Schadenfreude, Sorta

I have a confession to make. I am sometimes a bit slow on the uptake in my reading. When I first read Ellison's "A Boy and His Dog", I did not understand the ending, or even realize that I didn't understand it. (I didn't cotton on to it until a chance rereading some thirty years later....) It took me quite a few years to figure out the meaning of Magnifico's last words to Bayta in Foundation and Empire. And I'm still not sure I understand the ending of McKillip's The Sorceress and the Cygnet.

It was therefore with a certain sardonic pleasure that I read a review by Tom Easton of R. M. Meluch's Wolf Star in the May '06 Analog. (Why was I reading the May '06 Analog? Um, well, that's a long and dull story....) Wolf Star is the second book in Meluch's new "Merrimack" series, after The Myriad, and Easton was rather puzzled by it. He wrote:

Like Myriad, this one is grand space opera. You will enjoy it. But if you have read the earlier book, you may wonder what Meluch was smoking when she put her timeline together. Either there are massive inconsistencies, or Earth mindwipes its captains between missions, and Meluch should say so.

Aha, says I. Easton did not understand the ending of the first book! I haven't read Wolf Star (yet), but I can state unequivocally that there are no timeline inconsistencies between the two books. Why? I'll put it under a cut for the determinedly unspoiled.

( Take That, Tom! )