I’m a big fan of David Weber’s work, both his series (Honor Harrington, Empire of Man) and his standalone stories.

I also really enjoy his Safehold books, about a human colony struggling to recover after being set up in scientific and technological stasis by its founders. They wanted to ensure the colony, the last remaining human settlement in the galaxy, wouldn’t be exterminated by an alien species that had wiped out everyone else. The books follow the work of a warrior android, set up by a faction among the original starship’s crew who objected to the cultural stasis, who is brought back to life almost a thousand years after the initial settlement.

It’s a great yarn, spanning quite a few books…but those books are getting amazingly, groaningly long. The latest, Hell’s Foundations Quiver, clocks in at 679 pages (plus a hundred pages listing all the major and recurring characters in the books)! I tend to buy books by favorite authors as hardcovers, for my library. But these massive tomes have almost forced me to switch Weber to eBooks just to keep my wrists from being injured.

Worse yet, while there’s plenty of plot development and action in each of the novels, it’s what’d suffice for, say, 300 pages. When spread over more than twice as many words there are pages and pages of exposition and embellishment and recounting of internal musings galore. So much gubbage that I lose track of where I am, who’s speaking, why they’re important, and how they fit into the developing story.

As a result I’ve done something I’ve never done with novels: I’m skimming them. I really want to see how the story evolves, and maybe even ends someday, but it turns out you don’t miss much by just skipping over most of the verbiage. It feels wrong to do it, but at least I’m preserving my sanity.

I suspect this is all because Weber is immensely popular…and hence immensely profitable for his publisher(s). I’ve noticed before that tends to make books get longer. Editors know that if they push too hard for cuts, their company will be cut out of the gravy train. I first noticed this effect years ago with Tom Clancy.

But it’s sad. Weber’s a hell of a novelist. But his books need to shed some pounds, literally, and go back to the fast-paced work on which he made his name.