Dread Empire's Fall: The Praxis 313
| Dread Empire's Fall: The Praxis | |
| author | Walter Jon Williams |
| pages | 448 |
| publisher | HarperTorch |
| rating | 2 |
| reviewer | Roy Rapoport |
| ISBN | 038082020X |
| summary | Weber as imagined by Williams. Liked Harrington? You'll Like Martinez. |
So it's a damn, damn shame that DEF:tP feels like it's written by Weber, because I really like Walter Jon Williams. I liked his cyberpunkish Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind. I liked his fantasy City on Fire and Metropolitan. I really liked his story of how a culture may select Gods to manage the most dangerous of technologies (Aristoi), and I thought his comedies (The Crown Jewels, Rock of Ages, and House of Shards) were, well, just damn funny.
I don't know what happened here, other than maybe Williams has Weber's arm up his ass -- that's the only explanation I can come up for this book.
The background, at least, is somewhat interesting: The Shaa, an alien race, have subjugated everyone around them for thousands of years to the point where nobody even thinks of the concept of rebellion -- everyone's been assimilated into the Shaa empire. This includes the Terrans (whose process of subjugation is the cause of the naming of the battleships Bombardment of Los Angeles, Bombardment of Delhi, Bombardment of Buenos Aires, and a few others) and the Naxid, who were the first race to be subjugated by the Shaa. The Naxid, by the way, are insectile (or insectoid, as the book prefers to call them). As everyone knows, insectile creatures are inherently evil. You'll be happy to know that one of the other races, the Torminels, is a race of nocturnals hunters, with "a plump and furry body." As is appropriate for teddy bears, the Torminels appear to be relatively harmless but when pushed are discovered to be ferocious and honorable fighters. Gotta love the Ewoks!
Anyway, back to the story: Everyone's living in harmony. Unfortunately, the Shaa, who are functionally immortal, have been slowly suiciding because, well, they're bored, and finally the last Shaa kills himself. Will the perfect order his race forced the universe into remain unchanged as he wished? Don't count on it.
Remember the Naxid? They're insectile (sorry, insectoid), and so do the only thing that an insectile (or insectoid) race is allowed in sci-fi books: They try to take over. All the other races band together to try to beat them. Apparently, Dread Empire's Fall will be the saga of that war. Thousands will fight, and millions will die. No one knows who will live and who will die. Anyone's life could be snuffed out at the next moment.
Well, as long as we define "anyone" to be "not Gareth Martinez or Caroline Sula." See, Gareth Martinez (who, by the way, is tall and considered handsome by some, very intelligent, and is cursed by a provincial accent and a lowly birth that means he just gets no respect) is one of our two protagonists. And Caroline Sula, described as "pale, nearly translucent skin, emerald-green eyes, white-gold hair worn collar-length ... Martinez threw the picture into 3D and rotated it, and Sula didn't have a single bad angle" is also very, very smart. Caroline, by the way, has a nasty little secret that you'll be very, very surprised to have revealed to you if you've been recently lobotomized and consequently not figured it out fairly early in the book.
Anyway, The Praxis covers the death of the last Shaa (whose name is Anticipation of Victory, by the way. Normally referred to by everyone as Vic, I'm sure, unless his mother was very angry at which point I'm sure it was "Anticipation of Victory you clean your room RIGHT NOW!") and the beginning of the take-over attempt by the Naxid. You'll be delighted to know that Martinez figures out what they're up to, but nobody listens to him, so he only manages to save one ship. And then, against overwhelming odds, manages to escape. You'll be delighted to find out that our heroine, Caroline Sula, when put in her own precarious position (not to blow the plot, but it involves overwhelming odds against her and almost certain death) manages to do PHENOMENALLY well. Really, she becomes quite the hero. No, wait, why is everyone laughing?
Gareth and Caroline, by the way, hook up very briefly but due to Caroline's little secret not much comes of it and she runs away to ignore him for approximately 400 pages until, three pages before the ending of the book, she sends him a note that basically says "Wow, you and I are both the heroes of this saga and so are destined to be incredibly lucky. Wanna hook up?" No, I'm not really embellishing this much.
The aforementioned 400 pages pass by relatively quickly (how quickly? I bought the book approximately ten hours ago, and have spent much of the intervening time having dinner with my family, downloading p^Hdrivers from the net, and writing this minireview). They are filled with one-dimensional characterizations (see this good-for-nothing non-com? Don't worry about him -- he'll be good-for-nothing until the last drop. This tough but incredibly smart retired weapons chief? Good guy. You can trust him not to screw up. Ever. This aristocracy Captain who likes soccer more than having a functional warship? Go ahead and write him off) and questionable strategic thinking.
