Re: "Mutineer's Moon (Dahak Series)" by David Weber

On 3/8/2024 9:10 AM, WolfFan wrote:
> On Mar 6, 2024, Lynn McGuire wrote
> (in article <[email protected]>):
> 
>> On 12/8/2021 2:35 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>> "Mutineer's Moon (Dahak Series)" by David Weber
>>> https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856/
>>>
>>> Book number one of a three book space opera military science fiction
>>> series. I read the well printed and bound MMPB published by Baen. This
>>> is my favorite SF book and series of all time as I have reread it eight
>>> or ten times now. I did buy a new copy of the MMPB which is the six
>>> printing from 2004, the original publishing was in 1991. I am rereading
>>> the second book in the series now which sadly, has gone out of print as
>>> a standalone book.
>>>
>>> https://www.amazon.com/Armageddon-Inheritance-David-Weber/dp/0671721976/
>>>
>>> 55,000 years ago, a Fourth Imperium Utu class 2,000 km diameter
>>> planetoid, Dahak hull number 177291, dropped out of Euchanch drive due
>>> to a supposed failure. Dahak and his 250,000 person crew were headed to
>>> a picket post for forty years at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. It
>>> had been 7,000 years since the last genocidal invasion of the
>>> Achuultani, a race who periodically swept the Milky Way of all life, who
>>> had destroyed three Imperiums and countless civilizations. But the FTL
>>> drive failure was not a accident, it was sabotage. And the mutiny that
>>> followed exiled the mutineers and crew alike on Earth, the third planet
>>> of the Sol System.
>>>
>>> Today, the unmanned picket posts are warning of the imminent invasion by
>>> the Achuultani. And Dahak is not receiving any warnings by hypercom
>>> from Central Command. Nor can he transmit a warning to Central Command
>>> as that capability was sabotaged also. Dahak needs a crew and a NASA
>>> pilot on a solitary mission, Colin McIntyre, around the Moon looks to be
>>> a good candidate. For you see, Dahak is the Moon.
>>>
>>> I do not know why this is my favorite SF book and series of all time. I
>>> like the standup position of the chief protagonist, Colin the First. Or
>>> that there are so many different species of intelligent space races. Or
>>> that the book is written so tightly, especially when compared to Weber's
>>> later works. Or that an self aware artificial intelligence shares the
>>> main protagonist job in the book, much like Heinlein's _The Moon Is A
>>> Harsh Mistress_.
>>>
>>> I keep on hoping that David Weber will write more books in the Dahak
>>> series but, I doubt it. He did write the Safehold series which is along
>>> the same lines as this book, overpowering space aliens and self aware
>>> artificial intelligences. BTW, there is an ending to the Safehold,
>>> Honorverse, and Dahak series that David Weber wrote as joke:
>>> http://www.davidweber.net/posts/443-how-safehold-wont-end.html
>>>
>>> The entire series is also available in an omnibus book, _Empire From The
>>> Ashes_ in either kindle or trade paperback. I also own this book in
>>> trade paperback.
>>> https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ashes-David-Weber/dp/141650933X/
>>>
>>> Here is my 2006 review of the book: "I love this book. Of my 5,000+
>>> SciFi books, it is my favorite. True, it is a little bit raw. But, it
>>> tells a SOLID story and leaves you wanting more more more at the end.
>>> That is the sign of a great book. A sentient ship the size of the moon
>>> and the unique story of the "space aliens" makes for a totally cool
>>> story. BTW, I am reading it for the 5th or 6th time (who keeps count
>>> ?). Weber owes a couple of authors for his story: Heinlein's The Moon
>>> is a Harsh Mistress and the Perry Rhodan series. There are two sequels
>>> to this book, also 5 stars. I am valiantly waiting for the fourth ..."
>>>
>>> My rating: 6 out of 5 stars (yes 6 stars, I have about 20 six star books)
>>> Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (211 reviews)
>>>
>>> Lynn
>>
>> Maybe I will read this again in 2024.
>>
>> Lynn
> 
> My problem with this book is the severe suspension of disbelief issues.
> There’s ’the Moon is really an alien warship’ bit, which is bad enough,
> but those who have read EE Smith and the likes of Skylark of Valeron and
> assorted loose planets might swallow. With difficulty. There’s the really
> interesting biology, in that humans are aliens, despite biology saying that
> they’re related to all other life on Earth, but those who have read Larry
> Niven and Protector can swallow that. With difficulty. There’s the secret
> history, and how the Big Bad was behind most of the villains in history...
> and let them lose..., but again EE Smith was there in Triplanetary.
> Swollowable, with difficulty. There’s the Really Neat Supertech, very like
> swarms of stories from the 1930s, 40s, 50s... and with all the problems of
> those stories, plus additional handicaps in that the Really Neat Supertech
> has to be hidden from John Public. Again, swallowable. With difficulty. The
> problem is, all of that is  in one story. EE Smith and Niven and Campbell and
> van Vogt and the rest spread things around in multiple stories, building on
> each, they didn’t just pile it into one huge blob and try to ram it down
> reader’s throats. Weber did exactly that. Plus infodumps. Nope, not buying
> it. Nope.
> 
> And the three books in this series were an early indicator of another Weber
> problem: he can’t finish a series. He stopped at three here. He’s written
> himself into corners with Honor Harrington and Safehold... including just
> stopping at incredibly annoying cliffhangers. (I’ve given up on Honor, and
> am getting very tired of waiting for the problems dumped in the last few
> pages of the last Safehold to be resolved. There is, so far as I know, no
> planned date for the release of the next Safehold book If there ever will be
> a next Safehold book.) The Bloody Hand has vanished, along with an
> explaination for a certain wild wizard’s actions, and exactly why the
> Bloody Hand’s daughter is so incredibly important. After Weber spent three
> books setting things up. Instead we have space vampires, and I suspect that
> that’s going to pitter out, too.
> 
> Weber is almost as bad as Ringo with respect to finishing a series. This is
> not a compliment.

"Safehold" has been finished.  You just don't like the ending.
    http://www.davidweber.net/posts/443-how-safehold-wont-end.html

There may be an alternate ending to "Safehold".  Time will tell.

Lynn