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The later books in the series actually reversed the light ships are useless idea, with the end result of the lightest ships in-universe being able to take on so

by Vendan 11y ago

The later books in the series actually reversed the light ships are useless idea, with the end result of the lightest ships in-universe being able to take on some higher end ships. In addition, there's peculiarities in the HH series that preclude direct comparison, i.e. impeller wedges are practically invulnerable. I, personally, find the series to be well designed and thought out. BTW, it is mentioned multiple times that restocking missiles is expensive, and that the navy is using live missiles in exercises against the wishes of the accountants, but they are on a war footing most of the time, and generally, when people are shooting at you, the fact that you are using money by shooting back doesn't really come into play at all.

exar0815 11y ago
I really like about Weber how he continuously shifts the tacrmtical and technological necessities for space combat, especially when you compare it to "real" fleet engagements and the paradigm-shifts there.
zyxley 11y ago
> impeller wedges are practically invulnerable This starts out important, but as the series goes on gets more and more forgotten about, to the point where some large-scale battles are literally skipped over entirely with a scene jump straight to "the main character completely blew up the enemy fleet and took no casualties at all because reasons". > it is mentioned multiple times that restocking missiles is expensive It may be "mentioned", but it never actually has any effect on the narrative. There's even one point where a massive attack on Manticoran manufacturing successfully take place... and then is quietly brushed off, with zero actual effect on anything that would get in the way of "an enemy fleet shows up and then Honor explodes it with a bajillion missiles".
- aaronem 11y ago
  You're doing Weber something of an injustice here, I think. On the first hand, as the series goes on, battles tend to occur between combatants who are no longer at or near parity with one another, as Manticore and Haven are at the start of the series. Across several books, Weber details how first the SD(P) project, and then Project Apollo, result in a massive qualitative improvement of Manticoran weapons, such that their navy becomes the most powerful in known space despite its relatively small size. On the second hand, if the attack you mean is "Oyster Bay", then Weber's at some pains to make clear that, while the current stock of missiles is sufficient to defeat one major attack on the scale of Filareta's, the wholesale devastation of Manticore's military manufacturing capabilities will result in a severe force imbalance against any further such attacks, and the sheer size of the Solarian League's navy will come to count for much more than their units' individual weakness against Manticoran ships -- a weakness largely predicated on qualitative differences in missile capabilities, which ceases to be an advantage when Manticoran ships' magazines can't be reloaded. Granted, the end of Mission of Honor and the events of A Rising Thunder make clear that the manufacturing deficit isn't going to end up being the fatal blow to Manticore that it initially appears to be. But you really can't claim with accuracy that Weber just breezes past it as such, not when he spends such effort (and page count) making clear to the reader that, all else equal, Oyster Bay would necessitate Manticore's surrender in relatively short order. And on the third hand, Weber's been getting a lot of trouble from his fanbase and others, since the start of the series, for his infamous habit of "infodumps". He's done a better job of taking to heart that criticism since he accepted that the series is no longer one which can be picked up and started from any book. For I think the same reason, he's also started allowing the reader to infer the actual events of a given battle, choosing to spend words on its prelude and ramifications rather than spewing monotonous chapters on battles whose details are a foregone conclusion. Not to say, of course, that Weber as an author is beyond reproach -- nothing of the sort. And his work is certainly a niche taste. But if you're going to criticize him, you'll do a better job of it if you concentrate on problems he actually has.

by Vendan 11y ago

exar0815 11y ago

I really like about Weber how he continuously shifts the tacrmtical and technological necessities for space combat, especially when you compare it to "real" fleet engagements and the paradigm-shifts there.

zyxley 11y ago

> impeller wedges are practically invulnerable This starts out important, but as the series goes on gets more and more forgotten about, to the point where some large-scale battles are literally skipped over entirely with a scene jump straight to "the main character completely blew up the enemy fleet and took no casualties at all because reasons". > it is mentioned multiple times that restocking missiles is expensive It may be "mentioned", but it never actually has any effect on the narrative. There's even one point where a massive attack on Manticoran manufacturing successfully take place... and then is quietly brushed off, with zero actual effect on anything that would get in the way of "an enemy fleet shows up and then Honor explodes it with a bajillion missiles".

aaronem 11y ago
You're doing Weber something of an injustice here, I think. On the first hand, as the series goes on, battles tend to occur between combatants who are no longer at or near parity with one another, as Manticore and Haven are at the start of the series. Across several books, Weber details how first the SD(P) project, and then Project Apollo, result in a massive qualitative improvement of Manticoran weapons, such that their navy becomes the most powerful in known space despite its relatively small size. On the second hand, if the attack you mean is "Oyster Bay", then Weber's at some pains to make clear that, while the current stock of missiles is sufficient to defeat one major attack on the scale of Filareta's, the wholesale devastation of Manticore's military manufacturing capabilities will result in a severe force imbalance against any further such attacks, and the sheer size of the Solarian League's navy will come to count for much more than their units' individual weakness against Manticoran ships -- a weakness largely predicated on qualitative differences in missile capabilities, which ceases to be an advantage when Manticoran ships' magazines can't be reloaded. Granted, the end of Mission of Honor and the events of A Rising Thunder make clear that the manufacturing deficit isn't going to end up being the fatal blow to Manticore that it initially appears to be. But you really can't claim with accuracy that Weber just breezes past it as such, not when he spends such effort (and page count) making clear to the reader that, all else equal, Oyster Bay would necessitate Manticore's surrender in relatively short order. And on the third hand, Weber's been getting a lot of trouble from his fanbase and others, since the start of the series, for his infamous habit of "infodumps". He's done a better job of taking to heart that criticism since he accepted that the series is no longer one which can be picked up and started from any book. For I think the same reason, he's also started allowing the reader to infer the actual events of a given battle, choosing to spend words on its prelude and ramifications rather than spewing monotonous chapters on battles whose details are a foregone conclusion. Not to say, of course, that Weber as an author is beyond reproach -- nothing of the sort. And his work is certainly a niche taste. But if you're going to criticize him, you'll do a better job of it if you concentrate on problems he actually has.