On the positive side, I got to rec Lois McMaster Bujold

[rachelmanija]

This weekend an acquaintance of mine noticed that I was reading an sf book-- which one, I don't recall, but it was by a woman. He remarked that he had only ever read one female sf author in his life, Octavia Butler. (And liked her work.) I asked him who else he liked, thinking to rec more women.

"I love Niven and Pournelle!" he replied.

"Hmm," I said, and recced Bujold.

"Don't you like them?" he asked, noting my lack of enthusiasm.

"Not really."

"Not even Lucifer's Hammer?"

"No... The prose was clunky and it bothered me that once the apocalypse happened, suddenly there were gangs of rampaging black cannibals."

He denied the existence of rampaging black cannibals, and suggested that I had gotten the book confused with a different post-apocalyptic work containing rampaging black cannibals, Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold. I turn the matter over to the wisdom of LJ!

[Poll #1030388]

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

As I recall it, the cannibals were a mob in LH (and forcing new members to eat human flesh was a way of breaking them to the rule of the cannibal gangs). In FF, the ruling class were the source of cannibalism.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

I'm virtually certain that the rampaging cannibals in LH were a band of former military or pseudo-military (National Guard, IIRC) that were doing maneuvers in the hills when the bad thing happened - and yes, that they used the cannibalism as a way of initiating/reinforcing membership in the band. I don't remember the racial makeup of the cannibals, but I'm pretty sure it was mixed, if not predominately white. There was also a motorcycle gang turned bandit (cf: Road Warrior), and a Boy Scout troop turned, uh, Lord of the Flies tribal-esque (only more so, when they rescued/absorbed a troop of Girl Scouts).

I admit I read it a long time ago, but it was during a period when I was heavily into post-apocalyptic scenarios (don't ask), and I have a copy so I could read it again - but first I have to finish reading Eon, of which my impression so far is "Damn, I'm not smart enough to understand half of what's going on here. Yay!"