74 - A Matter for Men by David Gerrold
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What is “A Matter for Men” and why is it a hidden sci‑fi gem?
Question What does Octoran call the US Army? Answer. Lunch.
Welcome to a revival episode of the MindDack Books Podcast. It's been a while since we recorded and I figured that the purpose of this show is to find a book that's worth reading and uh find something that people would be curious about and found to be mind blowing. And uh what a better book than The War Against the Khtor Matter for Men, which is one of uh Adam's favorite books. Thank you for joining me today. Hello. I have been resisting reading this book for a long time and finally gave in. So thank you for recommending it. It was great. But glad to hear you liked it. Welcome back to the show. I hope you missed it dearly. It's been two years since we recorded another episode, I think. So this is our uh test run to see if Adam runs away again or if we're gonna restart the podcast and do the whole series.
To put my uh idea to the test, I always say that this podcast is to find the next mind-bowing book and uh give people recommendations. Have you ever read a book just because you heard about it on this show? Okay. I probably read the book because you told me to read it for this show, but it's the same. So uh today like I said we're talking about uh the first book in the war against the Ktor or Ktor or Ktor Thtor series. How do you s how do you pronounce the name? I I think it has the hard K at the front, Ktor. And Ktor R at the end. Ktor. Okay. So the first is called Uh Matter for Men, released in nineteen eighty three and it has uh four hundred thirty five pages. There were two editions of these books, by the way, uh and the very first editions by a company called Timescape was censored.
They removed uh some stuff. So don't get that edition, get the later edition if you if you're going to read this. So this is a sci fi book, uh with lots of layers about war, ecology, z xenobiology, psychology, trauma, mental issues, all kinds of stuff. And uh right off the bat, I think we can agree it's great. I love it. You said it's one of your favorite books, right? Yeah, I I I really enjoyed it. Um yeah, it's it's very unique. The the the angle that it takes with the alien invasion essentially is very unique, I think. And at the same time it has a lot of the classic sci-fi kind of tropes that I like. Yeah, really good. Although I would say it is in a sense a difficult book to recommend. I would s it's I I recently thought it's a little bit like recommending anime.
as a kind of concept as a whole. Because Uh there is a lot of controversial stuff in these books. How is there?
How does the book blend xenobiology, ecology and war‑themed storytelling?
Uh just as like when people don't know anime very well, there is a lot of pretty weird stuff there. And if you are not ready for it, you're like, what the fuck is this? I I I think this book is very much the same. In the different weird stuff. Very different weird stuff. And uh this is a lot more controversial than weird, but still, yeah. I don't know if it was that controversial, but I guess it is Uh maybe maybe the later books are worse. Oh okay, I'm excited. Excited for the later books then. Yeah. Yeah I was going to say that uh this is something that uh Paul would love. So uh Paul stop listening and read this book. Most of our listeners, I think, uh if you like the books of uh, you know, our favourite kind, like the Free Body Problem and Dune and uh Starship Troopers and uh
I don't know what other sci-fi books. It's kind of this easy to read, hard sci-fi. Uh I think you listened to it, right? You had the audiobook. I read it with no listening, but it flew flew by. It's just super easy to read. It's uh more than 400 pages, but I read it super fast. So I really enjoyed it. And uh it reminded me of uh like uh Like a video game, I guess? Like a well written video game. Would you So the biggest comparison is Starship Troopers with the ideology and all these like philosophical discussions and the the alien fights and stuff like that? Uh there are sections in this book that are very, very similar to Starship Troopers, but then it kind of evolves into something very different. It goes in a very different direction.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is “A Matter for Men” and why is it a hidden sci‑fi gem?
0:00–3:35
2
How does the book blend xenobiology, ecology and war‑themed storytelling?
3:35–7:57
3
Who is Jim McCarthy and why does his accidental scientist role matter?
7:57–15:24
4
What are the most memorable (and traumatic) moments in the first book?
15:24–29:44
5
How do the classroom‑style philosophy lessons shape the story’s themes?
29:44–53:53
6
What controversial ethical and political questions does the novel raise?
53:53–1:13:18
7
How does the story resolve and set up the sequels in the series?
1:13:18–1:22:42