Book Description

Customer Reviews (79)

Fantastic
One of the most exciting, thought provoking science fiction novels I've ever read.I wish the author would write another book, using these same characters.

Do we need all these exotic names to move the story along?
Bynzharmyn
Oskahr Mhulvayn
Zhaspahr Maysahn
Zhenyfyr
Rayjhis
Erayk
Ahlbyrt
Tahdayo Mahntayl

These are just a few examples of the characters populating David Weber's latest creation. Imagine trying to keep track of a few dozens or so of such characters within his novel, sometimes being referred to by their first names, sometimes by their last names and then sometimes being addressed by their titles and I quickly found myself overwhelmed just trying to keep track of who was who within the story! I would readily admit to being a great fan of David Weber's line of space operas but even I have to confess that such tongue-twister of names created literal 'speed bumps' toward my reading enjoyment!

Granted that this is a science fiction piece but, unlike some of his other series of galactic wars spanning numerous star systems complete with alien races, or of the six-limbed Mardukans that populated his very enjoyable Prince Roger series, most of the characters in this novel are descendants of earth. Lets stick with some reader-friendly names here, just so we could navigate, keep track of and enjoy this very Machiavellian novel involving future church and states, of political intrigues and military lessons.

If Mr. Weber could readily retain conventional titles and ranks like vicars, bishops, dukes and kings, why not make the rest just a little more reader-friendly, particularly, American readers, which I believe would be his targeted audiences. I would like to think that Mr. Weber's novels are just as popular around the world, enjoyed by readers of different cultures and maybe in just as many different languages. I would guess that if the novel is translated into various languages, those same readers will have to deal with their own versions of tongue-twister names too. But we are reading this now, in English, and I found myself needing to go back, from time to time, to find out exactly just who Mr. Weber was referring to... of who this particular person is.

Take for example, within one short paragraph, I came across someone referring to Mhulvayn and Maysahn and I had to stop; I have to sort out and figure out who they were, again.

I certainly wouldn't be expecting to see names like John or David (no insults intended for anyone named John or David) or such extremely common names but, please don't try to be exotic just for exotic and unconventional sake; it makes for very awkward and uncomfortable reading that distract greatly to the overall enjoyment of the novel. If I could not even recall in my own mind what any particular character's name was, I am not so sure I could then readily remind myself that... hmmm, that was one great read and maybe I would go back to it again some time in the future.

Mr. Weber went into great details on ships, naval weaponry and tactics and I only wish he would pay equal attention to character name generations instead of something that reminded me of random keyboard inputs or major typos.

I do hope Mr. Weber might glance over some of these comments on Amazon.com and get some readers' feedbacks that might reflect in his future novels.

Weber does it again
Imagine a place where the last of humanity has fled to after being pasted in an interstellar war.There, they live in a muscle powered culture to avoid betraying their presence to the enemy with emissions.And a religeon, created by the scientists who created this refuge, keeps them in this state.

Now, throw in a cyber-android with a human personality whose job it is to break mankinds' last members from this "divinely inspired" trap.That's what Weber has wrought in this new work.

A bit slow in places, and not truely a straight "sci-fi" story, it is still excellent Weber, with all the character and intense development we have come to expect.Weber is at his best when doing naval fiction (wet or space), and this is just another example of that.

Fantastic New World
This book is a great study of Politics and the games of Mice and Men.Weber has done a fantastic job of setting the scene and allowing the "actors" to draw one's self into the story with a generous emotional investment. Character development if good and the Cast is diverse. This is a wonderful weave of "Church vs Secular" politics at the Empire level and throws in a rich technical outline of 15th & 16th century sailing technologies and advancements.

The time is rapidly approaching for humanity's Last Stand against an implacable Alien foe. And, the secular machinations of the "High Priest's of the First False Church" pose the most heinous of threats to Mankind's Ultimate Survival, erasure of Advanced Technological Ideas.It is up to the "Last Survivor" of the heritage of Earth to save it all.

Off Armageddon Reef is in not the typical Weber/Harrington style and should be read a such. Expect the Different, hang on and enjoy the ride. Worth the investment. Solid 4+ out 5 rating.

