Icecold wrote:To reply as one of the younger people.... i DID read the Honorverse novels but i stopped with the last "main"-Novel. Its just that i have the feeling that the series has two major Problems which just doesn't make it interesting for me anymore:
1. Honor is perfect
2. A lack of progress
Here's how I view your objections to both series - and I
do agree with your points - to a degree. RFC has addressed them, so here's his/my views about them. (
If I may be so bold as to speak for RFC!) 1) RFC has noted that Honor is WAY too senior to be commanding fleets anymore - I expect she'll teach at Saganami, raise her kid and act as Steadholder Harrington, and eventually serve a stint as First Space Lord. She's already acting the part with the alliance following her advice in calling home their merchant shipping, then seizing the Solarian League's wormholes. We'll only see her in an advisory role from now on, not on the sharp end.
2) I'll admit I had the same impression of "A Rising Thunder." Lots of rehash, then it abruptly ended. I found "Shadow of Freedom" had very little rehash, the battles were satisfying and the plot hit the ground running. And the finale - it had me screaming "No, not yet! And for heaven's sake take Honor and the entire Eighth fleet with you!"
I'm willing to bet that once the three diverging lines in the Honorverse have been fully split, the rehashing will taper off quite a bit - the next Torch novel will have a lot of catching up to do, but since it doesn't affect the main line or the Talbott lines very much, we won't see much rehash from it in those future books.
We both agree that ART had a lot of rehashing, but the main thread had to catch up with the Talbott thread, and we saw the rehash from differing points of view. If RFC didn't have to keep his entire audience caught up on what had happened so far and make sure each novel can stand on its own as a complete story, I'd have loved it if he had just skipped ahead to the action! Unfortunately he didn't have that choice once he realized the story was simply too big to continue in one thread anymore.
(Although a chapter or two of pulse-pounding action between the Solarian League and Beowulf would have been a welcome end to ART!) If I understand your objections regarding the Safehold series, you're saying that there's lots of rehashing (or at least lots of talking and preparation and very little action.
Icecold wrote:To give an example of what i mean:
I had the impression that the last two novels had the equivalent in story as the rescue of Irys and Davyn for one book and the movement off the troops from Chisholm to and through Ravensland (note WITHOUT the actual transport to Siddarmark) for the other. And that's it. Way too little.
I gather that in HFaF all the attacks from Operation Rakurai didn't count as action? Paityr Wylsynn being brought into the inner circle? The revelation that the archangels will return in 20 years? Nahrmahn's death? The death march and execution of the Charisian POWs? The assassination attempt on Sharleyan? After that the rescue of Daivyn and Irys kicked in and we had a lot of fun until Siddarmark was attacked at the end.
MTaT had even more action, with the food lift to Siddarmark and the early skirmishes in Glacierheart. Nahrman returned. Then the war started, the Charisians arrived, and there were some GREAT battles. Oh, and the "weapons which shall not be named" destroyed the canal systems of northern Siddarmark and brought the invasion to a screeching halt in the north. I was certainly never bored!
My apologies if you didn't mean to imply that the Safehold novels are lacking in action and that you simply meant there aren't enough action threads to hold your interest. If you've read the entire series, there are plenty of "Whoa!" moments without swashbuckling and derring do. I enjoy the personalities, the dynamics between the characters, and the sheer emotion of the good vs. evil when both sides think they're on the side of God and the Archangels, although anyone with a functional brain cell and the proper information knows who the bad guys are. Unfortunately most of the planet doesn't
have that information, so they think they're fighting on the side of the angels - even though they're siding with the
bad angels, but of course they don't know that.
To each his own I suppose, but I find Safehold fascinating on so many levels. The Honorverse is more political, although it also has its moments of heart-stopping action.
RFC, keep on writing and we'll wait as fast as we can!