|
quantumfoam posted:I'd call Brigador the best modern mecha game in existence. Best isometric vehicle action game since Nuclear Strike. The audio book that came with the soundtrack was good too IIRC. https://twitter.com/gausswerks/status/1017962559713021952 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izPsEMNnKMo edit: C.M. Kruger fucked around with this message at 09:15 on Mar 3, 2020 |
# ? Mar 3, 2020 09:11 |
|
|
# ? Jun 10, 2024 06:25 |
|
Libluini posted:I've always chalked this up to Manticorans being weird. They are REALLY weird, if that's suppose to be normal. I don't mind if you wanna bring it up. I couldn't think of anything the title could be referring to in this book at all. And I don't mind cats, but Nimitz is just like... kind of forced on you a little much I feel. Graysons are the loving worst though. EDIT: You know I had a thought that it seems like a... 'coincidence' that he introduces this weirdly paternal Chief Stewart role on ships in the same book that's all about the super paternalistic and chauvinistic shithead bunch that Weber loves. quantumfoam posted:Mil-scifi gaming wise: Actually, I feel that belongs to Super Robot Wars, G Generation Gundam, or Ghiren's Greed and games similiar to it like G Generation Gundam G-NEXT. Kchama fucked around with this message at 10:34 on Mar 3, 2020 |
# ? Mar 3, 2020 09:59 |
|
C.M. Kruger posted:Best isometric vehicle action game since Nuclear Strike. The audio book that came with the soundtrack was good too IIRC. The audiobook is available on Kindle Unlimited if you prefer to read text over listen (I don’t know why but I can never really absorb an audiobook). It is indeed way better than a video game novel has any right to be.
|
# ? Mar 3, 2020 14:25 |
|
It's mentioned in the next book that captains are assigned a personal assistant when they achieve that rank, and I think it's also mentioned that light cruisers are too small for the captain of the ship to have one. Here, she doesn't yet have one but apparently one of the many responsibilities chief stewards have on smaller vessels is to provide similar service to the captain of the ship. It's not ever explicitly stated, if so, even when we get narration for other ship captains. Nor do we ever get any narration centered around Mac's life, which would clear some of this up.
|
# ? Mar 3, 2020 21:22 |
Kchama posted:They are REALLY weird, if that's suppose to be normal. It is rather explicit later in the book. After Houseman issues his illegal order to abandon the Graysons to their fate, and she slaps him, she calls it out. "He knew the Queen's honor is at stake here, Mr. Houseman. The honor of the entire Kingdom of Manticore. " ((Not using quote tags because it breaks the spoiler, and spoilers disrupt the flow of a Lets Read.)) quote:EDIT: You know I had a thought that it seems like a... 'coincidence' that he introduces this weirdly paternal Chief Stewart role on ships in the same book that's all about the super paternalistic and chauvinistic shithead bunch that Weber loves. We see several other captain/steward combinations, in more than one navy, and they all have pretty much the same dynamic regardless of their relative genders. Aerdan posted:It's mentioned in the next book that captains are assigned a personal assistant when they achieve that rank, and I think it's also mentioned that light cruisers are too small for the captain of the ship to have one. Here, she doesn't yet have one but apparently one of the many responsibilities chief stewards have on smaller vessels is to provide similar service to the captain of the ship. It's not ever explicitly stated, if so, even when we get narration for other ship captains. Nor do we ever get any narration centered around Mac's life, which would clear some of this up. This is her first heavy cruiser, so it would make sense to introduce a steward here if light cruisers are too small. I don't remember the passage you're talking about, though.
|
|
# ? Mar 3, 2020 21:42 |
|
I assumed the Captain's Steward thing was just British age-of-sail, but I've never looked into it
|
# ? Mar 3, 2020 22:29 |
|
FuturePastNow posted:I assumed the Captain's Steward thing was just British age-of-sail, but I've never looked into it Horatio Hornblower did not have an Attractive Older Person tuck him in at night, no. Like it's a real position on boats, though he's using the American version where they're the top person in the department rather than a senior member of the department (because the Purser is their boss) and I'm shocked he didn't have an 18th century style Purser who gets to sell concessions and supplies to the people on board the ship. Basically their job is be in charge of the people doing the cooking and cleaning and inventory. The whole "personal nanny" thing is a Weber thing, and being the uncharitable sort I am, is probably only ever mentioned for Honor because it's totally a fetish thing with Honor and father figures for Weber. Gnoman posted:We see several other captain/steward combinations, in more than one navy, and they all have pretty much the same dynamic regardless of their relative genders. It's pretty weird. Also that quote just makes me groan because you could say that about pretty much any mission Honor is on, that's why I didn't think there was any thing to warrant that being the title. Since I don't care about spoilers, Houseman is the Suchon of this book. Weber loves having them.
