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Re: Rereading OBS

PostPosted:Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:22 pm
by John Fairbairn, KDE, GACM
So it's been a while since anyone posted here. I have had a thought or two.

First, I finished reading Uncompromising Honor, and I must say a thank you to Mr. Weber. He did, indeed, wrap up a large number of loose ends. I won't do spoilers, but I will say that for anyone who still has not read this (maybe a 'cat or two in Silesia?) it is very worth it. As noted earlier in this thread, I suggest reading it carefully, taking time to savor and ruminate on what is happening. All kinds of detail pops out - like when ... um ... um ... phoo. No spoilers. I promised. With Honor, John. :oops:

However, that is not the point of this post. I have resolved to re-read the entire Honorverse set to date, including all the short stories, posts to wordsofweber.com, side extensions (stories from collections by other authors), and anthologies. Further, I m reading them in the in-Honorverse time sequence.

So far, I have managed to read By the Book (from Beginnings), Dark Fall (from the Baen Free Library), and am about 1/4th through A Beautiful Friendship in the young adult novel version. Next, I intend to read Letter from Stephanie (from the Baen Free Library), and so on.

How do I know that this is the correct date sequence in which to read them? Well, that's interesting, especially when we get to stories that are ancillary. If you go into Wikipedia, the article on the Honorverse, there is an entire section called Stories Listed by Internal Chronology at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorvers ... chronology
which is both up to date and quite complete. For others who (like me) can not get enough of Mr. Weber's writing, that listing contains all kinds of surprises. I discovered that there are 23 story items prior to the first word of On Basilisk Station! The list is surprising. For instance, I found that there are many, many titles ( like Dark Fall) there that are completely new to me, and that I had no idea existed. All Honorverse, all special in interest.

So I am going to read them all, many again, but quite a few for the first time. And as a special challenge, I am going to attempt to do it in the remainder of this year.

I thought others might enjoy this information, and thus this post. Happy reading! :D

Re: Rereading OBS

PostPosted:Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:41 pm
by Joe Grieco
Make sure you reread "House of Steel" to get more of an idea of the buildup in the era just before the "shooting" starts, and to see what made Elizabeth into Soul of Steel

Re: Rereading OBS

PostPosted:Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:49 pm
by John Fairbairn, KDE, GACM
Joe Grieco wrote:
Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:41 pm
Make sure you reread "House of Steel" to get more of an idea of the buildup in the era just before the "shooting" starts, and to see what made Elizabeth into Soul of Steel
A very good idea. To accomplish that, be aware that I Will Build a House of Steel is listed in the referenced chronology at the c. 1844 PD time hash. Thirteen stories precede its material ;)

Re: Rereading OBS

PostPosted:Wed Mar 13, 2019 2:46 am
by John McDonald
I really like House of Steel! The first Honorverse book I bought new right at release, actually.

For On Basilisk Station, I re-read it about once a year, usually in mid-summer. Shadow of Saganami also gets a lot of attention, thankfully mine is a hardback.

Re: Rereading OBS

PostPosted:Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:22 am
by John Fairbairn, KDE, GACM
Going by the listing at the link I gave earlier, I am just coming up on reading OBS. I was missing Our Sacred Honor because I did not own it, but I bought it and it is on the way. I will read it as soon as it arrives, and all the other works in the Infinite Stars anthology as well, just to get exposure to some new authors.

Meanwhile, we here in Minnesota will have our first week of daytime temps consistently above freezing (Spring is poking about!), so I think I'll celebrate by going out to my garage and unpacking a (very large) box containing about 200 books. That constitutes my young-years SF paperback library - which has been taped closed for about 40 years. I know some of them are damaged from water, but we'll see how many can be rescued. Then I'll start on finding replacements for those that can not be saved. I also have a separate collection of SF master-writers books that are recent reprints, many of them signed by the authors.

Eventually, I intend to give the entire collection to my grandson. :mrgreen:

Speaking of him, you'd be amazed at the kinds of things that interest him at the tender age of 14. Here is a sample, based on a texted link he sent me.

https://youtu.be/unBdquVfung

I might add that he is following very closely about the developments at SpaceX and its competitors, and sends me links to all kinds of things he sees in those venues. They range from robotics to electric vehicles to AI to (possible FTL) engines to political science. I am very encouraged.

Re: Rereading OBS

PostPosted:Sun May 26, 2019 4:29 am
by John Fairbairn, KDE, GACM
So here we are near the end of May. I made the comment above about re-reading the entire Honorverse set by the end of the year. I'm pleased to report that I am now sure I will make that commitment. I currently am about half way through Shadow of Victory which is the next-to-last piece in the entire series. I should finish that by the end of this month, and Uncompromising Honor by about the middle of June. This, in spite of my (still-crazy-busy :P) schedule as a so-called retired person. :D

I do encourage everyone to try to read as much of the set as you can. It makes so much more sense when read in Honorverse time order.

Warm regards to all. Happy reading -

Re: Rereading OBS

PostPosted:Sun Dec 01, 2019 7:05 pm
by Derek Marlar
Anyone know how to find Dark Fall and Letter from Stephanie? I can't seem to get the links to function from the wiki. I was able to pull up Grayson Letters on the way back machine.

Re: Rereading OBS

PostPosted:Sun Dec 01, 2019 9:09 pm
by Peter Gold
Derek Marlar wrote:
Sun Dec 01, 2019 7:05 pm
Anyone know how to find Dark Fall and Letter from Stephanie? I can't seem to get the links to function from the wiki. I was able to pull up Grayson Letters on the way back machine.
Grayson Letters Home permanent link to Baen:
https://www.baen.com/free-short-stories-2012.html

Dark Fall: https://www.baen.com/darkfall

Letters From Stephanie:
https://www.baen.com/free-short-stories-2011.html

Re: Rereading OBS

PostPosted:Thu Jan 09, 2020 5:44 am
by John Fairbairn, KDE, GACM
By the way, I am sure that everyone will be pleased to know that I did finish reading all of the Honorverse material. Then I went on to further challenge myself: I would read every book that lists Mr. Weber as an author - including his entire Safehold series and the 163X series with Eric Flint, and many, many more by the end of the year. I finished all of them before the end of 2019.

Man! Is this guy a prolific author, or what?