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Skipping the detailed account of Christmas, at least for now, although I did manage to take the green bike for a sizable trip without anything falling off it - but I read Weber's "At All Costs" over the holiday, and boy, has some shark-leaping gone on.
He's got a bit of a problem in that he's already heaped just about every possible honour and supernatural ability on his Mary-Sue protagonist, so thinking of new lovely things to happen to her is a bit tricky.
Furthermore, as is traditional in the books, Mary-Sue is placed at a serious disadvantage vis-a-vis space combat. Normally she gets out of this with a combination of superior conventional strategy/tactics, some enormously clever unconventional approach, and the slight technological edge her side has. This is all very well - the best bit of the books is the exploding spaceships, and it would hardly be very interesting if she won her battles from a position of serious initial advantage. But, once again, Weber should have stuck to imitating Forester, this being a standard Hornblower trope (except Hornblower's Navy has a training-and-discipline edge).
This time around, as far as I can make out, he can't be bothered to think of any tactics, so the climatic final battle is won by escalating the technological advantage to a point where - well, if you've ever played _Master of Orion_ or its descendants, you'll know there comes a point where you've won through crushing technological advantage and it's just a matter of making the game admit it, and this generally consists of a series of engagements rather like fights between Hornblower's Navy and the _Yamato_ [1], which are not very interesting but you kind of feel you ought to finish.
It's not very interesting in books either. Honor presses the "blow their ships up" button. Glee! If I want that, I'll fire up MOO, build Huge ships with a hojillion Mauler Devices, and at least press the button myself.
[1] Either version, frankly.
Also my sister gave me bull semen.
He's got a bit of a problem in that he's already heaped just about every possible honour and supernatural ability on his Mary-Sue protagonist, so thinking of new lovely things to happen to her is a bit tricky.
Furthermore, as is traditional in the books, Mary-Sue is placed at a serious disadvantage vis-a-vis space combat. Normally she gets out of this with a combination of superior conventional strategy/tactics, some enormously clever unconventional approach, and the slight technological edge her side has. This is all very well - the best bit of the books is the exploding spaceships, and it would hardly be very interesting if she won her battles from a position of serious initial advantage. But, once again, Weber should have stuck to imitating Forester, this being a standard Hornblower trope (except Hornblower's Navy has a training-and-discipline edge).
This time around, as far as I can make out, he can't be bothered to think of any tactics, so the climatic final battle is won by escalating the technological advantage to a point where - well, if you've ever played _Master of Orion_ or its descendants, you'll know there comes a point where you've won through crushing technological advantage and it's just a matter of making the game admit it, and this generally consists of a series of engagements rather like fights between Hornblower's Navy and the _Yamato_ [1], which are not very interesting but you kind of feel you ought to finish.
It's not very interesting in books either. Honor presses the "blow their ships up" button. Glee! If I want that, I'll fire up MOO, build Huge ships with a hojillion Mauler Devices, and at least press the button myself.
[1] Either version, frankly.
Also my sister gave me bull semen.
(no subject)