I’m glad you liked the story. And to be honest, it depends on which part of Velaysia you visit. The Kalentine Orchards are not that bad really. The bad news is that most folks don’t get to spend a lot of time there.

Thanks for dropping in.

Respects,
S. F. Murphy
On the Outer Marches

Awesome stuff. I liked the themes of how war changes people, and in this case, it’s literally changing them.

Sorta made me wonder about the business of war and how the things piecing people together weren’t somehow profiting the most from it. The battle spouse part made me think of the Ancient Greeks or Romans and their way of fending off loneliness while on campaign.

Nice twist on the caduceus as the Harvester’s symbol too. And the dehumanization of the people who have been healed by the Knitters. It made me think of returning vets who get shunned when they come home with prosthetic pieces instead of arms and legs.

The world-building was a big plus here too. Though I don’t think I’d want to visit. This hit hard, was smart and full of a lot of things SF has been needing an injection of these days.

Respects,
S. F. Murphy

That’s implicit enough and, I think, more pragmatic a way to build sympathy through a character. How many people in any field, occupation, college, etc. would rather be somewhere else? Instant connect.

The only problem, there are are repentant veterans aplenty, is that not EVERY veteran is that way. Some just don’t care about their service and walk away from it. Others are angry about it. Some are proud of it even though they aren’t recruiters for service. Students ask me ever so often if I think the military is the right choice and I find the best thing to tell them is that I can’t give them a good answer.

There has to be a calling in them, in their heart. Maybe it is family history or maybe they are actually patriotic (a horrible word these days) or something else. But if they don’t have that, no amount of money will make it worth the effort.

Delauchen, for his part, would probably rather be somewhere else. He knows he is not soldier material. But then again, his situation is markedly different from what we have today.

Respects,
S. F. Murphy

That’s some good stuff, Maynard.

FurtherRE: “Antony Swafford wrote Jarhead and I suspect he has said everything that needs to be said about the Gulf War, though I found his repentant veteran bit somewhat contrived.”

Part of me wonders if that’s the tweak that opened some publishing doors, if tweak it were. Similar to the Bob Lee Swagger repentant Vietnam War sniper in the Stephen Hunter books. A colleague and I have discussed such at length.

Tim O’Brien’s Things They Carried is definitely worth a read. Antony Swafford wrote Jarhead and I suspect he has said everything that needs to be said about the Gulf War, though I found his repentant veteran bit somewhat contrived.

Haldeman’s The Forever War is definitely the gold standard in terms of literary quality and truthfulness.

BTW, I attended a local lit fest today and plugged Apex the best I could. If the local network had been up, I’d have shown the website.

Respects,
S. F. Murphy

A true piece of military fiction will always be, at it’s heart, an antiwar piece. How can it not be? But my feeling is that it should never be anti soldier”

1. agreed on Remarque

2. doubly so on the anti-war, not anti-soldier bit

Another author I think you’ve mentioned at the forum before, mebbe your journalspace, is O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and Jarhead. Good stuff. I recommend Joseph T. Ward’s Dear Mom: A Sniper’s Vietnam.

I’ll have to check out Haldeman.

I had a little help with this one. The Apex Editors were first class in helping me with edits. I normally bash editors with a brick stick for a number of reasons but that was not the experience with Jason Sizemore and his team. They took a good piece and put an extra coat of excellence on it. For that, I’m grateful.

You might try reading some Hemingway (who is a bit too minimal for me but there are lessons to be learned there) and combine what you glean with a favorite descriptive writer, Josh.

Berry, everyone has different reactions to service. I got out and found I wanted to read more, but not the Mack Bolan stuff, which I found rather weak even before I signed up.

I also do not think romanticizing the military is a good thing (I’m sure some detractors will be shocked that I wrote that). I think it is incumbent upon any writer who examines the material to be honest. That is what makes writers such as Joe Haldeman (who I disagree with politically yet respect as a writer and a veteran) and Erich Remarque first class comentators on war.

A true piece of military fiction will always be, at it’s heart, an antiwar piece. How can it not be? But my feeling is that it should never be anti soldier.

Anyway.

Respects,
S. F. Murphy