response 1 of 8:

May 2 03:51 UTC 2001

I've talked about the Honor Harrington books somewhere here before.  If you
like them, and especially if you like the action more than the politics, than
you should read the original:  C. S. Forrester's Horiatio Hornblower books.

Weber's space ships are specially designed to work as much as possible like
sailing ships.  Manticore is a monarchy because England was.  Ranks, customs,
even the wording of orders are lifted from the age of sail.  Weber does very
gripping battle scenes, but they feel straight out of Forrester.

Weber's books, however, are full of politics, pitting the enlightened monarchy
of Manticore against the degenerate pseudo-democracy of Haven.  However, I
think his politics are all wet.  The political situations that come up and
the strategies used to resolve them are equally implausible.  In the last book
I read, a planet that had been fighting a guerilla war for generations to
break free of a military occupation by the Havenites is finally liberated.
And what does their new government do, first thing.  Petition Manticore asking
if they can pretty please be annexed to their country.  Huh?  Weber gives some
explanations for why this happens, but they make no psychological sense.  Most
of the political stuff isn't quite that absurd, but it never really rings true
either.  There are some "good guys" on the Havenite side, but you get the
feeling that in this universe all "good guys" of course agree with each other
on all important questions of duty and morality.  Two "good guys" never have
fundamental disagreements with each other, and, in fact, all good guys
eventually defect to the good guy side.  (Maybe this is why Weber thinks it
makes sense for a newly independent plant to throw away their independence
first chance they get - after all, they are "good guys" so they'll want to
merge their country with the other "good guys".  Phooey.)

Sadly this stuff is taking up more and more of the books.  In the last book
Honor spends the whole book on dubious politicing, while some other character
fights a few battles.  Sad, because Weber does write pretty gripping and
convincing battle scenes.

Honor Harrington may be female, but these are definate "guy books".  Their
female readership is probably non-existant.  It's all guts and glory.  The
feminist streak in the books is real and a bit unusual, but there is no real
feminine sensibility here.  When Honor is fighting, she is brilliant.  When
she isn't, she is boring.  At this point, Weber has built up the capabilities
of the Manticorians so much that it's hard to imagine any battles in which
the Havenites aren't trivially whumped.  If so, the series will probably
slip entirely into politics, and become hopeless.

Bujold is a much more well rounded writer than Weber is.  Her books usually
work well on all levels (though the series is definately uneven).  They are
certainly packaged as "guy books" with the early books especially having a
strong military component.  But Miles Vorkosigan, like Honor Harrington, is
getting to be more of a politician than a warrior in the later books. 
Luckily, the political landscape he maneuvers through isn't as insipid, and
he manages to remain interesting even without a war going on.  At the core,
these books are the life story of Miles Vorkosigan, and it is our interest
in all facets of his absurdly multifaceted character that maintain our
interest through the whole series.