The Wombat's Book Blog

I love David Weber. Ever since I read my first Honor Harrington book (Honor among Enemies, I believe it was - I can remember entire pages of the book but the Honor books' names always escape me) I have adored this writer.

When my brother showed up one day with a copy of On Armageddon Reef, the first book in this series, I was filled with glee. I remained filled with glee until I reached the end, and realised that the next book wasn't out yet.

This is the vicious cycle you are trapped in when you're a Weber fan - you spend a year occasionally thinking about the next book, more and more often as the time goes closer, until for a week before release you can't think of anything else at all...and then the book comes and you spend a day reading it and then you realise that the next one wasn't going to be out for another year...

I managed to delay this by not reading this book for about a week after I got it. I let it sit there, mocking me. I even considered rereading the other books in the series to prolong it, but when I counted up I realised that I had read the first book seven times, so that was a no.

Eventually, however, having finished literally every other thing on my Kindle (damn you, Terry Goodkind, why isn't your series LONGER?) I caved to temptation and read it.

And as it happens, just like every junkie with their drug, while I was in its grip I couldn't be happier.

There were the occasional moments of frustration - I mean really, who stops mid-battle for a two-page lecture on military history and the design of whatever weapon they are using? David Weber, that's who. There were the verbal tics (I counted only one 'such as it is, and what there is of it' which is an amazingly low number for a Weber book, although I did see two 'poured their hate' and one 'spat their defiance') but you know what? Nobody's perfect.

And if David Weber can keep on giving me Strong Female Characters who aren't always Strong, or even Female (it's a long story - about 8 books at this point) and huge battles and ALL THE FEELS, then I can cope with the actually quite interesting lectures on military history and the verbal tics. I have a weakness for battles against overwhelming odds, for gallantry in the face of almost certain death, and for a clear-cut Good Guys-Bad Guys division, and David Weber caters to all those weaknesses.

I'm not going to say anything about the plot, because quite frankly it's Book 8 in a series and there is nothing I can say about it without spoiling the others, except that it's Weber at his best, and that if Thirsk doesn't do the thing we're all hoping he's going to do in the next book, I may implode.

Also the cliffhangers, OH MY GOD THE CLIFFHANGERS WEBER HOW CAN YOU BE SO MEAN?