"I got reasons why I tease 'em"
Jul. 5th, 2010 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mcityThe Honor Harrington series, by David Weber, is a well-plotted, well researched set of military science-fiction books, openly admitted by its primary authour "Horatio Hornblower in space!", with an unfortunate tendency to have two characters sit in a room and exposit at each other. Also, the main character is a raging Mary Sue.
This doesn't make the series unreadable, mind you.
First off, there's her physical appearance. She's a half-asian woman, much taller than most people due to genetic engineering. She spends the first few books thinking she's not "pretty", until her BFF informs her she is, in fact, beautiful. Pretty, but not beautiful. This is the sort of hair-splitting you find in bad fanfics. Said BFF also teacher her how to wear makeup. Strangely, only a few people she meets seem to be attracted to her during the series, and it's generally mutual. Given that she can sense emotions through Nimitz(more on him later), I find it a tad odd that she doesn't meet any men or women out of the thousands in the Royal Manticoran Navy who find themselves with the squigglies around their highly-capable Hot Amazon boss.
Weber actually did something interesting with her backstory; she was ALMOST RAEPD, but kicks the assailant's tail and sends him packing. He's nobility, so she doesn't think anyone would believe her, but he's still forced to apologize to her for his response her earlier refusal of him that made him want to rape her in the first place. Nonetheless, she spends most of her life with personal confidence issues. I can't remember the last time someone fights off a RAEP and isn't portrayed as anything more than a little shook up. In fact, the hatred between the two kicks off the main plot of the first book, and is resolved several books later.
During the course of the series, her presence and actions change the traditionally hidebound and ultraconservative planet Grayson dramatically. This probably has something to do with the face that personally saves their equivalent of the King-with Nimitz's help-at the expense of half her face, then fights off the invading forces from their rival, downright fundamentalist sister planet, with the help of a RMN squadron. Sort of. Look, it's complicated. The net result is that Honor is basically becomes to Grayson what Mary is to a Catholic, much to her embaressment. She insists, quite rightly, that she was "just doing her duty", but they still think of her as a hero.
There's also at least one scene where one character talks to another about how awesome she is, how she makes him want to do his job better just by being a good officer.
The Hornblower series is a lot more subtle about this. Hornblower knows his men look up to him, and is somewhat uncomfortable with it, though he does see the need to encourage that admiration for tactical reasons. (His axiom of "lead, not drive" is mentioned at one point in Weber's series) He also catches a couple of his younger officers affecting his affected air of unconcern. Would it be so hard to have a midshipman wander into the gym to try and learn some of her coup de vitesse (translated from the French; "punching smaller people in the face") skills?
One of her few flaws is that she's bad at math. As an officer, she can just assign people to "astrogate" for her, so it's not even a real disadvantage.
Her companion, Nimitz, is a treecat, a psychic species that developed on Honor's home planet of Sphinx. They have a habit of bonding with humans, allowing them to share emotions with each other, but not as well as they could with other treecats. 'Cats can also sense the emotions of others, and Honor eventually gains the ability, through Nimitz. As far as she knows-Weber keeps mentioning this, so I assume it'll be a plot point-she's the only person, ever, to get this ability. Did I mention that treecats are extremely secretive, and very few people outside of the Sphinx Forestry Comission ever bond with them? Admittedly, this does mean that someone else could have the ability as well and kept it secret, but the MS score is bought back up by the fact that one of Honor's ancestors was the first person ever to bond with a 'cat.
All that, however, is just fluff. The most jarring part is Weber's strange inability to write casual dialogue. The military stuff is fine, but take this excerpt from Ashes of Victory, where Honor and her mum are just sunbathing n' eating cookies. Allison Chou Harrington, fairly awesome in her own right, has just reminded Honor of the sunburn she got her first week at Saganami Island, the RMN academy.
I think I-emphasis 'I'-would find Honor's situation more relateable if she was constantly trying to talk her mum out of whatever embarrassing acts she gets up to, instead of employing just her plaintive "Mother!" all the time. It'd also be funnier to imagine a half-asian amazonian starship commander facepalming at the actions of this tiny little Oriental woman. In fact, I basically just described Allison's first scene in the series, where she complements the butt of Honor's XO and suggests that Honor tap that. In public. At a party.
Say it with me now; "Mother!"
The frustrating thing is that Weber is capable of writing jokes, like that one, it's just his dialogue that often falters. Take Honor meeting her new lawyer, later on the same book.
See, Weber? That's how you do it.
During the course of the book I'm reading, Ashes of Victory, Honor spends her time teaching at the RMN naval academy, in charge on a high-profile tactical simulator, but so far we haven't heard about that. Hornblower spent a chapter or so at the start of one of his books just making his way across England by canal and carriage. Makes a nice change of pace after the emotional drama the previous book ended on. Honor's spent most of her time in 'Ashes' at home just hanging around with her mum and getting her life in order, despite her justified repuatation as a tactical genius. Thin stuff.
Honestly, I still like the books, but I prefer the series when it's not talking about H.H. It's not uncommon to find the secondary characters more interesting than the lead, but I still feel guilty criticizing. After all, I'm not a thirteen-time NY Times bestselling author.
Yet.
The books are available for free here. I also strongly reccommend David Drake's RCN series, which is an IN SPACE version of that other famous sailing ship series, Aubrey-Maturin. I may or may not cover it later.
This doesn't make the series unreadable, mind you.
