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Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Huntn
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This is a great Science Fiction series heavy in technology, with thrilling & gruesome space battles. No punches are withheld. Every single book as at least one holy-**** moment. I'm up to number 6: Honor Among Enemies, but have not started it yet.
Yeah, I read the first one fairly quickly. I'm currently on the second one on my Kindle.
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What amazes me in these stories are the vast distances involved in space combat as in 1 million clicks and closing.
What amazes me in these stories are the vast distances involved in space combat as in 1 million clicks and closing.
One thing I particularly like it the fact that Weber tries to stay honest about the physics involved. Acceleration, deceleration, turning the ship over to slow down, time involved for messages to arrive, etc.
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Just finished the Steve Jobs biography, now reading Inside Apple.
Both brilliant.
Just finished the Steve Jobs biography, now reading Inside Apple.
Both brilliant.
This is probably the finest Medieval fantasy story I've read in forever. Keep in mind I read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings 3 times which is the ultimate, I read all of the Harry Potter books, but neither of those have the human intrigue, backstabbing, and juicy "adult" situations, that you'll find in GoT.
I read the second installment "Clash of Kings" but am holding off any more reading (of this series) until HBO Season 2 GOT is over with.
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I'm fascinated by the appearance of these books; are they as good as that, and are they worth reading? I remember that you, Huntn, recommended G. R. R. Martin's magnus opus (which I hugely enjoyed and which I must re-read); and, as I'm a fan of strong female characters, and I understand that David Weber's work features such, - as well as of fantasy/sci-fi/alternative history/politics worlds, so they do sound interesting.
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You have a real treat in store with the series as written (so far).....
I feel your.....struggle.
Part of the problem is that Dickens really made his name (as did Dumas in France) from the fact that his works were published not just in book form, but before that, many of them were serialised in magazines which made them accessible to & affordable for a newly literate, (but not very well off) public avid for a good story. Thus, it was in his interest to stretch the story out, sort of pad out the plot, rather than edit it sharply. At the time, (for good financial reasons) it made huge sense, as did the punishing lecture tours he undertook to further advertise his work.
Personally, from our perspective, two hundred years after his birth, I think he could use a good editor. It's not that he couldn't write crisp, terse, sharp prose - he had trained as a journalist and had also worked as part of Hansard - the official record of the debates of the Houses of Parliament, where crisp editing and quick turnarounds of flawlessly accurate copy were the norm (and some passages in some of his books are so well written they are timeless). But the literary fashion of the time, which favoured such extended works, and the fact that far better returns accrued from serialisation of his works, meant that it was in his interest to write and publish as he did.
They are great books. Well worth the read. Even better, you can get the first two ebooks free at Baen books. Just click the link and then click on the appropriate download link for whatever type of ereader you use.
On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
I've really, really liked the Honor Harrington series. The author has spent time developing future technologies that sound reasonable. For example space cruisers use walls of energy to deflect lasers. Consequently they also carry long range incredibly powerful missiles designed to physically punch through and destroy this protection. In many cases lasers and other automated defenses are used to knockdown inbound missiles. One common tactic is to overload a ships point defense system with masses of missiles at one time. Without those walls, lasers will cut a ship to pieces.
If you decide to try it, be sure to start at the first one "On Basilisk Station". And you don't have to spend any money to see if the writing style fits you. Check out The Baen.com Library. I'm not sure if this is the entire book or not, but there is enough there to see if it interests you. And if the climax does not grab you, then this series is not for you, and I won't hold it against you, lol.
I agree to an extent. My struggle is with reading comprehension... I can read the words fine (though some times are easier than others) but don't grasp the meaning and wind up re-reading sections over again if I have to.
Dickens is a master of description, so I don't necessarily think his works should be edited - to de-Dickens what makes Dickens Dickens would mean he is no longer Dickens; although I'm not an experienced Dickens reader so I can't vouch for all his books. The Old Curiosity Shop is another I read. His is a bygone age wherein reading was more a pastime than today, so the wordiness wasn't out of place.
And yes, in original form they would be much easier to get through.
I've been through four of the books, although I have yet to see any of the HBO shows. I think you're smart for waiting - it's amazing some of the twists that the series takes. It'd lessen the impact substantially if you knew they were coming.
Nice, thanks for that. I downloaded them and then emailed them to my Kindle.
I hope I like them....I'm looking for a new series to start.
I'd be surprised if you didn't like them. Even if you don't, at least the price was right.