Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
David Weber, please write the sequel!, October 25, 2002
An oft recurring theme in science fiction is that of aliens kidnapping or recruiting humans to act as their slaves or mercenaries. Several well received stories spring to mind. "Janissaries" by Jerry Pournelle, which depicted contemporary American mercenaries, spawned two sequels. "The High Crusade" by Poul Anderson showed English knights in the Middle Ages ready to march on Jerusalem. Instead aliens abduct them. "Ranks of Bronze" by David Drake was a short story of a Roman legion sold to aliens to fight endless wars against enemies of comparable (non-)technology. This book is an authorised sequel to the latter. Think of it as an alternative starting scenario for "The High Crusade". The book ends with the English knights overthrowing their masters and setting up a pocket empire that is ready to confront the aliens in a Galactic War!! As others have noted, the end of this book is slightly at askance. Weber is positioning probably many sequels. He has just released "War of Honor" (2002), which is clearly the start of a new Honor Harrington series. (See my review on that for more details.) Plus he also published "The Shiva Option" which ends that series. He has built up an expertise in writing interplanetary battle scenes, and in doing so has attracted a devoted fan base. From a marketing standpoint, he is reinforcing success by introducing different but related brands, like Coke and Diet Coke. Also, if he experiences a temporary writer's block in one series, he can switch to the other, to maintain productivity. -------------------------------------------------------- Here is an aside, and something that does not seem to have been noted by others. The stories mentioned above about humans being kidnapped or recruited have all had humans as the heroes. Are there any where the humans are bad blokes? Not as far as I know. But if you relax the restriction that they be human, then you get Kzin! Yes, that's right. The Man-Kzin wars by Larry Niven. The Kzin were pretechnological tribals who overthrew and enslaved their spacefaring masters. So if you want a different take on this theme, check out that series.
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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Subtle and Intriguing, January 18, 2002
I do not agree with any of the reviewers who bombed this book. It is a wonderfully subtle and thoughtful story that stretches the imagination of a reader inventive enough to look at the many levels and shadings of the tale. The premise is that of a primitive english lord caught up, literally, in an alternative universe and forced to serve as a slave for hundreds of years in an environment that is beyond his wildest nightmares. How he holds his sanity and his fellow survivors together is a subtext that teaches heroism at its highest level as well as the gift of incredible adaptability of human intelligence to grow beyond predictable boundaries arbitrarily set by culture, time and old expectations. The theme is very inspiring for it shows how one can "push the envelope" of imagination and accept the impossible. For me the tale was a metaphor for humanity's greatness. David Weber, among his many gifts as a writer creates excellent dialog and his worlds are peopled with both intellectually and emotionally stirring characters. Sir George represents the strength of humanity, its honor, courage, bravery and integrity. Weber offers these qualities as reminders of the costs to the soul when challenged to overcome xenophobia. Imagine accepting a 3 eyed, dual mouth, purple furred entity as one's boss, or a scaled, reptilian creature as one's ally and best friend. Just as H. G. Wells challenged us to imagine a future world that has long since come to pass, so too, David challenges us to stretch beyond our own limitations and perceptions and imagine the "what if" that could some day become the "as is". I particularly liked his gradual bringing about the shift in consciousness and learning for Sir George and his evolution from primitive to techno geek, a metaphor for our present world where countless people in other countries have never heard of or used a computer. Sir George's perception of "computer" as a sentient being whom he calls "he" is also a harbinger for AI technology that will be part of our everyday use reality soon enough. What a trip that will be. For this reader, the reverence of british culture and traditions held by Sir George who names his empire Avalon, his flag ship Excaliber and uses hereditary titles for his subjects adds a sense of timelessness that also serves as an anchor that unites real time to space/time. Concepts of nanotech for medical and longevity purposes and human cloning to populate other worlds really challenge one to think of these potentialities and prejudices. This book is engaging, deep and worth the effort to read it carefully rather than gulp it down. There are many levels of insight and foresight that are worth being explored and I am intrigued by the notion of where this story could go from here as a new and strong heroine, Admiral Her Imperial Highness Princess Evelynn Wincaster, the commander of Third Fleet has appeared in the story. I would love to see her evolve as Honor Harrington has in that wonderful series.
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23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Wait for this one to end on the ($$$) Bargin table, December 21, 2001
By A Customer
I've got to admit that I eagerly awaited this book, as I do all of David Weber's books. He is the ONLY fiction
author that I automatically buy the Hard Back editions as soon as they are published. Or at least I used to.This book is both new and interesting. Unfortunately, what is new is not interesting and what is interesting is not new. Boring characters, plodding and predictable plot. I am predisposed to like anything Mr. Weber writes and (as a snow storm is expected in the area) I was looking forward to a good read during a snow bound weekend. I couldn't make it as far as the third chapter before I gave up and returned the book. The characters were entirely uninteresting and unsympathetic. The plot was cliched, basically a much watered down "High Crusade" and there was as much dynamic tension as might be found in a broken rubber band. I can only assume that his publishers at Baen are pushing him to churn out as many words as possible since he's their biggest money-maker. But quality is suffering, as his last two books "March Up Country/to the Sea" were, In My Opinion, so badly written and boring that I couldn't get past the first five chapters and returned both to the store for a refund. And to compare this to Paul Anderson's "High Crusade" is like comparing "Man O' War" to a donkey. They've both got four legs and hooves, but that's the extent of it. If you're a David Weber fanatic (which I am) you'll want this book. But wait for it to be reduced in price. I'd estimate that ($$$) is a fair price for the Hard Back edition. If you've never read David Weber, don't start with this book. Try "Path of the Fury" instead. I've worn out three copies and am working on a fourth. I've worn out two copies of "Crusade" and I've got 'reading' copies of all the Honor Harrington books (as opposed to collector editions which I keep sealed in plastic bags) This is of course ONLY my opinion and there are quite
a lot of best selling authors that I can't stand. In My Opinion, David Weber at his best compares favorably with Robert A. Heinlein or H. Beam Piper. So, I am perhaps being unfair, since this is probably a quite readable story. But it suffers badly in comparison with David Weber's best efforts, ("In Death Ground" for example)which are superb. If Mr. Weber was not such a wonderful writer I would not bother writing such a negative review.
However I am concerned that quality is being sacrificed for quantity. I would rather have fewer
but better books, than a glut of hastily written and inferior works. Baen publishing should take better care of the best writer they have.
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