On 4/6/07, Jerry Han <jhan@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
With Honor, Weber's caught in two traps -- he's written so many books,
he's having a hard time coming up with new stuff, and he's trapped in
the style set from the first book, so, he probably feels the need to
continuing writing in that style even though he's evolved as a writer
in twenty years. Especially in the Honorverse where technology plays a
major role in the plot, and he has to keep coming up with new gizmos to
maintain tension in the naval battles, which features prominently in the
overall story. *shrug*
As someone who has most of Honorverse in hardcover, I think my opinion may have some weight on the topic of the decline in the series. It is not the rapidly evolving technology needed to keep the RMN from collapsing under the weight of the increasing mass of the RHN, it is that the Manticoran-Havenite War is two books past its end-by date. The war did not end in War of Honor, nor did it end in At All Costs, and I have the terrible fear that it will not end in the next book. The war has gone stale and there are no longer any interesting villains who are likely to be casualties, so any future deaths of named characters are going to be characters that are well liked. The technology is advancing, but the story seems to have stopped. Personally, I found the Honor-Hamish resolution to be unsatisfying, but I will accept that not everyone appreciates Tristan and Isolde.
Unfortunately, it seems that there is no end in sight for the war without a miracle allowing either the RHN to dictate terms to a recalcitrant Queen Elizabeth following a stupendous defeat of the RMN (sadly, this is becoming my preferred ending), or the Queen being removed from the throne without any involvement of the Republic of Haven. An idle daydream of mine involves a plausible set of circumstances that end with Pritchard being adopted by a treecat, which would force the Queen to acknowledge that peeps are people, too.