I always wanted to start reading the series and last night I broke down and bought most of them at a used book store. Is the series any good? It seems okay so far, but I just started reading "On Basilik Station"
David Webers Honor Harrington Series of Books
- Thread starter Lookingglassman
- Start date
Some people have mentioned that they found Honor herself a little "Mary-Sueish?", but I can't say it stopped my enjoyment of the novels. (Enough so that I have almost all of them and am currently looking at others by the same writer)
They do seem to get longer the further into the series you get though.
They do seem to get longer the further into the series you get though.
A bit, yes. I read the fourth book first, which is arguably the worst in that regard. But I too managed to enjoy the series in spite of it.
A lot of people don't like the later books for various reasons, and I'm sure we'll be hearing from some of them soon. There's a shift in focus as Harrington's increasing military and social rank broadens her responsibilities beyond a single ship. Plus a romantic subplot in the last few books that's apparently a bit too much estrogen for some people to handle.
Personally, I like the later books, but I seem to be in the minority. But I think if you can make it through the exposition about grav waves toward the end of On Basilisk Station, you can make it through anything in the later books.
Marian
My first one was the second one. I had trouble finding one or two of them, but now, it's only the short story collections that I don't have.
Umm, how can Honor be a Mary Sue? A Mary Sue is a character who is better, smarter, faster, even sexier than the main character, created by the writer to show what a perfect person she is and how much better than the main character she is.
Honor may be perfect in a lot of ways, but she's not more perfect than herself. Therefore, she doesn't fit the definition of a Mary Sue at all.
And, to be honest, I don't find Honor to be particularly perfect, especially in the early books.
Leove the books.
hubby wasn't one for female protagonists, but he reads these as fast as they came out as well.
Found out about them here and am grateful.
Yes, a bit "Tom Clancey-ish" in the details sometimes. And the romance comes in later. But I still love ALL of them.
hubby wasn't one for female protagonists, but he reads these as fast as they came out as well.
Found out about them here and am grateful.
Yes, a bit "Tom Clancey-ish" in the details sometimes. And the romance comes in later. But I still love ALL of them.
Thanks for the info! I am enjoying the book so far.
I read Echoes of Honor back when it came out it caught my interest when I saw it in my school's library. After having forgotten about the series for a while, I sought out a copy of On Basilisk Station at Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago but haven't yet had an opportunity to start reading it.
How many books are in the series? Is he still making them. I think I counted 11, but I searched Amazon and saw more like the "Worlds of Honor" series.
This Wiki article lists 11 currently published "main series" novels, plus four anthologies and two "sub-series."
If I could find where I originally saw that, I'd post a link (Have to keep an on looking I guess), but in my humble opinion, she isn't.
Like you say, she is the primary character and throughout the books has shown herself as not perfect. If she was, I don't think I'd have enjoyed the books as much as I did.
I loved the early ones a LOT. The two things that started getting to me in the later books was that Weber (1) talks too much where economy of words would serve better, and (2) Spends way, WAY too much time babbling on about interstellar politics. He drags the stories to a halt quite often. I got into the series because I liked Honor a lot, as well as many of the secondary characters in her orbit. But in later books Weber seemed to spend more time with things like the Havenite politicians babbling on about their plans. I think it got to a point where 75% of the book (and they're very THICK books) would not have Honor in it!
YMMV.
YMMV.
I read a post over on the Baen's Bar Forums a while back saying that the sequels to both Shadow Of Saganami & Crown of Slaves were coming very very soon, as in within the next year. Also, Weber mentioned that the next book is series proper is on the way too.
Around 2 months ago, I had just started On Basilisk Station and first been introduced to the likes of Honor Stephanie Harrington. Today, I've read everything in the series proper through the last book At All Costs and am currently working my way through the anthologies.
I admit to skipping around and reading the Treecat stories first, but then again I'm more interested in Treecats than say going back to retread the Havenite Politicos and the likes of Pierre, Ransom, & Saint-Just.