|
# ? Mar 4, 2020 01:15 |
Is anyone still reading the Safehold Let's Read? It was only supposed to be book 1, but I'm happy to continue it. The problem is that there's just so much drivel that it's actively kinda unfun and I'm gonna just fall into the trap of repeating "Nothing is happening", "Weber has written this crap before", "the stock characters are being reused," and "there's no dramatic tension". It's bad, but it's not entertainingly or interestingly bad.
|
|
# ? Mar 4, 2020 07:42 |
|
TheGreatEvilKing posted:Is anyone still reading the Safehold Let's Read? It was only supposed to be book 1, but I'm happy to continue it. Keep at it. I will read it until the sun dies. Because gently caress I hate those books.
|
# ? Mar 4, 2020 09:23 |
|
TheGreatEvilKing posted:Is anyone still reading the Safehold Let's Read? It was only supposed to be book 1, but I'm happy to continue it. I've been enjoying them and I think you do a really great job with them, but if they're not fun and/or cathartic for you then you shouldn't force yourself to write them just for the entertainment of some internet strangers.
|
# ? Mar 4, 2020 18:13 |
|
TheGreatEvilKing posted:Is anyone still reading the Safehold Let's Read? It was only supposed to be book 1, but I'm happy to continue it. Don’t torture yourself for our entertainment. Self flagellation is not fun to watch. Abandon ship and never worry about those stupid misspelled names again. Cayleb? Nahrman? Haarahld? Go gently caress yourself, Weber.
|
# ? Mar 4, 2020 19:47 |
|
TheGreatEvilKing posted:Is anyone still reading the Safehold Let's Read? It was only supposed to be book 1, but I'm happy to continue it. Kchama has fully unlocked their personalized Lament Configuration puzzle, however there is still hope for you. Bail out, and let the bailout be a testament to the quality of the writing/content of the writing. If anyone wants a truly challenging author, I dare them to try and Let's Read Jerry Pournelle. Pournelle's articles in Avalon Hills decades-running/decades-dead The General wargaming newsletter-magazine are bad enough at only 2-4 pages long, a novel of Pournelle is the true Literary WarCrime. mil-scifi gaming: Still ranking Brigador higher than anything else. Never played any of the Gundam games and Mechwarrior style FPS mecha games seem to devolve into Barbie Dress-up min/maxing while abusing braindead enemy AI/indestructible terrain features. Really like that, with dedication, 95% of the map in Brigador levels can be reduced to fine rubble, excluding indestructible border walls and water tiles, during any mission. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Mar 4, 2020 |
# ? Mar 4, 2020 20:19 |
|
Read Fallen Angels if you truly want to torture yourself with a Niven/Pournelle novel environmentalists have destroyed the Earth
|
# ? Mar 4, 2020 21:14 |
|
As funny as it is watching someone destroy themselves by reading something they hate and making scathing comments on it the entire way, I could never do it. The one book I really hated I threw away. The idea of trying to read it again, even just to mock it, makes me shiver with revulsion. The only stuff I could possible see myself doing a Let's Read on is stuff that's weird, but stuff that I also like. If work stops killing me for a second, I'd probably already started with The Power of the Three for example, but right now I'm still kind of swamped and need relaxing after work, not more work. (Joke is on me, I still work on at least two private projects in parallel after work. I feel so tired)
|
# ? Mar 4, 2020 22:27 |
Lets Reads are hard.
|
|
# ? Mar 4, 2020 22:45 |
|
Libluini posted:The only stuff I could possible see myself doing a Let's Read on is stuff that's weird, but stuff that I also like. Weird is good !
