Hello!

Am researching and writing a paragraph or two to replace the simple allusion to critics pinning (ignorantly usually) the space opera label on work by Simmons.  It is taking more time than I would have hoped  so I am taking a 5 minute break on doing this to tell you I am working on it.  Simmons does not write classic "hard science" science fiction like the old masters Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein.  Instead he writes a form of grandiose social SF which is sometimes related to the social SF or Soft science fiction tradition of Bradbury, Le Guin, Vance and others.  I wanted to do fast justice to his continuation, in his own very particular style, of that tradition by making a rapid allusion to the fact that his literary approach is really not space opera. Well, yes that "justice" was too fast and I am correctng it! By the way it is customary to add messages at the _bottom_ of somebody's talk page, and not at the top like you did. The fact that it is at the bottom does not make it less visible.   18:36, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)