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Jason's avatar

Count me in as one of the people who might be interested in such a book club

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Doug S.'s avatar
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I also read that novel as an atheist teenager and came away thoroughly unimpressed - the plot seemed to amount to "woman goes back in time to the Black Plague, realizes that she can't actually help anyone, and watches people die." Maybe I just didn't get it? I didn't particularly notice anything that made me think of theodicy or criticism of organized religion. One thing I usually like about science fiction and fantasy is that it's much less inclined to let the reader miss what the story is actually about than literary fiction - as Larry Niven said in his laws for writers, if you have something important to say, say it clearly and precisely: if the reader doesn't get it, don't let it be your fault!

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