…you might as well be dead.
Reading another of David Weber’s (seriously in need of an editor’s bone-deep slashing) hernia-inducing Safehold books is an opportunity to learn new things and refresh old knowledge, especially of nautical terms. So…
From the Department of the Navy, “Origin of Navy Terminology”. I haven’t needed the reference often, but I did need a reminder of some terms’ definitions and learned the main differences between a “boat,” a “cock,” and a “skiff” (which of course led me to look for more definitive descriptions).
But Weber really, really needs to learn that he doesn’t have to write everything that occurs to him all at once… *heh* Oh, the Dickens with that*. Still a good read.
The problem with Dickens? Too many words. That, at least, Weber definitely shares with good ole Chuck. Hey, Readers Digest! I have a job for you! *heh*
OTOH, “A Beautiful Friendship”–another Weber book out in hardcopy 09/28/11 (read as eBook last week), is a shortie. *shrugs* Different publishers. Could that be it?
I do sincerely wish Weber would learn the difference between jealousy and envy, though. Little things like that can ruin a whole page or more of otherwise decent prose for me.
Of course, reading a David Weber book does mean I have to endure one failing he regularly displays: “lords secular and temporal” referring to a gathering of civil and church authorities. What the phrase actually says, as opposed to what Weber is trying to say, is “authorities civil and civil.” *sigh* Where in the world his concept of “temporal” comes from (and why, oh why, no proof readers or editors have caught the phrase through handsfull* *heh* of books) I cannot imagine.
Oh, and this book, one of the Safehold series, raises the question again: will I live long enough to read the end of this tale? I mean, it “starts” (more or less) about 900 years after the prelude to the story, the setup, as it were, and it seems like Weber’s going to take 900 years to tell the tale. Heck, is Weber going to live long enough to tell the tale? I mean, I’m older than he is, but from all the signs available to me, I seem to be in better general health…
Perhaps I ought to just “write” the end of the tale in my head and let the rest of the Safehold books–should they actually come–alone.
Yes, I know “handfulls” is generally acceptable, and why, but this is my own little protest against the word, which I find personally less pleasing.