"We need to take David Weber's computer away." Topic

I'm slogging through Weber's "The Shadow of Saganami" and, sadly, finding it to be as dry, dense, and boring as most of his Honor Harrington books have been since "War of Honor". Which is depressing, because I've really loved the series and have been lamenting Weber's slow-but-picking-up-speed slide into "page count padding".

I really, really enjoyed the HH series when it first started out. It was fresh, exciting, and things were happening. But somewhere in the vicinity of "War of Honor", Weber started getting more and more verbose and long-winded, and his characters stopped actually doing things and started just talking about doing things, and then talking repeatedly about things they'd already done.

And the talking about things they'd already done is conducted in a blatant and annoying "here's the backstory" ploy that essentially reintroduces the intimate details of the previous seven novels, including appendices, and makes the characters so horribly, soul-crushingly stilted that reading through their dialogue is like eating a particle-board sandwich without the mayo (which is another sore point -- how many more scenes of Honor having lunch do we have to suffer through? But I digress).

"The Shadow of Saganami" is more of this, raised to a power of "?!?". The copious backstory in this novel is so very copious that one's eyes begin to cross as soon as you begin to open the book. By page 150, it's almost become an exercise in sleeping with your eyes open. And yet I have loved this series and the Weberverse for a long time now and I dearly want to partake of more of it. So, a conundrum -- how to take what has become dull and tedious and restore it to lustre and excitement?

My solution: Mr. Weber needs to have his computer taken away and be forced to use pencil and paper. I skipped 120 pages in one of his recent novels just to be able to find a point where the plot actually starts advancing again, and hardly missed anything (in fact, I learned what transpired in the entire skipped portion during another in-story discussion that take about a half of a page). If Weber were able to temper his otherwise-excellent conceptual skills and sci-fi technobabbling prowess with brevity and clarity, it would go so, so far to recapturing the thrill of his earlier novels.

Is it the computer's fault? Of course not. But I think the ease of electronic composing may be contributing to Weber's long-windedness. It's an enabler, if you will. I have to wonder if he has DragonSpeak and is possibly just letting it capture everything he muses to himself in his sleep or in the shower. Of course, if the publisher had a strong editor willing to tell Mr. Weber "no" and make it stick, that might also be a solution, but mine has better shock value.

So, no computer, and not even a typewriter, unless it's one of those 1910-era spring-powered manual ones. But preferably pencil and paper. Because I really think that having to scratch graphite across a college-ruled spiral would really clamp down on his diarrhea de la boca and spare us fans from having to suffer through or skip over dozens, scores, or hundreds of pages of candy-floss to get to the meat of the novel. That's my plan, and after the People's Glorious Revolution, I'll put it into effect.

Thanks for listening to my rant! We now return you to your previously-scheduled forum.

~ jav98

(As an aside, someone told me that Weber lost use of one hand and is actually using dictating software. So, yes, I'm a complete heel. But I'm a heel that likes good books!)

I liked the series reasonably well when it started. But it tanked after the first few books, for exactly the reasons you state.

I did one better. I just stopped buying/reading his books.

I have not read Weber, except where he collaborated in the 1632 series.

I think that too many authors suffer from "successful first book in a series" syndrome.
He becomes edit-proof, and thinks that anything he puts on paper is good.
It happened to Tom Clancy, it happened to Glen Cook's Black Company, it happened to the 1632 mess, It happened to Cornwell's Sharpe series, and so on.
"Uhhh, Mister Clancy/Flint/Cornwell/Weber, this part of the book could use a little tightening…"
"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM???????"

When a writer becomes a factory, churning out an agreed on number of pages to spec, the later books become MacDonald's or Burger King. Filling, predictable and boring.
Alas, even Dortmunder!
But, not Flashman.

The best writers are starving writers.

"The best writers are starving writers"

Can't you say that about any creative person; only the truly gifted can reinvent themselves.

To turn that quote on its head:

"The best zombies are starving zombies."

Yeah. It still works.

I tried reading one of the later Honor Harrington novels that came on a CD-ROM in another hardback. The backstory was so dense and convoluted (worse than Clancy in his later works) that I couldn't get past the first chapter.

So if you don't like the back story, then skip it.

I just bought his newest "Storm from the Shadows" in hardback and will most likely finish it by this weekend. He's not for everyone, but he's one of the few authors that I buy immediately in hardback and read almost immediately.

On the bright side, "S of S" at least had new characters that haven't had time to become as preposterous as the old ones, yet.

-Kle.

I've tried to get through one or another of Weber's books now and then. Eventually it just doesn't seem worth the effort and I put the book back down.

Thanks Jdpintex, I hadn't realized the new one was out yet.

And me working in a library….

sheesh

Tim

Working through Storm from the Shadows in my spare time.

I'm starting to think that "David Weber" is actually a writers collective. Look how much stuff he cranks out year after year. There was the March to the <blank> series, the Honor Harington series, the Crusade/Shiva Option series, the Merlin series and all the assorted stand alone novels and short stories. That's a lot of words!

His Bolo short story is still on of my favorites in the genre.