|
# ? Mar 5, 2020 00:20 |
|
quantumfoam posted:Kchama has fully unlocked their personalized Lament Configuration puzzle, however there is still hope for you. Bail out, and let the bailout be a testament to the quality of the writing/content of the writing. The Gundam games differ between the high-level strategy of the Ghiren's Greed series where you control one of the nations during a specific war period and do all of its military research and construction, to the G Generation Gundam games which are either Super Robot War style medium-scale story-focused turn-based games games or replicating the Gundam stories in SRW-style gameplay. They're really drat good and it's a shame we've only just started getting them. Anyways I still say keep going with it. But I need my own enjoying at someone else's cost.
|
# ? Mar 5, 2020 00:57 |
I'm out! I'm freeeeeeee! Thanks for the kind words, all.
|
|
# ? Mar 5, 2020 01:09 |
|
Half-jokingly adding the Animorphs series of YA novels to this thread.
|
# ? Mar 5, 2020 01:11 |
|
TheGreatEvilKing posted:I'm out! I'm freeeeeeee! I did not free you. Keep doing it for me and me alone! SardonicTyrant posted:Half-jokingly adding the Animorphs series of YA novels to this thread. The problem there is that Animorphs rule.
|
# ? Mar 5, 2020 01:20 |
|
SardonicTyrant posted:Half-jokingly adding the Animorphs series of YA novels to this thread. Is disturbing I want to re read these? Or should I just leave them to annals of nostalgia..
|
# ? Mar 5, 2020 23:23 |
|
Stereo posted:Is disturbing I want to re read these? Or should I just leave them to annals of nostalgia.. They're still YA books but I feel they hold up pretty well still.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2020 01:40 |
|
Stereo posted:Is disturbing I want to re read these? Or should I just leave them to annals of nostalgia.. But yeah, you should read them. They're a great mix of the horrors of war and 90s humor, the plots are usually clever and fun, and best of all they have none of the creepiness and hang-ups you usually encounter in a mil-scifi story.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2020 02:26 |
|
Stereo posted:Is disturbing I want to re read these? Or should I just leave them to annals of nostalgia.. I was never particularly into them, but I have friends who used to be and they told me that the entire series is available legally as free ebooks if you go looking for them.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2020 03:30 |
|
Khizan posted:I was never particularly into them, but I have friends who used to be and they told me that the entire series is available legally as free ebooks if you go looking for them. *although they try to "update" some of the 90s references, which as you read the books will learn is an unforgivable sin.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2020 03:44 |
That is am annoying trend on kidlit. Some of the Judy Blume and (I think) Beverly Cleary books were similarly "updated".
|
|
# ? Mar 6, 2020 05:32 |
|
I'm gonna be super real, Animorphs was a huge influence on my own attempts at writing, because as mentioned, they rule. I still don't know how nobody's ever actually done anything like them. All of Applegate's stuff was huge and amazing and there were no imitators I ever saw.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2020 06:19 |
|
Kchama posted:I did not free you. Keep doing it for me and me alone! General thread reaction to every new Kchama Let's Read Honor Harrington update-post: https://www.loc.gov/item/2011647199/ btw, I'm Theodoric in that picture.
|
# ? Mar 8, 2020 22:42 |
|
HONOR OF THE QUEEN CHAPTER THREE Well, with the HONOR SIGNAL lit, I shall return! In this chapter, we.... basically just have Honor meeting with the Strawman Liberal of the book who is just there to be dunked on by Honor and co. It's not very interesting. Not really even much to talk about. quote:White table linens glowed, silver and china gleamed, and conversation hummed as the stewards removed the dessert dishes. MacGuiness moved quietly around the table, personally pouring the wine, and Honor watched the lights glitter deep in the ruby heart of her glass. It had no mass to waste except for a giant dining cabin to fit dozens of people. quote:MacGuiness finished pouring, and Honor glanced around the long table. The Admiral—who, true to his newly acquired status, had exchanged his uniform for formal civilian dress—sat at her right hand. Andreas Venizelos faced him at her left; from there, her guests ran down the sides of the table in descending order of seniority, military and civilian, to Ensign Carolyn Wolcott at its foot. This was Wolcott's first cruise after graduation, and she looked almost like a schoolgirl dressed up in her mother's uniform. Tonight was also the first time she'd joined her new captain for dinner, and her anxiety had been obvious in her over-controlled table manners. But the RMN believed the proper place for an officer to learn her duties, social as well as professional, was in space, and Honor caught the ensign's eye and touched the side of her glass. Wait what so they don't teach except for by trial by fire? No wonder they're so incompetent. quote:Wolcott blushed, reminded