Quote:
Originally Posted by bgalbrecht
David Weber likes infodumps too much and needs a good editor, and I'm not going to pick up the 8th book in a series when it's not standalone. I feel the same way about Naomi Novick's Dragon book being the 7th or 8th of a series except I've read most of the series and liked them, so I'll add it to my TBR list.
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Interesting take because I'm just the opposite. I have read each of the previous volumes in Weber's series and I don't find the infodumps overly annoying. I do agree, however, that he could use a much better editor than he has -- or perhaps his editor is excellent but Weber is not following the editor's advice, a not uncommon phenomenon, especially with established successful authors. (James Patterson is notorious among editors for throwing tantrums if anything more than a spelling error is suggested as a correction.) Anyway, I've had on preorder for months the new volume in the series and am looking forward to receiving it in a few weeks.
In contrast, I've read most of Novik's Temeraire series and while I found the first few books good -- not great, just mediocre good -- I found I rapidly grew tired of her writing style. Where Weber may go too much into detail, Novik's writing is superficial and simplistic. I find I care about some of Weber's characters but about none of Novik's. I haven't bothered with the last couple of her books as I find they lack "personality."