http://www.davidweber.net/
A change of pace, here. Not just science fiction, but military science fiction. Yes, he’s doing one fantasy series, of which I have read two volumes an await the paperback edition of the third, a couple of collaborations and a shared world (with David Drake) but is best known for his “Honor Harrington“ books. (the starfield’s Horatio Hornblower) This series (conceived as a series, not a case of sequelitis) runs to eleven books in the main branch, at least four books of short stories, and has spawned two “twig“ series set in the same universe, and shows no symptoms of running out of steam.
Both technical details, spaceship drives and weaponry, and social and political (even religious) systems for each of the different foci are worked out in extreme details. This is hard sci-fi ; not hard in that there is esoteric science, but hard in that you can almost count the rivets, you feel you could rebuild it from memory.
Heroes in this series are heroes.(as are some of the villains- but many of them are convincing small minded, egocentric nasties) They’re not ordinary people who just happened to be in the right place at the right time, They’re not antiheroes, nor revenge-crazed berserkers They’re people who have chosen to risk everything, people who ovecome all enemies, including themselves, who only death can stop (and if some of these people have six limbs rather than four, that doesn’t reduce their heroism.
I may not agree with all the viewpoints set forward, in particular some of the ideals of patriotism, but that doesn’t stop any of the books being a good read – besides, some of the equivalents with the Hornblower mythos would be difficult without a bit of eighteenth century british mentality.
His collaborations include the moon being an extremely large spaceship (generating an empire), an empress’ youngest son facing up to incredible odds, a renegade space commando saving an empire in revenge for her family’s murder – all very undemocratic, suggesting that all men are not born equal, that some of them are more admirable, more physically competent, better people from birth. This is meritocratic writing, and anyone who thinks “it’s all my parents/teachers/social status’ fault that I’m not…“ needn’t bother to read them.
A change of pace, here. Not just science fiction, but military science fiction. Yes, he’s doing one fantasy series, of which I have read two volumes an await the paperback edition of the third, a couple of collaborations and a shared world (with David Drake) but is best known for his “Honor Harrington“ books. (the starfield’s Horatio Hornblower) This series (conceived as a series, not a case of sequelitis) runs to eleven books in the main branch, at least four books of short stories, and has spawned two “twig“ series set in the same universe, and shows no symptoms of running out of steam.
Both technical details, spaceship drives and weaponry, and social and political (even religious) systems for each of the different foci are worked out in extreme details. This is hard sci-fi ; not hard in that there is esoteric science, but hard in that you can almost count the rivets, you feel you could rebuild it from memory.
Heroes in this series are heroes.(as are some of the villains- but many of them are convincing small minded, egocentric nasties) They’re not ordinary people who just happened to be in the right place at the right time, They’re not antiheroes, nor revenge-crazed berserkers They’re people who have chosen to risk everything, people who ovecome all enemies, including themselves, who only death can stop (and if some of these people have six limbs rather than four, that doesn’t reduce their heroism.
I may not agree with all the viewpoints set forward, in particular some of the ideals of patriotism, but that doesn’t stop any of the books being a good read – besides, some of the equivalents with the Hornblower mythos would be difficult without a bit of eighteenth century british mentality.
His collaborations include the moon being an extremely large spaceship (generating an empire), an empress’ youngest son facing up to incredible odds, a renegade space commando saving an empire in revenge for her family’s murder – all very undemocratic, suggesting that all men are not born equal, that some of them are more admirable, more physically competent, better people from birth. This is meritocratic writing, and anyone who thinks “it’s all my parents/teachers/social status’ fault that I’m not…“ needn’t bother to read them.
