New Honor Novel?

My suspicion is that it is a complex issue best asked of David in the con suite at a con after he's had a drink or two.

munroburton wrote:

cthia wrote:It's just that I thought the Honorverse was his most successful series, and if it is, I thought it odd that he'd leave that fan base hanging for 3-5 years.

It's a complicated question. A simple look at the mainline Honor novels alone suggests that the time between books are getting longer and longer - but fails to take in account the anthologies, Torch and Shadow split-offs.

With those included, the rate is definitely faster. Particularly when you account for the length of those books as well - it's easier to produce two books the size of OBS and HotQ than the monster pair that was ART and SoF.

OrlandoNative wrote:

I wonder if that's the "Safehold influence". Many of David's earlier novels were "normal sized". The first 2 Dahak series were actually rather thin; Heirs of Empire was more than double either of them. Most of the Safehold books are *huge*. Mostly because of the detail he's going into. In some places, maybe even a bit too much, but still the novels are quite enjoyable.

As for "time between books", I don't really see much difference. Indeed, David includes pieces from the other story lines in his recent novels, which would indicate there's actually *overlap* rather than time gaps.

Yes. Yes of course. The "splitoffs" have filled the gap inbetween books. And for that I am thankful and have enjoyed what I've read. But it is the Honorverse. And Honor's 'Verse is what solidified and cemented this particular fan base. I myself was drawn into and hooked into this world by Honor Harrington. Her character alone is what kept me.

Roseandheather said it quite well in another thread that perhaps no other character could have carried the series like Honor. No other character can. And perhaps asking 3-5 year stretches of series-carrying weight of other characters may be too much to bear for fans as well as characters. If Honor had been killed as originally planned, RFC would have lost me as a reader and all of my friends concur.

I have friends who don't really bother to read the splits. They want Honor. I can't say I blame them. It is the Honorverse. I don't mean to act like an uppity fan, just speaking what I feel is the truth. I myself haven't read much of the splits. I have them in the read queue and I tell myself it is because I'm rather busy and haven't found the time. I am rather busy, but truth be told, a new mainline book wrings time out of me.

I'm only saying, don't forget the core of the fans.

I can see what you are saying and while Honour is the major focus RFC has shown with books like Path of the Fury, Apoclyse Troll, Old soldiers or Empire from the Ashes that Honour is not the only person who can carry a book if the rest is interesting enough

cthia wrote:Yes. Yes of course. The "splitoffs" have filled the gap inbetween books. And for that I am thankful and have enjoyed what I've read. But it is the Honorverse. And Honor's 'Verse is what solidified and cemented this particular fan base. I myself was drawn into and hooked into this world by Honor Harrington. Her character alone is what kept me.

Roseandheather said it quite well in another thread that perhaps no other character could have carried the series like Honor. No other character can. And perhaps asking 3-5 year stretches of series-carrying weight of other characters may be too much to bear for fans as well as characters. If Honor had been killed as originally planned, RFC would have lost me as a reader and all of my friends concur.

I have friends who don't really bother to read the splits. They want Honor. I can't say I blame them. It is the Honorverse. I don't mean to act like an uppity fan, just speaking what I feel is the truth. I myself haven't read much of the splits. I have them in the read queue and I tell myself it is because I'm rather busy and haven't found the time. I am rather busy, but truth be told, a new mainline book wrings time out of me.

I'm only saying, don't forget the core of the fans.

He's not forgetting the core of the fans. He just has other obligations. Part of the reason for the longer time between some books in the last ten years has been issues in his personal life, including his wife's health. Another part of it is because he also wants to write (and is contracted for) several other series. Safehold, for instance, is getting close to rivalling the Honorverse in popularity.

Whenever concerns about how long it will be before the next Honor book comes out, I really wish people would actually look at the publishing history. From 2005 to 2009 there were NO HONORVERSE BOOKS AT ALL! In the six years since then, we have had 2 Honor Harrington books, 2 Shadows books, 2 Torch books, 2 anthologies, 3 Young Adult books, 1 Manticore Ascendent book, and 1 Companion. And they all take some of David's time, even the ones where he is not the primary author.

