If you mean message isn't integral to literary value, sure, that's true.
Smith certainly treats marriage between two people who want to be married as a good thing. But in this particular case, as much a duty as a reward (Mentor even tells them that their marriage is *necessary*).
And, as I said but you ignored, it happens in the first book of the Skylark series. And as I didn't mention but could have, in the first chapter or two of Subspace Explorers and fairly early in Spacehounds of IPC, and not at all in The Galaxy Primes.
Sure, avoiding one characteristic flaw doesn't elevate a book significantly. I happen to know all this Smith trivia in such detail because *I* like the books, but the trivia is not why they are good, really, no. Although avoiding most characteristic failings of SF all at once *is* part of why I like the books.
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Smith certainly treats marriage between two people who want to be married as a good thing. But in this particular case, as much a duty as a reward (Mentor even tells them that their marriage is *necessary*).
And, as I said but you ignored, it happens in the first book of the Skylark series. And as I didn't mention but could have, in the first chapter or two of Subspace Explorers and fairly early in Spacehounds of IPC, and not at all in The Galaxy Primes.
Sure, avoiding one characteristic flaw doesn't elevate a book significantly. I happen to know all this Smith trivia in such detail because *I* like the books, but the trivia is not why they are good, really, no. Although avoiding most characteristic failings of SF all at once *is* part of why I like the books.