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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Nim: [QB] [QUOTE]the author was more interested in droning on and on about the technical specs than giving the reader a vivid mental picture of the things.[/QUOTE]Reverend hits it on the head. Visual descriptions is Weber's weakest spot, as with a subplot race called Medusans, which I still don't have a stationary mental image for. Weber can't decide himself and in the end basically says, IIRC, "like a praying mantis only humanoid, not insectoid, with four legs and three arms". While Weber talks about components and sections of his ship archetype in all novels, he can't describe the scale of the parts or their placement and direction. This confusion is clear when looking at the shifting cover art of the first eight books (up until the implementation of the official dildo doctrine): [IMG]http://flareupload.pleh.net/uploads/205/hhships.jpg[/IMG] In all fairness, one of those ships is a fake-merchant vessel built to lure in pirates, but since Weber's ship design is dependent on a specific configuration in order to generate its version of a warp field, it can't deviate to the extent shown in the above picture (the red one). I'd like to make it clear (to Honorverse fans on Flare) that I am not writing all this as an axejob on David Weber, it's intended as ship- and novel discussion, not bullying. I'll get my main grievances out of the way first. Weber's political views shine through more than I'd care to. For example, there's a diplomat intent on conflict-aversion and seeking negotiation with a super-judeomuslim militia, and he's portrayed as a snivelling, bleeding-heart idealist only worthy of a haymaker to the face. The plot is written so that armed conflict indeed is the only solution, but although the novel in question was written long before the disputed 2003 Bush invasion, the comparisons in lingo and justifications are unavoidable. I was personally bothered when Weber had Harrington prove religious diversity and tolerance in the Manticoran Navy by naming 3-4 different faiths held by crewmen on her ship and having one be a Scientologist. In the year [i]4000[/i]. Good grief. I still don't know if Weber is one or not. He can fall into formula easily, for example having Honor serve her senior staff Old Tillman ale from her personal store once, to get them to relax, and then eight books later, whenever there's a personal guest or it's off-hours, still Old Tillman in a foggy glass. I once got a weird surprise. In one story, Honor meets a young, muscular First Officer with glasses, a long black ponytail and a goatee. I thought "these are very weird, vain and improper affectations for a senior officer, who's not a villain but a potential romantic interest for Honor?". [URL=http://images.wikia.com/honorverse/images/a/ac/David_Weber.jpg]Then it dawned on me.[/URL] Now, they say Tolkien wrote Gandalf as himself, and far be it from me to judge someone who's invented a successful sci-fi universe and (I imagine) would gladly cut off his legs to live there, but, I mean...damn. But though there are some of these kinks and oddities (a rich, comfy elder statesman from Manticore and a ruthless arms dealer from Haven use the exact same vocabulary, metaphors and swearwords), there are strong saving graces in there too (this is for you, Jason). First and foremost, you can't write 10+ books about a universe without it getting more substance and content for every publication. He also balances large regions of known space (empires, republics and corporate conglomerates) with large expanses of uncharted territory and "western" frontiers, so you can have varying atmosphere for different stories. Then there is the fan service. Those moments of juicy ship upgrades, or new ship classes (eaten like ice cream by that nerdy gremlin who lives in your tummy), discoveries of weapon caches in desperate moments, decisive hand-to-hand battles under unfair odds, and those classic crew hostilities that lead to cooperation and nice feelings allround. The space battles are of course the major drawing point, and they are very varied in scale, weaponry and setting, in the best tradition of Hornblower and Jack Aubrey. Also, he seems to like cats a lot. Almost done with that ship sketch. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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