Okay, so the next Honor Harrington book might be 2016 or so, two years from now. In those two years, we can expect to see another Manticore Ascendant book and another Companion, at the very least. Not to mention graphic novels with new stories. It wouldn't surprise me if there were another anthology, too.

So I ask (as I have whenever this topic comes up)--why do people see a problem? As far as I'm concerned, we are awash in new Honorverse material.

SWM wrote:
So I ask (as I have whenever this topic comes up)--why do people see a problem? As far as I'm concerned, we are awash in new Honorverse material.

"Honor-verse", yes. Honor Harrington, no.

While some folks like me have read the entire available set of "Honor-verse" titles, not everyone has. Some folks don't eat 5 course meals, they just want the steak and potatoes.

Personally, even though I've enjoyed the "spin-offs"; even the YA books like Treecat Wars, if they'd never been written, I'd really never have missed them, as long as the "main" story line produced a new title within a reasonable time.

The stories with Honor as the main character *built* the Honorverse, as someone has already mentioned. Do you really think the "Shadow" spin-offs or the Torch spin-offs would be more than a fraction as popular, or have created such a large following, without that main sequence? Of course not. Do you really think they could replace it? Again, no - at least as far as the majority of the readership seems to feel.

Also, it seems to me that the longer time between the publishing of books in a series, the "quality" of the story decreases. While I'm not sure everyone would agree, I'd say the last book - or even the last couple of books - in the main sequence and the spin-offs haven't been quite as "good" as some of their predecessors. I know that's a subjective judgement, but that's how it appears to *me*. Even if only from changes to writing "style". I've seen that happen before, too. Like with Asimov's Foundation series. The trilogy was good, but some of the later follow on books barely seemed set in the same universe. Of course, they were written *decades* later, and it seemed to me that by then the original nuances present in the trilogy just weren't remembered. Plus, the inclusion of references to other story lines like the robot novels and others, that really didn't fit in *well* with the original story line.

I understand the need to fulfill contractural obligations, but there's also such a thing as spreading oneself too thin; and starting "new" projects that affect the timeliness and quality of successful works already in progress doesn't seem all that *wise*. Why kill the goose that lays golden eggs?

After all, even though science fiction deals with speculation *about* the future, we don't actually *know* what the future will bring. Case in point - Sharon's illness. I'm sure David has probably *wished* from time to time that some of those obligations to his publishers were somewhat less than they actually are.

OrlandoNative wrote:

SWM wrote:
So I ask (as I have whenever this topic comes up)--why do people see a problem? As far as I'm concerned, we are awash in new Honorverse material.

"Honor-verse", yes. Honor Harrington, no.

While some folks like me have read the entire available set of "Honor-verse" titles, not everyone has. Some folks don't eat 5 course meals, they just want the steak and potatoes.

Personally, even though I've enjoyed the "spin-offs"; even the YA books like Treecat Wars, if they'd never been written, I'd really never have missed them, as long as the "main" story line produced a new title within a reasonable time.

The stories with Honor as the main character *built* the Honorverse, as someone has already mentioned. Do you really think the "Shadow" spin-offs or the Torch spin-offs would be more than a fraction as popular, or have created such a large following, without that main sequence? Of course not. Do you really think they could replace it? Again, no - at least as far as the majority of the readership seems to feel.

But David has said all along that the Shadow and Torch books are not spinoffs--they are an integral part of the main story. He never considered the Shadows and Torch books separate series from the Honor Harrington to begin with, and has tried repeatedly to make the readers understand that. You cannot understand the Honor Harrington storyline without reading them. David is trying to tell a story--and it is not merely about Honor Harrington. In fact, if things had gone the way he had originally planned, Honor Harrington would be dead by now!

So, the time between the publication of Cauldron of Ghosts and the next Honor Harrington book will be two years. Big deal!

