[review] A Season for Slaughter (The War Against the Chtorr, volume 4) by David Gerrold

[James Nicoll]

A Season for Slaughter (The War Against the Chtorr, volume 4) by David Gerrold

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/rose-garden-dreams
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

[James Nicoll]

In article <sht1u8$6d8$1...@reader1.panix.com>,

People may be wondering "Hey, what happened to A Rage for Revenge?" I
fucked up, is what. I somehow convinced myself I'd reviewed it. "Don't
you keep a list of to-do books to avoid that sort of thing?" I do, but
I have to not be so confident it does not occur to me to double check
that I am reading the right book. The missing review will be up next
week.

[Robert Carnegie]

On Wednesday, 15 September 2021 at 16:30:33 UTC+1, James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <sht1u8$6d8$1...@reader1.panix.com>,
> James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
> >A Season for Slaughter (The War Against the Chtorr, volume 4) by David Gerrold
> >
> >https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/rose-garden-dreams
> >--
> >My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
> >My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
> >My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
> >My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll
>
> People may be wondering "Hey, what happened to A Rage for Revenge?" I
> fucked up, is what. I somehow convinced myself I'd reviewed it. "Don't
> you keep a list of to-do books to avoid that sort of thing?" I do, but
> I have to not be so confident it does not occur to me to double check
> that I am reading the right book. The missing review will be up next
> week.

So now there's a "which order to read reviews in" problem. :-)

[William Hyde]

On Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 11:02:36 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> A Season for Slaughter (The War Against the Chtorr, volume 4) by David Gerrold
>
> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/rose-garden-dreams

Perhaps book 5 will reveal whether or not this belongs in the "doomed attempts at planetary
colonization" topic, or not.

It might, but then, "The Genocides" did not.

William Hyde

[Lynn McGuire]

Or books 6 or 7. Gerrold does claim to have books 6 and 7 written
already. Book 5 is about insanity which he claims to have trouble
writing about.

https://gizmodo.com/david-gerrold-says-the-next-chtorr-book-will-be-finishe-1718362165
and

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/163164/why-hasnt-david-gerrold-published-the-next-war-against-the-chtorr-book-yet

But the Chtorr are soundly winning the battle in books 1 to 4. A sudden
reversal of that would be a complete turnabout.

Lynn

[Dan Swartzendruber]

In article <sht1u8$6d8$1...@reader1.panix.com>, jdni...@panix.com says...

>
> A Season for Slaughter (The War Against the Chtorr, volume 4) by David Gerrold
>
> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/rose-garden-dreams

I have no idea if this is true or not, but I remember some years back,
reading a claim that he never finished the story because he felt he had
painted himself into a corner. e.g. the Chtorran ecology was
unbeatable. If that isn't the case, I have no better idea as to why he
just... stopped.

[Quadibloc]

On Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 9:02:36 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
> A Season for Slaughter (The War Against the Chtorr, volume 4) by David Gerrold
>
> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/rose-garden-dreams

It does not seem to me that he has structured the series in such a way
as to lead to a conclusion.

Everything I have read of it so far tells me that for the human race
to find a way to eradicate the Chtorr from Earth would be an
anti-climax, ringing false with what has gone before.

For the human race to start anew on an isolated Martian colony would
seem to be the only possible ending, but there are as yet no signs of
development towards that conclusion.

John Savard

[Quadibloc]

On Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 5:28:53 PM UTC-6, Lynn McGuire wrote:

> Or books 6 or 7. Gerrold does claim to have books 6 and 7 written
> already. Book 5 is about insanity which he claims to have trouble
> writing about.

Ah. This is interesting.

But is there a need for a book 8 before the series can conclude?

John Savard

[Dimensional Traveler]

The story that I heard is that he semi-retired from writing to take care
of his special needs child.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

[Lynn McGuire]

Several authors (John Varley, etc) have booted humans off the planet
Earth. One of them even used nanomachine gobblers to turn the Earth
into a dust cloud (Sean Williams).

Lynn

[William Hyde]

On Monday, September 20, 2021 at 4:53:14 PM UTC-4, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 9/19/2021 7:02 PM, Dan Swartzendruber wrote:
> > In article <sht1u8$6d8$1...@reader1.panix.com>, jdni...@panix.com says...
> >>
> >> A Season for Slaughter (The War Against the Chtorr, volume 4) by David Gerrold
> >>
> >> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/rose-garden-dreams
> >
> > I have no idea if this is true or not, but I remember some years back,
> > reading a claim that he never finished the story because he felt he had
> > painted himself into a corner. e.g. the Chtorran ecology was
> > unbeatable. If that isn't the case, I have no better idea as to why he
> > just... stopped.
> Several authors (John Varley, etc) have booted humans off the planet
> Earth.

As did Clarke, in several stories.

One of them even used nanomachine gobblers to turn the Earth
> into a dust cloud (Sean Williams).

Also Greg Bear, somewhat more explosively. And another author in a book I am reading now.

William Hyde

[-dsr-]

On 2021-09-20, Dimensional Traveler <dtr...@sonic.net> wrote:
> On 9/19/2021 5:02 PM, Dan Swartzendruber wrote:
>> In article <sht1u8$6d8$1...@reader1.panix.com>, jdni...@panix.com says...
>>>
>>> A Season for Slaughter (The War Against the Chtorr, volume 4) by David Gerrold
>>>
>>> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/rose-garden-dreams
>>
>> I have no idea if this is true or not, but I remember some years back,
>> reading a claim that he never finished the story because he felt he had
>> painted himself into a corner. e.g. the Chtorran ecology was
>> unbeatable. If that isn't the case, I have no better idea as to why he
>> just... stopped.
>>
> The story that I heard is that he semi-retired from writing to take care
> of his special needs child.

Both of these appear to be true.

He started publishing again in 2000 through 2005, and a few short stories
appeared in the years since; then in 2020, he published Hella.

Three of the books in the 2000-2005 period and Hella are not just set
in the same universe, they are all hinted to take place in the Chtorran
universe, starting around the time of the initial invasion. Save for
opening scenes in the first of these, nothing takes place on Earth.

-dsr-

[Dan Swartzendruber]

In article <slrnskoofn.j...@randomstring.org>, dsr-
use...@randomstring.org says...

Interesting. Thanks, it's been so long with him, he'd dropped off my
radar...