Well, except for the cat thing, I'm pretty much where you are philosophically and politically. (While I don't like the fact that we need a military, I don't deny it. There's just no way that our way of life would survive the magical disappearance of our armed forces. I bear no love whatsoever for the current situation in the Middle East, though.) And I love the damn books. Some of them are more in the guilty-pleasure vein than others, of course.
As for 1632, well, you've got a bunch of liberal unionist West Virginia coal miners trying to destroy the imperial bastards in charge of Europe and bring democracy to the world a hundred and fifty years early. While there is a lot of war involved, considerably more than half the published material involves little people changing the world in nonviolent ways. It is absolutely wonderful stuff and one of my two favorite science fiction series for the past several years.
And the other favorite? That would be Miles Vorkosigan.
Barrayaran society is pretty spit-and-polish Imperial, but they're considered socially backward by the rest of humanspace... and frankly, they're right. Bujold takes pains to show us the problems with nobility as well as the good points, and it seems fairly certain that the Vor system is doomed to enlightenment from within thanks to certain... benign influences (coughCordeliacough). And if anyone in that series is cryptofascist, it's the extremely cryptic Cetagandans... the major antagonists. Brilliant characterization, some thoroughly vile villains (see Jackson's Whole), and side-splitting humor.
Honor Harrington... well, Honor in particular I consider to be the weakest by far of David Weber's works. I've read them, but they never grab me the way that Mutineer's Moon or Oath of Swords did. (Check out the latter in particular for one of the two best depictions of a paladin in fantasy fiction, and not a hint of cryptofascism anywhere.)
But then we come to John Ringo, a very guilty pleasure indeed. I loathe the man's politics, but he writes such damn good adventure novels that I just can't stop myself from reading them...
Avoid, lest ye be lost as I have been...
ETA: Here's some links to The Baen Free Library to get you started.
The Mountains of Mourning (Miles Vorkosigan)
1632
Mutineer's Moon
Oath of Swords, book one of The Lay of Bahzell Bloody-Hand
Digital Knight by Ryk E. Spoor, a fanfic author who's hit the big time (the major villain of this work is taken from a Saint Seiya fic he wrote years ago)
--Sam
"This is graveness."
As for 1632, well, you've got a bunch of liberal unionist West Virginia coal miners trying to destroy the imperial bastards in charge of Europe and bring democracy to the world a hundred and fifty years early. While there is a lot of war involved, considerably more than half the published material involves little people changing the world in nonviolent ways. It is absolutely wonderful stuff and one of my two favorite science fiction series for the past several years.
And the other favorite? That would be Miles Vorkosigan.
Barrayaran society is pretty spit-and-polish Imperial, but they're considered socially backward by the rest of humanspace... and frankly, they're right. Bujold takes pains to show us the problems with nobility as well as the good points, and it seems fairly certain that the Vor system is doomed to enlightenment from within thanks to certain... benign influences (coughCordeliacough). And if anyone in that series is cryptofascist, it's the extremely cryptic Cetagandans... the major antagonists. Brilliant characterization, some thoroughly vile villains (see Jackson's Whole), and side-splitting humor.
Honor Harrington... well, Honor in particular I consider to be the weakest by far of David Weber's works. I've read them, but they never grab me the way that Mutineer's Moon or Oath of Swords did. (Check out the latter in particular for one of the two best depictions of a paladin in fantasy fiction, and not a hint of cryptofascism anywhere.)
But then we come to John Ringo, a very guilty pleasure indeed. I loathe the man's politics, but he writes such damn good adventure novels that I just can't stop myself from reading them...
Avoid, lest ye be lost as I have been...ETA: Here's some links to The Baen Free Library to get you started.
The Mountains of Mourning (Miles Vorkosigan)
1632
Mutineer's Moon
Oath of Swords, book one of The Lay of Bahzell Bloody-Hand
Digital Knight by Ryk E. Spoor, a fanfic author who's hit the big time (the major villain of this work is taken from a Saint Seiya fic he wrote years ago
)--Sam
"This is graveness."