Book #10: Mission of Honor by David Weber
Yes, I am sad enough to have shelled out for the Advance Reader Copy (i.e. electronic galley proofs) of this from Baen. Was it worth it? Yes in that it continues a universe of which I'm quite fond, but not so much in terms of it being a rollicking good read like some of the earlier books in the series.
Why do I think that? Not necessarily from any sense of literary criticism, but because I'm a simple soul who likes a good strong plot thread and a central group of characters. I'm quite happy for nasty things to happen to these characters but I'm not so keen on having to stop one character's plot to go and see what others are doing. Looking back on my recent comments on John Ringo's solo work, I wonder if the thing that attracts me to Weber's books is the very strong central characters? The Weber/Ringo novels have a small but strong set of central characters, while the Ringo books have a much larger cast. This means that Ringo has to concentrate on keeping the action going while jumping between characters whereas Weber can follow a more linear narrative.
This would explain why I'm more attracted to the earlier novels in the series. A strong female central character, a nice focussed plot and a bit of action thrown in. Subtle, I am not. The later books have more convoluted plots which expand the universe somewhat, but I do miss the adventures of Honor and Nimitz (they appear relatively little in this book, although when they do appear they are performing significant plot-forwarding actions).
Oh dear. This thing about logging all of the books I read seems to be pushing me towards doing a lot more of the comparitive discussion stuff. I wasn't actually planning that, but it's probably a Good Thing in terms of me being able to describe more accurately (and justify) my literary preferences.
Why do I think that? Not necessarily from any sense of literary criticism, but because I'm a simple soul who likes a good strong plot thread and a central group of characters. I'm quite happy for nasty things to happen to these characters but I'm not so keen on having to stop one character's plot to go and see what others are doing. Looking back on my recent comments on John Ringo's solo work, I wonder if the thing that attracts me to Weber's books is the very strong central characters? The Weber/Ringo novels have a small but strong set of central characters, while the Ringo books have a much larger cast. This means that Ringo has to concentrate on keeping the action going while jumping between characters whereas Weber can follow a more linear narrative.
This would explain why I'm more attracted to the earlier novels in the series. A strong female central character, a nice focussed plot and a bit of action thrown in. Subtle, I am not. The later books have more convoluted plots which expand the universe somewhat, but I do miss the adventures of Honor and Nimitz (they appear relatively little in this book, although when they do appear they are performing significant plot-forwarding actions).
Oh dear. This thing about logging all of the books I read seems to be pushing me towards doing a lot more of the comparitive discussion stuff. I wasn't actually planning that, but it's probably a Good Thing in terms of me being able to describe more accurately (and justify) my literary preferences.