I understand the need to fulfill contractural obligations, but there's also such a thing as spreading oneself too thin; and starting "new" projects that affect the timeliness and quality of successful works already in progress doesn't seem all that *wise*. Why kill the goose that lays golden eggs?

Have you considered that David wants to write other books? Or that he sometimes has to have a break from the Honorverse? Have you considered that fans of those other series want to see new books, too? There are nearly as many fans of Safehold now as of the Honor Harrington books.

Despite what many fans here may think, the Honorverse is not the goose that lays golden eggs. Writing just one series will not pay the bills. And writing just one series is a good way to burn out.

cthia wrote:It's just that I thought the Honorverse was his most successful series, and if it is, I thought it odd that he'd leave that fan base hanging for 3-5 years.

munroburton wrote:
It's a complicated question. A simple look at the mainline Honor novels alone suggests that the time between books are getting longer and longer - but fails to take in account the anthologies, Torch and Shadow split-offs.

With those included, the rate is definitely faster. Particularly when you account for the length of those books as well - it's easier to produce two books the size of OBS and HotQ than the monster pair that was ART and SoF.

OrlandoNative wrote:I wonder if that's the "Safehold influence". Many of David's earlier novels were "normal sized". The first 2 Dahak series were actually rather thin; Heirs of Empire was more than double either of them. Most of the Safehold books are *huge*. Mostly because of the detail he's going into. In some places, maybe even a bit too much, but still the novels are quite enjoyable.

As for "time between books", I don't really see much difference. Indeed, David includes pieces from the other story lines in his recent novels, which would indicate there's actually *overlap* rather than time gaps.

Eh ... a noticeable amount of the size inflation in the latest Honorverse (modern era) novels is the repeat material from the overlapping in-universe timeframes.
That in-universe overlap doesn't do a thing about the real life intervals between releases.

Kytheros wrote:Eh ... a noticeable amount of the size inflation in the latest Honorverse (modern era) novels is the repeat material from the overlapping in-universe timeframes.
That in-universe overlap doesn't do a thing about the real life intervals between releases.

Actually, I didn't mean time between *publishing* of books, but time in the time line between books. I don't see where that's significantly changing.

SWM wrote:So, the time between the publication of Cauldron of Ghosts and the next Honor Harrington book will be two years. Big deal!

It may not be a big deal to you, but not everyone has the same outlook. The question is what percentage of the series readership has a different point of view than you. Some obviously do.

SWM wrote:Have you considered that David wants to write other books? Or that he sometimes has to have a break from the Honorverse? Have you considered that fans of those other series want to see new books, too? There are nearly as many fans of Safehold now as of the Honor Harrington books.

Despite what many fans here may think, the Honorverse is not the goose that lays golden eggs. Writing just one series will not pay the bills. And writing just one series is a good way to burn out.

I'm not saying he doesn't. And, indeed, everyone occasionally needs a vacation.

But any producer of product (and a story is definitely a product) has to keep their *customers* happy. Otherwise they will find someone else's "product" to read. Which directly affects that ability "to pay the bills". In any case, there have been (and are) successful writers with single series, a couple of series, or even *no* series (all their books being stand alone); so I don't think your argument is particularly compelling. The only authors I've noticed that manage to make a go of having more than 2 or 3 series concurrently ongoing with reasonable wait times between books are ones who tend to write shorter (200 pages or so) novels; which they seem to be able to crank out relatively quickly.

I for one hope that Mr Weber is giving some thought as to who will take over from him to continue the on-going story of the Haven Sector.

I think he intends to use the 2(?) more Honorverse novels to wrap up the SL and clear up the cesspool that is Mesa, the MA will go back to hiding under a convenient rock (asteroid )and not resurface until the RF has been fully consolidated, that is where Raul & Katherine will come into play, in other words the timeline will be back to what he envisioned when he started the project and before the first word of OBS was written, and of course that is where the new writer will be required.

Just my opinion you understand.