Niven's Law

I found this on the acknowledgements page of S. M. Stirling's novel Conquistador

And a special acknowledgment to the author of Niven's Law: "There is a technical term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot.'"

What brought that to mind were the Amazon reviews of John Ringo's The Last Centurian. I'd classify it as hard right. The negative reviews tended to critize Ringo personally rather than the book.

Oh, and for those of you who aren't aware, Steve Stirling writes damn good books. His Nantucket trilogy and Dies the Fire series are favorites.