Williams does throw some interesting twists into the DEF universe. The Shaa empire is ruled by the laws of The Praxis, the major religion everyone's bought into. The Praxis forbids most of the more interesting uses of technology -- bioengineering is forbidden, as is AI. FTL weapons are non-existent and FTL travel is done only through wormholes. This means that when dealing with intrasolar warfare, the main weapons are missiles. However, because missiles can't be controlled by AI, and because communication can't be FTL, the further away the missiles are from you (and the closer to the enemy), the less able you are to control them. Hence, missiles are shepherded by pinnaces, small one-person ships. Typically, a pinnace controls a volley of missiles and flies with them toward the enemy. If the pinnace pilot is very lucky and very good, they even survive, though most people don't think of this much as the last conflict the Shaa empire had (before this upcoming rebellion) was 3400 hundred years ago and lasted six days. Aside from wormhole travel, all other tech is decidedly hard sci-fi -- lasers and missiles, and both explosive and propulsion power is provided by simple anti-matter. Acceleration couches are an important fixture on ships. In fact, acceleration plays a pretty important role in most of the battles (and Williams makes one of the races both supreme tacticians and incapable of anything more than 2G. OK, that's different).
Really, though, there's nothing there to redeem the one-dimensional characters, the simplistic prose, the improbable odds our heroes manage to slog through with great distinction, and the waste of your time. If you like Weber's Harrington series, you probably want to check it out. If you're the sort of Walter Jon Williams fan who simply has to read everything he writes, your decision will be clear. As to the rest of you ... stay away.
In case you're interested, Williams has a homepage.
You can purchase Dread Empire's Fall: The Praxis from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Praxis (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Praxis (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Praxis (Score:2)
"Shields, SHIELDS!"
Haha, bookstore clerk (Score:2, Funny)
Even better: (Score:5, Funny)
Oops, I said the quiet part loud and the loud part quiet.
What an interesting opening to a review (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What an interesting opening to a review (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What an interesting opening to a review (Score:4, Insightful)
While I agree that it's useful to have such reference points to compare to, the way the reference was done came across as more of a gratuitous attack than a comparison. He could've achieved the comparison effect with a couple sentences in the middle of the review. Instead, he starts the review with this attack which actually has nothing to do with the book in question.
When I do reviews (of music, but the principle is the same), I always start out with a quick description of the work in question. This way, readers can quickly discern whether they might be interested in the book or not. But this reviewer starts with the attack, making the reader wade through it to even start to understand if they might like this book. It's poor style at least.
actually, it is! (Score:5, Insightful)
If you like Honor Harrington, you will most definitely ignore the reviewer, and you may even enjoy this book!
THis is actually a genius reference point.
Re:actually, it is! (Score:3, Insightful)
"this books are very similar to Weber's Honor Harrington series (which I hate ferociously btw. if you like them take everything I say about this book with a grain of salt)"
and
Needless to say, I do not like David Weber, nor do I like the Honor Harrington books. I am deeply distrustful of anyone who does.
The first is polite, short and concise. The second would be short and concise if it wasn't just the last sentence of a long Weber bashing without a point.
That said,
hits the nail on the head for me. (Score:2, Informative)
The upside to "In Death Ground" is that the next book I'm reading
Re:hits the nail on the head for me. (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the problem is these folks get popular, sell a bunch of books, and then their editors get scared to cut anything, so the books get longer and longer with less meat per page...
Re:hits the nail on the head for me. (Score:4, Interesting)
The reviewer doesn't trust me at all. I'm hooked on Honor Harrington right now. :) I also read Weber's Mutineer's Moon and couldn't put it down. I don't know where the reviewer concluded that the main characters are flawless two dimensional characters. Honor's flaws come out a lot. She has a low self-esteem because she thinks she's not pretty (granted, this is normal for a woman). She's also pretty smart, but not so good with math. She has a quick temper that she struggles to keep under control (she loses it a few times here and there and it's always entertaining). She is a good leader and her people love her, but she makes mistakes. I'm on her side in The Honor of the Queen. It's entirely her fault that Admiral Corvosieur bit the big one (It happens in the first third of the book, so this isn't a spoiler), and I liked that guy! The thorough discussion of sexism in that book was good, although I do think he dropped the ball a little bit on it. The thing you can't tell about him, though, and I like it, is "who is he going to kill next?". In Basilish Station he spent most of the book delving deeply into all of the top characters (mostly the officers, since the main theme was leadership), then he kills over half of them! He wasn't nearly as bloodthirsty in the second book, though, I noticed.
Anyway, his characters may be a tad on the stereotypical side, but they're not two dimensional. Sure, they always pull through in the end. Characters that don't are either the antagonists, or the book is referred to under a very specific genre (I forget what it's called, but it's the one with the anti-heros, where the bad guys usually win or they end in draws or whatever).
