HMS Mary Sue
Dec. 14th, 2012 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luckykaaSo... One of the series of books I've been enjoying recently is Honor Harrington.
The premise is essentially Horatio Hornblower in space - The protagonist even has the same initials. The universe is made as Napoleonic as possible. Ships of the line become ships of the wall. The design of the ships has them firing broadsides at each other. The kingdom of Manticore is clearly Great Britain, with a house of Lords and a house of Commons as well as a Queen. The "French" are played by the People republic of Haven. A decadent socialist regime without the ability to support itself by its own economy and so ransacks its neighbours for territory and resources, until it eventually absorbs them into its republic. So we follow the stellar career of Honor harrington as she heroically defeats enemies greater than herself.
It's enjoyable but not actually particularly good.
Honor Harrington is such a Mary Sue. In the first book, she actually had challenges. She was a nobody and dumped into an impossible to win scenario that she took on quite heroically. This was fine. By book three, she's universally recognised as being amazing and perfect and everyone falls down in worship at her. It's established that she's an expert in military tactics, unrmed combat, sword combat, shooting, public debate and has perfect pitch.
People who like Honor are always intelligent, courageous, and honourable. People sho dislike Honor are always cowadly, scheming and manipulative.
At the end of the second book everyone abruptly recognised how good she was, by the end of the second book, she'd managed to convince the planet of the Mormons that women are in fact equal.
So I chose this as the target for parody in NaNoWriMo.
Ships had sails! Sailors had superstitions. All officers had alliterative names. I had a brutal violent sadistic captain who loved beating his crew. The political situation was completely based on keeping the hoi poloi out of government as much as possible.
And it wasn't funny. I completely failed to find the humour in the situation. I have to wonder why. The only parts that really worked were having a mad king, and a nasty bullying captain.
The premise is essentially Horatio Hornblower in space - The protagonist even has the same initials. The universe is made as Napoleonic as possible. Ships of the line become ships of the wall. The design of the ships has them firing broadsides at each other. The kingdom of Manticore is clearly Great Britain, with a house of Lords and a house of Commons as well as a Queen. The "French" are played by the People republic of Haven. A decadent socialist regime without the ability to support itself by its own economy and so ransacks its neighbours for territory and resources, until it eventually absorbs them into its republic. So we follow the stellar career of Honor harrington as she heroically defeats enemies greater than herself.
It's enjoyable but not actually particularly good.
Honor Harrington is such a Mary Sue. In the first book, she actually had challenges. She was a nobody and dumped into an impossible to win scenario that she took on quite heroically. This was fine. By book three, she's universally recognised as being amazing and perfect and everyone falls down in worship at her. It's established that she's an expert in military tactics, unrmed combat, sword combat, shooting, public debate and has perfect pitch.
People who like Honor are always intelligent, courageous, and honourable. People sho dislike Honor are always cowadly, scheming and manipulative.
At the end of the second book everyone abruptly recognised how good she was, by the end of the second book, she'd managed to convince the planet of the Mormons that women are in fact equal.
So I chose this as the target for parody in NaNoWriMo.
Ships had sails! Sailors had superstitions. All officers had alliterative names. I had a brutal violent sadistic captain who loved beating his crew. The political situation was completely based on keeping the hoi poloi out of government as much as possible.
And it wasn't funny. I completely failed to find the humour in the situation. I have to wonder why. The only parts that really worked were having a mad king, and a nasty bullying captain.
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-12-15 06:06 pm (UTC)By that logic you are a scheming manipulative coward. So your bad review is obviously a plot. : )