My picks and such

With my Barnes & Noble discounts, I got it for $14, but if one paid list...

David Weber:
I'm a fan but have been starting to realize his limitations as an author.  If you started reading his books back when he started writing and read them as they came out, you probably never notice anything.  However, if you live in upstate NY and have nothing to do besides work and peruse various forums online, you may make the choice to go on a David Weber reading binge.  Then you realize that he has a tendency to reuse imagery...ALL THE TIME.  Still a good example of Military Sci-Fi with decent characterization.  Also bear in mind if you decide to read his books, Weber is an economic conservative, and those views are very obvious in his books.  So much so that socialists or economic liberals are painted with a very broad brush.


Dan Abnett (Gaunt's Ghosts, Eisenhorn) is a good author, and while he may be much more 'pulp' than any hard sci-fi author, his stories are a fun read with awesome characters.  Anyone who enjoys the Warhammer 40,000 universe, of course, knows that reading his books is a fething requirement.  If you odn't know 40K at all, you'll be lost.  If you do know 40K, read his books.  They really help bring a universe alive, and if he doesn't exactly wrestle with underlying social, political, or technological issues in society, well...it's 40K; "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war" makes a better tagline than "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only responsible social dialog and universal equality and understanding."

I will always be an Arthur C Clarke fan,  Yes, he did write some stuff just cause his publisher said to, but most writers do that.  Imperial Earth has been one of my favorites since the day I read it. 

I have no problem with tanks that fly and all that good stuff, but Warhamster is something I could never get into, despite my love for miniatures based gaming.  Thus I have no interest in books based on the world.  I am ok with Necromunda, which I view as a gateway game.

David Weber has lost a step in his Harrington series.  THe last book's cover showed her not wearing a ring that was very importnt to the story.  The old Weber would have caught that in a flash.  Still, going from an A author to a B, B+ is ok.  He has a huge corpus of work, which I always enjoy when discovering an author.  Besides, how many good authors write about a woman protagonist?

Clarke was wonderful and has many fine works and a few that are just not for me.  Heinlein showed women in an interesting light, especially his non-Boys Life work of the 60s and 70s. 

Why do you call it Warhamster?