I know this is probably a common topic. For me, I’m not sure if it’s a “trope” or just totally misinformed writing, but it’s how many authors approach alcoholism. Some examples are Girl on the Train and The House Across the Lake, among HUNDREDS. If anyone else here has struggled with alcoholism, you know it’s not just "i woke up after downing an entire bottle of whiskey but was able to shower, down a cup of coffee, and solve a murder. "
Personally, the part that bothered me was how stupid the genius characters were. They’ve gathered the smartest 0.001% super-geniuses from across the Earth to study military tactics, and none of them has ever thought about using human shields to get a guy through the enemy gate? Not once?
Yea that’s definitely part of it. Like I get it, it’s hard to write smart characters because you actually have to have them do smart things as opposed to just saying they are smart, but then why say everyone is smart? Even Ender’s bully brother turned out to be supposedly super smart, Beam turned out super duper extra smart, taught himself to read as a child without ever reading anything before…
I liked the world, it was interesting, but common, have some diverse characters.
All the smart girls just want a dozen babies too.
Omg, really? It’s been couple of years since I read it, I don’t remember that.
I mean later on I did some reading about the author himself. He shifted more and more into religion as he got older so that kind of thinking would probably made sense. For him.