Grrl Power #867 - Patreon 2x

I assume any tourist that needs to worry about that would probably bring along a device to do it for them, since they would know that earth isn't as advanced.

Reigys

I agree with you about the Honor Harrington books. It's really compelling, if a bit cheesy (she literally sword fights the patriarchy at one point. The metaphor there is just a bit too on the nose is all I'm saying), but once he starts randomly including characters and plot lines from his other two series in the Honorverse it basically becomes unreadable. He starts recycling entire chapters whole, and plot lines are dropped and picked up without any indication of where they came from or why. I've read all of the main series up until the most recent book that came out in 2018 and Weber says that he's not going to write anything else in the main series since Honor has been promoted beyond any rank that's reasonable for field command but we'll see if he sticks to that. I disagree with you about the Lost Fleet series. Yeah, if you're looking for solid military discipline in your military sci-fi then it's not the series for you but there are in universe explanations for that and by the end of the series and into the sequel series it's basically a standard, if lax, military command. Where I really disagree with you is his tactical approach to space combat. He explains in his author interviews that his approach to space combat was to combine naval ship maneuvering with WW2 era Air Force combat box formations. I think he does a fantastic job of communicating the technical aspects of space combat, dealing with light speed lag and relativistic shift at fractional light speeds in both the information you're receiving from your sensors and having to compensate for it in the orders you're issuing, the fact that mobile combatants would be within practical weapons range for such a small fraction of time that no human would be able to effectively target and fire weapons or process real time damage reporting, the vulnerability of stationary and orbital targets, etc. I think his tactical scenarios work and make sense with the technology available and its defined limitations, he also goes into the logistical concerns of a prolonged fighting withdrawal like that and how Geary's tactical approach is so different from what they're used to that their predictive models failed to account for it. Basically, I think every series should stand or fall on its own merits and not be held to the standards of an entirely different series written by and entirely different author regardless of any superficial similarities. But that's just me, IDK, YMMV.

Dan N

more the monetary value it has

Otoger

uuuh nice didn't know Bobiverse gets a 4th book just hope the German/europe license is not as slow as with star wars books

Otoger

Started to post pretty much the same thing. You beat me to the comment. :)

Kevin Wright

Tours? Great idea. Eating, not so great idea, as Earth doesn't have the helpful menus that Sydney encountered that tell you whether you can eat something without getting killed dead.

MaxBigfoot

I've still got a bunch of those, they are excellent, and the only series I'm aware of that uses that type of setting.

MaxBigfoot

Previous page someone mentioned Elizabeth Moon. I second that. Though I prefer her fantasy, which is awesome, over hr sci-fi, which is merely excellent. For sc-fi I prefer Bujold. The Vorkosigan books. Though that is the opposite of OP hero, in that Miles was born with various disabilities he is overcoming. Usually with cunning. Miles is probably my favorite character ever. You may like the scene where he is in a cell with a hungry felinoid supersoldier and seduces her. Most of the series is not space battles, though there are a few, as he ends up in charge of a group of mercenary ships. I gave up on Honor after about 4 books - the writing is good, and the tactics interest me, but otherwise space battles get boring quick.

AlpineBob

The pupils are a different shape and this one is bald while the other has blue hair, but they do indeed look very similar…

Phil Boswell

I think is idea is mash up of several different tropes, I think I'm not to sure either. Either way it's funny and it gets the point across that we human are whores for gold.

The 20s/30s cartoon gloves kill me. Also - Chronicles of Alsea by Fletcher DeLancey. Mmhmm... Good stuff. 10 books and counting and I snap 'em up as fast as I did the Harry Potter series.

Lia

No, they have Universal Translators of dubious programming. Sydney ran into them on the space station, remember? https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-687-a-friendly-tongue/

Richard Riley

For a slight change in your space opera, James White wrote an excellent series about a hospital and doctors in space know as the "Sector General" series.

