I'm rereading _Oath of Swords_. This is a wonderful book. The only thing bad is that it's the first of three so far and I heard a rumor there was supposed to be seven and it doesn't seem that Weber has completing them high on his list of priorities.
Now don't get me wrong... I *like* military science fiction and in general terms prefer science fiction to fantasy.
I think this is *much* better than Honor Harrington.
Bahzell Bahnakson is a Hradani. A combination of "orc" and berzerker Norse. Hradani means "calm fox" but his people were twisted into the orc mold, mindless hoards on the side of evil in an epic war... long in the past, but people have long memories. The remnants of that army of evil have been living in the fringes for centuries... just trying to survive.
In some ways it seems a fantasy of the standard mold. A quest. Traveling through new territory fighting monsters and assassins with a motley crew, a bard, a wizard... it's not. The magic is in the details. And there is magic to spare.
I tried to read one of Weber's newer releases and didn't finish. DAVID!!! Finish Bahzell's story! Oh, yes, finish Armageddon Reef *too*, it was fabulous, but finish Bahzell *first*. I've been waiting longer for that.
_Oath of Swords_ may be available in Baen's Free Library. The link is on my side bar. I know it's available in e-book version, as are the next two.
Maybe if more people make some noise about Bazhell he'll get moved up a bit on Mr. Weber's to-do list.
(I suspect it's all a ploy to keep people praying for his continued health.)
Now don't get me wrong... I *like* military science fiction and in general terms prefer science fiction to fantasy.
I think this is *much* better than Honor Harrington.
Bahzell Bahnakson is a Hradani. A combination of "orc" and berzerker Norse. Hradani means "calm fox" but his people were twisted into the orc mold, mindless hoards on the side of evil in an epic war... long in the past, but people have long memories. The remnants of that army of evil have been living in the fringes for centuries... just trying to survive.
In some ways it seems a fantasy of the standard mold. A quest. Traveling through new territory fighting monsters and assassins with a motley crew, a bard, a wizard... it's not. The magic is in the details. And there is magic to spare.
I tried to read one of Weber's newer releases and didn't finish. DAVID!!! Finish Bahzell's story! Oh, yes, finish Armageddon Reef *too*, it was fabulous, but finish Bahzell *first*. I've been waiting longer for that.
_Oath of Swords_ may be available in Baen's Free Library. The link is on my side bar. I know it's available in e-book version, as are the next two.
Maybe if more people make some noise about Bazhell he'll get moved up a bit on Mr. Weber's to-do list.
(I suspect it's all a ploy to keep people praying for his continued health.)
Comments
Which one?
Oh, yes, finish Armageddon Reef *too*, it was fabulous, but finish Bahzell *first*. I've been waiting longer for that.
Did you start up on the Senndar series? That entire 8 book series has been finished already. And if you want good details and cosmology in your fantasy, that's the thing to go for.
You won't get the politics and do goodism until later however. Most of the time Tarrin has to deal with his personal enemies, but the God-Mortal relationship bit is something very similar to The War God's Own.
(All details subject to extreme error and misremembering.)
A collection of short stories?
Or if it is a novel, it could be In Fury Born, albeit by a large margin of error.
Ugh.
I loved the older version, the newer more robust version did fill in some of the backstory gaps, but the suspense was nowhere near as good as the original. That didn't really matter though, given that the original story was still the story so to speak, Weber just modified the beginning and some of the end details.
I was actually disappointed because I thought it was the sequel. I got over that, actually, when I figured it out mid read.
If you want "action action", skip to Chapter thirty three, Book Four Victims. That's where the original story started off.
Assuming you can't get access to the original version from a library. They did have different names, I recall.
If you liked Bahzell for his character concept, you might also like the expanded powers of DeVries.
The worst thing you can get is knowing that a battle will turn out badly from the comments. In the original story, this mysterious lack of details were used as a suspense theme. The background "modification" as I call it really are just short story types, which you can start reading almost on a dime if you wanted to, after starting Book Four.
Chapter 33, huh. I'll have to look into that.