Hell, even Corwin pulled through in the end for the sake of Amber. At least Weber didn't create the Heinlein SuperMommy. Talk about two dimensional....
I also think the GPs comment about Weber and David Drake was totally off the mark. Heh. The only writing David Drake ever got right was when he was collaborating with Eric Flint. :)
Re:hits the nail on the head for me. (Score:3, Insightful)
If being outside is not more interesting than crappy novels, you not only bought the wrong book series, you chose the wrong vacation spot.
Re:hits the nail on the head for me. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What an interesting opening to a review (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What an interesting opening to a review (Score:4, Interesting)
I would postulate that 90% of all writing is crap. Several conclusions your comments and this postulate.
(1) You read a lot of science fiction and realize that 90% of it is crap
(2) You don't read a representative sample of anything else (Otherwise, you'd know that 90% of everything is crap and that science fiction is no different)
(3) From (2), it follows that EITHER (a) You don't don't read much except for science fiction, OR (b) You read a lot that's not science fiction, but only what others recommend (and people don't recommend crap)
From other statements you make, I infer that (3)(a) is not true; thus (3)(b) must be the case. Outside of science fiction, you only read what's recommended to you - from best seller lists, Oprah, your boss ("Who Move My Cheese?"), all your friends, etc.
My recommendation, therefore, is that you become a literary adventurer. Exercise some independence - don't just read what everyone else is reading! Go out there and mine the stacks for good books. Tell other people about the arcane gems you find - "She can't write a good protagonist to save her life, but her minor characters make it all worthwhile." "The plot sucks, but the setting blows away everything else written in the 20th century." "Why isn't everyone reading this guy? He's AWESOME!"
Have fun. Oh, and quit judging the folks over in the romance section. 90% of it may be crap, but there are some GREAT authors writing trashy romance novels.
Re:What an interesting opening to a review (Score:2)
"I'd give you my honest opinion of this book, but I don't trust you to have the maturity to deal with it, so I'll just spout some pleasant lies and go
Re:What an interesting opening to a review (Score:5, Interesting)
Needless to say, I do not like David Weber, nor do I like the Honor Harrington books. I am deeply distrustful of anyone who does.
In other words, my opinion is right, and if you disagree with me, there must be something wrong with you.
That's where CrankyFool crossed the line from reviewing to preaching. In my opinion, of course.
Re:What an interesting opening to a review (Score:2)
All opinion is biased in one way or another. This one had the honesty to wear its bias on its sleeve, however distasteful that bias might be.
Reference to other works is also a valid, I might even say necessary, tool of review.
"I hate Shakespeare. The language sucks. How can he call himself a playright when he can't even spell proper? Therefore I don't like Marlowe either
Re:What an interesting opening to a review (Score:2)
Q.E.D.
KFG
Re:What an interesting opening to a review (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What an interesting opening to a review (Score:5, Insightful)
I read reviews to help me winnow the wheat from the chaff. I read a lot of books, and I watch a lot of films, and I'd prefer that those experiences are pleasurable. If I know in advance, before getting deep into the review, that the reviewer thinks that Alan Dean Foster and Marion Zimmer Bradley are the best-fucking-authors-in-the-world, then I will also know that, if he likes the book he is reviewing, I'll probably hate it.
I think Barry Norman and Roger Ebert are the two best film critics in the world. Why? Because they consistently recommend films that I enjoy. On the other hand, if Harry Knowles likes a film, I'll know that it sucks. Well, usually. He is such an unabashed fanboy that someties our opinions coincide.
Anyway, the point is, knowing what a reviewer thinks about other, similar films and books is a help, not a hindrance, and boosts the reviewers usefulness and credibility, if you use that inforamtion wisely.
Is it just me... (Score:2, Funny)
Harrington (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Harrington (Score:4, Insightful)
Donaldson rules (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Harrington (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it's Horatio Hornblower in space.
It isn't a coincidence that the main chacter serves in the "Royal Navy" and is fighting against an enemy that very strongly resembles France. Or that the title character's initials are HH.
The Harrington series is NOT sci-fi. It's space opera. It has the same appeal that Star Wars does.
Please don't slander space opera that way (Score:4, Informative)
Space opera is also Banks, Simmons, Renyolds, Vinge or any of a half dozen other authors who can write complex, involved plots with great characters and subtle themes.
Harrington, Star Wars and similar stuff is more properly pulp SF
Re:Harrington - SPOILER WARNING (Score:2, Informative)
Because it's Horatio Hornblower in space.
It isn't a coincidence that the main chacter serves in the "Royal Navy" and is fighting against an enemy that very strongly resembles France. Or that the title character's initials are HH.
