Found - Female author - something like "Miles of Corsican"?

[Parson]

No, but later in her career she has a laser in her pointing finger.

 

[Danny McG]

No doubt this terrifies local criminals standing in identity parades

 

[AlexH]

I've no idea if these are spoilers or not. If they are, I won't come back when I start reading the books.

 

[Pyan]

I've no idea if these are spoilers or not. If they are, I won't come back when I start reading the books.

Well, they are sort of spoilers - but not for the Miles books...

Yep. First day hard back purchaser here too. One if only 2 authors in that exalted company.

And me - except there's four, not two...

The various books are good for different reasons, different things....

Exactly!

 

[pambaddeley]

Urban Dictionary: Mary Sue

Mary Sue - Wikipedia

I'm not sure what you mean by Mary Sue I've found two writing related definitions. I'm assuming the second one in which a "Mary Sue" is an idealized perfect character.

So.... Actually it is not the character so much, its the ethos of the stories. I am getting more and more disenchanted with the last Honor Harrington books. It is the first four and possibly a few more which really turn my crank. What it mainly is the big picture stuff, and the thinking of the "enemy" which is always logical in some way, which does it. For me the Miles universe just rings less believable and Miles himself rings less believable.

The Wikipedia article gives the origin - it was a term coined in ST fanfic. It's interesting to see it began as a satire because by the time I came across it in fandom, it was used as a derogatory term for characters in fanfic who were paragons whom everyone on the starship loved uncritically and were often thinly disguised wishfulfilment vehicles for the writer - such stories having no sense of irony whatsoever.