From: jamesd@echeque.com
Date: Sun Feb 09 1997 - 00:04:02 MST
At 09:33 AM 2/8/97 -0800, Anton Sherwood wrote:
>With the reissue of _The Probability Broach_, everyone has had a new
>opportunity to say how wonderful it is. I found it deeply flawed.
>Here are the gripes that I remember after ~13 years:
>
>- All female characters are Heinlein heroines.
>- The goodguys survive because the badguys never use their guns.
>- Unable to stop the badguys' evil plan preemptively (because that
> would be coercive), our heroes blow them up accidentally.
> This is described as a triumph of free will.
>- As is Bear's double existence, as if gametes were chosen consciously.
>- Griswold's chilling reputation is presented but never justified.
>- I can accept a talking gorilla. I can accept a gorilla with an English
> surname. But a gorilla with an English *hyphenated* surname?
> (And does the wrist-gadget pronounce it Fanshaw?)
>
>Am I alone in my opinion? Did I misread or misremember?
Your recollection is accurate.
> Are some of the flaws corrected in the new edition?
I do not recollect any stuff about free will, but the rest of it sucks
much as you recollect.
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