"David Weber's Honor Harrington books" Topic

I've seen the books but I have not read them. How are they? Is there combat with Marine Corps forces, is it just Space combat between ships, can anyone elaborate.

It's almost all space combat, a lot like ships of the line in space, trading missile broadsides. there is a bit of ground combat. I have read all of them. Think Horratio Hornblower in space, but as a woman. A small country with tech advantage vs. a large country with a larger "peoples" navy.

The first is available free here link to give it a try. I like parts (single scenes) but it becomes a bit sameness quite quickly.

x42

Almost all Space Combat (actually almost all TALKING about possible space combat).

For Space Marines check out the books by Ian Douglass starting with Semper Mars

The first two or three are ok, but she just gets to be too b. marvellous and all knowing. The plot gets a bit repetative

I personally didn't care for them (read two). The heroine is flawless and thus not that interesting IMHO. And I agree there's really not that much actual space combat, but when there is it's well done.

Steve

Ditto. I have a few of them, and didn't spring for the hardbacks.

The first three books are excellent, then the series begins to get bogged down in Weber's verbosity. The 10th book, War of Honor, was about three times longer than it needed to be and consisted mainly of Honor Harrington having lunch with people.

Interestingly, around the middle of the series, Weber suffered a hand or arm injury and started to use Dragon dictation software. You can see a distinct change in the length and quality of the novels around that time. And his penchant for describing technical specs in excruciating detail that would make Tom Clancy look illiterate was a part of the problem.

I have to agree with Dynaman -- Ian Douglass (a.k.a. William H. Keith Jr.) is a Vietnam vet who really embraces the role of the infantryman in futuristic combat. If that's what you're looking for, he's a great place to start!

Thanks everyone,and I have read Ian Douglas and David Sherman both sets of series that is all about Marines.

To be fair, there is a bit of ground combat in the first HH book, "On Basilisk Station". That's a pretty good read.

I like them all. They are wordy, the space combat descriptions still make my head spin, and the heroine is a superwoman, but I don't care. I've enjoyed the whole series and the spinoffs.

As others have said though it's not a marine-centric series by any means.

If you're into ground combat, have you read Hammers Slammers? It's not spaceship-based marines, but it's plenty of dirtside action.

I'm with ordinarybass; I've read the whole series and love it. I will agree that book 10 was pretty dull up until the last couple of chapters though!

And there is a new series based in the same universe, of the early days of Manticore.

If you want to read some of the books, look at Fifth Imperium site [ baencd.thefifthimperium.com ] they have copies of the CDs that were provided with some hard back books. The copies on this site are not pirate/copyright infringing, as stated on the CDs you were allowed to freely share/copy the CD & the files but not to sell them. I have hardback of some the books with the said CDs in.

Check the comment at bottom of the page.

I have purchased almost all the book in either hard copy or ebook & on the whole found them enjoyable, the more recent books are dealing with the political side & less action.

Falkenberg's Legions are worth reading as well:
link

Will have to get some of Ian Douglas/William H. Keith Jr books.

Yes I have read the Slammer series really good books.

If you like the HH concept, have a look at Elizabeth Moon's excellent Vatta War Series, or Michael Shepherd's Kris Longknife novels (not as good as Moon, but very enjoyable). Both feature ground and space combat, and a solid understanding of real military structure. Both feature savvy young women who are thrust into command, and rise rapidly as they deal with ever-ncreasing demands and dangers. Fortunately, neither commander is perfect, and their mistakes can haunt them.

For "hard" space combat, it's difficult to top Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series. Again, the books aren't perfect but the military structure is sound, and every novel is a good, fast read with appealing plots.
For a mix of space and small squad combat, I'll also highly recommend R.M. Meluch's Tour of the Merrimack series, which not only features a pernicious alien monster race more dangerous than Ridley Scott's nightmare, but an actual resurgent Roman Empire (no joke). Romans in Spaaaaacccceee! Great stuff and a lot of fun.

For a completely different concept, try Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen novel, featuring a crew of a WWII US destroyer swept into an alternate Earth, and finding themselves in a war between intelligent giant lemurs and vicious equally intelligent dinosaurs. Weird, but worth it!

All of the above authors are former military personnel, and it shows in their treatment of their characters, command structures, and battle scenes. If you've at all a taste for that sort of thing, with a SF flair, they fit the bill.

For Space Marines check out the books by Ian Douglass starting with Semper Mars

Ian Douglas, great stuff! It's a nom de plume for William Keith. And he also has his space combat series, Star Carrier, and a short series about a combat medic called Star Corpsman, and his WarStrider series which reads like a "hard science" version of his Battletech stuff.

And if you like space combat, there are a couple of authors on Kindle that are pretty well written, a couple have supporting websites with more background and artwork.

1. Chris Nuttall's "Ark Royal" series reads like the Wing Commander style space combat. link

2. Brit Ringell's "This Corner of the Universe" series: thiscorneroftheuniverse.com

3. H. Paul Honsinger's "Man of War" series: link

4. John Lumpkin's "The Human Reach" series: thehumanreach.net/books.shtm

the list reminds me, if you have not read Old Man's War then you might like that one.

I'm not the original poster but I'm glad he asked! Quite a few books I have not read yet listed here.

Oh, and if you'd be intrigued by a tongue in cheek scifi series about, basically, a race of post-human era Bolo cybertanks, then try The Chronicles of Old Guy.

link

I like them and have them all in hardback. I buy the new ones as soon as they come out. Yes he is wordy and there is a degree do amines to them…same as all my old friends.

Try it and quit when you get tired of them.

