David Weber

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Honor Harrington from Honor Among Enemies cover, by David Mattingly.
Honor Harrington from Honor Among Enemies cover, by David Mattingly.

David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952. In his stories, he creates a consistent and rationally explained technology and society. Even when dealing with fantasy themes, the magical powers are treated like another technology with supporting rational laws and principles.

Many of his stories have military, particularly naval, themes, and fit into the military science fiction genre. He challenges current gender roles in the military by assuming that a gender-neutral military service will exist in his futures, and by frequently placing female leading characters in what have previously been seen as traditionally male roles, he has explored the challenges faced by women in the military and politics.

His most popular and enduring character is Honor Harrington whose story, together with the "Honorverse" she inhabits, has been developed through 13 novels and four shared-universe anthologies, as of spring 2006 (other works are in production).

Contents

Many of Weber's books are available online, either in their entirety as part of the Baen Free Library or, in the case of more recent books, in the form of sample chapters (typically the first 25% or third of the work). Where the links below include '/library/' in the URL, they are the whole text of the book. Weber's publisher, Baen Books, is a pioneer in the sale of books in various electronic formats and all the linked titles below can be downloaded for payment if they are not available for free.

The hardback edition of War of Honor contained "The Honorverse CD", a compilation of texts which amongst other things held electronic copies of the entire Honor series to that point (including the anthologies up to Changer Of Worlds). The CD label explicitly states that the contents are freely distributable and the CD itself has been mirrored on various websites. This CD was only the first: there have now been seven other CD's released by Baen with different books.

Main article: Honorverse
(Note: External links are to online copies of the books at two sites run by Baen Books: baen.com and webscription.net. The complete and unabridged ebooks from the "At All Costs" CD are also available online.

Short Stories related to the Honor Harrington Series - edited by David Weber

These books are based on the Starfire games.

Empire of Man series.

In the 1632 series:

In the Honor Harrington series:

  • Hell's Gate [36]
  • Hell Hath No Fury

David Weber's books, especially those set in the Honorverse, frequently criticize interference by politicians in military matters. Though his commanders do make tactical errors, strategic blunders are usually blamed on interfering politicians. In particular, Heirs of Empire might imply that David Weber shares George Lucas' view that the best form of government is a benevolent dictatorship. The Honorverse books, by contrast, tend to espouse a pointedly libertarian viewpoint.

It must of course be remembered that David Weber is writing fiction, and his personal views may be very different. His later books may also be influenced by the success of such themes in earlier books. Indeed, a recurring trope is the difference between a polity's official name and its actual political structure; the "Star Kingdom of Manticore," nominally a monarchy ruled by a queen, in reality is a parliamentary republic, and the "People's Republic of Haven" presented itself as a federal republic for many decades while in reality being an imperial oligarchy ruled by a hereditary upper class. The internal politics of Weber's star nations have also become more complex over the series, with a strong tendency to depict a particular mode of government as being less important, ultimately, than the motivations and character of the individuals in power within that government.

Many technical terms for advanced technology often appear in different settings. For example the word 'molycirc', as a form of computing technology, appears in the Honorverse, The Apocalypse Troll, and the Heirs of Empire series, as well as the anthology Bolo!, and his newest Book Off Armageddon Reef; in addition, a number of sayings or expressions appear across series (such as "From your lips to God's ears!")

There have also been repeated use of several names across his novels. For example, a DeVries is found in both Path of the Fury and in the Honorverse series [there is a de Vries Bene Tleilaxu construct in Dune ]. The name Hauptman is also seen, though not as a cartel or family, but as a missile system in the Fury universe. A character with the last name Saint-Just figured prominently in Crusade, the Honorverse and was a leader in the French Revolution. The name Foraker has also been used in the Honorverse and in the background of Starfire and the Empire From the Ashes series.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../d/a/v/David_Weber_bd18.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.