There are strong similarities between the sagas of Hornblower and Harrington as well as between the Napoleonic Wars and Harringtons universe.
Harrington herself is a mi
Re:Harrington (Score:3, Interesting)
There's nothing particularly deep about the Honorverse, but I find it to be excellent light escapist reading. Williams, OTOH, is hit and miss as far as I've experie
What I liked (Score:5, Interesting)
What I found interesting was the entire system of government that Weber sets up. On the original planet, he creates a parlimentry democracy with power balanced between The Queen, The House of Lords (aristocrats desecneded from the original settlers), and The House of Commons(elected representatives of the people). (Can you say British Parlimentry with a twist?) On a more feudal planet Honor Harrington is one of 72 Steadholders (a feudal lord with the power of life and death). Thier evil(TM) enemies are the republicans, who have a quasi-communist society that borrows names shamelessly from revolutionary france. Despite this it all blends together and seems workable.
I find the idea that a futuristic society could consist of something other than a Planetary Council/Senate/clone of modern american system very interesting. And I do feel you're being just a touch unfair with the one-dimensional concept, I actaully enjoyed reading all of them.
Re:Harrington (Score:2)
Re:Harrington (Score:2)
yig, I caught a bit of the Hornblower film they ran on Tuesday and wow, they were just making stuff up. There's a reason the
Perdido Street Station (Score:5, Interesting)
The Khepri in China Mieville's stellar near-sf steampunk fantasy Perdido Street Station do not try to take over. It's an amazing book. Coincidence? I think not.;)
Of course, there is a different nasty insectoid race in the even better same-universe The Scar, but they gave up on the take-overing millenia before the book.
I highly recommend China Mieville's writings.:)
Also... (Score:2)
Don't know about you... (Score:5, Insightful)
I read every last crappy page. (Score:5, Interesting)
I do and that's why reviews like this are great to have. I just keep reading, hoping something will happen to redeam it. Once in a while, I'm rewarded, and I'm usually just reading myself to sleap anyway. I would never have started reading the Weber book I just finished had I read this review first. The review will, however, save me the pain of reading another Weber book or this particular Willson book. His review hit Weber on the head, so I trust the reviewer's opinion of this book by Willson. There's better stuff to read.
Re:I read every last crappy page. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm worse than that. I read "Interview with the Vampire" and found it mildly interesting, then went on to "The vampire Lestat" which I really liked... Then came "The Queen of the Damned", which I hated. That threw me into an unstoppable loop of having to read Anne Rice's books, looking for some quality of redemption, and finding each more execrable than the one before. It took something like 6 more of her books to make me come off it. I can't so much as glance sideways at a Rice book now without shivering...
Re:Don't know about you... (Score:2)
In university, you have to read ever boring thing that is assigned to.
Now if its bad in the first 20-50 pages I put the book down and walk away.
Re:Don't know about you... (Score:2)
Ummm... (Score:2, Funny)
anyone ever see ST II: The Wrath of Khan???
Ob (Score:2)
It's been a long time. That felt great!
Try before you buy... (Score:5, Informative)
http://baen.ghostwheel.com/ [ghostwheel.com]
_IF_ you get hooked, then buy the books.
-Chris
The main site (Score:5, Informative)
David Weber, the Honor Harrington series consists of:
Book 1: On Basilisk Station
Book 2: Honor of the Queen
Book 3: A Short Victorious War
Book 4: Field of Dishonor
Book 5: Flag in Exile
Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
Book 7: In Enemy Hands
Book 8: Echoes of Honor
Book 9: Ashes of Victory
Book 10: War of Honor
Re:Try before you buy... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Try before you buy... (Score:2)
-Chris
Re:Try before you buy... (Score:2)
Because not all of the books available on his website are in the Bean Free Library.
hm (Score:2, Interesting)
Sci-Fi bookstore clerk (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sci-Fi bookstore clerk (Score:2)
David Weber (Score:2, Interesting)
I will admit to loking his starfire series, though.
Insectiod races always evil - NOT HARDLY (Score:5, Informative)
AND the thranx are a damn sight "nicer" than the humans.
AND they aren't a "hive mind" or any of that crap - they are individuals.
Re:Insectiod races always evil - NOT HARDLY (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Insectiod races always evil - NOT HARDLY (Score:3, Interesting)
If you couldn't figure out why everyone hated Ender, then you didn't read too much. The Buggers were not just space monsters. What books did you read exactly? There are many, many pages where the whole not-just-some-one-dimensional-space-monster thing is gone into and in some depth.
I read t
Re:Insectiod races always evil - NOT HARDLY (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Insectiod races always evil - NOT HARDLY (Score:2)
I think all of the sci-fi books I read more than ten years ago tend to blend into one, so there's a good chance I'm mistaken.
