Reader’s Diary

David Weber

Weber ramps up the complexity of his “Honorverse” stories with this one, in which Honor Harrington revenges herself on a villain at the cost of her position in Manticore’s navy.

David Weber

In this book, the third in the series, the “Honorverse” and Weber’s main character, Honor Harrington, continues to develop. As usual, there’s plenty of space combat and the cast of characters gets bigger. It’s too bad Weber can’t go back and retrofit the older books with elements introduced here to give them better continuity, but that’s a minor problem only noticeable because I’m reading the one right after another - it’s hard to stop once you’ve started the series.

(”The Short Victorious War” has a useful appendix titled “Honor Harrington’s Navy” that contains “factual” background. Read it before starting the novel).

David Weber

This, the second novel set in Weber’s “Honorverse“, is better than the first. Weber is smoother about introducing back-story elements. While it’s still space opera, Weber’s willingness to kill or injure major characters pushes the series beyond the usual boundaries of genre fiction.

Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco

“Analog Days” weaves technical, business, and entertainment history together to tell the story of the process of invention, development, and feedback that created the analog synthesizer and changed it from a studio device into a performance instrument.

The title is a little misleading. While Bob Moog, his company, his instruments, and their players are the center of the book, the authors also discuss Don Buchla’s synths, ARP, and EMS. The authors show that the evolution of the patch cord bedecked modular synth into a portable keyboard-driven instrument was not inevitable, but rather was the result of the interactions between technologists, musicians, and businessmen.

This is an exemplary work of technical history. It’s lively, focused, and well-documented, academically thorough but never tedious.

Julian Stockwin

This is the best Kydd novel yet. Most of the story takes place in the Mediterranean during Thomas Kydd’s first command. Surprisingly, the scene then changes to a prison ship bound for the penal colony of Australia. The growth of Kydd’s character remains the biggest distinguishing feature of the series; I can’t wait for next one.

David Weber

Weber’s hero, Honor Harrington is Hornblower in space. The book is marred by Weber’s tendency to put in great gobs of back-story at critical moments but when space combat finally occurs it’s dramatic and tense.