Is there an editor in the house?
I was impressed by the quality of the plot in this book. Mankind in 2378 is on the verge of extermination by a hostile alien race, so in one last act of desperation, they send a fleet into hyperspace to search for a new home to hide and regrow what's left of humanity. The new settlement must by necessity be primitive (no electricity) so as to avoid any telltale emissions that might be picked up by their pursuers. Things take a bad turn however, when the leaders of the expedition decide to cast themselves as gods, using their technology to convince the newly unfrozen and mentally reprogrammed colonists that they are divine. A small group of leaders who try to resist this are killed, but not before one of them manages to hide a cyborg with a cache of military and other supplies.

Fast forward 890 years. The colony is living in a state equivalent to that of the 14th or 15th century on old earth, under the firm command of the church established by the previous expedition leaders, who are now all dead from old age. The cyborg awakes, with the personality and memories of one of the rebel leaders (a female), and receives a delayed message from another leader charging her to make right the wrongs that have been done.

The cyborg is equipped with an impressive arsenal of flyers, weapons, computers, and various surveillance devices, and, is also 100 times stronger, faster, and smarter than an average human. Even so, she is facing a daunting task of somehow getting this little pocket of humanity some 800 years more advanced, so they can hope to win against the bad guys. Sounds interesting, right?

Unfortunately, here's when things start to slow down. Weber spends way too much of the rest of the book drowning in minutely detailed accounts of various intrigues by the church and the "bad" nations on the planet to keep the "good" nation in line with the church. Although punctuated with some entertaining interludes of firearms development, sword fights, and descriptions of 16th to 18th century naval architecture, the narrative never gets going - it slogs along, slowed down by material that should have been edited way back.

When we finally reach the end of the book, the good nation has prevailed, but we're still stuck in the early 19th century in terms of the technological state they've reached, which suggests that its going to take Weber 3 or 4 more of these soggy slow moving books to get to the point where they can take on the real bad guys.I'm sorry, but I just don't have the time or the patience. There are too many better books out there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Hell Hath No Fury (Multiverse, Book 2)
A good follow up though a little weak in maintaining interest at some points.It is still a good read for Weber fans.

A great series continues
The conflict between two civilizations that span multiple parallel Earths (Sharona, based on technology and psi, and Arcana, based on magic) that started in Hell's Gate (Multiverse, Book 1) continues, blown into war by a power hungry faction of Arcanans, who are contemptuous of the abilities of barbarians unaware of the use of magic.
Several threads are present to be of later importance - the dolphin alliance with Sharona (from the first book, but not referenced since), the Voice (telepath) from Sharona with her husband and the honorable Arcanans escorting them into Arcana, the newly unified Sharononian government at pseudo-Constantinople and, of course, the soldiers of both civilizations (with a developing conflict between those Arcanans who knowingly fabricated the war and those who are finding out the truth).An additional intriguing occurrence is the gradual discovery by those of each side who've penetrated the other's territory of the nature of their own skills in a vastly different environment (that's a little cryptic, but to say much more would be spoiler).There's also a bit of a cliff-hanger ending each of the books.
There are glossaries that help overcome the sense of disorientation of unfamiliar names for familiar locations (I used a map for book one and wrote names as I read through the book) and to keep track of the large number of characters.The atlas glossary could use some editing - e.g. one region is referred to as being both "west of India" and "containing China" and another area is referred to as belonging to the opposite civilization from what's stated in the text.It is still very useful, despite a little carelessness.
There is so much material that this series should last for several more books.If not, there will be a lot of unhappy fans.

A very good Rich Weber book
In a world where trans-dimensional rifts allow movement between parallel universes, two mighty empires have arisen. One uses magic uses a highly-developed magic, while the other is based on steam technology and psionics. And when they came together, conflict was probably inevitable. In this, the second book of the series, war has now come, and Hell hath no fury like this war across the multiverse!

I am a big David Weber fan, and I couldn't wait to get this series. Overall, I like the way that the author handled the two disparate technologies (magic developed to the point of technology and psionics also developed to the point of technology), and the war scenes are pretty realistic and gruesome. Overall, I found this to be a very good Rich Weber book, one that I do not hesitate to recommend.

A great read
The first book in the series was good even though confusing with the introduction of all the characters and places.This one really clicked.I could hardly put it down.The action was great, the characters well developed, and the story flowed smoothly.I am so looking forward to the next one.

Top-notch combat action.The usual Weber detailed political intrigue.

Going From Bad To Worse
In HELL'S GATE, David Weber and Linda Evans created an interesting new series of universes in which to play and posited a first contact scenario between the two civilizations as a botched effort, rife with misunderstandings on both sides and tragic violence. In this second volume, the situation just gets worse as misunderstandings proliferate and people with ulterior motives and hidden agendas do their best to promote themselves at the expense of their societies.

