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jaceyI confess this isn't a book I'd have been naturally drawn to because I'm neither a great lover of military SF, nor widely read in the sub-genre, however I'm going to Eastercon next weekend and David Weber is one of the guests of honour, so it seemed reasonable to read something of one of his best known (and best loved) characters Honor Harrington.
By the time I was halfway through this I was grinding my teeth. All the reasons that I don't read mil-SF were coming back to haunt me – way too much technical information for starters, which I guess is exactly the reason some people love this stuff. It certainly had a authoritative ring to it. If the tech stuff was bollox it was clever bollox and well thought through.
I read for characterisation and plot not technical details, so I appreciate Honor Harrington as a character. She captains a starship in the equal-ops Manticorian navy, an elegant mixture of discipline with a dash of intuition and some well covered up insecurities. I'd have liked to have seen her being something a little more than a star ship captain, but this book only concerned itself with Honor on duty.
In this novel – the first published – Honor is given her first command of an elderly and badly modified light cruiser, the Fearless, and after a single brilliant move in strategic war games, her controversial ship-board modifications prove such a disadvantage that she's given an assignment in a virtual graveyard posting. It's made even worse by the fact that her new boss, Pavel Young, is someone she made an enemy of whilst still at the academy. He sets her up to fail and then leaves her to (he thinks) sink – the best move he can make because 'fail' is not a word in Honor's vocabulary. Honour pulls her demoralised crew together and sets about not failing and in doing so shows Young up for the incompetent he is by figuring out that there's an invasion plot underway which he's missed completely.
Does she foil it? What do you think?
I can't say that I'm rushing to read any more Honor Harrington books, but as I said, I'm not a mil-SF fan, so that's not to say there's a fault in the book (the Honorverse's popularity says otherwise) rather there's a basic incompatibility with this reader's tastes.
By the time I was halfway through this I was grinding my teeth. All the reasons that I don't read mil-SF were coming back to haunt me – way too much technical information for starters, which I guess is exactly the reason some people love this stuff. It certainly had a authoritative ring to it. If the tech stuff was bollox it was clever bollox and well thought through.
I read for characterisation and plot not technical details, so I appreciate Honor Harrington as a character. She captains a starship in the equal-ops Manticorian navy, an elegant mixture of discipline with a dash of intuition and some well covered up insecurities. I'd have liked to have seen her being something a little more than a star ship captain, but this book only concerned itself with Honor on duty.
In this novel – the first published – Honor is given her first command of an elderly and badly modified light cruiser, the Fearless, and after a single brilliant move in strategic war games, her controversial ship-board modifications prove such a disadvantage that she's given an assignment in a virtual graveyard posting. It's made even worse by the fact that her new boss, Pavel Young, is someone she made an enemy of whilst still at the academy. He sets her up to fail and then leaves her to (he thinks) sink – the best move he can make because 'fail' is not a word in Honor's vocabulary. Honour pulls her demoralised crew together and sets about not failing and in doing so shows Young up for the incompetent he is by figuring out that there's an invasion plot underway which he's missed completely.
Does she foil it? What do you think?
I can't say that I'm rushing to read any more Honor Harrington books, but as I said, I'm not a mil-SF fan, so that's not to say there's a fault in the book (the Honorverse's popularity says otherwise) rather there's a basic incompatibility with this reader's tastes.
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no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 07:50 am (UTC)I *am* a big fan of mil SF though and I favour battle tactics/tech gizmos and action over politics, though this may be a result of my preference for character angst and a side-order of h/c where I can get it. David Feintuch is another favourite, though the angst there stretches even my limits later in the Hope series. What can I say, Starship Troopers was a massive influence on me as a kid and my copy is well-thumbed. ;)
no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 08:02 am (UTC)Oh bugger, someone shot me while I was expositing. This never happens in books!
Out of sync with myself
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 08:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 12:47 pm (UTC)Is this type of exposition common to a lot of mil-SF of is it a Weber thing? The only mil-SF I've read and enjoyed has been that of Tanya Huff. My (slight) problem there is there there's a lot of military acronymspeak, but the exposition is definitely not a problem. In fact, if anything, a bit or exposition while I caught my breath might be useful.
Re: Out of sync with myself
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 01:06 pm (UTC)It is interesting to note, though, that some of the books I love, notably some of Lois McMaster Bujold's and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's 'Healer's War' are classed as mil-SF on the Wikipedia list. Healer's War, in particular, has fantasy rather than SF elements dripped into a very authentic VietNam war setting (where Annie actually served as a military nurse).
no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 03:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 03:50 pm (UTC)Midshipman's Hope
Date: Apr. 16th, 2011 08:17 pm (UTC)Dave Feintuch and I were both on Delphi, which at the time was the only online service with an internet connection. I had joined Delphi because my wife was attending University of Maryland and we needed to be able to e-mail. Then I got into one of their writer's groups. That was 1991, and I had started Split Affinity already. I had to put it down for several years because being a full time USCG pilot and a writer was more than my tiny pea brain could handle.
Bill
no subject
Date: Apr. 17th, 2011 03:09 pm (UTC)Mary Anne in Kentucky
no subject
Date: Apr. 17th, 2011 06:28 pm (UTC)In the Prince Roger series Weber co-wrote with John Ringo, both authors' most irritating quirks frequently cancel out - the dumping issue is far lower-profile there. Unfortunately, there is also constructive interference between the things they have in common, which unless it moves you to laugh like a drain may impair your enjoyment more than somewhat.
Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series is pretty low on that kind of exposition, if I recollect correctly.
Re: Midshipman's Hope
Date: Apr. 17th, 2011 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 17th, 2011 11:46 pm (UTC)Re: Midshipman's Hope
Date: Apr. 18th, 2011 04:09 am (UTC)Translating into Honorverse
Date: Apr. 18th, 2011 04:20 am (UTC)The correlation was not only intended, but heavily flagged throughout the series. I still didn't get it until I read a post by David Weber about it. Tiny pea brain, again.
Bill
Отличный блог!
Date: Jul. 18th, 2011 05:45 am (UTC)Почитываю
Date: Aug. 11th, 2011 03:32 pm (UTC)Занятный блог
Date: Jan. 27th, 2012 04:55 am (UTC)