of her responsibility as junior officer present, and rose. The rest of the guests fell silent, and her spine straightened as all eyes turned to her. "Gosh it couldn't be scary because we put them on the spot for their first time instead of giving them actual practice. Practice? For losers! quote:"All things are relative, Sir," Honor replied with a smile, "and I suppose it does us good. Weren't you the one who was telling me a Queen's officer has to understand diplomacy as well as tactics?" quote:"Ah, no, I'm afraid I haven't," Houseman said, and Courvosier blotted his lips with his napkin to hide a grin. "My point, however," the diplomat continued doggedly, "is that properly conducted diplomacy renders military strategy irrelevant by precluding the need for war." He sniffed and swirled his wine gently, and his superior smile reasserted itself. Blah blah blah blah Houseman gets owned who cares. He's completely unimportant except as an object of ridicule. It's a writing device Weber loves that I hate. He should knock it the gently caress off. Anyways, next is a big exposition scene. quote:A rustle of movement swept the briefing room as Admiral Courvosier followed Honor into the compartment and her officers rose. The two of them walked to their chairs at the head of the table, then sat, followed a moment later by the others, and Honor let her eyes sweep the assembled faces. "No we haven't told the stupid chauvinists that we have female personnel, much less female officers, because they're a proud, touchy lot and it would be disrespectful to tell them. That's why we're sending a followup fleet with a female commander to explicitly rub it in their face." Manticore is a pile of idiots all around. "Let's Be About It" is Honor's catch phrase basically. I guess it's to make her sound cool or something. It's boring as poo poo. I looked it up to see if there was any source of it but nope it's a Weber origina lwhich explains a lot. And while doing so, I found some forum posts on an article that was called "Let's Be About It". The Comment That I Wanted To Reproduce posted:I have always found Weber to be unusual as a member of the Baen pantheon, which runs from pretty right wing (not atypical for hardcore military Science Fiction) to pretty reactionary to insane (eg Oh John Ringo No!). He is not as explicitly political, though he does love free market capitalism a lot. 'Strong female characters', 'great space battles', 'great sense of humor', 'wonderful writing'. For all they're right in the middle paragraph, everything else is wrong. Especially with the idea that Weber is apoliticial. His politics are SUPER clear and obvious, he just tries to desperately hide behind I'M A CENTRIST when he's not. Also that's the whole chapter. Kchama fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Mar 9, 2020 |
# ? Mar 9, 2020 03:01 |
|
Here! Have some more Honorverse! HONOR OF THE QUEEN CHAPTER FOUR This chapter is one of Weber's patented "Villian POV" chapters. It's different from the usual because this isn't the villian giving a pile of information, and then the next chapter being Honor learning the information, thus rendering all of his completely superfluous outside of showing the personality of a character who might have one or two scenes in the entire series. Instead, it's just relaying everything from the previous chapters to the villian. So it kind of has the same problem. It does show off one of the rare things in this series... quote:Sword of the Faithful Matthew Simonds stumped angrily down the passage aboard his new flagship and reminded himself not to speak to Captain Yu like the heathen he was. He had no doubt Yu was going to be displeased by what he was about to hear, and though the captain was always exquisitely polite, he couldn't quite hide his feeling of superiority. That was particularly maddening in a man from such an ungodly culture, but the Church needed Yu, for a time, at least. Yet that wouldn't always be true, Simonds promised himself. The time would come when God delivered their true enemies into their hands at last. On that day infidel outsiders would no longer be necessary . . . and if these godless foreigners could create the conditions for Maccabeus to succeed, that day might come far sooner than they suspected. He doesn't talk or think identically to literally everyone else, as you'd customarily find in a Weber story. Thinking about it, both Safehold and thus series have it in common that the most likely reasons why two people will have a different voice is that they are of different religions. Which in Weber-verse means that everyone with a Bad-Guy religion talks like a brain-washed zealot. It's pretty clear this is the case as the Graysons are literally just as much brainwashed fanatics who are mildly moderate compared to Masada, but they basically speak and think more akin to Manticoreans than Masadans. Also I forgot to mention this last chapter when it was relevant, but the idea that Grayson wasn't aware that Manticore and other places have female officers is pretty funny considering the retcons that Grayson had close contact with everyone else for decades to the point that they were sending their heads of state to be educated