by David Weber
So at the beginning of the year, I was in the mood to read something in the vein of military sci-fi with political intrigue and epic space battles, and I had heard good things about the Honor Harrington series, so I figured I'd give the first book a go. In the end, I pretty much got what I wanted.
Honor Harrington is a female officer who has finally been given the command of her own starship, only to be given orders that are near impossible, and when she inevitably fails, her ship and her crew are sent to a nowhere-ville post on Basilisk Station. As it would turn out, enemy forces also have plans for Basilisk Station, and due to Harrington's diligence, and insistence that she fulfill the her assignment to the fullest, she and her crew uncover a complex plot that may threaten the tides of the galaxy!
Exciting stuff, to be sure, but what really made the difference was the emphasis on the characters in Honor's crew. When things go south, she loses their trust, forcing her to really step up and regain it. This ends up giving the book a very satisfying sense of dramatic tension, where you want the heroes to come together in time for the big battle at the end, which ended up being quite the chase! I also enjoyed the balance it maintained between glorious heroics and tragic sacrifices. It doesn't wallow in gore or horrors, but it doesn't ignore the costs of war either.
While I had fun with this one, I don't know if I'm in a hurry to pick up the next in the series. Still, I definitely recommend it to anyone that wants a quality sci-fi war story.
Edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and Charles Waugh
Continuing the theme of military sci-fi, this is a collection of short stories I've had for many years, and to help carry on the mood from On Basilisk Station, I decided it was time to re-read.
It's an interesting collection, with a decent amount of variety. While there are a few that are straight up military missions to rescue or defend something (or a prison break!), other stories focus on a single solider or warrior against the odds, or just regular citizens being forced to step up and defend themselves. There's even one that's a bit of a mystery, as a starship's commander has to decide which of two vessels needs to be shot down, as one of them is the enemy in disguise.
As with most short-story compilations, the quality of the stories vary from author to author, but with big names like Joe Haldeman, David Drake, Poul Anderson, and Ben Bova, it maintains a decent level of quality. A nice sampling of hard sci-fi that's more about action and drama than the science.
by Brian Jacques
This one might be cheating as I've also read this before, but it's been many years, so I had forgotten most of it, honestly. The Redwall books can be kind of predictable, but that also makes them solid comfort reading. Featuring heroic animals, villainous vermin, adventuring, clear good-and-evil stakes, it makes for a pretty satisfying adventure.
Mossflower is the second book in the series, though the events take place many years before the first book. While Redwall dealt with the circumstances leading to the rediscovery of Martin's renowned sword, Mossflower covers the time of Martin himself, when he first got his incredible sword, and how he freed the lands of Mossflower where the Abbey of Redwall would eventually be established. Along the way, friends will be captured and rescued, villains will concoct plans, battles will be bravely and fiercely fought, sacrifices will be made, and a quest will be taken by our heroic mouse, only to return with the very things the heroes need to root evil out of the lands.
Again, not the deepest of narratives, but that's never the point for these books. Essentially, they're epics for children, and Mossflower does a pretty good job at helping the reader feel invested in the characters. One thing that did bug me, though, was how rapidly the story would switch from location to location, especially when Martin and his friends are off on their quest, sometimes making it hard to follow the different plot threads during those sections. Still, when it comes together, it does so quite solidly, with a pretty satisfying conclusion. I think I'll continue with the series, but probably not right away. Maybe a book a year.
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Due to my father, I decided to give this classic a go for the first time. Despite being familiar with Tarzan via cultural osmosis and that Disney film from the late 90s, I had never read the original book until now, and I have to say it's pretty solid. Full of action and adventure, it's fun to read a book from a time when it felt like anything wasn't just possible, but even plausible. The idea of a young man, orphaned by chance and raised by apes in the jungles, only to become the pinnacle of human physicality and eventually a European-styled gentleman seems preposterous by current standards, but in the early days of pulp fiction, I can easily see why such a figure would capture the imagination of thousands (if not millions) of readers.
It helps that Burroughs' prose is very moment driven, allowing characters' actions speak louder than their dialogue, especially since most of the book focuses on a largely language-less Tarzan as he learns about himself and his potential. While it does take a while for the story to get going, requiring the set up of the tragic situation that led to the title character's eventual circumstances, once we arrive at an adult Tarzan taking on the fierce creatures of the jungle, and later, other people, the narrative takes on a relentless pace, jumping from one action scene to the next. This momentum propels through some of its stumbling blocks and leaps of logic, focusing instead to get its reader lost in the adventure of it all.
Unfortunately, this pacing only accelerates as the story goes on. Once we reach what feels like what will be a big dramatic climax results in Tarzan and a Frenchman suddenly jumping across the continent and an ocean for an ending that feels more like a sudden burst followed by whimper, instead of the triumphant stand against all odds I was expecting. I get that this was part of a serialization, and that Burroughs wasn't necessarily writing for the novel format directly, but it does feel a bit underwhelming, especially since things had been building up as the book went along. Still, I found myself enjoying the book and its interesting twists and turns in Tarzan's growth and maturity. I don't know if I'm in a hurry to read the sequels, but I'm glad to have taken the time to read such a classic.
I don't know how often I'll write about books. A once a year review may be enough, as I'm not the most consistent reader. However, I felt pretty strongly about my thoughts on these, and since the purpose of this site to host such thoughts and ideas, I figured I might as well.
Now that it's the end of the year, I've been thinking about what I want to be doing and what goals I want to set. I don't have any specific plans, but I do think I want to try and finish more of my storywriting this time around. I'm great at starting ideas (as you may be able to tell from my [Scraps] page), but I never seem to sit down and finish them. I'm not sure what that's going to take, but it's something that I want to improve about myself and it has been on my mind for a while.
Of course, I can't make any promises. If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that one can never anticipate when things might go sideways on you. I admit I haven't had too many personal troubles compared to other people, but there's no telling what the future holds. For now, I do plan on putting together another Anticipated Movies list, though I'll likely be copy-pasting much of what I had for this year, as nearly everything I was interested in got delayed. Hopefully, I'll find more opportunities to write and share what I've written in the upcoming year. Until then, I hope everyone is well and staying safe. I'll see you next year!
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