The Big One series

[Arthur_Phuxache]

-Immortal. Mutants. With. Catlike. Eyes.

Were there any of these in the first TBO book?

 

[Coiler]

Were there any of these in the first TBO book?

Just "The Seer" (the Mary Sue who's the closest the overall series has to a main character) himself, and he's a very minor character who only appears in a bit at the end.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

He's right, though. The thing that's important and memorable about the series isn't the books themselves, it's the crazy little echo chamber of forum drama that spawned them.

Well, there was Stuart's own personal echo chamber forum, but he was also a big deal on the now-declined StarDestroyer.net forums as well. The most memorable recollection to me is that he got into a big debate with Norseman (a former SHWI member, and was also on AH.com) in circa 2007 that basically revealed his complete and utter ignorance about both Islam, the sects within Islam, and Islamic fundamentalism itself. But he was the toast of that forum so no one paid any mind, and it was the War on Terror so the Dawkins/Hitchens/Harris internet atheist movement was in full swing. I hadn't followed that forum for a while but after I went looking a few years afterwards all TBO his The Salvation War series discussion had been banned, because there was some sort of scandal involving him.

All I can say is, that guy has had the most primadonna drama of any military sci-fi/alt-hist indie author (who's worked as part of the military-industrial complex) besides Tom Kratman.

 

[Coiler]

I hadn't followed that forum for a while but after I went looking a few years afterwards all TBO his The Salvation War series discussion had been banned, because there was some sort of scandal involving him.

The scandal basically went like this:

• Someone made a torrent of the Salvation War in text form. Keep in mind it had already been out on a totally public board for a long time.
• At around the same time, people on SDN were starting to turn on Stuart (because they got a peek behind the HPCA curtain and rightfully didn't like what they saw) and the story itself (once the novelty wore off, they could see how badly written it was)
• Stuart went full Internet Navy SEAL Tough Guy, talking about how it was a jealous religious fundamentalist out to sabotage the effort and complaining that he had a gigantic advance from a real publisher that was ruined because of that. No one believed him and everything was banned.

All I can say is, that guy has had the most primadonna drama of any military sci-fi/alt-hist indie author (who's worked as part of the military-industrial complex) besides Tom Kratman.

I seriously think one of my worst literary influences was having those two as some of the first authors of "trash fiction" that I read. Not just because they were bad, but because it got me into looking at works which had the most internet drama around them, not ones where the text itself stood out. I've moved past it, for the most part, but it's still a little uncomfortable to look back on in hindsight.

 

[Burton K Wheeler]

Well, there was Stuart's own personal echo chamber forum, but he was also a big deal on the now-declined StarDestroyer.net forums as well. The most memorable recollection to me is that he got into a big debate with Norseman (a former SHWI member, and was also on AH.com) in circa 2007 that basically revealed his complete and utter ignorance about both Islam, the sects within Islam, and Islamic fundamentalism itself. But he was the toast of that forum so no one paid any mind, and it was the War on Terror so the Dawkins/Hitchens/Harris internet atheist movement was in full swing. I hadn't followed that forum for a while but after I went looking a few years afterwards all TBO his The Salvation War series discussion had been banned, because there was some sort of scandal involving him.

All I can say is, that guy has had the most primadonna drama of any military sci-fi/alt-hist indie author (who's worked as part of the military-industrial complex) besides Tom Kratman.

Kratman's drama is always self-contained. He's just so full of himself it surrounds him like a cloud wherever he goes. Facebook, quora, AH.com, wherever, Kratman is just as dramatic when he's talking to people who agree with him as when he's arguing with people who don't. Hearing about Slade drama, as a total outsider, always comes across as "pull up a chair, have I got a story for you". There's a Wagnerian story arc and cast of characters before the protagonist is brought down by his own tragic hubris.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

That specific SD.net thread is just so memorable to me because it's pages upon pages of people quibbling over the finer specifics of weaponry when the central conceit of the wars that Slade wrought involved "Chipan" because "whenever China gets conquered the conquerors get assimilated into Chinese culture, that's just what China does" and the Caliphate because "I wanted to show the world where al-Qaeda gets what it wanted." I get that most of military fiction is to explore the weapons and maneuvers of war, the action, but it's particularly funny that Slade held his own worldbuilding in such high regard, while forgetting Clausewitz's dictum that "war is a continuation of politics by other means." So many in the genre get the politics laughably wrong.