One of the civilizations under scrutiny is fairly backward from a technological point of view and could best be described as pre-industrial. To make up for this lack, they employ genuine magic, complete with fire breathing dragons. Since the other side has no conception of this, it is difficult to fight.

The other side has a Victorian industrial base but supplements itself with various psionic powers. This too proves formidable for their opponents who have no conception at to how this might operate.

In this installment, the magical side has launched an offensive cloaked by negotiations in an order to gain the military high ground. The campaign is being run by officers in the area and their high command has no idea of what is going on or even that a war has broken out. This book takes us several months into the conflict and the line of communications is so long that the home world has not yet even found out about it. This leaves the in theater commander free to wreak havoc for his own personal agenda and that of his ethnic group.

The opposing side is remote but not as remote from the point of contact. They have been ambushed and are mad. They are mobilizing for total war but again, they are hampered by personal agendas.

We are only a few months into the series and it promises to be a long affair. I look forward to reading about it.
... Read more

Product Description
Treecats, starships, dragons, alternate history, self-aware Bolo supertanks, wizards, sailing ships, ironclads....

For twenty years, David Weber has been taking readers to destinations strange and fantastical, from his best-selling Honor Harrington novels and short stories to the swords-and-sorcery of Norfressa and the shared universes of his own and other writers. If you haven't already read these stories, you should. Find out how Giles Habibula really joined Jack Williamson's Legion of Space. Visit 17th-century Magdeburg for the creation of the United States Navy a hundred and fifty years early, and go with John Paul Jones as he wins the Revolutionary War...for George III. Fight dragons and demons with U.S. Marines in a most unexpected campaign, find out how humans and treecats first met, share Honor Harrington's very first battle, and discover the true cost of self-awareness for war machines who learn to care.

Open the door and peep inside, but be careful! Once you step into the worlds of Weber, you may not want to go home again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (50)

Fury
I've been reading SciFi/Fantasy for 50+ years and have thousands of books in my library.There have been a relative few such as Lord of the Rings by Tolkein or Ender's Game by Card that I couldn't put down.Fury is another such.

Paths of the Fury
Excellent fast paced book, top notch story,hope he writes another one soon!!

intresting concept
very well written, which is the most important thing, u can get invloved in the story

Science-fantasy!Oh, yeah!
Alicia DeVries is a strong woman to begin with.When she follows her grandfather into the military, she is cybernetically enhanced to near super-human strength and speed.She is disillusioned by a real FUBAR that costs more than ninety percent of her platoon their lives and retires to live with her family on a remote planet.Without giving away the plot, something happens that leaves her more dead than alive; HOWEVER,she survives and works to exact vengeance, assisted by Tisiphone, the last of the Furies.Along the way, they link up with an AI ship.This makes Alicia truly super-human.Without being boringly detailed about the battles, Weber gives enough information to keep adventure fans involved.He also maintains enough of Alicia's humanity and vulnerability to keep her an interesting person and not just an angry killing machine.

The cliff hanger to beat them all
Other reviews point out that this story is a good one, so I will just leave it at that.What I would like to draw attention to is the real mystery in the story: the Fury.Tisiphone is the mystery, a genuine, mythological (the oxymoron is intentional) being straight out of ancient Greece.She knew Zeus and Hera, Mars and Athena and all the rest.

Weber has created a real mystery here.If we accept Tisisphone and her sisters, what happened to the rest of the pantheon?Are they still out there, lurking among the homeless like bag people that have the potential to fry you with an irritable lightening bolt?Folklorists, archaeologists and and anthropologists, as well as Classicists will want to know. ... Read more

Book Description
Controlled by their tireless electronic brains which were programmed to admit no possibility of defeat, the gigantic robot tanks known as Bolos were almost indestructible, and nearly unstoppable. Their artificial intelligences were designed to make them selflessly serve and protect humans throughout the galaxy and made each Bolo the epitome of the knight sans peur et sans reproche, and often far more noble than the humans who gave them their orders. Now, David Weber, New York Times best-selling author of the Honor Harrington series, continues the history of the Bolo, in four short novels, one of them published here for the first time. One Bolo is driven over the edge by the very humans it is pledged to protect. Another Bolo must decide whether or not to disobey when it is given an order that constitutes genocide. A third must hunt one of its own kind whose robot brain is damaged and rescue two children which the deranged Bolo thinks it is protecting from a nonexistent enemy. And more, including David Weber's own authoritative technical history of the Bolo, all in a volume that will be irresistible both for David Weber's huge readership and Bolo fans everywhere.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Another great Bolo book!
David Weber has taken over the Bolo series, and as both a Weber fan and a huge Bolo fan, I couldn't be happier.The ONLY disappointing thing about this book is that it has a few stories that appear in other works, like BOLOS, BOOK 3 and BOLOS, BOOK 4.But even then, the new story is worth the price of admission. Bolo fans will want to add this to their collection.Not a Bolo fan?You will be after this book.Don't know what a bolo is?Pick up this book to find out.