So basically, the reviewer's an ass (Score:5, Insightful)
The book, like this review, is a collection of cliches that aren't necessarily true?
Sheesh.
Oh, and the reason that the Honor Harrington story is told the way it is -- it's a retelling of Horatio Hornblower, which is written the same way. Not everything is sci-fi...
Re:So basically, the reviewer's an ass (Score:5, Funny)
Rumours that "He Enjoys Writing That Kind Of Story" are still unproven.
Guh (Score:4, Interesting)
On that note, who wants to start a petition to get Jerry to take a pause from writing Janissaires novels and get back to a book or two about the time between the Seccesion wars and the 2nd Empire?
More Dimensions = Better (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe that's why I liked Diaspora so much, for a while some of the characters go 5 dimensional and start moving in ways that'll give you a headache.
Re:More Dimensions = Better (Score:2)
So you are not alone.
Also available from... (Score:2, Informative)
i seem to be alone.. (Score:2, Interesting)
But what does honestpuck think? (Score:4, Funny)
<BEGIN BOILERPLATE>
This book is about space and science. It is fiction. It is very interesting and published by the good folks at McGraw Hill. I give it a 9 out of 10 because the picture on the cover isnt so good.
<END BOILERPLATE>
Weber writes military sci-fi books, get over it (Score:4, Interesting)
It would seem that the reviewer, who did not enjoy the books, yet read more than one. And the reviewer, who could navigate across country, yet could not find a single book seller along the way to find more appropriate reading, should seek help.
The relation. . . (Score:5, Funny)
Read on to see what this has to do with Walter Jon Williams newest book, Dread Empire's Fall: the Praxis.
<Dark Helmet Voice> Absolutely nothing! </Dark Helmet Voice>
Baen has some turds and some treasures (Score:2)
On the other hand, they continue to publish stuff by Eric Flint, David Weber, and John Ringo. Horrible, horrible serial-type stuff that constantly re-hashes the same garbage. Yeah, I really want to read about smug characters who sit around all day patting themselves on the back for being so clever.
This review was very useful to me because it proves I'm not the only one who hates this dreck!
Sequel already out (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe this is his newest book in the USA, over here the sequel is already out: The Sundering [amazon.co.uk] (got that link of WJW's page).
I find myself agreeing with much of the review (cardboard cutout characters getting killed or surviving in predictable ways), but at the same time I really enjoyed the book. I particularly liked the way that, since the Shaa had restricted various sorts of tech, you could zap around between stars at FTL via the fixed wormholes, but once in a system were stuck with relativistic physics (and no nanotechnology or AI to help out).
One point I think the review missed - the reason that the characters manage to survive against vastly superior odds is that neither side have any idea how to conduct a space battle - no enemy apart from the Shaa has a fleet of any size or control of the wormholes, so all the actions in the illustrious thousands-year history of the grand Shaa spacefleet have basicallly been bombarding planets into submission from orbit. This is brought out more in the sequel.
Could have lived without the rant about the series by a different author (but I haven't read the Honor Harrington stuff so maybe it was relevant).
Re:Sequel already out (Score:2)
I'd say the two books are 'okay', but no better.
There is some great background here, some fascinating alien races (the ones who are perpetually rotting is a nicely gross idea), the fact that space battles aren't conducted like The Battle of Britain is a refreshing change.
But...
I couldn't care less about any of the characters - Martinez is a limp know-it-all who could do with a
Evil Insectoid races? (Score:2)
Worst Author Ever Award (Score:4, Informative)
The worst book ever: Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen Donaldson
This is the worst peice of crap ever published (and I have been known to enjoy books based on the game DOOM). The main character is a middle aged leper of all things, who is the most despicable character in the whole story. Starting at about page 2, I was hoping someone would come along and put him out of his misery. The character is filled with self pity and has no heroic qualities at all. At the pinnicle of his despicability, he actually rapes a teenaged girl who saves his life early in the story. It seemed to me that the author thought it would be OK for the main character to be a self-pitying rapist with no moral fiber. On top of that, the entire story is a complete rip off of the LOTR trilogy, except that near the end, our main character finds himself back in suburbia wondering if the whole thing was a dream. It's just badly written, I couldn't read the whole thing once I found out the main character does not die the bloody, painful death he deserves. Since then, I have stayed away from cheap paperback sci-fi and fantasy. I hope my brain is never again tainted by the scribblings of talentless human typewriters.
Re:Worst Author Ever Award (Score:2)
Oh come on!
It's way worse than that.
Re:Worst Author Ever Award (Score:3, Insightful)
Given that, it's rather amusing that you are outraged at, and want to kill, a character who is clearly a Christ figure, for not living up to your expectations of what a saviour/hero should be. Kind of what happened to Him, too.
