His books have been getting tougher and tougher, and more boring to read over the last few years, what with his pointless meandering into the miniscule details of fictional interstellar politics. He followed up Eric Flint's enjoyable adventure 1632 with a co-written sequel, 1633, which was a dense 673-page textbook on 17th century European politics that I had to read in three sittings over 5 years to get thru, and killed my interest in the whole series. Now I saw In Fury Born on the store shelves. Oh cool, I thought, a sequel to his venerable Path of the Fury, a rather poetic tale he wrote long before he started to blather. Silly of me to not read the blurb before buying. In Fury Born is not a sequel to Path of the Fury, it's an extended rewrite, including a "novel length prequel" all together. 838 story pages, plus a 20-page character guide, all in 6-point type. I only got to page 37 (needing my reading glasses) before two characters started discussing the political situation on the planet. Enough.
"son herbert dune?" I've already read Dune up thru, I think God Emperor (is that the 3rd book?). After that I could only think "Oh stop, already!"
That's the 4th book. 3rd sequel though. Dune Dune Messiah Children of Dune God Emperor of Dune Heretics of Dune Chapterhouse Dune
Dune is really the only good book. The rest of the series starts to get quite weird. As for David Weber..... I tried to slog my way through Off Armageddon Reef but I had to stop. I was expecting a science fiction book. The first pages were good but then it descended into medieval nonsense. I couldn't take it anymore.
Forbin, you need a change of pace my man. Might I suggest you & the Mrs. try some of the following: The Doorbell Rang, by Rex Stout. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. Wish You Were Here, by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown. Night Probe, by Clive Cussler. At least two, (arguably three, with some elements in the Cussler book) have fantasy elements. All of them are fun reads.
Haven't read any Weber recently, though I quite enjoyed the first 5 Honor Harrington books and the Starfire books were a lot of fun. I'm reading Legacy of Aldenata by John Ringo now. Basically an interstellar civilization tells Earth it's in the path of an invading horde, and gives us alien tech to help fight them off and, oh yeah, save their butts while we are at it (one of those pacifistic alien federations). The guy obviously dug the hell out of Heinlein, because the first thing we develop with the advanced tech is Mobile Infantry. Hell, they even call it that! LOL. Two bits of fun - One, the Earth gets invaded by waves of alien warriors, but we get reguvenation tech from our alien benefactors - so all the old warriors who are still alive are brought back to their 20s. Two, there's a deeper plot line where the alien federation sponsoring us is obviously up to something, but I haven't gotten into detail on that yet. So far a lot of fun if not exactly deep. LOL.
^I've read that whole series, and I heartily recommend it. I love "Bun-Bun," the football-field sized tank with the battleship gun, which eventually gets a bunch of M-1 Abrams turrets mounted around it's topside for self-defense.
LOL - haven't gotten there yet. But that's a clear Bolo rip off. Ah well, it's not original, but the military stuff is well thought out and so far it's fun!
One big mistake I think David Weber made with his Honor Harrington series (and this is from a reader from the beginning). "Heroic underdogs" are great characters. Fun to develop. Fun to read. Enjoyable to write. But the "heroic underdog" can't remain an underdog forever. After Harrington destroyed about her one hundreth Peep warship it started to wear pretty thin. I think Weber realized this and started developing younger, greener characters in the Honorverse.
Not a ripoff, but an homage. He's clearly a Bolo fan, and he (and I think David Drake too) have written some modern Bolo stories.
Also, how long can she be a heroic underdog when she's won every medal, title and honor in two separate star navies, is best friends with the queen of Manticore, is nobility on Grayson, and admiral in two navies, is the first and only human to communicate telepathically with treecats, and has had a class of dreadnought named after her. How are we supposed to relate to such a person?
She was hardly even IN her last book. It was 50% the enemy politicians talking about politics, and 25% her side's politicians talking about politics.
I'm reading Ringo's 'Kildar' series right now, about the Ex-SEAL who winds up a minor warlord with the historical remnants of the Varangian Guard in Georgia (the Eastern Yurp one). Absolutely great stuff- a little over the top at times but in a good way. Kind of like Clancy on acid. Modern day Vikings who still worship old, pagan gods, gunfire, sex, death, and high-profile terrorists getting killed all horribly and publicly. What's not to love? But he does refer to Heinlein a good bit, and in the latest book of his I read the characters are even joking about Firefly and Serenity references.
Oh yeah, I love Ringo. He's been goin pop-culture reference crazy lately. In Into the Looking Glass (lab accident causes wormholes that lead to an alien invasion) he had some troopers trying out a new prototype mech suit. When one pops out of a wormhole in front of some regular troops and they all throw down on him, their Lt, a Gundam fan, sets them straight.
