I was looking for something new to read, and figured I'd hit the #1 spot on the "Top 50 Classic Long Stories" list, Greenies by Al Steiner. I was looking forward to it, as Al's Aftermath is one of my favourites on this site. I thought I'd start with the first story in the universe, A Perfect World. And boy, was that a massive disappointment!
Full disclaimer, I only read about half of it before dropping it, so the second half of the story might be amazing, I don't know.
What bothered me was how the protagonist's development happened in lightning speed. It was absolutely bizarre how easy and fast he adapted to an entirely alien culture. He accepted everything that was different in this culture from his old one, after giving a half-hearted question or protest, getting an equally half-arsed answer from his guide (who's high on weed more often than not) and then just accept it with barely a second thought. For an example, his guide was getting high early in the morning on a shuttle, and suggested he'd get a drink. He tells her something about people from his time not drinking early in the day. She asks him why not, and he can't think of a reason. No reasons at all. Really? You were a cop 2 days ago, and you can't think of a reason why people shouldn't spend their days drunk? If not a simple reason such as you might want to spend your day clear-headed, as a cop he should know that some people get violent and generally unpleasant when they're drunk. Hell, in the following chapter he's coming along some martian cops and there was something about a drunk battery case.
Nope, can't think of any reason at all why it might not be a great idea for people to get drunk at 8 in the morning..
Other new things in this alien culture is equally accepted by him when there's plenty of things he should at least consider before accepting them.
If his adaption to the new martian culture would've spanned several months or years, the story wouldn't seem as... well, as stupid for lack of a better term (not a native English speaker). The picture I got in my head reading this was that of a very devout muslim, moving to an atheist or christian country. When he gets there, he spends a few hours talking with someone who's high on weed, that gives him some weak reasons why everything the muslim man believes in is wrong. A couple days in the new country and some talks with a intoxicated guy later, and 30+ years of beliefs, morals and values have gone out the window.
That's not how culture adaption works, and A Perfect World failed miserably in this aspect. About 2-3 days in this new world, and he's basically a martian, except a bit more prudish. He even subconsciously talks like they do (Not all the time, but subconsciously use some of their phrases). Yeah... as someone who's moved to a place with a different dialect than where I grew up, and who has a sister who did the same to an other place, you don't subconsciously change the way you speak after spending a day or two with new people.
The rest of the story was great, the setting, the other characters, the conversations etc, but I just couldn't let go of how his stupidly fast adaption could've been fixed by just spanning it out over months or years so it'd actually make some sense. Not to mention that 2 days into his mourning of his dead pregnant wife have had a hand job, a blow job and participated in an orgy. Real classy. Again, the sexual culture is something that should've taken time to adapt to and accept, especially when you have just lost the love of your life.
Right, I think I'm done with that rant. Now, about Greenies. First off, does it have some similarly stupid plots like A Perfect World's culture adaption? If I understood the blurb correctly, it's set on Mars with martian characters so there probably won't be the same scenario, but my faith in Al's writing took a serious blow.
Secondly, as I understand it, it's set before A Perfect World, and as such it won't matter that I didn't finish A Perfect World, will it?
