Mack Meijers, who interviewed me for his podcast program back in October, had this to say about the Man of War books in relationship to SF writing in general.
“It’s a bit of a trend today, in many ways even a preferred trend. I recently had a bit of a discussion with some people at 47North and Tor, on the topic. One of the things which really popped up was that there is a strong preference for what is known as “consumable reading”, which follows the “evolution by action” format – mostly. I found it interesting that they made a distinction there in observations on published and self-published works, with the latter being more likely to get noticed if following that format, akin to screenwriting today in the science fiction genre.
“That said, it’s my observation that it is not a golden rule. As mentioned, I had that conversation with Mr. Gunn, as well as other authors, but it is also visible in the sales data from marketplaces like Amazon itself. There are exceptions. Even more, it is remarkable to see that when new writers don’t follow that general approach, they’re actually quite likely to rise to the top of the curves (and get picked up for publishing).
“Not to make a sales plug or something, but I had a conversation recently on a show with such an author (H. Paul Honsinger) in the sub genre of military science fiction, which turned out to be exactly such an exception to the “rule”. Not movie focused, or screenwriting focus, or action based evolution. Instead it was writing reminiscent of quite a few decades past. Rich atmosphere, decision based evolution, clear depth of field & character – and the authors books are quite the hit. I don’t know if it’s permissible to post the link, but to me it was quite a refreshing find.”
http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/2013/10/clinging-to-the-wreckage-how-to-save-science-fiction/ (scroll down to his second comment)
H. Paul Honsinger 