Bad math in "Into the Looking Glass"

[Vultur]

I think the Dreen series is great, but in the first book they talk about a 600 megaton "quarkium" bomb blowing the earth up "into a new asteroid belt". Huh??? That's less powerful than some volcanoes! The Chicxulub asteroid was 100 teratons - so about 150,000 times more powerful - and the Earth stayed in one piece.

Should I be skeptical of the rest of the science in those books? (They're still very fun to read, though.)

[Singular Intellect]

The only way that could happen is if the bomb induces some chain reaction like effect that utilizes the planet's own mass as a energy source.

[consequences]

Ringo's mentioned that it was a screwup(supposed to be 600 million megatons apparently) but still hasn't bothered to correct it between the ARC, hardcover release, and paperback release. the trend continues in later books with some kind of blatant math flub, once involving ship speed in Vorpal Blade, and once involving Dreen fighter weapons range in Manxome Foe.

But that's really nothing compared to him fucking up the basic math in making his insane Hillary clone president in The Last Centurion. I worked it out that the only way it works is if after GW bush Warrick gets elected, then Jeb Bush, then bug-fuck-crazy not-Hillary(or possibly actual Chelsea after actual Hillary instead. The first problem there is that he makes a point of taking a shot at the current political 'dynasties' with bush-warringer-bush-warringer, without mentioning a previous bush-clinton,a nd the second is that we already know that he's a frothing at the mouth right-wing Hillary Hater. Of course, that's fairly easy to miss with how obnoxious and crappy Centurion was.

[Samuel]

This is Ringo. Shep has pasted whole pages on the stupidity of his weapons system in the Posleen series- take his science with a grain of salt.

[Vultur]

Ringo's mentioned that it was a screwup(supposed to be 600 million megatons apparently)

Thanks, that makes a lot more sense. Still not enough to break a planet into an asteroid belt, though. That's 600 teratons, six times the Chicxulub impact, and asteroids bigger than Chicxulub have hit the earth, and other planets, before. It would at least be big enough to cause a new mass extinction and probably kill off humanity.

[/b]the trend continues in later books with some kind of blatant math flub, once involving ship speed in Vorpal Blade, and once involving Dreen fighter weapons range in Manxome Foe.[/quote]
I missed that, I should reread them anyway -- they were really cool.

But that's really nothing compared to him fucking up the basic math in making his insane Hillary clone president in The Last Centurion. ... we already know that he's a frothing at the mouth right-wing Hillary Hater. Of course, that's fairly easy to miss with how obnoxious and crappy Centurion was.

Haven't read that book, but I did think he was fairly Republican.

[Samuel]

Haven't read that book, but I did think he was fairly Republican.

Well, he has the Greens control the presidency in the Posleen series and screw up. I think he is simply Republican for the military aspects like David Weber. I could be wrong, but most of his hate is toward weakness and corruption... yeah, he doesn't see the irony.

[consequences]

Hate to break it to you, but the entire book can be summarized by saying that all liberal concepts are stupid, the media is liberal, even dumber, and unable to learn basic precepts of propaganda when they're being hammered by them daily, and Right-Wing-Christian America fuck Yeah!

The only thing that really separates this from his other work is the degree to which it is done, and the near-complete lack of violence and sex that normally makes reading his books a guilty pleasure, instead of a fucking waste of my god-damned time and money.

[Samuel]

Hate to break it to you, but the entire book can be summarized by saying that all liberal concepts are stupid, the media is liberal, even dumber, and unable to learn basic precepts of propaganda when they're being hammered by them daily, and Right-Wing-Christian America fuck Yeah!

The only thing that really separates this from his other work is the degree to which it is done, and the near-complete lack of violence and sex that normally makes reading his books a guilty pleasure, instead of a fucking waste of my god-damned time and money.

I know that. He just doesn't come off as a social conservative. Of course, the fact the US always wins in the end is a bit annoying- yes, we have 25% of the worlds wealth and the biggest military, but I'm pretty sure the rest of the world will react will all their might at the threat of extinction.

[Vultur]

Well, so far in the Dreen books it seems clear that most of the major powers will be involved -- the US just has a head start because of the drive from the Adar (thus being able to send out the Blade to reconnoiter) and because of having a large, high-tech military.