across the universe. I don't think they even had FTL ships in this book. quote:Simonds studied that bland, waiting expression and wondered, not for the first time, what the mind behind those dark eyes thought. Yu had to know how critical he and his ship were to Masada's plans—or, at least, to the plans he knew about—and a third of Thunder of God's crew were still heathens filling the specialist roles no Masadan could. They looked to Yu for their orders, not Simonds, and not simply because he was the captain of their ship. Simonds had survived thirty years of internecine political and doctrinal warfare within Masada's theocracy, and he knew perfectly well Yu had his own superiors and his own agenda. So far, that agenda had marched side-by-side with the Faith's, yet what would happen on the day that was no longer true? It wasn't something Simonds liked to contemplate, but it was also something he had no choice but to ponder—and the reason it was so critical to handle Yu perfectly. When the time came for their ways to part, it must be on the Faithful's terms, not theirs. You know it's a shame that Simonds is just Generic Fanatic Villian Dude as he could have an actual interesting character arc but nope you've literally seen his entire one-note character. Oh, except for... quote:"We have a problem, Captain," he said at length. Sexism! The bad Masadan kind, that has a slur! Not the good kind, that Grayson has in spades. quote:Alfredo Yu nodded, carefully concealing his reaction to the savagery of Simonds' voice. The mere idea of a woman as a head of state appalled Masada—didn't the Bible itself say it was Eve's corruption which had tainted all humanity with sin?—and Simonds' disgust at the thought that even Grayson might consider allying itself with such a vile and unnatural regime was clear. Yet it probably gave him a certain horrified satisfaction, as well, for it must pander to his own sense of superiority as one more indication of Grayson's apostasy beside the uncorrupted fidelity of the Faithful. But Masadan bigotry was less important at the moment than the information that the convoy had a real escort to worry about, and the captain frowned in thought. You know, it occurs to me, but it doesn't make any sense that Grayson would instinctively know how bad it is to deal with Haven any better than Masada does. Masada would be the ones less intent on working with Haven, because they are intensely xenophobic. So the idea that Haven went to talk to them first knowing they'd be more interested in it strikes me as just an excuse to have the factions divided up equally. quote:"Not alone, no, Sir," Yu agreed, and Simonds bared his teeth in a tight grin of understanding. He knew where Yu was headed—and he had no intention of following him there. The Council of Elders wouldn't thank the Sword for creating a situation in which their continued existence depended upon Yu's true masters dispatching a powerful fleet to "protect" them! They would become little more than prisoners under house arrest if they allowed that to happen—which would no doubt suit their "ally's" purposes perfectly. Not that he could say that to Yu. About the only good thing to say about Simonds is that he is actually pretty smart for a Weber villain. Also again, this is basically the only chapter that reads differently than any others.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2020 05:20 |
Ugly In The Morning posted:The audiobook is available on Kindle Unlimited if you prefer to read text over listen (I don’t know why but I can never really absorb an audiobook). It is indeed way better than a video game novel has any right to be. “It was ruthless and it was dark and I did not eat it” is the purest poetry and I love everything about this.
|
|
# ? Mar 9, 2020 06:07 |
|
Last year I read all of the main series Harrington books up to War of Honor, where I got burnt out again. They're not the worst things I've read but I agree the writing can be lacking and often repetitive. While I will finish the series one day, does anyone have any recommendations for other good space navy/battle type series?
|
# ? Mar 9, 2020 20:54 |
Stereo posted:Last year I read all of the main series Harrington books up to War of Honor, where I got burnt out again. They're not the worst things I've read but I agree the writing can be lacking and often repetitive. I dunno how many good ones there are. If anyone finds one, let me know. The Starfire books "In Death Ground" and "The Shiva Option" by Weber and White are adequate, bordering on pretty good. The rest of the books in the series, not so much, though I haven't read most of the ones that White's done on his own after Weber left for bigger and better things. Maybe they get better? John Campbell's "The Lost Fleet" series has some neat elements to it, but gets astoundingly repetitive from book to book. Pick one book in the series and enjoy it, but then skip the rest....they're pretty much the same book over and over. The "Vatta's War" books by Elizabeth Moon have some decent space battle stuff, especially in the latter books, but it's like 10% space battles, and 90% a lot of other things, including a whole pile of space merchant stuff in the first book.
