I just realized that if Ihor Shevchenko was born in 1926, then he is only 25 years old when the Hot War broke out. In the story, he seems to be a couple of decades older (say mid-forties). Anyone else notice this? ML4E (talk) 16:17, August 16, 2016 (UTC)
- I still haven't gotten to FO (I ordered a HC copy from Amazon last week intending to treat it as a library book that requires a deposit by taking advantage of their no-hassle return policy within thirty days, but they lost the shipment somehow). As of BA, I felt he was something of an old soul. His severe wound in WWII may have aged him. Turtle Fan (talk) 16:27, August 16, 2016 (UTC)
- I'm content that his WWII experiences make him seem prematurely aged.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 17:53, August 16, 2016 (UTC)
True but he still seems a lot older than mid-20s. He is about four years older than Isztvan Szolovits but seems as old as Sgt. Gergely who is also an old soul of 31. On the other hand, the two did survive serving WWII. ML4E (talk) 18:42, August 16, 2016 (UTC)
- Also, people I've known who spent their childhoods in dictatorships often give the sense of having grown up fast. Nevertheless, I do find 25 a bit of a surprise. Turtle Fan (talk) 19:50, August 16, 2016 (UTC)
- Cade Curtis also seems a little too "mature" to be believable, and that's before his baptism by fire at the Chosin Reservoir. I guess HT is projecting a lot in this series.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 21:26, August 16, 2016 (UTC)
- We forget, most of the boys who fought WWII and Korea were literally boys. In the US, you turned 18 and pretty much went straight to basic. The USSR and Germany were less selective. So fairly young men becoming "old sweats" isn't that outside the norm. And Curtis was a grad of some high falutin' military school, VMI or Westpoint, I forget which. TR (talk) 21:53, August 16, 2016 (UTC)
- This is true. I recall reading about the filming of a World War II movie (might have been The Longest Day) and a visitor to the location shoot, who had been a young field officer on D-Day, was complaining about the youngsters as extras. The director had them sound out their ages and they all were 18, 19, 20 like the grunts on the beach that day.
- My thing with Shevchenko is that his scenes on the kolkhoz give a characterization of someone in is mid-forties not mid-twenties. I don't know if that was deliberate or Turtledove went with a stereotype of a cynical Soviet peasant without doing the math. I certainly hadn't until I looked at this article the other day. ML4E (talk) 17:48, August 17, 2016 (UTC)
- Cade struck me as precocious, but still quite young. I never forgot his age. Turtle Fan (talk) 22:11, August 16, 2016 (UTC)
- Oh, my book came today, and Cade's got a scene in Chapter 1. He came up through ROTC: selective, certainly, but not elite. Turtle Fan (talk) 01:37, August 17, 2016 (UTC)
- I don't think it was. Engineering student, though. He must not have been very far along in the curriculum, or I should think they would have given him a MOS that was a better fit for his skill set. Turtle Fan (talk) 00:23, July 23, 2017 (UTC)
Religion[]
His "official status" as an atheist is important to note. You aren't "simplifying" things by removing that. TR (talk) 20:01, 13 June 2023 (UTC)