Re: Worst Author Ever Award (Score:5, Interesting)
For those not familiar with the books, the story revolves around one Mister Thomas Covenant, author and husband in contemporary America. He seems to have everything one could ask for, a loving wife, a newborn son, and a best selling novel. However, things start to unravel as success is not everything it's cracked up to be. His wife takes his son for an extended visit to see the relatives and Covenant begins on his second book. His wife returns to see that he has not taken care of himself, and he has appeared to have a gangrenous sore on his hand. A trip to the doctor verifies the wound as the first stage of leprosy -- at which point his life comes crashing down around him.
After spending months in a leprosarium, Covenant returns to his little town to discover he is an outcast. His neighbors pay all his bills, deliver groceries to his doot, etc. Out of sheer will to surive Covenant walks to town to pay his telephone bill, and on the return trip sees a strangely dressed beggar. Covenant nearly gives him his wedding ring out of disgust, but is refused, and goes on about his business. Just as he is crossing the street he hears sirens and is hit by a patrol car.
He wakes up, not in the hospital, but in a cave where he meets the the Cavewight Drool Rockworm who has summoned him from his world with the Staff of Law. Covenant, of course, believes he is hallucinating... and the story goes on from there.
In Lord Foul's Bane, and the other two in the trilogy The Illearth War and The Power That Preserves, tell of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever in this trials throughout The Land, a fantasy world populated by wights and giants and men. Covenant is called 'unbeliever' because he refuses to accept what he sees at face value -- the strange world around him -- and goes slightly mad at the prospect of being magically healed of an incurable disease. He bears a weapon of great power, his wedding ring of white gold, something altogether unlike anything else in the Land, which is part of its power. Like the Lord of the Rings often the story centers around the ring of white gold and there is an evil lord seeking it and to destroy the Land. That is where the similarity ends, however, and much in this novel is, well, novel.
I disagree that the books are badly written. On the contrary, Butane Bob's hatred of the books and the main character are not by chance but by design. Thomas Covenant is, without a doubt, the most un-heroic and dislikeable character in fantasy fiction. He would be pitiable if he weren't such an ass. But as I said, it is not because the books are poorly written or because the author's concept is weak. No, these books are remarkable and intriguing, yet uncomfortable to read. Finishing them requires an effort of will, not unlike the effor of will the main character exerts to maintain his sanity. If you, dear reader, pick up these books do not expect a light and fluffy reading experience filled with tales of heroic deeds and comic relief. No, this is a story of woe, the protagonist is an anti-hero, alternatively pitiable and despicable, and his magical ring remains unscrutable, beyond the ken of the character in question.
Though it is difficult for me to say I enjoyed reading these books, I can honestly say that I am not unmoved by the story. I feel I have accomplished something by making it through to the other side but unsure that I am the same. One of the qualities of Great Books is that the reader is moved. In some stories, one is moved in faith such as in the Chronicles of Narnia, or moved to love and modesty such as the Lord of the Rings, or even to despair such as from The Brothers Karamazov. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are not comfortable books. After reading them you will not feel happy, or content, or with peace of mind. But you will feel. The sensation of negative enormity is great in this book, yet not without a kernel of hope. Not without a small satisfaction after a great loss. A silver lining this cloud has, if you can weather the storm.
Cheers.
Re:Worst Author Ever Award (Score:3, Interesting)
It does have some things that I like I think that Covenant (the main character) is a bit over-the-top when it comes to self-loathing, but despite that, it's interesting to see a series that focuses so much on despair. The magic is interesting -- a ring that can be phenomenally powerful, but only occasionally, and tends not to be there when one would like.
That being said, the read is also
Review is right on target (Score:3, Informative)
Problem is, for really bad books, it's hard to be insightful in a review without sounding like a whiner. But this book does *just suck*, and as long as everyone who reads the review takes that point home at the end, it has done its job.
HH books: recommended (Score:5, Informative)
If you are at all interested in the Honor Harrington books, check out the Baen Free Library [baen.com]. The first book is On Basilisk Station [baen.com]. (That link is to the HTML version; there are several downloadable versions as well.)
Take a look and decide for yourself whether these books are for you.
steveha
Re:HH books: recommended (Score:3, Insightful)
HH is good light space opera. It starts out as Horatio Hornblower In Space (Or, as I call it now: Mistress and Commander: Far Side of the Galaxy); turns into Tom Clancy in Space about half way through the series.
Good thing: He's not afraid to seriously fuck with his main characters. They get whomped, maimed, screwed over, generally what you'd expect in war, and in political circles.
