Honorverse opinions

I've started reading my way through the Honorverse series, and while I started off pretty positive about the writing and books... I'm starting to feel a bit apprehensive about the rest of the series as I've approached the 5th book (according to the reading order I've got, anyway), Flag in Exile.

Can I ask, what do you guys think? Any strong opinions either way?

jaisanmeal4 wrote:I've started reading my way through the Honorverse series, and while I started off pretty positive about the writing and books... I'm starting to feel a bit apprehensive about the rest of the series as I've approached the 5th book (according to the reading order I've got, anyway), Flag in Exile.

Can I ask, what do you guys think? Any strong opinions either way?

First off, welcome to the forums.

Second, you're on a forum for fans of David Weber's books. Most of us here feel the books are good enough to warrant discussions and have fun with them. That's not to say there isn't any criticism of the writing, the stories themselves, plot holes, technical (physics, engineering, etc.) details, and so on.

Third, it depends a lot on what you're apprehensive about. If you could be more specific about your worries, someone could address them.

On Basilisk Station is the best Space Opera ever written, hands down.

If your are apprehensive, there is one thing about which you need to be aware: the author (sometimes called RFC, because his forum name is runsforcelery) believes that a writer is creating "war porn" if only the bad people die. It may be a spoiler to say that Honor is still alive as of the most recent book, but there might be others that may not make it.

jaisanmeal4 wrote:I've started reading my way through the Honorverse series, and while I started off pretty positive about the writing and books... I'm starting to feel a bit apprehensive about the rest of the series as I've approached the 5th book (according to the reading order I've got, anyway), Flag in Exile.

Can I ask, what do you guys think? Any strong opinions either way?

The Honor of The Queen is the best book in the series, but even the awful book isn't that bad.

The first five books were apparently all written together and hence have a sense of unity that is a lot harder to maintain when David is writing a sequel twenty years later. But they are, at worst, 'pretty good'.

jaisanmeal4 wrote:I've started reading my way through the Honorverse series, and while I started off pretty positive about the writing and books... I'm starting to feel a bit apprehensive about the rest of the series as I've approached the 5th book (according to the reading order I've got, anyway), Flag in Exile.

Can I ask, what do you guys think? Any strong opinions either way?

Welcome to the forum!

What are you apprehensive about? That things will not turn out all right? Well, things do take turns for the worse before they come out better (and not everyone will pull through), but they do tend to get better in the long run. The author is trying to paint a realistic picture, where not everything The Good Guys do is an immediate success and not every Bad Guys' plan is foiled. I do remember becoming very concerned about one certain Bad Guys Plan around the end of At All Costs.

Also, Bad Guys are usually shown to have believable motivations. They are seldom evil, they're just misguided or constrained by their context. Similarly, there are plenty of Good Guys with failings, though far fewer. There are also some Bad Guys that turn Good, such as you've already seen with Captain Alfredo Yu.

Or is it the writing style that's keeping you apprehensive? The fact that characters quote speeds and distances to a decimal place, which must definitely have changed since they started speaking that number?

Maybe something else?

I really enjoyed the series so far. The one thing that is annoying me right now is the lack of new books to read

PS: for the reading order, use the publication date. The Anthology books and those set in the 16th century (Star Kingdom and Manticore Ascendant series) are optional, but the Crown of Slaves and Saganami Island series are not.

kzt wrote:

jaisanmeal4 wrote:I've started reading my way through the Honorverse series, and while I started off pretty positive about the writing and books... I'm starting to feel a bit apprehensive about the rest of the series as I've approached the 5th book (according to the reading order I've got, anyway), Flag in Exile.

Can I ask, what do you guys think? Any strong opinions either way?

The Honor of The Queen is the best book in the series, but even the awful book isn't that bad.

The first five books were apparently all written together and hence have a sense of unity that is a lot harder to maintain when David is writing a sequel twenty years later. But they are, at worst, 'pretty good'.

kzt, a moment of silence because you didn't start out with OBS.

jaisanmeal4 wrote:I've started reading my way through the Honorverse series, and while I started off pretty positive about the writing and books... I'm starting to feel a bit apprehensive about the rest of the series as I've approached the 5th book (according to the reading order I've got, anyway), Flag in Exile.

Can I ask, what do you guys think? Any strong opinions either way?

IMO, the Honorverse is very strong up to and including book 11(At All Costs). After that point, it gets a little complicated with the Crown of Slaves and Shadow of Saganami "sub-series" integrating into the overall story(and by extension retroactively including a couple of short stories in the anthologies).

ThinksMarkedly wrote:I really enjoyed the series so far. The one thing that is annoying me right now is the lack of new books to read

I bought the full Hornblower series by CS Forester when I ran out of Honorverse novels to read.

Actually very different, but enjoyable in their own way(whether you go chronologically or in publication order).

cthia wrote:

kzt wrote:The Honor of The Queen is the best book in the series,

kzt, a moment of silence because you didn't start out with OBS.

I started out in Path of the Fury, but best book of series I think is probably Honor Among Enemies. Reason is that it is a stand alone book, or very close to it. 2nd best is Shadow of Saganami and then 3rd; Honor of the Queen.

Best section of series, not in single book? Last half of In Enemy Hands, Echoes of Honor and beginning third of Ashes of Victory.

cthia wrote:

kzt wrote:The Honor of The Queen is the best book in the series,

kzt, a moment of silence because you didn't start out with OBS.

Relax wrote:I started out in Path of the Fury, but best book of series I think is probably Honor Among Enemies. Reason is that it is a stand alone book, or very close to it. 2nd best is Shadow of Saganami and then 3rd; Honor of the Queen.

Best section of series, not in single book? Last half of In Enemy Hands, Echoes of Honor and beginning third of Ashes of Victory.

I really must look into this standalone notion. I can understand why the various books selected are someone's favorite. OBS is a standalone by nature. Nothing else has happened after it. Tasting the intimacy and cohesion amongst the characters contained in OBS and what became Honor's inner circle is priceless. Although Weber seems to have it in store for her inner circle. I suppose his thinking is 'One Inner Onion' per series. LOL

At any rate, OBS will always be my stranded on an island pick. I'll never tire of it. Incidentally, that First Edition of OBS is a very compact and durable edition with a glossy finish needing no cover. Which makes it a Collector's Item IMHO.

Sorry, but no R S V P.