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A review by edb14
Echoes of Honor by David Weber
3.0
I promised that I would tell you when I finally tired of this series, and it has now happened.
Nothing really ruined it for me; I enjoyed my time in the Honorverse and I will probably read through them again from the beginning in a few years, but Weber’s writing habits have finally begun to pall. Honor’s character has now grown and changed so much that I can no longer hold onto my suspension of disbelief that all of these adventures could center around one person, and I’m happy to put the series aside after reading of her triumphant and daring escape from prison. Weber’s novels have gotten steadily longer to the point where the last two took me months to finish, and I took many breaks to finish other novels in between. This one in particular was irksome because Honor’s storyline was tightly written and intensely interesting, but it was broken up by interminable scenes of other characters, new and old, testing military equipment and fighting losing skirmishes in other parts of space. Weber’s insistence on adding new but ultimately inconsequential characters to his space opera has finally taken over the plot like an inoperable cancer, and my brain was blinded as I tried to remember the names of all of those mechanics and tac officers who showed up for this installment but who I would never hear about again. This was especially annoying as Honor was also meeting a bunch of new people in her prison camp, but by the time I got back to their storyline I had forgotten who everyone was. The mental effort of trying to keep track of everyone and understand the purpose behind all of the space battles through Weber’s wealth of mathematical details began to be more than the reward of seeing Honor overcome new challenges. Plus, Weber is continually heaping new “honors” on his heroine while ignoring any opportunities for punnery and I can’t stand it anymore. No regrets, but no intentions of embarking on the next installment either.
Nothing really ruined it for me; I enjoyed my time in the Honorverse and I will probably read through them again from the beginning in a few years, but Weber’s writing habits have finally begun to pall. Honor’s character has now grown and changed so much that I can no longer hold onto my suspension of disbelief that all of these adventures could center around one person, and I’m happy to put the series aside after reading of her triumphant and daring escape from prison. Weber’s novels have gotten steadily longer to the point where the last two took me months to finish, and I took many breaks to finish other novels in between. This one in particular was irksome because Honor’s storyline was tightly written and intensely interesting, but it was broken up by interminable scenes of other characters, new and old, testing military equipment and fighting losing skirmishes in other parts of space. Weber’s insistence on adding new but ultimately inconsequential characters to his space opera has finally taken over the plot like an inoperable cancer, and my brain was blinded as I tried to remember the names of all of those mechanics and tac officers who showed up for this installment but who I would never hear about again. This was especially annoying as Honor was also meeting a bunch of new people in her prison camp, but by the time I got back to their storyline I had forgotten who everyone was. The mental effort of trying to keep track of everyone and understand the purpose behind all of the space battles through Weber’s wealth of mathematical details began to be more than the reward of seeing Honor overcome new challenges. Plus, Weber is continually heaping new “honors” on his heroine while ignoring any opportunities for punnery and I can’t stand it anymore. No regrets, but no intentions of embarking on the next installment either.