Bad thing: He's heavy handed with the historical parallels; when you name a character Rob S. Pierre, you're going a bit f
Re:HH books: recommended (Score:2)
I have to agree, for those not interested in historical reference these books are not for them. Also, for those who dislike Horation Hornblower these books are not for you. I read them all cover to cover, and the plot is not as bland as tim makes it out to be. The personal strife the main character must endure and STILL be patriotic/heroic is unique, as well as the character interaction between a FEMALE officer of a national navy and the male patriarch of a Male dominated society.
Not to me
Re:HH books: recommended (Score:2)
and that's Horatio
Simplicity itself. (Score:2)
Can't get any simpler than that, I guess
Williams makes one of the races both supreme tacticians and incapable of anything more than 2G. OK, that's different).
I can see how using such a wimpy explosive and propulsion power, missiles wouldn't be able to pull more than 2G and would do little damage, so the "supreme tacticians" will actually have a chance of surviving a battle.
Not all insects bad in SF (Score:2, Informative)
Frankly, though, there's a lot of bad SF out there that deserves to be trashed - it's only made because pre-pubescent scient-oriented teenage boys will read anything (well, except for most good stuff.)
One comment though: the Thranx, and insectoid race in Alan Dean Foster's Flinx & Commonwealth series, are actually more noble, peace-loving, and rational than humans. Less stinky too.
(Of course, Alan Dean Foster has really sunk to the level of the type of books that you're talkin
BattleField Earth? (Score:2)
Somewhat similar premise: One alien race dominates the universe. Other races don't think to rebel. Eventually humanity becomes the savior of everyone and everything.
And judging by this review, it sounds like it was written with the same amount of skill. And no, I'm not Trolling or bashing another book or am Offtopic.... I am being serious here.
In Battlefield Earth: humans have basically reverted to hunter-gatherers; the sheer stupidity of one al
In defense of Honor Harrington (Score:5, Insightful)
Weber's characters have strengths and weaknesses. Honor isn't perfect. She has more character flaws than any hero from Star Trek or Star Wars. She's into revenge, and makes some mistakes because of it.
Her real strength is tactics. That makes sense; she's in a navy that trains and selects for tactical skill. She doesn't get that skill by magic; she goes to the Academy and works her way up to command over many years.
The Peep leaders are Weber's most complex characters. Some of them are boors, yet even Warden Tresca plays chess by mail. The Peep military commanders are in tough positions, caught between their political masters and military realities, and deal with them in different ways. Most just do their jobs. One or two go over to the Manty side. Some die for the People's Republic. Some try a coup. Rod Pierre (oh, please) has a tiger by the tail and can't let go; he's portrayed as ruthless but not evil.
Weber is writing for people who know what Jellicoe did at Jutland. Battle charts wouldn't seem out of place in Weber's books. Fortunately, like Tom Clancy, he has the sense to avoid them.
It's unusual to see tactical skill in SF. Usually, there's too much individual heroism and not enough planning. Historically, it's hard to find any example where individual heroism changed the outcome of a major war. But it happens all the time in fiction. David Drake gets this, and he's gradually been pulling SF around.
Tactics in print SF are bad enough, but in movie SF, they're appalling. Nobody in the Star Wars universe has any decent tactical sense. On either side. Much like World War I. Dune. Starship Troopers. Battlefield Earth. The list of bad examples goes on.
Thats what war stories are (Score:2)
And this is different from any other war fiction how? In pretty much all of the fiction written about war where war is the focus of the plot rather than an incidental part of the setting things unfold something like this:
1) Ba
I used to be a fan... (Score:3, Interesting)
As far as the SciFi goes, I felt they were pretty good books. Maybe not classics, but certainly very good. Williams presented some interesting variations on the CyberPunk theme and I felt his books compared favorably to other stuff being released at the time. However, starting with Days of Atonement (or maybe Aristoi) I felt that his "vision" started going downhill.
At first I thought, maybe I just resented his moving away from CyberPunk. His first couple books could be loosely classified as CyberPunk, however, few of his books have any sort of consistent "world" or "environment". It's pretty clear that WJW like to play around and invent different "world" for almost every book.
But then I realized that the different "worlds" had started taking precedence over the "characters". The characters started becoming imminently forgettable, they were just there to populate this new world he'd invented. The biggest problem is that some of the worlds are interesting (Hardwired, Voice of the Whilwind,) and some are not (Metropolitan, City on Fire).
I actually felt that DEF:tP is better than some of his more recent attempts. However, there were still times I was tempted to just put it down and forget it...
Honor Harrington is an oater set in space. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's mindless entertainment.
In this respect its like the ol' Horatio Hornblower pulp. Or the "Roman de Cap et d'Epee (like reading "The Three Musketeers" in the original French) that my dad used to read. I use hooked on the "Doc Savage" pap and the Poul Anderson "Polesotechnic league" books that I knocked off one a night.
Or how about Jimmy Digriz a.k.a. "The Stainless Steel Rat."