Bolo!
The only reason this got a 4 from me is because it was a repackaged collection of previous stories.They were all great 'nuts&bolts' science fiction - but with a heart.

Mechanized Morality
Bolo! (2005) is the second work in the Fourth Bolo Series, following The Road to Damascus.It is a collection of four stories about unusual Bolos.Of course, *all* the Bolo stories are about unusual actions by these machines;a sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence will necessarily have its own quirks and interpretations.

"Miles to Go" was initially published within Triumphant, Book 3 of the Second Bolo Series.This story relates the tale of XXIII/B-0075-NKE.Nike is a Bolo prototype stranded on Santa Cruz during the Quern Hegemony Wars.Major Marina Stravrakas, Nike's commander, was also Project Chief of the experimental psychotronics upgrade for Nike and spent the remainder of her life tweaking the Bolo's brainbox.

After Sector Command on Ursula rediscovers the deployment of Nike to Santa Cruz, Captain Paul Merrit is sent there as the Bolo's commander.He is amazed at the degree to which Major Stravrakas has enhanced the Bolo's capabilities.Then GalCorp sends a mercenary brigade to savage the residents of Santa Cruz so that they will sell their property to the company.

"The Traitor" was initially published within Last Stand, Book 4 of the Second Bolo Series.This story relates the tale of XXV/D-0098-ART in his pursuit of his crazed creche mate XXV/D-0103-LNC, who fled the Enemy in Morville and even fired on another Bolo.Lance was terribly wounded by the Enemy and is now fleeing toward the mountains, with Arthur in close pursuit.Of course, Lance has a reason for his flight.

"With Your Shield" is an original story, published for the first time in this volume.This story relates the tale of Lieutenant Maneka Trevor, freshly graduated from the Academy, on her first field assignment to the Thirty-Ninth Battalion on Santa Cruz.To her amazement, she is immediately assigned as the commander of the Bolo XXVIII/G-862-BNJ.Of course, Benjy is obsolescent and used only to train new commanders, but Maneka is awed by his combat record.Then the battalion is shipped to Chartres to oppose an Enemy invasion.

"A Time to Kill" was initially published within Last Stand.This story relates the tale of XXXIII/D-1097-SHV on Ishark.Shiva had been part of the XLIII Corps in the last battle of the Final War.He and his mates had killed every Melconian on the planet, every male, female or child, whether service or civilian.With the last shot, Shiva had died.

Now humans have settled on Ishark, calling it Ararat.They settle near the last battle site where the human transports landed, hoping that any active war machine will be human.Jackson Deveraux is out exploring the site when Shiva reactivates after almost seventy years of extensive repairs by its maintenance nanites.Shiva has reverted back to the creche state and is imprinted by Jackson as his commander upon first hearing his voice.

Shiva has been reactivated prematurely because Melconian battle comms have been detected in the system.A Melconian fleet has arrived in sorry condition;they cannot leave the planet.When humans are detected on the planet, the surface is scanned for power sources.Only a single fusion power plant is discovered;the Bolo operating on reserve power is overlooked.The Melconian commander sends his assault pods to destroy the human settlements.

The Epilog "A Brief Technical History of the Bolo" was initially published within The Triumphant.It contains "Bolo Marks and Year of Introduction", "A Brief Design History of the Bolo", and "Bolo Armament".This epilog is an excellent resource for future authors of Bolo stories.

This volume brings together prior Bolo stories by Weber in a hardback format.Moreover, the original story is a precursor for Old Soldiers, the third novel in the Fourth Series.Who could resist reading this book and maybe even buying a personal copy?

