A review by kaeritha
At All Costs by David Weber
1.0
The story is good and the writing is on par with the other books.
But I cannot overlook what I feel is a complete betrayal of both his characters and his readers. Towards the end, a group of recurring and main characters are suddenly remarkably stupid and completely contrary to how they have acted in the last TEN books. Maybe.../maybe/....in Weber's mind there really was a reason for Elizabeth's friends & advisors to suddenly become imbeciles. If there was, it should have been in the book...as long as the book was, surely *something* else could have been replaced to make their actions not a complete mockery. To me, it reads like Weber had a place he wanted the story to go and consistent character behavior be damned. Elizabeth and Honor are the only two of the group that seem to retain their "true" selves in that section.
But I cannot overlook what I feel is a complete betrayal of both his characters and his readers. Towards the end, a group of recurring and main characters are suddenly remarkably stupid and completely contrary to how they have acted in the last TEN books. Maybe.../maybe/....in Weber's mind there really was a reason for Elizabeth's friends & advisors to suddenly become imbeciles. If there was, it should have been in the book...as long as the book was, surely *something* else could have been replaced to make their actions not a complete mockery. To me, it reads like Weber had a place he wanted the story to go and consistent character behavior be damned. Elizabeth and Honor are the only two of the group that seem to retain their "true" selves in that section.