Confession of a Baen non-reader

[Jeanne Hedge]

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Let me just start by saying that Ashes of Victory is a horrible place to pick up the Honor Harrington books. It's very much the low point of the series. Try the first couple that are in the Free Library, much better reads (and better editing).

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Gawd yes. If there's any series that has to be read in publication (which is also chronological) order, it's the main-line Harrington series. The Shorts, not so much, but the reader would probably get lost if they haven't read the main books yet.
I had a lot of time on my hands a while back, and figured out where almost everything falls, chronologically. If anyone's interested, send me email.

Jeanne Hedge
www.jhedge.com

"Believe me, if I have to go the rest of my life without companionship, knowing myself won't be a problem."
-- Gabrielle of Potadeia

[Murmur the Fallen]

I've actually started on 1632 and, in fact, hit a snag. Stalled out.
And here's why.
While it's true enough that this isn't a right-wing book, per se, in the crushing contempt the protagonist feels for his new brother-in-law's parents, but . . .
It's a very populist book.
Now, populism can be a postive trait in a political movement. Unions are a populist movement. But populism can be divisive, overly-concerned with masculinity, and anti-intellectual. Don't forget that fascism was a populist movement (though how populist a movement can be when it calls for government-corporate collusion to set and implement state policy is another topic altogether).
You can immediately see the populist stirrings not only in the protagonist and his friends' reactions to their sudden change in time (what the hell happened? get the guns!), but also in the racial makeup of the initial characters introduced. Which is to say, the only good minorities are the ones that are both street-smart and 'lifted themselves up by their boostraps', whatever the hell that means. While I don't want to say token or model minority, it's not like it's that far of a leap.
So: going to try to finish 1632. I think that my main problem with the story so far isn't all of that, but that the protagonist just doesn't sing to me so far the way a good protagonist should.
-murmur

[ECSNorway]

Well, Eric Flint is a union man himself, and very much left-wing despite his association with a theoretically solidly right-wing publisher. Collaborating with Weber (who shows his own right-wing leanings) is bound to create some interestingly mixed messages.--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Valles]

I'm honestly not sure what you mean by 'populist', here, since the implications of your complaints are pretty much counter to my understanding of the term.
That said, I don't think that any of the problems you've suggested really materialize in the first book, and the overall setting that evolves from it is, like, about as non judgmental, overall, as it's possible for popular fiction to be.
IOW, the macho-anti-intellectualism you're reading isn't a fact of the author's attitudes, its an accurate modeling of his chosen 'point group'. Speaking as someone born and raised in WV, and who absolutely hates those social traits, Flint has done an excellent job at being fair and at being accurate, while still telling a good yarn.
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[kentmagus]

If you don't like the book, put it down and pick up another one. I have better things to do with my time than read a book I don't like. I'm certain you do too.
Belisarius? It just didn't grab me.

[Murmur the Fallen]

I don't think.
It's just that with the recommendations of so many here, you'd think that I'd like it.
And god know if I can get through the first frankowski's The Crosstime Engineer, what with its gross attitude towards women and romantic (and,um, that's putting it very kindly) view of the past, I should be able to get through this.
Still . . . just not singing.
On the other hand, some of my favorite books and series were those that I had a hard time getting into. Eddings, Robert Jordan, Tolkien--I had problems with the beginnings of all of them. And they are the books that I come back to over and over again.
-murmur

[Foxboy]

Galatea in 2-D by Aaron Allston
Sadly out-of-print at the moment, but it's one of the novels I've read multiple times. Like 1632.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[DHBirr]

Baen is also the U.S. publisher for several of Martin Scott's "Thraxas" books (all of which have "Thraxas" in the title, so they're hard to mistake for anything else). Comedy-noir -- yes, I know that seems contradictory -- detective stories in a city sort of like Ancient Rome but with Elves and Orcs. "Whatever people's problems are, when they've exhausted all other avenues and can't afford anything better, they come to me. Sometimes I'm able to help them."
To point up the decadence of the society, characters in the series constantly use the same cliched expressions (Scott is too good a writer for this not to be deliberate). "Hot as Orcish Hell," "happy as an Elf in a tree," "sharp as an Elf's ear," "miserable as a Niojan whore" (Nioj is a very puritanical place), and my favorite, "wet as a mermaid's blanket," just to cite a few.-----
Gentlemen, it has long been my conviction that all citizens should provide services for which their talents best suit them in support of those who have been called to duty. In the case of politicians such as yourselves, that would be target practice.
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.