"Things you'll never read in an Honor Harringon novel" Topic

I've always enjoyed the Honor Harrington stories – the early ones at least – but sometimes I just want to shout at the books when something incredably clichéd or twee happens.

Thinking these up calms me down. Add your own.

Sniff, sniff. 'What's that smell? Oh my god, that's why she calls you stinker!'

Honor: 'So how many missiles did we launch, how many were stopped by ECM and anti-missile fire and how many hit each enemy ship?'
Rafe: 'I've no idea. Does it matter? We blew them up anyway.'

'My name is Lord Alfred Strawman, how do you do?'

'I'm sorry, is it my turn to chuckle first. Or yours. Or are we both supposed to chuckle at the same time.'

'So this enemy spook has been using waterboarding to get information out of people? That's disgusting. Waterboarding has been outlawed for centuries and only complete monsters would use it. How did you find this out?'
'We kicked out of him for 4 hours.'

'My name is Alfred Strawman. I'm a journalist, how do you do?'

Honor: 'So this is a martial art only you know, using a weapon I've never seen before which requires three arms to use properly and you've spent every day of the last hundred years practicing it. And you still think you're going to beat me?'

Albrecht Detweiler: 'I am your father Honor. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.'

Funny stuff. I gave up on them a book or so before her parents showed her the rocket ship from Krypton they'd buried beneath the estate's barn.

If it's stuff we would never read in one of the novels, I posit the following:

One of Honor's Minions- "If only we had an expert in left handed ancient pistol use who can hit a moving target at 500 meters with us."

Honor- "Don't look at me. I got nothin'."

Oh come on guys, where's your sense of fun? You do realise that her exploits and legendary skills are based on another great fictional hero? (Hint: check out her initials … )

"My name is Dr. Alfred Strawman. I am a university professor, How do you do?"

After the fourth book, Honor is hardly fun.

And yes, we all know what HH is based on. At least the original character did have bad luck from time to time. By the later novels, Honor should really move to Vegas and take up gambling. She just can't lose.

At least the original character did have bad luck from time to time.

It was tough in the Age of Sail … OTOH, HH did end up on a prison planet for quite a while … that sounds like pretty poor luck to me!

By the later novels, Honor should really move to Vegas and take up gambling. She just can't lose.

Can you imagine Batman or Superman losing? Maybe they should team up with HH in Vegas?

HH has made of way worst then your average non-super heroes like batman or green Arrow. she has had her arm blown off, and she was severely burned on one side of her face, enough to lose an eye(which is now bionic)

Imagine if honor had had anything like that happen in an Age so sail, she'd simply be dead. the medical technology is the only reason she has survived several times.

she was also no only imprisoned on a prison planet for most of a year, but for several months before that she was at the whim of the psychopath that was Cordilia Ransom for several weeks before that.

sure she gets off easy, but not as easy as some of you guys think. she certainly isn't as lucky as the aforementioned DC heroes. they all at least have all their original limbs and sensory organs.

Here's something you'd never read:
"Captain/Commander/Admiral Harrington, your/our ship made it through the battle without a horrendous catastrophic hit which rendered most systems nearly inoperable, nor were huge numbers of our crew vacu-pureed and irradiated into hypersoup by a grisly result of enemy fire. And you haven't lost any dear extremely close personal friends this time either!"

…she was severely burned on one side of her face…

She was grazed by shot from a disruptor (that they probably got from the Klingons) that basically "killed" the nerves on the left side of her face.

But to continue with your thought…

If she keeps taking damage she'll end up looking like this:

We might not read any of that in an Honor Harrington novel directly but we WILL read about the meeting where they discuss ALL of them.

I see that the first 2 books are free for Kindle on Amazon. I was curious about this series previously so there's no time like the present.

Books jump the shark with the love triangle.

she has had her arm blown off, and she was severely burned on one side of her face, enough to lose an eye(which is now bionic)

Imagine if honor had had anything like that happen in an Age so sail, she'd simply be dead.

link

Ahem.

Go read This Corner of the Universe. Really good science fiction. There are 4 novels done in the series with one more to come.

Yes, TCotU is a GREAT little series.

Books jump the shark with the love triangle.

Whitehaven: 'You're worried about how the public will react to you having a relationship with a man whose invalided wife is loved by millions, especially after your political opponents have already accused you of such? Why don't we all just enter into a completely legal polygamous marriage?'
Honor: 'Of course. Why didn't I think of that. I don't know why I spent so many pages worrying about it. Problem solved.'

It was certainly an uninteresting storyline that was 'solved' pretty abruptly (thank god).

Seems like the books have run out of ideas for her anyway and are concentrating on other characters.
Perhaps the author should have gone with his original idea and have her get killed off like Nelson.

Perhaps the author should have gone with his original idea and have her get killed off like Nelson.

Weber explained why this was not possible; one of the *other* authors put HH in a temporally-awkward situation after the battle in which Weber had planned to kill her off.

So Weber gave another author the ability to change his story – I cry piffle on that. Truth according to me – he fell in love with the character and can't stand to kill her.

Just thought of something you would really NEVER hear in a HH novel.

"conference scene skipped since it was nothing more than boring plot foreshadowing or recap"

I just finished reading A Rising Thunder and I think the whole book was conference scenes foreshadowing something. I was hoping it would eventually get to the something. Then when it did the battle was, "push button, all enemies destroyed." On to the next series of conferences. One of the dullest books I've read in a long time.

Book 4 is where Weber lost me (although I tried book 5; never finished it). And the conferences… They have more conferences than the bloated university I work for…

I'm trying to read the last HH book. Couldn't handle reading another chapter on the treecats! So I just started skipping pages until I find some dialog that is not about the treecats.