Town Crier

The Honor Harrington books did start to fall off around book 8. And it's honestly a shame because the series is basically unique. It spawned a whole genre of psudo age of sail ship-of-the-line combat in a scifi setting. The problem is that I haven't found a single book since Weber wrote those that aren't just a pale imitation. Weber seems to be the only author I've found that really has a firm grasp of the tactics and strategy that goes into naval combat but that is only half of what makes the books great. The other half is that he really GETS what military scifi is all about. Now there are other authors that manage one of these but rarely can they manage both. Christopher Nuttall has a space navy series, first book was called Ark Royal I think. It's pretty good but it's not really trying to do the same thing Weber did. The way space combat is depicted in those books is more star trek than I'd like but the military part of it is nice. He really does a good job of depicting the royal navy. Someone mentioned John Ringo. I like Ringo but I think the best thing he ever published was also the first thing he ever published. The first two books in his posleen series are honestly better than anything else he ever wrote. They're just a notch above the rest of his work is quality. That's not to say you can't enjoy his books but I wouldn't compare him to Weber. He also doesn't really do space navy stuff, he has one series, I think it's called "Through the looking glass" that's supposed to be hard scifi and you can check it out and see if you like it, I really didn't. Fair warning, the first book does not include any space navy stuff, it just sets up the universe. Someone mentioned Jack Campbell and his Lost Fleet series. I really wanted to like that series but I couldn't help but compare it to Honor Harrington and it just didn't measure up. To me it seemed that Campbell just did not have the same understanding of naval tactics and how to modify them for a space setting, he also didn't seem as adept at writing the tactical scenarios. Campbell's series also wasn't very military-like, it was very dark and gritty so if you enjoy that, maybe the series is for you. Looking up at this I realise that it sounds like I'm really trashing these authors. That wasn't my intent, I do infact enjoy all of the books I've talked about. It's just that if you just read Honor Harrington and you're looking for more books like that then I'm sorry but you might just be out of luck. Edit: Glynn Stewart's Castle Federation series. I actually forgot about this series because again, in my mind, it just wasn't as good as Weber's series but you might want to check it out since it does manage to capture the same "feel" as Honor Harrington did. Incidentally, Stewart realllly likes his mil space navy stuff and has many different series that include that element. Castle Federation is the one closest to Honor Harrington but if you enjoy that series you might want to check out his other stuff as well.

L Pedersen

I love the Monty Python reference (on the translator)!

Thomas Dorner

Ehm... the whole FTL galaxy speaks English. What's wrong with these guys?

Evgeny Sandu

Is this one same species as the one behind Sydney in page 686?

Wyrmhand

I missed that you were asking for reading suggestions last time, I totally would have offered up some for you! The Expiditionary Force series - I saw that someone else had recommended this one as well, the first book is a little rough and slow paced but from book 2 on it's seriously one of the best modern sci fi series I've ever read... listened to I guess cause R. C. Bray has an amazing voice. The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell - A ship captain fights a rear guard action to protect a caravan civilian ships in the first battle of a war between rival interstellar nations. His ship is destroyed and he's assumed lost with it. 100 years later his story has become legend and has been propagandized to the pont where he is held up as a perfect, aspirational hero by every officer in the navy. A war fleet finds his damaged life pod and revives him en-rout to what should be the final battle of that same war. Unfortunately things don't go as planned and he suddenly finds himself thrust into command of an undisciplined and over eager fleet of amateurs fighting a desperate battle for survival against overwhelming odds. If you like technical space combat and maneuvers with consistent and believable technology and limitations, you will love this series as well as the two sequel series. Undying Mercenaries series by B. V. Larson - The Earth has been conquered by the galactic empire and is now subject to its laws and economic regulations. By law, every populated planet in the galaxy must provide a unique trade good or service to the galactic marketplace or it's population faces extermination. After careful review of Earth's assets and human history the agents of the empire have decided that humanity will provide mercenaries to fight in the local sector. In order to keep this sustainable, they've allowed Earth to purchase a number of resurrection machines that allow its soldiers to die fighting only to be reborn ready to fight again in a matter of hours. This isn't so much about space combat as it is bloody ground fighting and galactic politics. The main character is a violent, womanizing, asshole and is kind of a gary stu. It's pulpy trash but for some reason it's trash I love. Bobiverse series by Dennis E. Taylor - Bob is a programmer turned silicone valley executive who has just hit it big by selling his company for an absurd amount of money. One of his first purchases is a cryogenic suspension life insurance policy, it's a good thing too because the ink on the paperwork has hardly had time to dry before he's killed in a car accident. He awakens decades later to find that his mind has been uploaded into a computer, the world is on the brink of war, and he's being sent off in a space probe to replicate and explore the galaxy for humanity... hopefully before they all kill each other. This series is smart, funny, and full of grounded sci-fi shenanigans. The 4th book is set to be released in September I think, so now is the perfect time to get into this fantastic series.

Dan N

Honorverse frankly went to shit when Weber let Eric Flint butt in. If you want a good invasion series, Harry Turtledove did one where alien iguanas invade on the eve of D-Day and fuck up WW2. His technical stuff is excellent, and the series is amazing. Also, Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The collaborations between those two are always incredibly good, but Footfall is over the top. Aliens that look like baby elephants invade the Earth... they get into the whole herd structure dynamic and the battle at the end is one of the best-written space battles in scifi.

Ascender

Hmpf. Tourists.

Noise

As far as space war's go I liked John Ringo's Posleen series. Earth invaded by yellow , centaur-lizard creatures that eat humans and their own as their killed. No supply problems for food at least for them. Audiobook format has 12 volumes.

Stan

Just a thought, if you'd moved the rocket so it wasn't overlapping him so much, you could have changed the transparency across the windshield (as often happens as light hits at different angles), so you could have shown the rocket clearer in the reflection at say 75% transparency, and still shown him inside at say 65-70% or so.

Justaguy

It's true; nothing fazes New Yorkers.

Michael Obert