Now Weber has become so famous he desperately needs someone to discipline his writing, and ruthlessly edit his work. Or maybe he just needs to not try and put out three or four new books a year. This book (in my ebook edition) is 720 pages and for three quarters of that (two books worth in a more normal length book) lots happens but it is only ever recounted in conversations rather than action. I considered going back to actually count how many action scenes there are in the first 550 odd pages but life is too short. However I would estimate there were about 4-6 actions scenes in that time. And by action I don’t necessarily been dramatic battle scenes, just anything where more is going on than pure dialogue and I don’t for example consider a conversation whilst riding a horse in the snow to classify as action!
This was a criticism I levelled in A Mighty Fortress but it improved considerably in How Firm a Foundation and I thought maybe, just maybe, Weber has realised where his writing was going, but no, it is now back to pure info-dumping with a vengeance. If the first book in the series had been even remotely like this one I would have abandoned the book (and the series) a third of the way through. Now I will probably continue with the series because I have so much time invested in it and it actually is an excellent story; it’s just told incredibly badly.
When I first started reading David Weber I never would have believed I would end up levelling this sort of criticism at him; his books were exciting, fast paced and full of action. Now both this series and his Honor Harrington series have degenerated into accounts of meetings and conversations that present politics and events but don’t get involved in them. This book felt like it was one third historical text, one third documentary and a final small third story. Weber needs to get his act together.
3/5 stars, but only for the story, the telling of it is more like 2.
This was a criticism I levelled in A Mighty Fortress but it improved considerably in How Firm a Foundation and I thought maybe, just maybe, Weber has realised where his writing was going, but no, it is now back to pure info-dumping with a vengeance. If the first book in the series had been even remotely like this one I would have abandoned the book (and the series) a third of the way through. Now I will probably continue with the series because I have so much time invested in it and it actually is an excellent story; it’s just told incredibly badly.
When I first started reading David Weber I never would have believed I would end up levelling this sort of criticism at him; his books were exciting, fast paced and full of action. Now both this series and his Honor Harrington series have degenerated into accounts of meetings and conversations that present politics and events but don’t get involved in them. This book felt like it was one third historical text, one third documentary and a final small third story. Weber needs to get his act together.
3/5 stars, but only for the story, the telling of it is more like 2.
