A Rising Thunder

Disappointed with Audible on this one.

Disappointed the chapters are out of order. This made it difficult to enjoy. Here’s the lineup:
Start with chapter 15 - 25 (book chapters 1 - 11).
Then chapter 1 -14 (book chapters 12- 24).
Chapter 26 - 36 (book chapters 25 to end. )
Confusing huh?

11 of 11 people found this review helpful

Chapters are out of order.

This book has been out for years, no reason this shouldn't be fixed by now.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Compelling Series But Too Much Filler

Overall, this book is a nice continuation of the story. The story arc allows for an interesting mix of action, politics, and character development. Having said that, the author seems to be developing some annoying habits if you have followed his writing style from book 1.

There is far too much filler material. For example there are long boring sequences where he describes conversations between humans and tree cats, where he describes in detail the tree cat's hand movements as they use sign language. Describing hand and finger position and the motion of the gestures as the tree cat spells a word letter by letter is excruciating. Imaging watching a closed-captioned broadcast with someone speaking in your ear who explains with as much detail as they can, what the person signing is doing. This would test anyone's patience. Normally a translator would simply tell you that the person is signing followed by the translation. Five minute descriptions of hand gestures is massive overkill and I found myself using the fast-forward key frequently, lest I fall asleep.

Ditto the author's annoying tendency to have us attend entire religious services where he takes us through a complete religious service with lengthy scripture readings and pastoral comments, rather than simply giving us the first few lines like any author who wants to keep us engaged would do, followed by a synopsis of what was said so we can get back to the story. Again, making us sit through complete sermons is massive overkill and again, thanks for the fast-forward button. I probably skipped 20-30 minutes of this novel.

Lastly, the author has for the last 2 books picked up the annoying habit of everyone's lip twitching and tightening whenever they are surprised. That never happens to me so I can't relate to it. And since it happens over and over and over, it gets irritating. There are other ways to depict surprise in writing but the author seems to be getting lazy.

I still like the story a lot but each novel seems to move more slowly and there are several bad habits the author is picking up that make me pinch my nose and press on. Since this story is not entirely self-contained and ends abruptly with several important things dangling, I'm sure there will be another soon. I just hope negatives don't get worse or I will probably tune out.

10 of 12 people found this review helpful

An episode of an on-going soap opera, not a novel

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No, as the title states Mr. Weber has stopped writing novels and started writing episodes of a soap opera. It's a shame because he has interesting material and he is a very capable writer. I love the early Harrington series, but the later half of the series seems to be a single run-on story rather than several distinct novels.

Which character – as performed by Allyson Johnson – was your favorite?

Ms. Johnson is an excellent narrator. One of the best I've heard in many years of listening to audio books. It would be hard to say what character she does best. They are all excellent.

Any additional comments?

I'm not the only one noticing this problem with Mr. Weber's most recent works. I've seen others make the very same comments. I wish he would take note and get back to writing novels the way he used to. He is not a bad author; he is, in fact, a very good author, but he has slipped into some very bad habits.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

love this series, but less politics. more battles

Would you listen to A Rising Thunder again? Why?

yes. It is part of a memorable series. The author had built an amazingly complete and complicated universe. I would like the story to move a little faster and have more battles. In this book there was only one and it was not detailed. The politics were more important. and they are important to the story, but I wish for less emphasis on the politics. Never the less. I will grab anything in this series or from this author. Great stuff!! most of all I hate the wait for the next installment.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Rising Thunder?

The treecats make a decision.

Which character ??? as performed by Allyson Johnson ??? was your favorite?

Honor, of course.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I wish it did not ring so true how vulnerable we are to the lies we are told by our leaders.

Any additional comments?

Start at the beginning of the series or you will be lost! but it is well worth the many hours of reading. I love the long books!!!!!

11 of 14 people found this review helpful

I HATE the year-long wait for the next installment

I've read all the books in the Honor Harrington saga multiple times. Some are better than others. At one point, it seemed like they were getting so incredibly long and so little happened, that I decided to stop reading the series, but at some point I gave in and got the books I had missed and started again, and the series has actually improved again. In the early books, the exciting action was carried mostly by Honor. Now that she is a bigwig, a lot of the better action sequences are carried by other people. But the story is interesting and exciting again. I got this book yesterday and have listened to it almost non-stop. And as it neared its end, I felt like groaning. Two days of intense involvement in the story and then 363 days waiting for the next installment. It's sheer torture.

If you have never read any of the Honor Harrington books, this is not the one to start with. The series should definitely be read in order. The first book is "On Basilisk Station." If you have been a fan of the Honor books, be glad. Weber has produced another worthy entry into the series.

27 of 36 people found this review helpful

Almost like a Pre'cis of current events.

The story fit the title. A rising thunder is designed to build up all the causation for the push in the second half of this installment due later this year. The story is actually made up of several short stories interlinked by the main common theme. I liked the quick pace of multiple events happening in succession all over the the galaxy and being interlinked with the "rising" plot. I am salivating for the missile crescendo that will spell the end of Manpower....
As For JOHNSON's narration. Ok one Good compliment and one little criticism. The critical first: Johnson had a tendency to confuse scenes a bit in this one. For example: At the end of a certain Board meeting in old Chicago (towards the end of the book) she cuts away to a conversation between a powerful Male and Female character without a breath, it was a little disorienting. On the bright side, People have been hating on Johnson for her changing of the pronunciation of Manticorian. She used to say Man-Tic -or-n. BUT she has grown as a narrator and now pronounces it Manticorian, which is the correct phoneme structure. The old way was 4 distinct Morphemes while the proper (new say she says it) is only 3. Proper pronunciation is defined "Communicating a words intent using the least morphemic units" SO major kudos to Johnson for this.
THIS IS NOT for the first time Weber reader, it would be like trying to read Lord of the rings and getting irritated because you choose to start in the last half of the third book.
Overall I enjoyed it for its purpose; to build up for the coming storm and it was needed synopsis for the major events enveloping every major and most of the minor star nations in the series.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Good

The performance is better in this one. I think she's getting better. I enjoy the story. The thriller/intrigue elements are interesting. One thing, it's "delta vee" not "delta five", as in change in velocity. Not a big one, but it does shatter the suspension of disbelief.

9 of 12 people found this review helpful

Good, But not for a first time Harrington Listener

This was like the start of a new series for me. I Love the harrington series so this was ok for me. But a new listener should start out with On Basilisk Station and go thru the series. In this one, It felt to me like the battles were good but more background than the usual core of the book. It was even more heavily invested in statistics and setting the story than usual. Having said that, it held my attention throughout and I will get the next one.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Great book for fans of the series

Any additional comments?

This book is primarily seting up the series for a new set of books. It actually starts prior to the end of the previous book in order to give aditional background information to frame the New struggle about to envelope the varius star nations.

8 of 11 people found this review helpful