Elf Sternberg

At the time I started reading The Journals, I was thinking they were better science fiction than most of the SF I was seeing at the time. Admittedly I also thought there was better SF being done in comics and anime than in text. To me the porn just made the SF more "human", and made the characters far more believable than the asexual heroes of most of the SF I'd seen. I'd always been annoyed that the detail of sex somehow seemed to get left out of SF, it didn't even appear to the same extent that it appeared in more mainstream action-adventure books.

And in comparison to the other smut I was reading, yours rarely had sex and no story. In several cases the sex was even absolutely necessary for the story, such as one of my favourites : "The Courage of His/My? Convictions" (sorry if I get the title wrong)

But even there the sex wasn't really the point of the story (at least ot to me). I personally believe that particular story should be a school text, as it captures what holding and support ideals can mean in a very visceral way, as well as showing aspects of what good leadership should be.

In some ways I can maybe understand where the person you're complaining about is coming from. I can't share your stories with everybody I'd like to, because I know some some of them would be put off by the smut. It's their loss, of course, but some of the other great ideas in your stories and the whole long story arc of The Journal Entries is unfortunately lost to them because they won't be able to see past the sex.

Especially when your ideas turn up in later work by more recent authors, such as the many echoes of Pendor I see in Iain Bank's "Culture" novels, and I say to people "But Elf has already done that", and they, of course, don't know what I'm taking about.

Anyway, I'm sure you won't let people complaining about things get in your way. I wouldn't want the stories any other way either.

BTW, you're one of the few around here who might be able to read my icon. I usually reserve it for those I'm, um, interacting more closely with, but I thought you'd enjoy it. :)