|
|
# ? Mar 9, 2020 21:18 |
|
jng2058 posted:I dunno how many good ones there are. If anyone finds one, let me know. The Starfire books "In Death Ground" and "The Shiva Option" by Weber and White are adequate, bordering on pretty good. The rest of the books in the series, not so much, though I haven't read most of the ones that White's done on his own after Weber left for bigger and better things. Maybe they get better? Yep, I read I think the first 3 or 4 Lost Fleet and as you said, got fairly bored. I'll check the others out! Also not married to the navy battles, I did really enjoy Mark Kloos's frontlines series!
|
# ? Mar 9, 2020 21:42 |
|
Stereo posted:Last year I read all of the main series Harrington books up to War of Honor, where I got burnt out again. They're not the worst things I've read but I agree the writing can be lacking and often repetitive.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2020 21:48 |
|
A warning about the Starfire books, they're based on the same tabletop game that the Honorverse is (secretly) based on.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2020 21:58 |
|
I'm going to keep posting these until someone reads them! HONOR OF THE QUEEN CHAPTER FIVE In this chapter, Honor finally makes it to Grayson! The plot kind of begins here, which is a lot quicker than On Basilisk Station where the plot basically languished for a long time, even after they got to Basilisk Station. Thinking about it, Honor never really was ON Basilisk Station, was she? She was actually always doing stuff away from it and just messaged Basilisk Station a lot. Anyways, let's be about it people! Let's be about it, people! I'm sure it sounds super badass, so I have to say it a lot. quote:Hyper space's rippling energy fluxes and flurries of charged particles hashed any sensor beyond a twenty-light-minute radius, but the convoy's clustered light codes were clear and sharp and gratifyingly tight on Honor's maneuvering display as it approached the hyper limit of Yeltsin's Star at a comfortable third of light-speed. I don't think that bit is ever relevant. It is, thankfully, put in a place where it is actually a decent place to serve up the information and thankfully brief for Weber. quote:"Ready to begin translation in forty-one seconds, Ma'am," Lieutenant Commander DuMorne reported from Astrogation. ... Until you read the rest of this and discover that the entire scene is just a long "This is how hypering works". Pretty pointless otherwise. Anyways they reach Grayson and POV goes to Grayson. I will note that this book has actually had proper scene seperators, unlike the first one. I don't know if they just got better at making these official e-books. quote:High Admiral Bernard Yanakov looked up from his reader as his aide rapped gently on the frame of the open door. They aren't 'old-fashioned' then. They're CURRENT-fashioned. I don't mind him being embarrassed that his tech is backwards but there's no indication that they have lesser technology because they haven't met the Manticoreans yet. Also the later books reveal that actually Grayson is actually more advanced than the rest of the universe in a bunch of fields, which doesn't really make sense. quote:Crimson status lights caught his eye, and he nodded in satisfaction. Until they knew for certain that that footprint was the convoy, the Grayson Navy would assume it was a Masadan attack force. The unscheduled drill would do all hands good . . . and given the current levels of tension, Yanakov had no intention of taking any chances with his home world's security. As I talked about before, Grayson's people talk and think just like Manticoreans, despite the fact that their religion is just as paramount in their lives as it is in the Masadans. In one of the Pearls of Weber I'll have to find - the regular page for them is down and they're only at Weber's own page without any sort of index now - Weber tries to say that the Grayson's have been so successful theologically because they're incredibly tolerant - except, of course, he specifies that their toleration basically goes as far as 'slight differences in believes' and if you actually aren't all-in for their religion, then bad things will happen to you. Which paints a very different picture than the one Weber wants to give Grayson, who he doesn't think are religious fanatics for some reason. quote:Grayson looked oddly patchy in the visual display as Fearless and her brood settled into their parking orbit, and Honor had been amazed on the trip in-system by the scale of Grayson's spaceborne industry. For a technically backward system, Yeltsin's Star boasted an amazing number of bulk carriers and processing ships. None of them appeared hyper capable, and the largest massed barely a million tons, but they were everywhere, and some of the orbital structures circling Grayson itself were at least a third the size of Hephaestus or Vulcan back home. No doubt the scale of the orbital construction projects also explained the plethora of energy sources and drive signatures plying between Grayson and the local asteroid belt, but the sheer numbers of them still came as a shock. I'm not sure why it's such a