David Weber

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For the musician, see David Weber (clarinetist).
David Weber

David and Sharon Weber at CONduit 17.
Born 1952
Cleveland, Ohio
Occupation Novelist, short story author
Genres Science fiction (military science fiction), fantasy
Notable work(s) Honor Harrington series
Influences
Influenced

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 alliterated name is an homage to C. S. Forester's character Horatio Hornblower. Her 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

[edit] Published works

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 25-33% 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 CDs released by Baen with different books.

[edit] Honor Harrington series

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.

[edit] Worlds of Honor collections

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

[edit] Novels related to the Honor Harrington series

[edit] Heirs of Empire series

[edit] War God series

[edit] Other novels

[edit] Safehold series

[edit] Collaborations

[edit] Steve White

These books are based on the Starfire games.

[edit] John Ringo

Empire of Man series.

[edit] With Eric Flint

In the 1632 series:

In the Honor Harrington series:

[edit] With Linda Evans

Multiverse series.

(Note: The complete and unabridged ebooks from the "Hell Hath No Fury" CD are also available online.

[edit] Common themes

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[edit] Common language

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 and within a series between two distinctly different groups (such as "From your lips to God's ears!" or "hoisted by your own petard")

[edit] Common names

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 (cf. the mentat Piter de Vries and the later Bene Tleilaxu construct of the same name in the Dune series by Frank Herbert). The name Hauptman is also seen, though not as a cartel or family, but as a missile system in the Fury universe. The name Foraker has also been used in the Honorverse and in the background of Starfire and the Empire From the Ashes series.

The Honorverse series is loosely based on the French Revolution and draws many names and references from that time period. A character called Oscar Saint-Just figured prominently in Crusade, the Honorverse and Louis de Saint-Just was a leader in the French Revolution. The character "Rob (S.) Pierre" plays a very similar role in the revolutionary movement in the People's Republic of Haven as the historical Robespierre in the French Revolution.

There has also been a repeated use of the same basic heroine. Honor Harrington, David Weber's most famous character, as well as the heroines in The Path of the Fury, and Crusade, a female main character of mixed Asian-European descent who is a military officer, tactical genius, was considered unattractive until maturity, and ends up being a major turning-point in history (note: the main character in Off Armageddon Reef is of pure European stock, but was immersed in Asian practices such as Kendo).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Anvil, Christopher (First printing, April 2003). "Introduction by David Weber", The Interstellar Patrol, edited by Eric Flint, Cover art by Mark Hennessey-Barratt, P.O. Box 1403, Riverdale, NY 10471: Baen Publishing Enterprises, p. 3. ISBN ISBN 0-7434-3600-8. “quotation:"
         "I'm delighted that someone is making Christopher Anvil's work available once again. Especially the Interstellar Patrol stories. Vaughan Roberts, Morrissey, and Hammell have always been three of my very favorite characters, and I've always loved Anvil's . . . peculiar sense of humor.
         I suppose, if I'm going to be honest, that Roberts' J-class ship is another of my favorite characters. In fact, although I hadn't realized it until I sat down to write this introduction, I suspect that there was a lot of the Patrol boat's computer hiding somewhere in the depths of my memory when I created Dahak for the Mutineers' Moon series. After all, Dahak is simply another self-aware ship kidnapping itself a captain on a somewhat larger scale. They even have a few personality traits in common.    ”     
  2. ^ Amazon order page for "By Schism Rent Asunder"

[edit] External links

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