More on SOV

Having now taken the time to study SOV in detail, I like it much better than I did when I read it the first time.

Like many on the forum, I wish that it had advanced the plot line better.

But I find myself really enjoying the subplots with the planetary rebellions. I thought they all had some nice character development and each of the plots was interesting in its own right. I particularly enjoyed the Seraphim story and having Indy and Max playing off the Scrags and the army against each other was enjoyable as was the surprise Harahap got when he net Zuvala. I also thought the Allenbys were fun...pure Appalacia! They reminded me a bit of Mike Stearns and the gang in Eric Flint's books.

Lots of good stuff there, gang, once you make your way past being disappointed that it wasn't what you were expecting.

Don

-

That's the thing with my reaction to the book. I felt it was a good book but I was still very disappointed. I like the stories it told but I wanted it to tell different stories.

It's very screwy. Normally when an author puts in a weak entry in a series, the book itself isn't very good. This was a weak entry but still a good book, which seems disorderly. That's not how it's supposed to work.

I have to agree with both of you.

Personally, I felt this book was built around David scripting the path of Damien into Manty custody. My belief (with no evidence, mind you) is that much of the Mesa storylines ( especially SoV's ending) was supposed to be worked into Cauldron of Ghosts, but the extremely late time crunch on that book due to Flint's and Weber's health issues didn't allow David to put those story lines in and he left them on the table, and ended the book with "Crap, someone just showed up at Mesa."

If I'm correct, he took those planned plot lines, filled them out fully and added more revolution backstories to fill out the book, along with the necessary battle scene.

Once again, a well written book, one that sets up or resolves many important plot points, but also one that wasn't necessary to the overall series plot.

While slow in places this book helped me by stitching together and placing in the proper order the all of the events which took place in the "main" HH story line and of the events taking place in what I think of as the "Talbott" story line.

When did Mantacore learn of events taking place in Talbott and vice versa, when did the Talbott sector and 10th Fleet learn of events in the home system happen in relation to each other?

It all helps.

Now, bring on the Main Event!

robert132 wrote:While slow in places this book helped me by stitching together and placing in the proper order the all of the events which took place in the "main" HH story line and of the events taking place in what I think of as the "Talbott" story line.

When did Mantacore learn of events taking place in Talbott and vice versa, when did the Talbott sector and 10th Fleet learn of events in the home system happen in relation to each other?

It all helps.

Now, bring on the Main Event!

I wish someone had included a star map or two in this book. Would have been nice to see where all these systems are at least relative to the Talbott Cluster. You know, sort of a visual arc to the story arc.

WeirdlyWired wrote:

robert132 wrote:While slow in places this book helped me by stitching together and placing in the proper order the all of the events which took place in the "main" HH story line and of the events taking place in what I think of as the "Talbott" story line.

When did Mantacore learn of events taking place in Talbott and vice versa, when did the Talbott sector and 10th Fleet learn of events in the home system happen in relation to each other?

It all helps.

Now, bring on the Main Event!

I wish someone had included a star map or two in this book. Would have been nice to see where all these systems are at least relative to the Talbott Cluster. You know, sort of a visual arc to the story arc.

You might try googling Pearls of Weber. There are some Honorverse maps up there that would probably stroke your fancy. I'm not sure how current they are.

Don

-

n7axw wrote:

WeirdlyWired wrote:
I wish someone had included a star map or two in this book. Would have been nice to see where all these systems are at least relative to the Talbott Cluster. You know, sort of a visual arc to the story arc.

You might try googling Pearls of Weber. There are some Honorverse maps up there that would probably stroke your fancy. I'm not sure how current they are.

Don

-

Yeah. One day... As soon as I find my kindle and the charger for it. I swear I saw it around here a year or so ago.

But thanks for the link

n7axw wrote:

WeirdlyWired wrote:
I wish someone had included a star map or two in this book. Would have been nice to see where all these systems are at least relative to the Talbott Cluster. You know, sort of a visual arc to the story arc.

You might try googling Pearls of Weber. There are some Honorverse maps up there that would probably stroke your fancy. I'm not sure how current they are.

Don

-

I think that's where I found a couple that I downloaded and saved, or was that Google Images? Anyway there are several good one's out there and they do help "visualizing" the where and when and "why did it take so long to find out ..."

n7axw wrote:Having now taken the time to study SOV in detail, I like it much better than I did when I read it the first time.

Like many on the forum, I wish that it had advanced the plot line better.

But I find myself really enjoying the subplots with the planetary rebellions. I thought they all had some nice character development and each of the plots was interesting in its own right. I particularly enjoyed the Seraphim story and having Indy and Max playing off the Scrags and the army against each other was enjoyable as was the surprise Harahap got when he net Zuvala. I also thought the Allenbys were fun...pure Appalacia! They reminded me a bit of Mike Stearns and the gang in Eric Flint's books.

Lots of good stuff there, gang, once you make your way past being disappointed that it wasn't what you were expecting.

Don

-

I think that's why I wasn't disappointed: I'd only recently got into the Honorverse while waiting desperately for At The Sign Of Triumph in the Safehold series, so I didn't have huge expectations about how it would advance the plot line.

I really liked Shadow of Victory, enjoyed the backstory to the various rebellions and was glad that Indy and Max succeeded. In fact, I was a bit puzzled when I came a lurking on this forum and discovered that I seemed to be the only person who actually liked the book.

And the Czech wasn't that bad. In fact, RFC seemed to have deliberately selected phrases that were reasonably close to English, or could be guessed from context.

Bluesqueak wrote:I think that's why I wasn't disappointed: I'd only recently got into the Honorverse while waiting desperately for At The Sign Of Triumph in the Safehold series, so I didn't have huge expectations about how it would advance the plot line.

I really liked Shadow of Victory, enjoyed the backstory to the various rebellions and was glad that Indy and Max succeeded. In fact, I was a bit puzzled when I came a lurking on this forum and discovered that I seemed to be the only person who actually liked the book.

And the Czech wasn't that bad. In fact, RFC seemed to have deliberately selected phrases that were reasonably close to English, or could be guessed from context.

You're not the only one that liked it. It's just that those who did/do are pretty much a minority. I liked it, despite having some expectations of something along the lines of what most were hoping to see in this book.

Shortly after the eARC was released, there was a thread started about how disappointing the book was, and I commented that I thought the reason was because of the high hopes/expectations people have had over the past few years in anticipation of it. There were many discussion/speculation threads in the leadup, and so people got hyped. Then David threw everyone a curve, and people were naturally disappointed.

In a way, it's nice that this thread popped up, as it validates my thought about people's expectations vs. what they got.

<shrug> Whatever. I read for enjoyment, and frankly, had little expectations beyond it being decently written. David delivered on that, so I am satisfied.