 

[Coiler]

but it's particularly funny that Slade held his own worldbuilding in such high regard, while forgetting Clausewitz's dictum that "war is a continuation of politics by other means." So many in the genre get the politics laughably wrong.

To be honest, with full hindsight and perspective, the worldbuilding (especially the postwar worldbuilding) is really what separates it from the pack, along with being one-sided even by the standards of bad technothrillers. It's a picture-perfect example of missing the forest for the trees.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

Yeah, I wouldn't knock its potential for being entertaining. For instance, their whole rendition for how Lord Halifax seizes power and turns Britain towards the Axis is quite thought-out. Not well-thought out, but thought-out.

The Omnipedia is pretty interesting in general.

 

[Doctor Sulemain]

Kratman's drama is always self-contained. He's just so full of himself it surrounds him like a cloud wherever he goes. Facebook, quora, AH.com, wherever, Kratman is just as dramatic when he's talking to people who agree with him as when he's arguing with people who don't. Hearing about Slade drama, as a total outsider, always comes across as "pull up a chair, have I got a story for you". There's a Wagnerian story arc and cast of characters before the protagonist is brought down by his own tragic hubris.

Ironically, the last time I checked Slade (several years ago) despises Kratman.

That was a weird time in my life.

Clarification: I used to consider Slade someone to admire and someone to listen to. That was a years ago though-I was an impressionable teenager. Now I realise he's a belland, politically speaking. And ignorant about a lot of history, culture and sociology.

 

[Coiler]

The TBO stories come in two tiers (yes, I've read enough of them to categorize this)

The first tier is the dull tier. They're really just C-list military tales with (sometimes) better nominal rivet-counting "plausibility" and (consistently) flatter, duller prose. Almost all of the World War II-era ones fall into this, as do the postwar battles that don't involve the US. It's better, but it's also less memorable.

The second tier is the "goofball" tier. The immortal mutants with catlike eyes. The contrived setups to give the US a chance to show its "stuff" without really challenging it. The worldbuilding details that enable these American cakewalks. The simultaneous in-jokes and self-seriousness. I had the "fortune" of reading the goofball-tier books first.

 

[lordroel]

So, anyone else here experience Stuart Slade's infamous (at least it was back in the day) series?

It was actually one of the first printed (yes, self-published but still) alternate history series I read.

The best once in the series i find is, Lion Resurgent where the British kick Argentina ass.

 

[lukedalton]

That specific SD.net thread is just so memorable to me because it's pages upon pages of people quibbling over the finer specifics of weaponry when the central conceit of the wars that Slade wrought involved "Chipan" because "whenever China gets conquered the conquerors get assimilated into Chinese culture, that's just what China does" and the Caliphate because "I wanted to show the world where al-Qaeda gets what it wanted." I get that most of military fiction is to explore the weapons and maneuvers of war, the action, but it's particularly funny that Slade held his own worldbuilding in such high regard, while forgetting Clausewitz's dictum that "war is a continuation of politics by other means." So many in the genre get the politics laughably wrong.

Chipan and the Caliphate are clear proof that Stuart don't have even a wikipedia level of knowledge of history that not involve weapons nor the humilty to understand this or/and he play for his 'echo chamber' that lives in a reality much different from ours, basically one where Sweden is overrun by muslim horde and in the UK there are no go zone (for whites) due to the immigrants controlling them if you understand me.

The TBO stories come in two tiers (yes, I've read enough of them to categorize this)

The first tier is the dull tier. They're really just C-list military tales with (sometimes) better nominal rivet-counting "plausibility" and (consistently) flatter, duller prose. Almost all of the World War II-era ones fall into this, as do the postwar battles that don't involve the US. It's better, but it's also less memorable.

The second tier is the "goofball" tier. The immortal mutants with catlike eyes. The contrived setups to give the US a chance to show its "stuff" without really challenging it. The worldbuilding details that enable these American cakewalks. The simultaneous in-jokes and self-seriousness. I had the "fortune" of reading the goofball-tier books first.

Stuart can't wrote an engaging battle that involve the USA if his live depend on it, they are usually boring cumberstombing and he boast that the fact the US force had their paint scratched as the fact that has ben an even battle

 

[Coiler]

Stuart can't wrote an engaging battle that involve the USA if his live depend on it, they are usually boring cumberstombing and he boast that the fact the US force had their paint scratched as the fact that has ben an even battle

I'm pretty sure the US lost considerably more aircraft in the OTL 1991 Gulf War than they do "onscreen" in the postwar TBO books.