Up this week is one David Weber whose latest book, ‘Mission of Honor’, arrived at my door a couple of days ago. ‘The Long Awaited Return of Honor Harrington!’, the blurb screamed at me from the back of the book. I am so unfamiliar with Weber’s work that I didn’t even realise she’d gone away in the first place...
Hopefully that’s going to change though. I’ve never read anything of Weber’s before so I will be giving ‘Mission of Honor’ a go at some point in the near future. There are a lot of books that I want to get to first though so I don’t know exactly when that’ll be... And that’s where you hopefully come in.
Have you read anything of David Weber’s? Did you enjoy it or did it leave you feeling less than impressed…? Leave a comment next to the post and let me know what you thought. If your comments intrigue me enough (and negative comments intrigue me just as much as the positive…) then I’ll bump it up the pile accordingly.
Here’s the blurb to be going on with…
The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington's entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she's achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.
She's prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor's worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.
But Manticore's enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won't be going alone…
Like I said, comments please! :o)
8 comments:
I have read (and enjoyed) most of David Weber's opus. My favorites would be (in order of preference) War God novels, Honor Harrington series, Empire of Man series (collaboration with John Ringo) and Path of Fury standalone novel.
War God series are fantasy novels beggining with the Oath of Swords. You might want to think of them as the adventures of Conan, if Conan was of non-human race despised and feared in the world.
I think Mission of Honor would be a terrible entry point in the Honor Harrington series, in fact you'd miss out on what i think is the best part of the series and those are the first 8 novels. The first novels deals with young Honor beginning her naval career as well as the slow start of war between her small Star Kingdom of Manticore and behemoth People's Republic of Haven. It reminds me of Horatio Hornblower novels. Later, the series viewpoint changes and we are watching the action from the top of the goverment and later novels look like novelised records of goverment meetings.
Empire of Man series - SF, an outcast,spoiled prince and his bodyguards get stranted on a primitive and hostile alien world and march towards space port which might help them get home.
Path of the Fury - SF, a former commando survives the massacre of her family and wakes up in military hospital hearing the voice of one of the Furies from Greek mythology and sets on a path of vengeance. It was later (pointlessly) expanded into the novel In fury born which I think would be a waste of time to read.
Quite a few of these novels are available on Baen free library. I hope you will enjoy some of them :)
I read and thoroughly enjoyed Off Armageddon Reef and its sequel By Schism Rent Asunder.
Liviu at FantasyBookCritic is a huge fan of Weber and conducted this great interview:
http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2009/07/interview-with-david-weber-interviewed.html
I read the first book of the Honor series, On Basilisk Station at the recommendation of a friend - but it really didn't do anything for me. It wasn't bad, but it didn't intrigue me enough to seek out book 2. It felt a little dated to me, not terribly but combined with what seemed to me to be too many of the typical scifi plots (a first officer who doesn't like that Honor was promoted instead of him, but who grows to respect her and earn his own commission - a new captain sent to a backwater post only to find out it might just be the most critical spot in the universe, if only she can get her crew to rise to the challenge) - it just left me feeling like I had seen it all before. Plus Honor has a talking cat (alien) as her friend, which really didn't work for me at all.
Weber is a master at space naval warfare. You should also check out The Stars at War by Weber and Steve White. I just got In Fury Born in the mail yesterday and started reading it.
While you're at it you should check out John Ringo and Tom Kratman, two other Baen authors. Both have real military experience and are excellent story weavers.
I've not read any of Weber's work either so if you delve in to one of his books I'll be most interested to see what you make of it.
As it has been said before, Mission of Honor is a bad starting point to get into the Honor Harrington series. She is in high command at that point, and though these books are still readable, they mostly lack the first-hand combat sequences of the earlier books (when she was still a captain). Also, the earlier books are shorter and are read faster since there is more action.
You should start with the first book in the sequence, "On Basilisk Station" This is available in the Baen Free Library ( http://www.webscription.net/p-304-on-basilisk-station.aspx ).
And give Mission of Honor to me to read. :)
I read Crusade and In Death Ground and really enjoyed them. I have always wanted to read the Honor Harrington series and keep wanting to get back to it but both times I tried on Basilisk Station I was not able to get into it and stopped almost at the begininng when she talks about her alien "cat" pet that rides on a perching board on her shoulder and even so while "on duty."
Oh Graeme, seeing as how you like zombies so much you should definitely check out Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. It's also a Baen book.
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