shock. Surely Manticore would have a massive plethora of much bigger ships. It'd be more likely Honor would have a more Solarian League view of "Impressive, for neo-barbs". quote:Fearless cut her wedge as Chief Killian signaled "done with engines" and station-keeping thrusters took over, and Honor frowned over her displays while a corner of her mind monitored the flow of communications between the planetary authorities and Admiral Courvosier's staff on the heavy cruiser's flag bridge. Everything she saw only seemed to underscore the strange—to Manticoran eyes, at least—dichotomy between the almost incredible energy of Grayson's activities and the crudity with which they were carried out. Modern chem-catalyst welders, huh? quote:She shook her head and turned her attention to the nearest complete habitat. It rotated slowly about its central axis, but it obviously boasted internal grav generators, for the spin was far too slow to produce anything like a useful gravity. In fact, there was something peculiar about that leisurely, almost trickling movement. Could it be that—? Basically another infodump scene, but it's honestly better than stopping a far more important scene for it. That's your introduction to the good guy chauvinists. quote:High Admiral Yanakov tasted pure, undiluted envy as HMS Fearless swelled before him. Now that was a warship, he thought, drinking in the sleek, double-ended spindle appreciatively. The big, powerful ship hung against the bottomless stars, gleaming with reflected sunlight, and she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Her impeller wedge and defensive sidewalls were down, displaying her arrogant grace to the naked eye, and her midships section swelled smoothly between the bands of her fore and aft impeller rings, bristling with state-of-the-art radar and gravitic arrays and passive sensor systems. Her hull number—CA 286—stood out boldly against the white hull just aft of her forward impeller nodes, and weapon bays ran down her armored flank like watching eyes. This is where the chapter ends. Also, you heard it here, folks: Manticoreans are ELVES.
|
# ? Mar 10, 2020 00:37 |
|
Kchama posted:A warning about the Starfire books, they're based on the same tabletop game that the Honorverse is (secretly) based on. They're prototypes for this series in many ways; many of the Starfire characters are clearly the same people in the Honorverse, down to the similar names. That said, it's closer to its source material, and Weber has a co-author to keep him on track, so Starfire is better at getting down to the business of fleets of starships shooting missiles at each other without the B-plots Honor has.
|
# ? Mar 10, 2020 00:55 |
|
Kchama posted:Thinking about it, Honor never really was ON Basilisk Station, was she? She was actually always doing stuff away from it and just messaged Basilisk Station a lot. Kchama posted:I don't think that bit is ever relevant. It is, thankfully, put in a place where it is actually a decent place to serve up the information and thankfully brief for Weber. I think you're right that the speed limit for going into hyper never comes up again, but crash downward translations and the physical discomfort they cause do show up with some frequency. Kchama posted:They aren't 'old-fashioned' then. They're CURRENT-fashioned. I don't mind him being embarrassed that his tech is backwards but there's no indication that they have lesser technology because they haven't met the Manticoreans yet. Uh, as I believe you yourself pointed out, Grayson clearly has had prior contact with the rest of human space, since some of their upper crust were sent to Harvard, so it's perfectly plausible they'd be aware of the tech imbalance. As for their advancements, I can only remember two things the Graysons are credited for being better at: inertial compensators and fission generators, the former because they stumbled onto a more effective design, and the latter because they kept using and refining fission while everyone else switched to fusion. Kchama posted:I'm not sure why it's such a shock. Surely Manticore would have a massive plethora of much bigger ships. It'd be more likely Honor would have a more Solarian League view of "Impressive, for neo-barbs".
|
# ? Mar 10, 2020 01:38 |
|
|
# ? Jun 10, 2024 06:25 |
|
Anshu posted:"Basilisk Station" isn't a piece of physical infrastructure like, say, Deep Space Nine. She was stationed at the Basilisk System, and therefore was "on Basilisk station". That only comes up later as a retcon, and the High Admiral is not one of those people in any case, as indicated by this book. Since after all, he states that he only INTELLECTUALLY knows about Manticore having women but it's still a shock to him, which wouldn't be the case if he had spent his youth on a planet where women not being babymakers was a thing. Also that's not the part I was talking about. I said she should have JUST been impressed with how much they had, instead of adding on that she's shocked to see so many, as it reads that she hasn't seen so many ships together like that. Kchama fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Mar 10, 2020 |
# ? Mar 10, 2020 01:41 |