response 2 of 8:

May 2 20:19 UTC 2001

Solar sails?

response 4 of 8:

May 3 00:55 UTC 2001

The following are not my words!  They are those of my friend the female 
Honor Harrington fan, to whom I showed resp:1 and who has these 
comments:

"Weber decided quite intentionally to take the wet-navy tactics of the
Nelson era and put them into space.  He doesn't have the 
characterization skills of Forester or O'Brian, but if a reader can get 
through the technical infodumps he's prone to and is willing to work 
within this tactical context, she will go along for the death rides
because she cares about the fates of Honor and her comrades. 

I have lots and lots of bones to pick with Weber's politics since I am
decidedly left of center and he's on the right.  My personal peeve is 
that he hasn't really shown anybody with liberal/progressive politics 
in the Star Kingdom of Manticore that isn't venal and self-serving
at worst or ineffectual at best.  The People's Republic of Haven seems 
to be his extrapolation of how he thinks the left's policies can be the 
ruination of a society.  Weberphile fandom does seem to be rather 
vocally right-wing when the discussions veer into RL politics, but 
those of us on the left who like his stuff (and I know a few of us are 
out there keeping solidarity with each other) pretty much have decided 
to keep closeted with our personal beliefs in order to avoid 
flamewars in the online discussions. 

It's not entirely clear that some of the more admirable characters on 
the Havenite side of the war will ever defect to the Manties, and it 
could very well be the case in future books where they're on the side 
of right and Honor's side isn't!

I'd say that the gender balance in Weber's readership is probably 70-30
in favor of testosterone, but I've managed to hook up online with a 
network of women who love the stories (most of us self-identify as 
feminists).  The men in our fandom do seem to be more in love with the 
techie details; the women are more interested in the personal 
relationships, historical context, and politics, but it isn't a hard 
and fast distinction.

What got me sucked into the series back in the mid-90s was the way Weber
managed to present women in combat in both the Manticoran and Havenite 
forces in a very matter-of-fact manner, unlike the premise in say, the 
Classic Star Trek universe, where women were quite decidedly excluded.  
There's also a good tale of how a formerly isolated patriarchal and 
polygynous culture is having to adapt to dealing with more egalitarian 
cultures.  When the story digresses into more femme tidbits, I'd say 
that Weber probably could use some critical commentary from his female
readership.

As for the Manties being just way too good in this conflict, we've 
reached a turning point in the series after book 9 where lots of the 
ongoing plot lines have been resolved. There is absolutely
no guarantee that Manticore will continue to do everything right, 
especially if the conflict widens to include two other major political 
entities (the Solarian League and the Andermani Empire).

I play in both Bujold and Weber fandom, and there's a fairly large
crossover audience.  I agree that Bujold is a far more well-rounded 
writer than Weber is; she does a far better job of characterization, 
and she's got the skills to play with various genre conventions (the 
Regency genre in A Civil Campaign, mysteries in Komarr) while staying 
within the Vorkosigan saga.  I'd be absolutely delighted if David could 
hone his writing skills by not falling prone to infodumps and
improving his characterizations.  I think that's what he's going to 
need to do to get the critical acclaim that Lois has gotten 
(Hugos/Nebulas)."

response 6 of 8:

May 3 04:08 UTC 2001

Well, obviously I like the Honor books well enough to keep reading them. 
Watching Honor fight her way out of a corner is always excellent fun.

Weber's politics frankly puzzle me.  He seems to have a generic right-wing
contempt for all liberal ideas, except that he seems to be feminist and he
has a soft spot for monarchy.  That's just weird enough that you'd expect a
fairly open mind to be behind ideas like that.  Except that he seems unable
to conceive of anyone being liberal without being evil and corrupt.  Politics
is all about the conflict of strongly held beliefs.  A writer who can't see
more than one side of a question just isn't going to be able to say anything
interesting about politics.

That's right.  I'd forgotten that he found a way in the last book to keep
Manticore from whumping Haven - he let the liberals take over the Manticore
government and do a bunch of stupid things.

You're also right that Grayson politics is just a bit more interesting than
Manticorian or Havonite politics.  Partly Graysonites are divided over the
issue of feminism.  Weber actually seems to be able to see both sides of
that issue enough to depict "good guys" on both sides of it (though they
all get grudgingly won over to Weber's side at a pretty steady rate).

response 8 of 8:

May 9 22:05 UTC 2001

As I find it quite impossible to imagine anyone to be conservative 
without being evil and corrupt (a view for which U.S. politics of the 
last decade, nay century, appears to me to provide ample 
corroboration), it appears that I have done well to avoid David Weber.  
Not to mention Michael Flynn and a whole bunch of other arch-
conservative sf writers.