New HH book

[Timba]

The title is Shadow of Freedom and it is already available as an e-ARC on Baen here http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1741-shadow-of-freedom-earc.aspx for a $15.00 price tag. If you can wait until 03/15/2013 it will be $6.00. Currently engaging myself in debate on the level of my patience. The summary of the book sounds awesome but then I am a Mike Henke fan so that by itself got me going.

Gotta run and work on my list of pros and cons regarding great patience. At the moment patience is winning but I do have a birthday coming up... you can see how this debate is going to go

 

[Moggle]

Writers like Weber and Sanderson really put to shame writers that take up to 3 years or more to finish a sequel, who, let's face it, mostly do it as a hobby. It's also possible that Baen and Tor lock these two in dark rooms and only feed them once they have finished at least one chapter a day.

 

[Timba]

I certainly agree the volume of output some authors are able to generate is remarkable. I think it was Asimov who said he treated it like a job and went to the keyboard every day and put in at least 8 hours. Both Weber and Sanderson must do the same.

 

[Parson]

I'll probably wait for the H.H. (Mike Henke? --- That'll be great.) But I probably will get the hard cover. I have all but the earliest in the hard cover edition, proving my aversion to waiting for the paper back. Which I will likely not do again. As long as I have a functioning Kindle.

 

[Moggle]

I certainly agree the volume of output some authors are able to generate is remarkable. I think it was Asimov who said he treated it like a job and went to the keyboard every day and put in at least 8 hours. Both Weber and Sanderson must do the same.

I think Terry Brooks is another one. I know Alex Scarrow puts out a new book every six months or so. These guys are amazing. If authors are making a good income from doing this then I don't see why they don't treat it more seriously.

 

[Moggle]

I was just on the baen forum and it seems SOF may be a real turd based on the reviews.

 

[Timba]

There are only 7 reviews, three 2 star ratings, one 1 star rating, two 3 star ratings and one 4 star rating. Way too small a sample in my mind.

I find that I regularly enjoy both books and TV shows that many others disparage so to tell the truth I tend to simply make my own mind up. For $6.00 next March it will hardly be taking a big chance.

 

[Moggle]

True, but if you're not going to catch a break from your diehard fans then who?

 

[Parson]

I believe fans can be fickle. Correction: Fans are always fickle.

Sometimes they have such heightened expectations and ideas of what should happen that anything which doesn't follow the their own pet nuance is considered a disappointment.

 

[Timba]

I believe fans can be fickle. Correction: Fans are always fickle.

Sometimes they have such heightened expectations and ideas of what should happen that anything which doesn't follow the their own pet nuance is considered a disappointment.

After checking at Baen again that is the sense I get of this. More reviews now and 4 stars reviews are leading the pack with many comments about some of the more negative reviews being way off target. There was quite a bit of carping about all sorts of copy and paste stuff from prior books but many reviewers since then have said that is simply not the case.

I am too cheap to buy it now so I will have to wait until March to stick my 2 cents in.

 

[Timba]

This book is now available at Baen for $9.99 on their new pricing schedule. I picked it up yesterday and I think the copy and paste complaints mentioned above are bull. In the first 75 pages, all I have had time for so far, there is the usual setup on the story line and some pages devoted to identifying where around the universe other characters are and what they are up to so you have a sense of where this book fits in the overall picture. I do not see that as a copy and paste issue but rather a realistic effort to give the book some sense of time and space in the Honor universe. I find that helpful.

So far I have enjoyed it a great deal, book is about 400 pages so I have quite a ways to go but you can already sense the pacing I love Weber for. The little reminders of what is happening elsewhere has also ramped up my desire for the next book that continues the main story line of dealing with the Sollies and eventually putting the hammer down on the Mesa infection of the body human.

 

[Vertigo]

Ah, I've been holding off on buying A Rising Thunder until this one came out, so I guess it's about time to plan in some HH catch up

 

[Parson]

Hm! Can I wait until I get to metro area to buy my hard cover edition, or will I cave and pick up an e-copy? Decisions, decisions!

 

[Timba]

Parson the publish date says 03/2013 so I am not sure a hardcopy is even available yet. Patience, you know you want the hardcopy.

 

[Timba]

Well I am finished and really enjoyed it. A little frustrating in that it ends on an anticipatory note in the sense the last Honor story did, clearly he is building towards a mighty climax.

Still, despite a profound sense that I wish it were not over and that it ended too soon I enjoyed some time with Sir Aivars Terefhov, Michelle Henke, admiral Khumalo, Helen Zilwicki and many, many more. New characters were introduced also who probably will have longer term impact including a new treecat named Alfredo. Good fun. We also get to catch up with what some of the bad guys are doing, familiar names like Firebrand, Junyan Hongbo, Commissioner Verrochio and there is even a small cameo vist from Stephen Westman.