Highly recommended for Laumer, Weber and Bolo fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high adventure and machines with moral character.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Mixed feelings
I rated this book a four because while I loved the stories, 3/4 of them are reprints from earlier Bolo novels.This would be fine, if perhaps that had been stated on the back cover.(I bought the paperback.The hardcover may very well have stated it.I don't know.)It is shown in the copyright section inside the book.If you have Bolos Books 3 and 4, don't bother getting this, as the one new story is probably the weakest of the three.If you don't have those books, then by all means this is a great book.

Bolo!
Outstanding! David Weber again proves his abilities as a Bolo story teller.The four stories in this book entertain and honor the Dinachrome tradition, although I thought I had read one of them before. In addition, one of them sets the stage for his next novel, "Old Soldiers".The Bolo technical chronology at the end is a must for anyone wanting a comprehensive collection of Brigade History.For any of you that can't seem to satiate your need for Bolo lore, this is definately one to add to your collection. ... Read more

Book Description
Prince Roger MacClintock was an heir to the galaxy's Throne of Man-and a self-obsessed spoiled young brat . . . until he and the Royal Marines sent to protect him were stranded on Marduk with only their feet to get them half way around the entire planet. So far, they've traversed a continent, crossed a sea full of ship-eating monsters, taken over an enemy spaceport, and hijacked a starship. But they're not home-free yet, because home is no longer free. In Roger's absence, a palace coup by enemies of the MacClintock family has seized control of the Empire. His mother the Empress is a captive in the palace and even in her own body, drugged so that her will is not her own. Roger's bother, the heir to the throne, is dead. And Roger himself has been branded an outlaw and traitor. Roger and his faithful band of human marines and native alien warriors have beaten the barbarian planet Marduk. Now they must re-conquer an interstellar empire. But they aren't about to give up, and with the help of those on the throne planet who are still loyal to the Empress they will infiltrate (under cover of a restaurant specializing in exotic Mardukan dishes, no less), they will make anyone who gets in their way (such as local mobsters who make the mistake of kidnapping Roger's fiancé) very sorry that they did, and they will not rest until the rightful ruler has been restored. Once again, a lot of power-hungry people are going to learn a hard lesson: You do not, ever, mess with a MacClintock!

... Read more

Customer Reviews (59)

Starting with #4, I loved it.
I had not read any of the previous three books, though I was aware of their existence from ads in the back of Weber's The Shiva Option. I fell into this fourth book, so I review it as a stand-alone.

Prince Roger, a young and relatively unformed guy at first, has become a made guy in months and months of nonstop combat operations. He's got a scorching case of PTSD and has gotten in the habit of killing people. His companions now have to transition this newly forged combat leader into someone capable of saving the Empire from itself without turning it into a pile of corpses. Having seen what readjustment from a couple combat tours does to people, I understand where his head is. Coming out of a high-speed zone where you pretty much have an unlimited license to kill your problems, there's not much worse than coming to an environment where that is no longer acceptable. When your new problems can no longer be solved with bullet or blade, that frustration at unsolved problems makes the killing seem even more tempting. I fully understand how he considers Niemashet his "prosthetic conscience". That's exactly what my wife is to me after my tours in several foreign countries, so much so I'm making my wife read it.

As for the notion that a group of high-ranking retirees wouldn't be the keepers of such secrets, it is in fact the perfect system. Those without access to the power are responsible for its protection. If Miranda MacClintock was half as paranoid as she was written, it's a hell of a plan. I've dealt with a lot of SpecOps retirees whose brains did not dull after retirement and who'd be perfect to aid in planning something despite having taken the uniform off. CSM Catrone even had to put the uniform back on for a specific purpose. Again, rational solution to the problem presented. Ringo, a vet of the 82nd, knows as many dangerous old men as I do and knows the resource they would provide.

While Weber loves his space combat sequences, they did distract a bit from the ground action, but they were at least well done.

Overall a first-class read for the military SF fan.

Well Paced action, with a serious intrigue.
This one was a more intriguing concept, as it added in a lot of space battle portions.Now I don't mind space battles, and I can see Weber's contributions in this, but I think the concept of the "March to the..." did not apply to this, and it did lose the plot a bit.Still, it was a good read and I believe the value was there strongly from two masters of Sci-Fi Space Opera.Weber & Ringo are excellent writers, and they showed their teeth well in this.
I have gotten all of Weber's books, and am beginning to amass John Ringo in droves.Never mind the exact science stuff, these guys show their writing skills time & time again.I can't wait to see what they pull up next.

