Worst science fiction novel ever written

That's what a guy said in a forum post that Google cached, although the remark was deleted by a forum moderator, one of several posts asking about my first novel Mars Shall Thunder. The mod posted links to a free text version, maybe a 1997 manuscript that was scraped more than once. It promotes readership, which is fine. Recent novels are protected by Amazon and Lulu. I was surprised that somebody wanted to read Mars, just out of the blue.

 

Worst sci-fi novel ever written? A reviewer on Audible said that Galt's Gulch was the worst Audible ever, not bad production wise, narrated by R.K. Maier — but specifically disgusted that I was contemptible. I catch a lot of flak for thinking and speaking my mind in public. It's hard to estimate how big an audience my voice reaches. It's in all my novels loud and clear. In Mars I defended the rule of law and when that doesn't work, facing a totalitarian state, revolution is often necessary. If I remember correctly, Sunni Maravillosa and Samuel Z. Jones said nice things about Mars in second draft. Sunni remarked that I was one of the few male authors who could accurately describe exclusively female experiences. Sam gushed that it was thrilling and Mars was marvelously realized. Personally, I don't know. I wrote what I could.

 

Atlas Shrugged was voted the worst novel ever in a Chicago newspaper poll. Not much doubt that Atlas was science fiction. People wrongly talk about it as a dystopian fantasy. She was ahead of her time and couldn't conceive that America would be destroyed by blacks, multiplying like rabbits, taking 1/3 of all Federal civil service jobs and 2/3 of big city police chiefs. Rand was outraged by legalized robbery — the impulse to tax and spend, taking money from productive people to promote trash. Forget about trash, white or otherwise, the evil purpose is to tear down and wreck the good. Not necessarily the rich. The innovators who love the work of discovery, devote a lifetime to invent something new. Atlas Shrugged presented a remarkable idea, that evil requires the sanction of the victim.

 

Maybe I presented something equally remarkable, that justice is armed defense of innocent liberty. Rand didn't explore the philosophy of law, left it as a blank page in her body of work. She thought ethics was the main attraction, which it is, to the extent that individually we need to pilot ourselves. Law is a much different field of inquiry, asking what constitutes an impartial, impersonal process of public order and custody of orphans, the mentally ill, and felons. Bad policy to do nothing about crime — although that's precisely what's happening, as you probably know if you pay attention to news headlines. Many stores have shut their doors, because black shoplifters can't be arrested or detained if they snatch less than $950 of luxury goods in a mall or specialty shop. Narcotics are endemic. Cops are quitting.

 

Back to the topic of being a bad writer, if I am. Many people think I am.

 

What people think or say about me is totally irrelevant to the work of writing a novel. I'm done with nonfiction. I devoted 40 years of study and wrote about justice aplenty, much of it in essays that were widely read, then several books. I know I have an annoying style when I write nonfiction, blending my personal experience with impersonal argument dressed in technical jargon.

Reminds me of Chiseltown, a satire jammed with moviemaking jargon. It still makes me smile. Bruno was a very lucky guy.

 

Honestly, I just write what I can. A novel is six months of slamming keystrokes, catching typos, waiting for the right thing to come next. Outlines are revised continually. Characters are flesh and blood people to me. I hear every breath and unspoken subconscious reaction. People have secrets that leak out.

 

25 years after Mars, I revisited space in Escape! I absolutely don't care if people despise it, which will probably happen sooner or later. It has intimate sexual content, girls who are girls, men who are men, the truth of hope and happiness and sorrow in sharp focus. It's not a question of competence. Both sexes are equally capable in Spar One, the girls slightly brighter than the men, which is normal. Women need men to be strong and confident, willing to throw themselves into danger. Space is an unforgiving environment. Men are not angels, as Madison observed. Evil must be detected and defeated.

 

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