At All Costs by David Weber

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Honor Harrington fights again

I loved the first four or five Honor books. The universe is so well thought it gives it a great sense of verissimilitude. And Honor as a character was learning and growing and you had a sense of jeapordy about her life. You thought she might die.

But as the books wear on, she has become invincible. Her defeats are minor. You know by the end of the book she will prevail. It takes a lot of drama away from the books knowing she will prevail. And everyone is afraid of going up against her in battle.

The other problem with the books is how the battles play out. Weber has worked out system of physics for how the space battles take place. He goes into great detail during each attack how the ships at what acceleration are going to reach zero/zero intercept and how long the combatants are going to be in each others missile envelopes. It was kind of interesting the first hundred times, but it just stands out as paragraphs I'm going to skim.

Granted, I did read this book as fast as I could. The action sequences with the exception of the technical descriptions can be quite vivid. The interplay and comraderie between the crew is entertaining.

But the Boogeymen, the Havenite Empire which Honor battles, are no longer all that treacherous. As a matter of fact at this point in the saga, the Havenite are trying to strengthen their own new democracy and have been tricked into the latest round of battles by on of their leaders.

I need Honor to fight evil. I need the possibility that she can lose. I need an opponent for her that is equal to her strengths. I like the Honor books and I want them to regain their old strengths.

Was that a better review than the one I did of the book cover?

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Many books later, there is far less talk about space battles, which is a bad thing. Now it's chapter after chapter of people sitting in their offices, or hailing people on their com or in the captain's wardroom talking. They talk about what has gone before. They talk about their plans. They talk about how they will initiate their plans. Then other people talk on other planets which calls into question what the first group of people are talking about.

And then like manna from heaven, in the middle of the book, there is a massive action sequence, something that has building over the course of five years and three or four books. Which is a lot of talking. But after the MAS, it's back to talking. They do talk about what could be the next big MAS but the books ends before that occurs.

I like the character of Honor Harrington. But she doesn't do much anymore. This time out she is overseeing negotiations with the Havenites. Where basically we read about her listening to negotiations. I'm thinking of sending David Weber a copy of his first couple of novels so he can see how good space opera should be written.