Laoke wrote:I always find it quite amusing that people always bring this up. "The author isn't writing in a way that pleases me, hence they're a failure as an author".
Last time I checked, David Weber is one of the best selling authors of Science Fiction & Fantasy at the moment. I dare say it'd take more than one book to destroy that reputation and, by extension, his sales. Hell, Out of Darkness demonstrates that quite nicely >.>
I get what you're saying about HFQ, and while I liked it you raise some decent points. Extending that out and saying "no one will buy it if its not entertaining" misses the point entirely: namely that enjoyment of books is subjective by the nature of the medium, and that your opinion of HFQ is far from universal.
First and foremost I started this thread and in both posts I have put on this thread I have been careful, I'm not putting any scene of the books and i'm not making any reference, why? because RFC has written many books that are fun and that i still love to read again, they are books that I emotionally appreciate and that give me hours of fun and debate here on the forums.
I kept my criticizing general, simply because he may write or not what I want or not, but most of the times even if its not what I want its entertaining, (dead of narmahn and hector getting wounded are examples, if you look for my posts you will see I didnt like those 2 scenes but i liked the books plenty).
In the last point an author specially a very successful author can have a bad book and still have good sales, why? because the name of the author carry weight, I'm sure every person here will buy a david weber book even if we discover afterward it was not a book we liked, and we are going to still buy the next book, but that the author is famous and can do this does not mean that us as the readers should not raise our voice and tell the author when he made a mistake, the series is not finished there are more books incoming, I would prefer to talk now when the author can still do corrections and editing to all future books, than wait until the entire series is finished and nothing can be changed because its already published.
And about the last phrase, my opinion is not universal, I'm a picky reader I like 2 or 3 genres of books and not every story sit well on me, so what I dislike another person could very easily like it, and there is plenty to choose, so from the get go the threat was called "my honest opinion", I do think the book is not entertaining, some people agree others disagree.
And last point I have so far read every single book of RFC and except for Dahak 3, every single one until HFQ has been a massive ammount of fun, Something is different in this last book and for me it just does not feel right.
P.S. Dahak 3 is a book that I have been unable to read farther than chapter 2, I lose all focus on the book the story doesnt engage me, the characters dont engage me, I do not know what it is, but i cannot read that book, and since i have been unable to read it I cannot offer an opinion about it.