And another one who likes Ian Douglas

If you want military fiction of the "near future" variety try to find the "Warbots" series (12 books from 1988-1992) by G. Harry Stine.

The basic premise of the book is the militarys of the various major powers have taken the "man" out of combat. All combat forces are basically drones remotely controlled by humans who's brains are linked to the controlling computers.

In what is essentially a rehash of the Iranian Hostage Crisis the robot forces of the US try to rescue hostages. When things go bad it is decided that "irregular combat" situations need human boots on the ground. The series follows a unit that becomes the test bed for introducing humans back onto the battlefield.

It is not the best military science fiction around but it is a good enough read.

Tim

I think somewhere Weber planned on killing Honor in the 4th or 5th book, but like the demon Lucas he lost track of the big picture.

I heard it was his girl friend that forbade him from killing off certain characters (including Honor).

I couldn't take them… way too over the top with the main character. I read long enough that it was determined she is a tactical genius, a scientific genius, super strong, expert with a sword (despite no training), expert gunslinger (despite no training), expert business woman, Beautiful (except for one book where she is maimed but that gets fixed), expert diplomat, and has a pet that can go through a squad of expert commandos.

There is a little bit of ground stuff but nothing too major. The space combat is essentially modeled so that it is Napoleonic ships in space. with side firing arcs and vulnerable sterns.

William Dietz's Lost Legion series is pretty good but also suffers from the Uber hero aspect but some books follow other characters.

If you can find it there is a book called Their Master's War by Mick Farren that is pretty good. Primitive humans picked up and trained as SF soldiers to fight in an intergalactic conflict.

Skip Weber and his card board heroes. The only hope to enjoy his writing is to cheer for the villains. Read David Drake's RCN series instead.

Which follows the same basic premise; late 18th, early 19th Royal Navy in space. But I do agree, a much better series with better characters.

Here's a couple more military sci-fi series for your consideration:

John Ringo's Posleen War series
Tanya Huff's Valor series

Tried and failed to get into this series, but it seems to be popular judging from the posts in this thread.

SBS…Thank you for the "Man of War" series link. I had noticed the books before on my NOOK, but lost them.

First two volumes safely ensconced on my Kindle and Kindle App Nook.

Thanks again,

Andrew

"I couldn't take them… way too over the top with the main character. I read long enough that it was determined she is a tactical genius,"

Agreed. This is her primary gift.

"a scientific genius,"

Er…how so? What field of science? Don't recall this element.

"super strong,"

She was born on a high grav world which makes her stronger, certainly, but hardly super-strong.

"expert with a sword (despite no training),"

She trains for much of book 5 with a sword although much of this training is just referred to as taking place 'off screen'.

"expert gunslinger (despite no training),"

Spends pretty much an entire space trip in book 4 between star systems practicing specifically with dueling pistols in the firearms range.

"expert business woman,"

Has multiple advisors, accountants and majordomos (Willard Neufsteiler, Howard Clinkscales etc) helping her out here as she is self-confessed not good at business.

"Beautiful (except for one book where she is maimed but that gets fixed),"

She is severely injured in multiple books, losing an eye, an arm etc and while these are replaced with prosthetics she's always thought of herself as unremarkable looking.

"expert diplomat,"

She received a reprimand on her record for beating up one diplomat and was dismissed from the Navy on half pay for circumventing proper protocols and procedures and shooting her nemesis in a duel. Hardly an expert diplomat.

"and has a pet that can go through a squad of expert commandos."

Backwards planet palace security that didn't know what to expect in book 2, hardly expert commandos. Even the StateSec thugs on the Tepes are able to disable Nimitz with only one or two casualties.

Are you *sure* you read these books? Or are you just repeating common tropes and misconceptions heard about the series?

"For "hard" space combat, it's difficult to top Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series. Again, the books aren't perfect but the military structure is sound, and every novel is a good, fast read with appealing plots."

Meh…to each his own. I read Dauntless, it was okay but there was absolutely nothing in it that made me feel compelled to pick up the next one.

"Chris Nuttall's "Ark Royal" series reads like the Wing Commander style space combat."

Tried this one too, just kinda lost interest halfway through after the author's literary style became too irritating (constantly changing how characters are referred to within the same paragraph sometimes is a big one).

I am tempted to try out Webers Starfire series, though, I played the old 80s boardgames they are based on and really enjoyed them, I think they could be a good read.

If you wish Weber would talk less and have more action the Starfire based novels are a good choice.

also in regards to Honor being a pistol expert, it does mention at one point that in her childhood she did a lot of practice shooting with her uncle.

Just sayin.

Here's a pretty good parody of Weber's style:

link

Cute!

Here's a pretty good parody of Weber's style:

That is awesome!

That is pretty cool lol.

Bob has the right of it regarding the inaccurate statements that are often trotted out against the HH character. Not to say the books are perfect, but Weber does a good job giving you some background and basis for Honor being as proficient and successful as she is in the books.

I think one possible root of the problems some folks have is that the HH series straddles the Space Opera (Heroic characters accomplishing amazing things) and Hard-Sci-Fi (A very well developed science and cultural background) categories. Folks expecting it to be all of one or the other will be disappointed.

I'm fine with a strong hero character like Honor Harrington, but as Weber has become more successful he's edited less and thus has been able to become more verbose. It's hard enough for me to sit through real staff meetings and business cocktail parties, so I'm really not that interested in sitting through a 10-page staff meeting or 30-page cocktail party description in my escapist sci-fi books.

Here's a pretty good parody of Weber's style

ROFLMAO!!