David Weber (1) (1952–)

Who better, you would think, than David Weber to write the ultimate alien invasion story? Sadly, Out of the Dark isn’t it.
The premise has promise. The galaxy has a hegemonic civilization primarily composed of herbivores. When they pay a call on Earth during the battle of Agincourt, they are shocked at human bloodthirstiness. They deal with the problem by shopping Earth to one of the few advanced races of vaguely canine carnivores. The carnivores send an attack force that arrives in the 21st century.
From the outset, Weber offers a belated response to Independence Day. When one of the few remaining American jets shoots down an alien lander, the pilot says, “Eat your heart out, Will Smith.” Weber’s aliens don’t send in giant saucers to make tempting targets for a human counterattack. Instead, they stand off and drop rocks from space on government centers and military installations, wiping out a substantial fraction of the human population before they send in their ground troops.
Most of the plot that follows details the human guerilla war that follows. The invaders, who are pack animals, don’t understand why outnumbered humans don’t submit. They are also dismayed by the number of weapons on the planet, especially in the United States. Weber loves his guns, which he describes in detail.
The humans don’t stand much chance because they can always be bombarded from orbit. But then, Weber pulls out a deus-ex twist that I won’t go into. It left me shaking my head.… (mais)

Just finished Honor Harrington book 10 a little while ago for the second time. This is the first HH book that left me feeling a little lacking. One, it's VERY long, and there is more political stuff than space stuff in it, and I like the space stuff and action more. Two, it feels very much like a transitional book. My feeling is that Weber kinda wrote himself into a corner where he was forced to write a book to deal with all the loose threads in the intermission between the interstellar conflicts, so he could proceed to the next phase of the Manticore/Haven saga. However, this book could have been trimmed down a bit and still accomplished that task.

Overall, still a good Weber book, but not quite in the same league as the rest of the HH books.… (mais)

Call it not a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court but a West Virginia Labor Leader in Gustavus Adolphus’s Europe. Eric Flint picks up David Weber as co-author for this second installment of his Ring of Fire series. They are the thoroughbreds of Baen’s stable of military sci-fi and alternate history writers. When a modern West Virginia town is suddenly transported to late-Renaissance Europe, world leaders take a keen interest in its collection of history books, seeking to promote or prevent the events foretold in them. In England, for instance, Charles the First quickly arrests Oliver Cromwell, who has done nothing yet. Like it or not, the West Virginians have become the focus of European intrigue and war. Fun stuff.… (mais)