The Side Books are next on the list, and while intially I was hesitant to jump into an Honor-lite book, Anton Zilwicki seems like a character with lots of potential from what I've arleady read.
I'll see if I can find the site with background posts by David Weber with updates from the Baen's Bar Forum which honestly seems to be down more often than it's up.
Around 2 months ago, I had just started On Basilisk Station and first been introduced to the likes of Honor Stephanie Harrington. Today, I've read everything in the series proper through the last book At All Costs and am currently working my way through the anthologies.
I admit to skipping around and reading the Treecat stories first, but then again I'm more interested in Treecats than say going back to retread the Havenite Politicos and the likes of Pierre, Ransom, & Saint-Just.
The Side Books are next on the list, and while intially I was hesitant to jump into an Honor-lite book, Anton Zilwicki seems like a character with lots of potential from what I've arleady read.
I'll see if I can find the site with background posts by David Weber with updates from the Baen's Bar Forum which honestly seems to be down more often than it's up.
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Alright, here's what I was able to locate thus far. I'll update this post with any other information I can locate when I do.
Weber's Writing Schedule: http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/writingschedule.php
Honorverse Summary Archive: http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/Harrington/
-Contains Background Information by Weber Himself giving information that is not in the books for one reason or another but is still relevant. Also provides a lot of information to catch up on if you haven't read the books in a long time and need a refresher of events. Contains Spoilers but I believe they're marked by Book & Date posted.
Weber's Writing Schedule: http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/writingschedule.php
Honorverse Summary Archive: http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/Harrington/
-Contains Background Information by Weber Himself giving information that is not in the books for one reason or another but is still relevant. Also provides a lot of information to catch up on if you haven't read the books in a long time and need a refresher of events. Contains Spoilers but I believe they're marked by Book & Date posted.
Perhaps because your definition of a "mary sue" doesn't seem to be shared by others? I've never read/heard that a Mary Sue couldn't be the main character, especially with original characters/stories.
Enough off-topicness. I've enjoyed most of the Honorverse books, although in my opinion Weber can't really write romance. All the other types of character interaction is great except for that one. Luckily there isn't much of it but it all feels so lacking compared to all the others that I just can't enjoy it.
KK
I've never thought of Honor Harrington as a woman who can do no wrong, Rather she's a woman who does the best she can under the circumstances with what's available to her.
She's a strategist & tactician, she comes from humble beginnings, and she doesn't open up to others easily. Even amongst her friends, she keeps a lot inside & internalized. She's got a dark side, a wrath of god type personality that kicks in when those in her charge are threatened, hurt, or brutalized, and she's almost succumbed to the temptations of that part of herself on several occasions.
This is not a woman who is good at everything, she just tries to honor her responsibilities and in doing so seems to gain the trust, loyalty, & respect of almost everyone she comes across, even her enemies.
Oh yeah, she sucks at math and she always feels like it's her fault something bad happens. She's extremely insecure with herself.
She's a strategist & tactician, she comes from humble beginnings, and she doesn't open up to others easily. Even amongst her friends, she keeps a lot inside & internalized. She's got a dark side, a wrath of god type personality that kicks in when those in her charge are threatened, hurt, or brutalized, and she's almost succumbed to the temptations of that part of herself on several occasions.
This is not a woman who is good at everything, she just tries to honor her responsibilities and in doing so seems to gain the trust, loyalty, & respect of almost everyone she comes across, even her enemies.
Oh yeah, she sucks at math and she always feels like it's her fault something bad happens. She's extremely insecure with herself.
The books start out well and there's a good deal of thought put into the background and some of the military stuff. Problem is that Honor is ridiculous - virtually perfect; all good and smart people love her and anyone who opposes her in any way is a knave and generally an idiot.
I like the series, tho I agree Mr. Weber needs to cut down on the info-dumping.
They are Tom Clancey-ish in the bad way also. The first few books were tight sea stories set in space. But then I guess Weber became un-editable like Clancy did and the stories just dragged on and on. 700 pages when 300 would be fine.
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