Decent people are there to be eaten

[Bloodsoul]

Honestly, first thing that came to mind was Maddox's articles about how animals and old people should be eaten. *shrugs*

[JustADude]

ok, enough pretending to care about banking My real reason for wanting to jump one this thread is to find out what this is from - I've been a pretty hardcore SFer since the sixties and don't even have the beginning of a clue! It's been driving me crazy for a week.

Give!

Ask and ye shall receive. It's John Barnes' Washington's Dirigible, Part 2/3 of the Timeline Wars trilogy.

The quote comes in a scene early in the book when the main character meets his Romantic Interest, who is from a different History than his. They're talking about cultural differences, etc, as they prep for their final training mission, with the aid of automatic translators, which often break down complex phrases (like "Baptist Ice-cream Social") too far when translating. The main character mentions that his culture has the phrase "Nice guys finish last", which translates into HER language as "Decent people are there to be eaten". She asks him about it, and he tells her "All that was lost is the politeness."

[sms001]

She asks him about it, and he tells her "All that was lost is the politeness."

Too funny! Is "Patton's Spaceship" or "Crux of Battle" the first of the series? Seems to be a little confusion over at Amazon How does Barnes stack up against Turtledove et. al.? Are you reading the 1632 series?

Thanks for the reading tip.

[JustADude]

Too funny! Is "Patton's Spaceship" or "Crux of Battle" the first of the series? Seems to be a little confusion over at Amazon How does Barnes stack up against Turtledove et. al.? Are you reading the 1632 series?

Thanks for the reading tip.

It's "Patton's Spaceship", "Washington's Dirigible", and then "Caesar's Bicycle". "Crux of Battle" is actually an alternate title for "Patton's Spaceship", so the answer to your either/or question is "Yes".
As for the 1632 series, I never did get around to picking up any of his other work. About that time I got distracted by Pratchett.

[sms001]

It's "Patton's Spaceship", "Washington's Dirigible", and then "Caesar's Bicycle".

Thank you sir. Will acquire soonest.

[JustADude]

Thank you sir. Will acquire soonest.

Most welcome. And it's odd, but the guy seems to have a fascination with Lighter-Than-Air Aircraft. Every book contains some major plot point, and a few minor ones, that revolve around Dirigibles or Hot Air Balloons. They're great books, though. Just one of the observations a person gets after reading many books by the same author... like Mercedes Lackey having a noticeable dirth of "traditional" M/F relationships in her characters, the way Tolkien tends to drag out his monologues, Pratchett's fondness of creating octuple-layered meaning in even the most simple-seeming of his books, etc.