Watch out Ray Kroc,here comes Prince Roger
We Few (2005) by John Ringo and David Weber is the fourth book in the Empire Of Man series which includes:

1) March Upcountry
2) March To The Sea
3) March To The Stars, and
4) We Few

It is my understanding that David Weber writes the outline and then John Ringo fills in everything else,i.e. dialogue, etc.

The only real fault I have withthis series is that, according to Ringo's website, it'll be two years after he gets the outline from Weber until the next book cones out and he doesn't have an outline, yet.

For an excellent summary of the book, see Arthur W. Jordin'sreview below.Meanwhile I'll just summarize my thoughts.


As Poertena would say, stop reading the pocking reviews and buy the pocking book.After of course you vote "yes" for my review.


Gunner( February,2007 )

Very Entertaining
The plot is very easy to follow since the first pages helps readers catch up on the previous events in the series.

However, the ending was very abrupt, unless there are other books after this.

Another RIngo winner
John has written another enjoyable entry in the Prince Roger saga. The barbarian in the Prince came out in the first three books and now has to succeed in the "civilized" world where people aren't coming after you with a sword or gun, but they're after you politically.The parallelisms with today's world and the need for good people to stand up to evil is very apparent. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (91)

Desperately in Need of an Editor
"At All Costs" has all the elements of a good Weber HH novel, but the sloppy writing drowns the entertainment.

This novel starts out slowly in order to build suspense.We're given a peek at the antagonists' evil (and not so evil) plots and shown how they have the upper hand.Meanwhile, Honor is shown in bucolic bliss (mostly) unaware of the mountain about to fall on her and the alliance.

Written tightly this would be a fine way to start a novel. Unfortunately, this consumes about 300 pages. An entire page (paperback) is devoted to why a particular room was chosen for a meeting. Treecat sign language is again described down to the joint movements. Did no one tell Weber that this was an idiotic device after "War of Honor"?Similar excesses of exposition litter the novel.You will not miss anything important if you simply skip half a page every time you detect one of Weber's self-indulgent excursions.

But half a page may not be enough!!!You must resample and possibly skip another half page to get past each of the useless expositions.Skipping pages requires an act of will for fear that you may miss something important, but trust me, in this book, you won't.

The middle two or three hundred pages are somewhat better, but the large chunks dealing with Honor's personal life, are insipid and uninspiring.I do not object to Weber writing about Honor's personal life, nor to political maneuverings.I am not a space opera purist.I have enjoyed prose on those topics in the past (e.g. in "War of Honor"). There is simply no entertainment value in those topics in this novel.It's like Honor punched a ticket.Hmmm. okay, got approval, got married, high priest of superstitious nutters is pleased, got baby, check, check, check.

There's no conflict to be had in those topics at this point in the story.Oh, Weber tries to liven it up by endless discourse about public (dis)approval, but the fact is that Honor is wealthy, her friends are in total control of the Manty government, other friends have a lock on the Grayson government and the only human obstacle to her relationship with Hamish is practically lassoing Honor and tieing her to the bed for him--and Emily would too, if she had two good arms.

Her mother's help is nice, but Mrs. Harrington's flamboyant character has become trite.Okay, we get it.She doesn't follow convention.Cool.But it's not really interesting to show it to us again, unless it adds something to the plot development.Hurray, Emily had a baby.Babies are swell and fun to tickle.But reading about other folks tickling them is just dull.

Without conflict (in the broad sense) there is no entertainment.All of this material should have taken place off-stage and been mentioned only in passing.They may have been major events in Honor's life, but they were tiny tidbits in story terms. Yet those miniscule tidbits consumed an enormous share of this novel.

If Weber wanted it to be interesting, then he needed to add some conflict to them.For example, why is Honor so poised and able to fit into aristocratic society so easily, while her parents were presented to us as yeomen?The customs of the rich are generally not the customs of the middle-class. Yet, Honor has never tripped on this issue.Perhaps training in etiquette at Saganawi took care of that.

Also, *why* is she in love with Hamish, the old fart?Sure he's a great strategist and he's in the navy too (or was) but really, what's the attraction? I'm not convinced. If I was Honor's friend, I'd be speculating that she just has a case of coworker-romance.I.e.she worked with him so much she's mistaken collegiate cooperation with romantic intimacy. Or perhaps she is one of those strange (yet ubiquitous) women who is inevitably drawn to the most powerful man at hand.

