Who reads hard-scifi for the characters? I have seen so many mangled and mongrel -revamps of concept books after the nebula hit- and they all suffer for it. SciFi characters are "probes" slammed and slicde into an idea- they are not there to be interesting and entertain, they are one-dimensional scalpels to vivisect a effect and then be disposed. I thoroughly hate this notion that every "great book" has to be life up to the ulysses or similar great interior models of character. Stop damaging the field with your nonsense demands!