Why, oh why do I keep reading David Weber?
Well... Fifty years have passed for Honor... and over fifteen for me. I've followed Honor Harrington through mutinies and prison camps... in ten door-stop novels.
Weber knows how to milk a cash-cow, so I've read at least as many books set in the same "Honorverse", some written by Weber and others by other competent hacks from the Baen publishing house.
Seven or eight years ago, while reading yet another of these things, I realized that it wasn't really very good. Cardboard-cutout characters, implausible plotlines, deus ex machina solutions, ... I finished that book anyway, and have read several more since.
Do any of you remember Dallas? It was awful! Bad acting, ridiculous scenarios... But we all needed to know what would happen next with the odious JR.
That's the Honor Harrington books. I have to know what's going to happen next. It's been a fifteen year soap opera. I'm s-o-o-o ashamed of myself. But I know I'll read the next one...
I cannot in good conscience recommend the literary qualities of Weber's books.
But if you want a rollickin' good time.......
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Buzz has been hasslin' me to do better by the "Books" Group. I'll try, Buzz... but I'm so very, very lazy.....
Don't be concerned, Bob. Culture isn't in vogue these days.
I think it's pretty obvious it will take more than you and I to activate members who have a love for literature. Maybe if we write an article about books concerning Trump or atheism it will pique some interest. I guess the op/eds I've seen lately about the demise of liberal arts have a grain of reality about them.
... an article about books concerning Trump...
No!
One better have a pretty good memory for details as the Honorverse series has a tendency to go off on long drawn out tangents. I have read almost every book in the Honor Harrington/Honorverse series over the years and enjoy the series, but I agree with you wholeheartedly on the above. In fact I am currently reading "Shadow Of Victory". Since it had been well over a year since I read "A Rising Thunder" and "Shadow Of Freedom", because of all the plot twists, I had to go back and read the last part of Shadow Of Freedom. But the bottom line is that in spite of everything, I do enjoy the series. The only extended series I have enjoyed more is Elizabeth Moon's Paks World books, but I digress. Thanks for bringing up your post Bob.
Paksenarrion... Yes indeed!
And of course, Bujold's Vorkosigan...
"Many years ago, I read a fun book called On Basilisk Station"
I joined this group because "basilisk" caught my eye. I think I first heard of it reading .. the Book of the Dun Cow? That wasn't it. Or was it?
I'm afraid not.
On Basilisk Station recounts the adventures of a newly minted midshipwoman in the Royal Manticoran Navy. It's "fantasy" in the sense that some of these laws of physics are violated, in particular the speed of light. But really, it's space opera. More or less believable... but nobody cares. It's fun!
It was the Book of the Dun Cow where I heard basilisk, or at least where it stuck!
I'll check out On Basilisk Station
It is known for being able to watch prey, unmoving and (above all) unblinking.
It's called a "basilisk stare", and lousy authors (me) like it!
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I read all of Weber's stuff but the early Honor books and the early Starfire books are the best. The later Honor books seem like a series of committee meetings.