sawyl | Empires from the Ashes

Here's the point where I own up to a guilty literary pleasure. Everyone has them. The books and writers they like, even though they probably shouldn't. Well, that's sort of how I feel about David Weber and which is why I suspect that the following might trash any reputation for literary taste I might have managed to beg, steal, borrow or otherwise finagle. For the record, I read Empires from the Ashes, which is actually a bundle that contains three previously published novels, Muntineer's Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance and Heirs of Empire.

In Moon, the main protagonist, Colin MacIntyre discovers that the moon is actually an ancient starship, left stranded in orbit after a failed mutiny forced the crew — both loyal and renegade &dmash; down to Earth where they became mankind's progenitors. With the assistance of the ship's AI, MacIntyre discovers that mutiny is still simmering away behind the scenes after 65,000 years, and that he has an obligation as the new captain to sort things out.

Inheritance focuses on the reason the huge starships of the Fourth Imperium were created: to fight of a species intent on wiping out all life in the galaxy. Unfortunately, MacIntyre and his new crew, the bad guy are on their way and the future looks grim unless they can stir up some more fire power...

In Heirs, a holdout from the mutiny plots to take over the newly founded Fifth Empire and to assassinate it's emperor, Colin I. As part of the machinations, the heirs to the throne find themselves dumped on a backwards, barbaric world where technology has been strictly limited by the priesthood. Aided only by a knowledge of Napoleonic tactics, are they ever going to be able to send word to the rest of the Imperium? Will the hidden enemy succeed in his attempts to destroy the emperor? I suspect you already know the answer...

So, why exactly is Weber a guilty pleasure? Maybe because the outlook is too Manchiean, perhaps because it's too militaristic for my wishy-washy Oxford common room liberal tendencies, maybe because the politics are, by British standards, rather reactionary. Maybe because you already know where things are headed long before they get there, just because there's an inevitable rhythm to these things or because it's not as intellectually demanding as it could be, but for all that's it's a guilty pleasure, it is a pleasure, nonetheless...