S. M. Stirling

There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot.

Stephen Michael Stirling (born 30 September 1953) is a Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. His novels often describe military situations and militaristic cultures.

Sourced

• Bad writers have influences. Good writers steal.
  • Dragon Page Cover to Cover interview, Episode 372A (8 September 2009)

• A libertarian is someone who can believe that the police are no more than a gang of thugs without realizing that in the absence of police, thugs will gather into gangs.
  • Usenet group rec.arts.sf.written (7 July 2000)

• There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot.
  • Conquistador (2003)
• "The Mackenzie had never met folk so poor in story and song and legends, and it moved him to a pity that pricked at his eyes. Without that tapestry of colour and words and ritual, what was life but eating and mating, sleeping and moving your bowels? All of them good and necessary, but not enough; and they themselves needed that framework too, to give them meaning."
  • The Sword of the Lady

Unsourced

• Generally speaking nations don't engage in either war or diplomacy with purely altruistic intent, and everyone fit to be let out without a keeper knows this and takes it into account.

Usenet

• soc.history.what-if

Question: "Let's say you have a magic button in front of you. If you push it, it will kill every Islamic person (using your definition of Islamic vs post-Islamic) on the planet. Do you push it?"

Answer (S.M. Stirling) "-- we're talking adults here? Hmmm. Well, if it's _male_ adults, like a shot."

External links

• The official S.M. Stirling Web Site
• Several excerpts from Stirling's novels
• Bibliography at Scifan.com
• S. M. Stirling at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database