The series in question is the Honor Harrigton series by David Weber, a nice light reading with political intrigues, spaceships going boom, a protagonist that is very good at her job but always gets in the worst situation possible because politics and has an empathic bond with a sentient six-limbed alien cat.
I'm at the second half of War of Honor at the moment and it's still fine IMHO.The series in question is the Honor Harrigton series by David Weber, a nice light reading with political intrigues, spaceships going boom, a protagonist that is very good at her job but always gets in the worst situation possible because politics and has an empathic bond with a sentient six-limbed alien cat.
Here's a piece of advice, should you decide to stick with the series: Absolutely, positively stop reading after either Ashes of Victory or At All Costs. The series takes an absolute nosedive after that, as Baen stopped doing editorial oversight on Weber and he started to use dictation software to write (Shadow of Saganami is, imho, the only exception here; that book is actually decent).
I'm at the second half of War of Honor at the moment and it's still fine IMHO.The series in question is the Honor Harrigton series by David Weber, a nice light reading with political intrigues, spaceships going boom, a protagonist that is very good at her job but always gets in the worst situation possible because politics and has an empathic bond with a sentient six-limbed alien cat.
Here's a piece of advice, should you decide to stick with the series: Absolutely, positively stop reading after either Ashes of Victory or At All Costs. The series takes an absolute nosedive after that, as Baen stopped doing editorial oversight on Weber and he started to use dictation software to write (Shadow of Saganami is, imho, the only exception here; that book is actually decent).
Sincerely I'm used to read mostly old 18th century and 19th century stuff often originally dictated to a secretary (like Goethe used to do for example) so the lack of editorial oversight is not exactly a deal breaker for me, at least nothing has reached Ann Radcliffe level of dispersiveness of content and convoluteness of phrasing until now.
I obviously kickstarted all of this with Seth Dickinson's Great debut (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23444482-the-traitor-baru-cormorant).I plan to re-read it later this year, in preparation for the next book (which I still need to pre-order). I won't re-post what I already said on it (likely somewhere in the 2016 or 2017 book thread), but I'll give my thoughts/ramblings on those points in particular.
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Spoilers ensue, so beware. (no, I hate spoiler tags, so beware again.)
I'd suggest that the way the empire is constantly portrayed as this evil thing from the get go, makes it slightly less nuanced and interesting. Surely this object should have some benefits for its existence, but they're never even referenced, as far as I remember (I can be awfully wrong, ofc).
And then there's that final bit. I can't quite put my finger on exactly why I kinda disliked it, but the word that comes to mind is "tired". Hyperboling a bit, it's as if at this point, the story is just going through the motions which were long before decided, but no longer really believed. I won't say it's a Shyamallanian twist, because that would be too harsh, but I can't but feel this weird turn of events reeks of some ... lack of restraint.
I know, the overall trilogy plot needed this twist, I know. I just don't feel it works that well. And it sort of kills the main character for me going further. Why would I care about this character which is utterly destroying everything in her path, in order to get herself into maybe, possibly, perhaps, in a position where she can do some harm in the Masquerade? It looks a tad ridiculous. Why wouldn't the Masquerade just kill her on the spot right there at the end? Are they so naive they don't know her intents? How can such an empire read through all of what she accomplished in that last rebellion, knowing full well she was on their pocket all the time, and then fail to understand her to the end?
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I decided not to bother with the spin off books by the way even though I was tempted, so I have only two books after At All Costs.I'm at the second half of War of Honor at the moment and it's still fine IMHO.The series in question is the Honor Harrigton series by David Weber, a nice light reading with political intrigues, spaceships going boom, a protagonist that is very good at her job but always gets in the worst situation possible because politics and has an empathic bond with a sentient six-limbed alien cat.
Here's a piece of advice, should you decide to stick with the series: Absolutely, positively stop reading after either Ashes of Victory or At All Costs. The series takes an absolute nosedive after that, as Baen stopped doing editorial oversight on Weber and he started to use dictation software to write (Shadow of Saganami is, imho, the only exception here; that book is actually decent).
Sincerely I'm used to read mostly old 18th century and 19th century stuff often originally dictated to a secretary (like Goethe used to do for example) so the lack of editorial oversight is not exactly a deal breaker for me, at least nothing has reached Ann Radcliffe level of dispersiveness of content and convoluteness of phrasing until now.
Wait till you get to the part where the books tread water for several installments, with Weber going so far as to copy entire chapters wholesale, or where he introduces subplots with dozens of characters never seen before or after that reiterate points he made earlier and more concisely.