If its NOT your style, don't review it.
You bought the whole series without reading one first? I must say that you're an idiot. I definitely don't want to trust any of your reviews.
Sharing the pain (Score:3, Interesting)
In addition to the oft-pimped Baen Free Library [baen.com], you can also find their CD-ROMs included in several of their hardcovers which contain such gems as the entire Honor Harrington series [homelinux.net]. Or, if John Ringo's more your style, there's another CD with the entire Legacy of the Aldenata [homelinux.net] series available. Baen allows free distribution of these CDs, so long as no money is charged. I find it convenient to keep them on my webserver.
Lots of other good books not available on the BFL can also be found on the CDs, incidentally. It's a horribly effective marketing scheme. The BFL has cost me close to $300 over the last two years in books I would not have otherwise purchased.
You missed the point (Score:3, Interesting)
Walter Jon Williams is something of a chameleon as an author. In fact, he seems to have challenged himself to write each of his books in a different style. If you were to pick up a copy of Hardwired, Aristoi, and Day of Atonement with the covers ripped off, I don't think you'd guess that all three books were written by the same author. Not only are Williams' books usually set in different universes, but his writing style changes to match the setting.
DEF is Williams doing High Space Opera. He uses all the familiar tropes, and cliches, and he does it quite consciously. Indeed, on one level this is a parody of the genre. Doesn't it strike you as slightly funny that the captain of a mighty space dreadnought should devote its entire resources to producing a winning football team? That the Evil Insectoid Aliens (actually, I thought they were kinda like squids--but hey, anything with more than 2 arms is equivalent to an insectoid) pull off their coup de main by holding a sports festival and then rounding up the participants? --It had me ROFL.
And there are surprises hidden underneath the well-worn space opera trappings. The plot isn't as simple as the reviewer seems to think. Yes, you should have a good idea by mid-book that Sula is a shady Lady. But this is precisely what I thought was so clever about Williams' portrayal of this character: you think you know what Sula did (I'm going to try to stay away from spoilers)...but the full impact of it doesn't hit you until Williams actually takes you to the scene of the crime (in a flashback scene). At least, that was the effect of the narrative on me: I felt very different about Sula at the end of the book than I did three fourths of the way through. Williams gives you an intellectual understanding of Lady Sula early on, but it is only when you witness the act and then understand her motivation for fighting like a demon during the space battle that you feel the emotional impact. And frankly, it sent shivers down my spine. Lady Sula is scary!
At the end, Our Hero receives a little note from Sula. It says something like, "I'm coming to meet you now. We are destined to be together, and we are going to make an irresistible team". If you have read the book, what did you feel when you read that note? I felt spooky...and I felt pity for Our Hero. Compared to her, he's a naif. He's hamburger to her meat-grinder.
I'm dying to read the follow-on books not because I want to see if the Good Guys defeat the Evil Insectoid Aliens (come on!), but whether Our Hero survives Lady Sula.
Re:So basically (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bad Sci-Fi (Score:2)
If you don't gouge them out, first.
Re:Bad Sci-Fi (Score:2)
It's a shame because some of his other work I liked, but with Otherland I just felt snoring.
Meanwhile Neal Stephensons Quicksilver is a joy to read, I love it and I already dread the moment I am done with it.
Re:Bad Sci-Fi (Score:2)
Jason
ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]
Re:Bad Sci-Fi (Score:3, Interesting)
The Foundation series is one of the best installments in SciFi ever. It's a great history, with lots of character development and intriguing trama. It's not your traditional SciFi story, it's politics in a SciFi environment.
You could take the story of the Foundation series and rewrite it on a different setting without losing the meaning and the quality.
Of course, geeks do not care about stuff like that, they care about complicated pseudo-sci stuff that cant be und
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Bad Sci-Fi (Score:2)
Re:Wow, what a piece of junk (Score:5, Insightful)
And "review" is not synonymous with "loved it". The review called what he thought was a spade a spade, and did it in a fairly amusing-yet-informative manner.
I'm not one for sci-fi, personally, but i imagine anyone who is, and who shares the crappy opinion of the Weber books, will appreciate this review-cum-warning.
(p.s. and
Re:Wow, what a piece of junk (Score:2)
I mean sheesh, the overview blurb has nothing to do with the actual book he is reviewing.
Of course it did. Plenty of reviews start off, "If you liked Count Zero you'll love Snowcrash!" It quickly establishes what kind of book we're dealing with. In this case it is the "Improbable doings of uninteresting characters. In space." genre. Heck, it got me to read the review.
Re:1633 David Weber bad? Heck no its awesome. (Score:2)
1632 by Eric Flint [baen.com] and 1633 by David Webber & Eric Flint [baen.com]