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Picked up "On Basilisk Station" the other day, have to say this Harrington series looks to be quite interesting. I particularly like the parallels drawn from "The Age of Sail." The concept of a whole "Wall of Battle" opening up with full broadsides would be an awe inspiring scene in a movie.
Only problem is the technobabble details have such an effect on the story & how the ships fight, it'll be hard getting it across in the alloted time without lots of boring exposition. Try describing how an impeller wedge works in one sentence. In terms that Joe Sixpack can understand. And that's not even getting into the politics of the setting... :-) Maybe it could be done as a miniseries on Sci-Fi channel if we can get someone to cough up the bucks to do it right. Now, who to cast as Honor Harrington?
Hmm, thought I'd like that series but it just didn't work for me. I love Forester and O'Brien though.
As for casting Harrington, I'd suggest... can't think of her name... the woman who stars in the TNT series Witchblade.
I LOVE Honor Harrington.
Dan, how much did you read? It took me a little while to get into the first book, but it was well worth it, and the characterisation in that and the later books is top notch.
I just wish Weber would stop doing bad stuff to poor old Honor :(
The politics are again representative of what was going on in the Napolionic era. Idea wise this series is Space:1812.:D And I don't think the series is really aimed at "Joe Sixpack" (I at least don't put myself in that category.) I understood the description of the "Impeller Wedge and Military sidewall." And thought it was a nice new take on shield tech.
The story is much like Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion, my favourite Sci-fi series. I look forward to reading more.
How much did I read? I started the first book but to be honest got a little bored/confused when Weber began a long discussion about how naval battles worked during the fleet exercises. I couldn't quite follow his descreption of how their shielding and weapons system worked. I could tell he was trying for a Napoleonic war-style of combat and I love those types books, especially the Horatio Hornblower series. Heck, I visit U.S.S. Constitution in Boston several times a year. Which is probably why I read Beat to Quarters after putting down Harrington. :D
Might be something I pick up again someday. The political landscape seemed rather interesting.
The Honor Harrington stuff is great...other than being a billion books long. I don't mind a series, but after a while... Love O'Brien sea books, but 20+ books is a lot of dough and time for me.
As for casting her in a series? Claudia Christian.
I started reading Honor Harrington early enough that I wasn't overwhelmed by the length of the series! :D (But I have noticed that problem with other series - if you don't start early enough in the series it can be hard to pick it up in the middle.) What amazed me about Honor Harrington is how good most of the later books are. Often in a series like that the first few books are good, then it goes downhill from there. With Honor Harrington, there were a couple of books towards the middle that kind of dragged, but after that they got better again.
I love the Honor Harrington series! There are a couple of good websites about it (forgot the URLs for the moment- google!) showing uniforms and spacecraft and such, including an 'Honorpedia' with lots of data. Enough, IMA, to allow an enterprising type to run RPG adventures in that universe.
Power-armored Marines, skin-suited space sailors, exotic intelligent treecats, pirates, epic space battles, villians with a heart (sometimes), and Honor Harrington- a commander whose crew will just about literally follow her to hell, and back.
Oh yes. Good series.
Anybody know when the next novel is coming out? I have the latest anthology, but I like the novels better.
I'd love to read a novel, or even just a short story, all about Tremaine and Harkness.
CASTING Honor Harrington:Quote:
Originally posted by qerlin
The Honor Harrington stuff is great...other than being a billion books long. I don't mind a series, but after a while... Love O'Brien sea books, but 20+ books is a lot of dough and time for me.
As for casting her in a series? Claudia Christian.
As much a fan of Claudia Christian I am (Ivanovah IS! GOD!) I think she's a bit to old for the role and much to muscular. I envision Honor more with a "dancers body", slim&long muscled, not a body-builder type.
Same problems (age i.e) with most other tall actresses. After all isn't she described as "looking early thirties/late twenties" IIRC.
Filming the stuff:
Only as a mini-series like "Gone with the Wind II" or "Lonesome Dove". Cooooostly due to the good cast and quite a few tricks for the 'cat (Won't have him look like a muppet or Joda after all)
Keep a lot of the tech in the background. Use a few "flashbacks" when HH get's her light cruiser (Fearless IIRC) and thinks back to her destroyer, i.e a ship firing at the TinCan and the XO comments "luckily he's hit from above where the drives wedge covers us" - "Yeah, that laser would have burned right through our weaker sideshields" Worked nicely for Bab5 and even X-Persons[1]
Reading the Stuff:
Everybody who liked Hornblower, Bonito and the more martial parts of StarTrek should. Takes a while to get rolling but then the stuff rocks.
[1] Sorry, If those are X-Men they include the most realistic Drag Queens I've ever seen ;)
I agree on both points, Honor is Tops, and I wish Weber would quit doing bad things to he. I do see that it indicates not everyo battle you can just walk away from unscratched. Like kirk, never got a scar in all the fights he was in...
I never really touched the books because of the hideous covers (they look like a model posing in a uniform for her big Playboy photo shoot), but the tech and "Space: 1812" concept does sound interesting.
However, considering the only books I'm actually reading for pleasure (aside fromm RPG rulebooks) are The Prince, The Quotable Harry S. Truman (my hero) and the Oxford Guide to Heraldry, I'm afraid I won't be getting into novels for a long time. :(
I should say that my "Space:1812" comment is a reflection of the way space combat is run, much like the old blue water sailing navies. Also, alot of the political and social background are taken from that era. A friend of a friend has said that even the characters are (almost) directly based on historical characters from the era. This is one of the reasons I picked it up, the Napoleonic Era has been an interest of mine for some time.
This is mostly true for the Peeps, IIRC. They have their versions of various politicos and so on. The most obvious is probably Robespierre (Rob in the series).Quote:
Originally posted by Phantom
I should say that my "Space:1812" comment is a reflection of the way space combat is run, much like the old blue water sailing navies. Also, alot of the political and social background are taken from that era. A friend of a friend has said that even the characters are (almost) directly based on historical characters from the era. This is one of the reasons I picked it up, the Napoleonic Era has been an interest of mine for some time.
I might try to talk my group into visiting the Harrington Universe. I would probably use GURPS or Action! for the rules (CODA is too new for me to try to adapt it to another universe yet). GURPS is easily the most likely choice with its various ads and disads.
As for an actress, perhaps Tia Carrera. IIR, Honor has a slight asian cast to her features and Tia is certainly not a small woman. I'm not sure if her acting ability is up to the role, however. What we need is Claudia Christian's attitude and Tia Carrera's body. Oh well...
The cover art of one of the books makes her look a lot like Terry Farrell. With good make-up, I think she could look young enough, and she certainly has enough height for the part. She has lots of experience at working with SFX, techno-babble, and some hand-to-hand fighting in futuristic martial arts, too.
Another possibility would be Lexa Doig (Rommie on Andromeda). She doesn't have the height, but she is younger, has a more exotic face, and still has plenty of SF acting experience.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sarge
[B]Anybody know when the next novel is coming out? I have the latest anthology, but I like the novels better.
The next novel i think is due out in october/november and i belive it is called `War of Honor`. and is set 3 years arfter the events of the last book,
the first couple of chapters are available on the bean website,
Actually, Farrell would make an awesome Harrington.Quote:
Originally posted by Sarge
The cover art of one of the books makes her look a lot like Terry Farrell. With good make-up, I think she could look young enough, and she certainly has enough height for the part. She has lots of experience at working with SFX, techno-babble, and some hand-to-hand fighting in futuristic martial arts, too.