The Excalibur Alternative [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

David Weber, among his many gifts as a writer creates excellent dialog and his worlds are peopled with both intellectually and emotionally stirring characters. Sir George represents the strength of humanity, its honor, courage, bravery and integrity. Weber offers these qualities as reminders of the costs to the soul when challenged to overcome xenophobia. Imagine accepting a 3 eyed, dual mouth, purple furred entity as one's boss, or a scaled, reptilian creature as one's ally and best friend. Just as H. G. Wells challenged us to imagine a future world that has long since come to pass, so too, David challenges us to stretch beyond our own limitations and perceptions and imagine the "what if" that could some day become the "as is".

I particularly liked his gradual bringing about the shift in consciousness and learning for Sir George and his evolution from primitive to techno geek, a metaphor for our present world where countless people in other countries have never heard of or used a computer. Sir George's perception of "computer" as a sentient being whom he calls "he" is also a harbinger for AI technology that will be part of our everyday use reality soon enough. What a trip that will be.

For this reader, the reverence of british culture and traditions held by Sir George who names his empire Avalon, his flag ship Excaliber and uses hereditary titles for his subjects adds a sense of timelessness that also serves as an anchor that unites real time to space/time. Concepts of nanotech for medical and longevity purposes and human cloning to populate other worlds really challenge one to think of these potentialities and prejudices. This book is engaging, deep and worth the effort to read it carefully rather than gulp it down. There are many levels of insight and foresight that are worth being explored and I am intrigued by the notion of where this story could go from here as a new and strong heroine, Admiral Her Imperial Highness Princess Evelynn Wincaster, the commander of Third Fleet has appeared in the story. I would love to see her evolve as Honor Harrington has in that wonderful series.

The book ends with the English knights overthrowing their masters and setting up a pocket empire that is ready to confront the aliens in a Galactic War!! As others have noted, the end of this book is slightly at askance. Weber is positioning probably many sequels. He has just released "War of Honor" (2002), which is clearly the start of a new Honor Harrington series. (See my review on that for more details.) Plus he also published "The Shiva Option" which ends that series. He has built up an expertise in writing interplanetary battle scenes, and in doing so has attracted a devoted fan base. From a marketing standpoint, he is reinforcing success by introducing different but related brands, like Coke and Diet Coke. Also, if he experiences a temporary writer's block in one series, he can switch to the other, to maintain productivity.

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Here is an aside, and something that does not seem to have been noted by others. The stories mentioned above about humans being kidnapped or recruited have all had humans as the heroes. Are there any where the humans are bad blokes? Not as far as I know. But if you relax the restriction that they be human, then you get Kzin! Yes, that's right. The Man-Kzin wars by Larry Niven. The Kzin were pretechnological tribals who overthrew and enslaved their spacefaring masters. So if you want a different take on this theme, check out that series.