I should mention that Clinkscale's funeral was touching.Also, assigning a guardsman to her son was very moving. These were great emotional moments.Unfortuantely, Weber also transcribes the entire funeral ceremony for us and then gives us half of a book of prayer when he transcribes five pages of christening ceremony into the novel.

The final 200 pages of the book are engaging and will keep you turning pages.Weber still writes interesting space combat motivated by strategic factors.And as you should have come to expect, the Manty's advantages are finally revealed near the end, and the odds are not quite as grim as the novel's introduction leads us to believe.

However, keeping Haven in the war causes the bones of the story to show a bit.Weber gives the Havenites a rationale for continuing the war which is barely believable.The rationale would be easily believable in the mouths of less intelligent characters, but the current leadership of Haven is too smart to lurch into war down the steps Weber paved for them.For that matter the Manty's rationale is a bit threadbare as well, given the facts at hand.However, it is more plausible than the Havenites decisions because we have previously seen the Queen's implacable temper.

Weber has never been an excellent stylist.His strengths are in imaginative plots, interesting technology and believable, highly creative consequences drawn from that technology.On his good days he has the ability to draw engaging characters and carry them through a story decorated with his other strengths.This novel was not written on his good days.

Except near the end, his strengths are drowned in a sea of excess verbiage, explaining Weber's every rationale for the elements of the story.For example, the room-choice page mentioned above; I'm sure Weber carefully thought out what room would be used based on the elements of the story--but there was no need to explain that thought process to the audience!

Even a mediocre style editor could have vastly improved this book (and cut 300 pages). Heck, any college writing class which includes a mutual editing componentcould have shortened this book by 1/3, made it more readable, and vastly improved its entertainment value.

Did the reviewers who claimed that the whole novel was a page-turner read the same book as I did?

Long series of books usually draw readers in with interesting, well-written early novels.After that even a dud of a book can sell, because readers are so curious to know what happens next. This book is largely a dud, but if you must know how the Honor saga continues to unfold you'll still want to read this book.The only people who could possibly call this book well written and a stay-awake-all-night-page-turner are those who are beyond any rational desire to know what happens next in this on-going story.

Where's the editor?
I loved this series when it first started.The writing was sharp, the characters believable and the action sequences both compelling and intense.I haven't seen that from the series in a while though and certainly didn't see it here.

The plot concept and the characters are as good as ever but there was far too much dross in the middle.There were pages and pages of internal reflection, much of it redundant to descriptions that we'd just read.I found myself frequently wondering where the editor had gone and why no one helped Weber to tighten the book back up.The book was over 900 pages but should have been closer to 400.

I also found myself disenchanted with the author's recent approach to the battle sequences.Where the early books focused on tactics and innovation, the scenes in this book described little beyond tactical attrition.A little strategy and maneuver then everything boiled down to "this many thousands of missles launched, this many shot down, this many missed, this many the other, leaving this many to hit and blow everything up."It was hardly engaging reading.

Much as I loved the series at the start, I don't think that I'll be continuing it anymore.

Slid to rock bottom.
At All Costs [11]

Slid to rock bottom.

First, Honor exceeds her authority and relieves a naval criminal investigator because he disagrees with her and her treecat.

Next, she lectures others about the need to maintain good relations with the Zanzibarians.However, the Zanzibarians have always been written as unreliable and parasite allies, who complain the most, demand the most, whine the most, and then return the least.

Honor once again shows her moral superiority by showing mercy to the Havenites while any other officer clearly lacks her self-righteous ethics.

One of Honor's Grayson servants offers to have a Grayson guard assault the evil tabloid writer.Honor humorously refuses, however she would a lectured a Manticorian for making such an offer.

The Queen of Manticore once again fails to control her temper.

The doctor at the medical clinic has a personal connection to the Harrington's and gives Honor an emotional apology.The doctor would have given everyone a professional apology, and of course he might not have shown remorse at all.He naturally makes any exception for Honor Harrington.

When Honor is informed of the Havenite invasion the messenger is nearly killed by her fanatical bodyguards.This illustrates how one-dimensional the Graysons have become and how idiotic they are.They could have simply have placed a guard outside to announce the messenger's arrival.

After the Havenite's surrender Honor demands that they leave their computer files intact.The Havenite admiral agrees after looking into Honor's eyes.First, if the situation had been reversed Honor would have certainly destroyed the files and then claimed protection under the Deneb (Geneva) Accords.Second, the admiral who surrenders stood up to the Havenite secret police and never gave in to them.Therefore his weak behavior is an example of Weber assassinating his character's integrity.