In summary a very good read but if you hold off until the next main storyline book comes out (assuming you wish to or can, lord knows I could not) then perhaps you will not be left quite as grasping for closure as I was

 

[Parson]

Well I have also finished "Shadow of Freedom" and I would agree with your analysis Timba. It is a good read. It doesn't end so much as quit. You do get meet some of your old bad guys. (I guess there is some closure where Hongbo and Verrochio are concerned.) I would also add that this does not advance the story arc much. As I would count it there was only one major new development, but there was a lot of stage setting. (Something Weber is famous for. Hm. Some would say infamous.) I'm thinking the next story should have a lot more bang in it.

Happy Surprise: I ordered my book from Amazon and it turned out to be a signed first edition.

Unhappy Surprise: The hardcover is falling apart after one reading. There are actually some totally loose pages already. I'm serious considering trying to contact Baen and find out if there is something that can be done. I have about 12 Weber hard covers and none of them have this problem. Grr!

I was surprised: The movers and shakers; Weber? Baen? Someone else? Has decided to change the way Weber's books fit into a series. I noticed in the description of Weber's Baen books that what used to be two categories: Honor Harrington series; and the Honorverse series, are now all ascribed to the Honorverse series. I looked back at my old books to confirm that this was true and not just my imagination. I didn't check all of them but in the fairly recent "Storm from the Shadows" there was a heading of "Crown of Slaves" "Shadow of Saganami" and "Storm from the Shadows." I am pretty sure that "Torch of Freedom" was also put in that category. But in this latest version the heading "Honor Harrington" series is left out and all of them plus the usual "Honorverse" series are lumped together under the heading of "Honorverse Novels." Under the old way of thinking "Shadow of Freedom" would have been considered an "Honorverse Series" member but not part of the "Honor Harrington" series which it now seems to be.

--- A little thing I know, but it irks me some. ---

 

[Vertigo]

You are right, Parson, Torch of Freedom was originally an Honorverse book. A little annoying really as I do see them as parallel but definitely a different series. Still I guess it's the book that counts. So worrying that your book is falling to pieces already. Problem is that if they give you a new one it probably won't be signed

Re these books, I have too many other books on my plate at the moment so I'm thinking I might leave them a while and then do a re-read leading into the newer books.

 

[Timba]

Parson,

So sorry to hear about the issues with the book. Is there anything at all that we buy these days where quality of build is not becoming suspect? I am pretty sure I am over stating it when I ask that but sometimes you do find yourself wondering.

I did not pick up on the inclusion of everything under the Honorverse heading. Does not make much difference to me I guess but I wonder why. The only reason I can come up with is the 2 storylines appear to be coming together and if that is the case I guess it makes a bit of sense.

 

[Parson]

Parson,

So sorry to hear about the issues with the book. Is there anything at all that we buy these days where quality of build is not becoming suspect? I am pretty sure I am over stating it when I ask that but sometimes you do find yourself wondering.

I did not pick up on the inclusion of everything under the Honorverse heading. Does not make much difference to me I guess but I wonder why. The only reason I can come up with is the 2 storylines appear to be coming together and if that is the case I guess it makes a bit of sense.

I'm a little more suspicious than that. Yes, the two story lines are definitely converging and not having read the "honorverse" books would lead to a bit of head scratching here and there in the next H.H. book. But I suspect that the idea here is monetary. If I remember correctly H.H. books outsold the Honorverse books at about a 2 to 1 rate. So if you make the Honorverse books nearly required reading you probably gain more H.H. readers for the Honorverse books, than you lose for the H.H. books. Which of course means more income for Baen, as well as for Weber. I don't begrudge Weber, but am not so sanguine about Baen making more money. I'm a little frustrated by the discontinuation of their truly magnificent $6 e books some months ago. ---- Probably I need to direct my pique toward Amazon as they are the likely force behind that move.

 

[Timba]

I'm a little more suspicious than that. Yes, the two story lines are definitely converging and not having read the "honorverse" books would lead to a bit of head scratching here and there in the next H.H. book. But I suspect that the idea here is monetary. If I remember correctly H.H. books outsold the Honorverse books at about a 2 to 1 rate. So if you make the Honorverse books nearly required reading you probably gain more H.H. readers for the Honorverse books, than you lose for the H.H. books. Which of course means more income for Baen, as well as for Weber. I don't begrudge Weber, but am not so sanguine about Baen making more money. I'm a little frustrated by the discontinuation of their truly magnificent $6 e books some months ago. ---- Probably I need to direct my pique toward Amazon as they are the likely force behind that move.

I admit to being a little more than frustrated with the pricing change Baen put in place. I am happy for the authors to make more money but they only got a piece of the increase. I think you are correct that Amazon is driving the price but I fail to see why Baen had to get in bed with them. Perhaps they just felt there would be more sales but it still irks me as my book budget did not get a 66% increase to match their price increase.