azurelunatic | Dav*d W*b*r

So I mentioned David Weber in the context of "writers who are trying for an effect, but fail to get that effect, in such a way that other writers can tell what effect they were trying to get," and

shadesong asked if she should read him. (That was a comment over in her journal, but it's a long thread and I'm at work, so I can't actually visit LJ. Besides, it's always a good topic for ~~a flamewar~~ a group discussion...)

For those of us who are not familiar with him, David Weber primarily writes the Honor Harrington series, which is naval space opera with a strong female protagonist. If you do not care for any of the above, space opera, strong female protagonists where "strength" includes membership in a military and serious kicking of ass in said military, or the sorts of naval stories that involve Epic Battles and Ship Pr0n, this series is probably not for you. (It's really seriously heavy spaceship pr0n, and I tend to skim sometimes.) If you really like two of the three, but not the other, perhaps check out one book.

Weber is definitely not one of my buy-on-sight authors. There are some authors whose books I buy on sight, unread, hardback. He is not one. If there's a book I haven't read by him, I will read it if I see it at the library, or if a friend has a copy. If I like it, I might buy a used copy if I see one. He's not an author I seek out unless I am reminded to, despite the fact that he has characters who I like who are continually put into interesting and/or impossible situations. As

theferrett put it, he's one of my methadone authors. The potential for awesomeness is very high, but his actual follow-through is not particularly good, and for some reason, I do keep reading his stuff.

Almost all of his characters have a lot of potential. Almost all of his situations and worlds have a lot of potential. He is great with characterization and world-building and plot. The trouble is, he is not such a great story-teller. The characters and plot are almost enough to carry the story along, but when you have the writer's eye, especially if you've edited enough of your own stuff to know when you were trying for an effect and failed miserably, or else almost got there but just not quite, you recognize the signs.

So, people. Thoughts?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Weber is a very good Author, if you don't mind large chunks of Exposition(some people like, others loathe). He has a fairly large audiance that LOVES to know the back story and technical capabilities of ships and battles and how they happen and he's fleshed out his universe to a very large level of detail. Sometimes alittle TOO much though, atleast for some people. So far every person I've exposed to atleast his Honorverse novels that have actualy read beyond book 2 have become addicted to them(I'm not sure what this says about my friends though).

For awhile on the Baen Bar boards a friend of his was acting as a conduit for tech questions and political backstory and loose plot ends that wouldnt ruin upcoming books, but that has unfortunately stopped(said friend is in Europe dealing with a car accident that killed his son-inlaw and one grandchild, and helping his daughter and other granddaughter though surgerys).

I know what you mean about not so great at storytelling. I was SO looking forward to "We Few" from the March series...and there were some damned cool tidbits but some jarring distractions as well. A kidnapping that made little sense in the scheme of the book, and a section of spacecombat that you could tell Weber had just been DYING to write...but there was no emotional investment in any of the characters there and just ended up being a distraction to the plot. The best parts of the book were actually Ringo's work, especialy the ending. Had a ton of barflys over in Snerks saying "Ringo you BASTARD!! I'm not supposed to cry at the end of your books."

I've read all the Honor novels so far, and will probably eventually read the next one published, but I probably won't buy it until it hits the used bookstores in paperback and I have a significant chunk of spending money to be spent on books. Does that make me addicted?

I generaly just buy the ebook($6 for them, and they actually come out about 2 weeks before the hardcover hits the bookstores). I think we have maybe one actual Baen Publishing book around the house, everything else we have from them is ebooks, either from CD's or that I've bought.

naa...Just means that in spite of his occasionaly bad storytelling, its still good enough to tickle your fancy.

I actually class his writing up there with "decent fanfic". Not good fanfic, just decent. I read that too, and might spend $2 to $3 on a conveniently bound copy.

I like some of Weber's work, usually when he's working on a "human sized" scale. I like the Honor books where she's a captain dealing with realistic problems (OBS and HAE). When she's dealing with the trauma of seeing the 25-foot statue while being such a modest person . . . I should have such problems. That's when the Peep characters got more interesting for me.

The problem is he wants be doing huge-scale stuff. This is the guy who wrote the grand-strategic interstellar empires rules for Starfire, after all. But he can't make it that interesting to people other than wargamers. And if I'm reading stuff in my wargamer persona I want better maps, including tactical dispositions.

Teaming him with Ringo seems to be working well so far. I've got qualms about the next book, though. Seems very likely to get plotted by breaking out the Imperial Starfire set and gaming out the battles, which would lose everything I've liked about the series so far.

I like the contrast of her having to face up to the fact that she isn't really seen as human-sized anymore, though I also prefer her facing human-sized problems.

I wonder how many people would appreciate a convenient summary of the Epic Spaceship Battles? There's just enough character interaction in them to barely drag them through; I like Bujold's much, much better.

The thing I really did not like about one Epic Spaceship Bit was where one of the characters started rattling off the tech specs on the stuff to the captain (I think it was some Peep or other; I'm never going to look at Easter the same; I wonder if there are any hardcore Weber fans who have ever wound up with a cat attacking marshmallow chicks around Easter and just cracked up laughing) in a bit of Supposedly Subtle Exposition where someone techier-than-thou explains things to someone who should have known it already, and the captain looks at the person, and says, "I knew that already. Why did you just tell me the abridged version for no particular reason at this juncture?" and the techie says, approximately, "Um..." If you must infodump ... ack.

I adore the early Honor books. I like the recent non-Honor shorts and collaborations. I'll definitely buy them all in e-book format, I may continue buying them in hard-cover.

FWIW, On Basilisk Station, The Honor of the Queen and Changer of Worlds are available from Baen Free Library.

I got the CD with all the old ones on it, and spent some pleasant bus rides reading them off my palmtop.

Mis-read / mis-remember - I was thinking you might like to point whoever-it-was at Baen Free Library for a free sample.

*nod* That makes sense. Free books are better than no books, even if they are books of highly debated quality.

Davd Wb*r

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