First off, there's her physical appearance. She's a half-asian woman, much taller than most people due to genetic engineering. She spends the first few books thinking she's not "pretty", until her BFF informs her she is, in fact, beautiful. Pretty, but not beautiful. This is the sort of hair-splitting you find in bad fanfics. Said BFF also teacher her how to wear makeup. Strangely, only a few people she meets seem to be attracted to her during the series, and it's generally mutual. Given that she can sense emotions through Nimitz(more on him later), I find it a tad odd that she doesn't meet any men or women out of the thousands in the Royal Manticoran Navy who find themselves with the squigglies around their highly-capable Hot Amazon boss.
Weber actually did something interesting with her backstory; she was ALMOST RAEPD, but kicks the assailant's tail and sends him packing. He's nobility, so she doesn't think anyone would believe her, but he's still forced to apologize to her for his response her earlier refusal of him that made him want to rape her in the first place. Nonetheless, she spends most of her life with personal confidence issues. I can't remember the last time someone fights off a RAEP and isn't portrayed as anything more than a little shook up. In fact, the hatred between the two kicks off the main plot of the first book, and is resolved several books later.
During the course of the series, her presence and actions change the traditionally hidebound and ultraconservative planet Grayson dramatically. This probably has something to do with the face that personally saves their equivalent of the King-with Nimitz's help-at the expense of half her face, then fights off the invading forces from their rival, downright fundamentalist sister planet, with the help of a RMN squadron. Sort of. Look, it's complicated. The net result is that Honor is basically becomes to Grayson what Mary is to a Catholic, much to her embaressment. She insists, quite rightly, that she was "just doing her duty", but they still think of her as a hero.
There's also at least one scene where one character talks to another about how awesome she is, how she makes him want to do his job better just by being a good officer.
The Hornblower series is a lot more subtle about this. Hornblower knows his men look up to him, and is somewhat uncomfortable with it, though he does see the need to encourage that admiration for tactical reasons. (His axiom of "lead, not drive" is mentioned at one point in Weber's series) He also catches a couple of his younger officers affecting his affected air of unconcern. Would it be so hard to have a midshipman wander into the gym to try and learn some of her coup de vitesse (translated from the French; "punching smaller people in the face") skills?
One of her few flaws is that she's bad at math. As an officer, she can just assign people to "astrogate" for her, so it's not even a real disadvantage.
Her companion, Nimitz, is a treecat, a psychic species that developed on Honor's home planet of Sphinx. They have a habit of bonding with humans, allowing them to share emotions with each other, but not as well as they could with other treecats. 'Cats can also sense the emotions of others, and Honor eventually gains the ability, through Nimitz. As far as she knows-Weber keeps mentioning this, so I assume it'll be a plot point-she's the only person, ever, to get this ability. Did I mention that treecats are extremely secretive, and very few people outside of the Sphinx Forestry Comission ever bond with them? Admittedly, this does mean that someone else could have the ability as well and kept it secret, but the MS score is bought back up by the fact that one of Honor's ancestors was the first person ever to bond with a 'cat.
All that, however, is just fluff. The most jarring part is Weber's strange inability to write casual dialogue. The military stuff is fine, but take this excerpt from Ashes of Victory, where Honor and her mum are just sunbathing n' eating cookies. Allison Chou Harrington, fairly awesome in her own right, has just reminded Honor of the sunburn she got her first week at Saganami Island, the RMN academy.
"And why, O revered parent, did you bring the subject up, if not to engage in one of your homilies on the horrid fates which await daughters who ought to listen to their revered parents—especially their female revered parents—and don't?"Later on in the scene, Honor jokes with her mum about the latter's hypothetical flirting-or more-with women in her youth in order to get what she wanted. Perhaps I'm unique, but if my mother started talking about her sexuality, I figure I'd last maybe ten seconds before flinging myself headfirst off the terrace. Then again, the Honorverse is largely more liberal than our own. Perhaps Honor had the "be embarrassed by parents" gene removed.
I think I-emphasis 'I'-would find Honor's situation more relateable if she was constantly trying to talk her mum out of whatever embarrassing acts she gets up to, instead of employing just her plaintive "Mother!" all the time. It'd also be funnier to imagine a half-asian amazonian starship commander facepalming at the actions of this tiny little Oriental woman. In fact, I basically just described Allison's first scene in the series, where she complements the butt of Honor's XO and suggests that Honor tap that. In public. At a party.
Say it with me now; "Mother!"
The frustrating thing is that Weber is capable of writing jokes, like that one, it's just his dialogue that often falters. Take Honor meeting her new lawyer, later on the same book.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Maxwell." She crossed the office, set Nimitz on her desk, and turned to hold out her hand. "I'm Honor Harrington."
"So I see," he said, smiling as he clasped the offered hand. She cocked an eyebrow, and he chuckled. "I've seen you often enough on HD since your return, Your Grace," he explained. He tilted his head back to gaze up at her and pursed his lips. "It's odd, though," he murmured. "Somehow I thought you'd be taller."
See, Weber? That's how you do it.
During the course of the book I'm reading, Ashes of Victory, Honor spends her time teaching at the RMN naval academy, in charge on a high-profile tactical simulator, but so far we haven't heard about that. Hornblower spent a chapter or so at the start of one of his books just making his way across England by canal and carriage. Makes a nice change of pace after the emotional drama the previous book ended on. Honor's spent most of her time in 'Ashes' at home just hanging around with her mum and getting her life in order, despite her justified repuatation as a tactical genius. Thin stuff.
Honestly, I still like the books, but I prefer the series when it's not talking about H.H. It's not uncommon to find the secondary characters more interesting than the lead, but I still feel guilty criticizing. After all, I'm not a thirteen-time NY Times bestselling author.
Yet.
The books are available for free here. I also strongly reccommend David Drake's RCN series, which is an IN SPACE version of that other famous sailing ship series, Aubrey-Maturin. I may or may not cover it later.
