You cannot judge a book until you have read the entire work. First and foremost, he is a believer in the power of speculative fiction to change lives. Many powerful books have had an impact on his own life and the lives of others he has known and observed first hand. Speculative fiction has the power to show us worlds that might be if we do not change our current perspectives or directions as a race or individual. Such books are sobering and make one pause and think.
Speculative fiction is more than escape reading.
It is more than entertainment. First of all, Shade is a reader, a consumer, an expert buyer if you will. His mother read wonderful books to him as a child. The habit was drilled in from birth and still drives him today. Second, his academic training has made him a critical thinker.