Random Babblings

Ashes of Victory is the 9th book in David Webber‘s Honor Harrington series. I started reading this series earlier this year as a change of pace. I mainly read fantasy, Jordan, Martin, etc, etc… And since I read a lot I tend to see lots of similarities between books. I had kinda hit the rut of reluctant boy hero finds out he has great powers and has to save the world. Not all of the books I’ve read are that story, and sometimes it’s changed up (reluctant girl hero), but I wanted something that was completely different, and would last me a while.

So I plowed through the science fiction titles of the local book store and landed on Webber. I had heard of him before but being into fantasy more than SciFi had kinda passed him over. I’m not sure that I completely escaped the rut. Honor is still a reluctant hero, though perhaps that’s not quite fair. The series is a SciFi Space Military drama, and I’m sure most commanders in the military accept possible hero status at least a little reluctantly. Sure some revel in the power, but I guess they wouldn’t make interesting enough characters to last as long as this series has.

So that gets back to the fantasy. Are the heroes reluctant because they have to be? Do power hungry heroes just not work, does it just turn them into villains. Maybe I just need to read more anti-hero novels, not that I have any desire to read Thomas Covenant.

In the end, I’ve enjoyed this series, and will probably try and read more SciFi in the future, but perhaps I’ve realized to take the stories for what they are.