Massacres And Death In Combat

World Without Stars.

Much that we read in futuristic sf novels is relevant both to the time at which it was written and also to the (sometimes considerably later) time at which we read it, e.g.:

"When the last of [the armed guards] fell, the workers threw down the tools they had been using for weapons. I tried to stop my people from massacring them, but too much ancient grudge had to be paid off." (XIII, p. 92)

We could start an argument here and now by discussing specific examples. Anyone who mentions a massacre of group A by group B is reminded of a previous massacre of group B by group A. Here I merely comment on the relevance of a work of fiction.

"...I wasn't much afraid. Better to die in combat than starve to death. I dwelt on the people and places I knew. Time went slowly..." (XIII, p. 91)

Some ways of dying would be horrific. I would accept the imminent possibility of death in combat if the alternative were worse. But, otherwise, I would prefer a long and peaceful life unlike ERB's green Martians who want to die in battle or the characters in Poul Anderson's The Last Viking Trilogy who prefer death by violence to death by old age. Different times, different perspectives.