A gathering for speculative and entertainment purposes only.

Any Honor Harrington Fans Out There?

I love David Weber's Honor Harrington series of books and would make a great series of television.

Permalink Reply by Chris Donahue on June 12, 2009 at 9:13am: Big fan. I've enjoyed most of his series, with his Starfire books being among my favorites. He does a good job of showing tactical combat. The descriptions make sense in writing, but I'm not sure how well you could translate the physics restrictions onto TV without watering it down vs confusing most of the audience.
Chris; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John The Rogue Demon Hunter on June 12, 2009 at 9:29am: I would go the Farscape route and let the audience figure things out. the story is the most important thing. If hollywood can make submarine combat interesting, I have faith that true space combat can be achieved. I really like the political aspects of the Harrington series. Have you read Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series? There is some great fleet maneuvers in there.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Donahue on June 13, 2009 at 7:59am: I recently stumbled across Lost Fleet and enjoyed the first four.

Since I like reading this type so much and there seems more of this type of book is needed, I've shifted my short story emphasis from horror (which sells reasonably well) towards sci-fi. I have a couple of short stories floating around now and am working on a novel.

Your comment on submarine warfare was spot-on. At ConDFW this year, I had David Weber on my Space Combat 101 panel and his take was first-century space combat will most closely resemble submarine warfare as well.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John The Rogue Demon Hunter on June 13, 2009 at 11:34am: I got the newest lost fleet book but I am reading Wizard's First Rule right now.

Yes we need more fleet based sc-fi books. How far along is your new book?

Space Combat 101!!! That is so cool. I would have loved to been there. I have studied naval combat for years and have been on a sub and a battleship. I haven't been on a aircraft carrier yet.
My aunt works for Nasa, so I have seen some cool stuff there as well. Roman history is also of great interest to me.

Did you watch Star Blazers when you were younger?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Donahue on June 13, 2009 at 2:27pm: Vintaging myself, I didn't see Starblazers, outside of some bits&pieces.

I did the BB, SB, FF and such tours as well as serving on a CVN. So I think I have a handle on the day-to-day stuff. NASA is a great source for things coming down the line. I don't see them as a leak since most of the scumbags on the other side barely have Internal combustion motor tech and would be happy if we were all settling things with hunks of bronze.

The novel is around the 35% mark. I'm going with dual purpose combat where the ship's drive is also its main battery. Makes for some interesting choices between pouring in ionic catalysts for a hit vs heavy ions for better drive. It is one of those niche-techs like the early days of Monitors. I'll focus more on the characters and try not to let my opinion of Ted Kennedy, Barney Franks, Nancy Pelosi and the current Admistration not drown the story.

What other types of genre have your imagination?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John The Rogue Demon Hunter on June 15, 2009 at 5:42am: Well, where to begin? I like crime dramas, alternate history, espionage, fantasy, and some light horror. Last month I read "The 47th Samurai" , so there is no telling what will interest me. I'm really into ancient warfare. If I was rich, I would have a armory of all kinds of weapons.

The story I have in my head has the energy shields powered by multiple drives and stores the absorbed energy for future use. The shields are useless against missiles or other slow moving ordnance . The ships use low yield lasers for shooting down such weapons. Think of those old ww2 films of battleships shooting down the japanese bombers. Thats one of my ideas anyway.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Donahue on June 16, 2009 at 5:46am: Well, you have an idea. The next step is to start writing it. For some folks that is easy, the rest of us have to develop the skill the same way most other skills are honed--practice.

Chris; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John The Rogue Demon Hunter on June 16, 2009 at 6:23am: I agree practice makes perfect.
I tried to write a script at work during my breaks and lunch hours but a co-worker kept throwing my notes away or spilling something on them etc. I'm a pen and paper guy.

Lately, I've been thinking of returning to school to pursue video editing. Until I can quit one of my jobs, I just dont see it happening.

I love editing. I originally got interested in it to make a Fan Film. I was to direct and edit. The project never happened.
What kind of horror did you write?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Donahue on June 16, 2009 at 7:41am: I worked with a local friend who made a few independent shorts (Laundry Day and Worm-No Tequilla) and had fun doing it. A lot of detail work involved.

I've written a fairly wide variety of stuff. What has sold so far has been horror with a bit of humor:
Hickenstein (in Flush Fiction)
Luthor's Lunchwagon (in Houston, We've Got Bubbas)
Dinner Date (in Loving the Undead: Stories of romance...sort of)
Star of Istanbul (in High Seas Cthulhu)
Children of Ba-Seku (in Speculative Realms)
The Cure (in Robots Beyond)
Unsafe Sex (in Things aren't what they seem)

These are mostly zombie stories. Since Horror has been cut from most bookstore shelves, the small and medium presses have filled the void. They're a lot more willing to publish unknown authors. But, stacking up good reviews in small press can be a foot in the door to bigger press.

Chris