if some of the most popular titles are marked by nothing but an immorally amoral fascination with death? There are other genres out there, after all, perhaps more respectable ones in the eyes of some. Genres have lost their popular audiences before. If there ever comes a time when science fiction is intrinsically less deserving of respect, science fiction deserves to follow suit. Ringo, bless his soul, is doing his best to ensure that this day comes.
UPDATE (12:17 AM) : I posted a rough draft on rec.arts.sf.written.
