Need a Book? Read Worlds of Honor!

Science fiction can be quite the boys' club, but if you want a series of hardcore scifi with a kickass female heroine and really cute, empathic aliens called treecats, then you should read the Honor Harrington books by David Weber. I must say, the novels are sometimes a little too technical for my tastes, but I am absolutely loving a collection of short stories about the world of Honor Harrington and her cool cats, called Worlds of Honor.

In this collection, some of the short stories are written by David Weber, but other authors include Linda Evans, Jane Lindskold and Roland Green. What I like about all of these stories is that all of them have really strong multi-dimensional female characters. The stories are pure escapism and yet one does not feel guilty about reading "trash," unlike probably a lot of the popular science fiction that involves, say, vampires and werewolves...cough...Twilight...ahem... Random Babble provides a great post about the racism in Twilight. Call me a purist, but I just do not believe that vampires should sparkle EVER! (I guess I'm sparkle prejudiced...)

While popular fantasy is having a lot of thematic problems lately, the stories in Worlds of Honor are a breath of fresh air. I think this book would be a lot better for teen reading, as it provides strong female role models, depth, excitement, and did I mention the cool treecats?! One thing the stories do not provide though is cheesy romance, so I guess the stories will not be put into movie form or be ravaged by teenage girls any time soon, which certainly is a shame.