After the final battle Honor laments how everyone looks to her and ignores all the other heroes.

The character of Honor's mother is long overdue to make a mistake that results in exile and dishonor from all of society and she returns only after having completely changed her ways; she no longer teases anyone.

Weber needs to write a plot where the Queen of Manticore loses her temper too often and leads the kingdom to ruin while also dishonoring her royal house.

Weber needs to write that genetic engineering is not evil.Genetic engineering has always been portrayed as causing people to become/stay evil.He has never written about the evils of cybernetic surgery.The ethics of genetic engineering have always been written in good-and-evil terms.Cybernetics have been written as being irrelevant to a person's morality.

The things that Honor Harrington can do without failure
----tactics
----strategy
----martial arts
----duels using a gun or sword
----hang gliding
----politics
----leadership
----character judgment
----emotional control
----ethical behavior
----moral behavior
----bravery
----courage
----integrity
----honor
----common decency
----non biased actions

If you want excellent writing with the correct shades of gray/grey then read the books by Tom Clancy, Patrick Robinson, Joe Buff, and John Ringo.

Expect this style of good-and-evil writing in all of the anthology short story collections.

not very good
Well, I have read every David Weber book, and I can say that this is my least favorite series. It is just too convoluted. The stories is kind of hard to believe. If you found out your side had fabricated and forced a war, then why would you launch an all out assault? The reasoning behind this attack is just too unbelievable. There were plenty of ways to prove to the Manticorian that you did not try to assassinate all of their people. So how come nothing was tried?

Not bad but not great
Like the previous books in the Honor Harrington series, we have great space opera: the battles, the political scheming, great characters.Having said that there is a noticeable bloat in the most recent of his books.

Compare with the first book with the latest and there's a lot more pages.Whether it helps or detracts depends on the individual reader.

My feeling is that the editors could have chopped off at least a quater of the book and still retain the essence of what Weber is writing about.

The one annoying strand is the love triangle involving Honor and the other two.I bought this book for space opera not soap opera.This plotline need not have been developed that deeply since it doesn't really add to the story.

It seemed that this book is a set up for a totally different different direction in the Honorverse of future books.

... Read more

Book Description

The guilds of star-traveling merchants had strict rules to prevent their technology from falling into the hands of the natives of planets they were exploiting: military operations had to be carried out with weaponry no more complex than swords and bows.

That was no handicap to merchant princes with a galaxy to scour for military slaves to do their fighting for them. Some came to Earth for soldiers and returned to the stars with the best the planet had to offer. For over two thousand years the aliens thought they'd succeeded brilliantly -- but then things changed!

Set in the universe of Ranks of Bronze, masterful new novellas by

David Drake

Eric Flint

S. M. Stirling

Mark L. Van Name

and David Weber

explore the bleeding edge between human courage and the science of alien slavemasters. The right man with a sword is just as deadly as a technician with a laser --

And not all the blood spilled is red!

... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Disappointing
David Drake seems to be recycling a lot of his work and Eric Flint and Weber become more and more verbose. Incidentally, Weber's story reads like a ripoff of a story that Poul Anderson wrote for Analog many years ago.

Enjoyable set of stories by several authors
overall this was an enjoyable read.comments on individual stories/authors follow

ranks of bronze (short story version) - you can see why this was so intriguing drake was pushed for a novelization.

sir george and the dragon - it seemed a bit dull, probably because in great part it is a re-run of the original novel with another set of humans.

lambs to the slaughter - dry drake story, he didn't show any occupation-force/pacification activity in original story, wonder if this is an afterthought.

a clear signal - interesting concept, though half the story being flashback to establish relationship between protagonist and antagonist was dull as dirt.this could easily have been a generic SF story ported to the ranks of bronze universe by simply changing the nature of the aliens, there is really nothing else involving drake's concept here.

the three walls/32nd campaign - roman legion in another battle, with familiar characters.written pretty much in character, straight military story

cartago delenda est - the most interesting of the stories - what happens after the legion returns to earth, and the guild figures out where they have gone with the missing ship.overall flint does a good job with this, though i am baffled as to why he needs to have a 'funny' character in his stories.In this case clodius afer becomes the 'funny' character, with his wailing and moaning during one battle sequence.I do think the conclusion could have used some more expansion (despite getting the historical reference to the ending of the third punic war, something the title gives away anyway with cato's famous mantra), but what do i know...

Foreign Legions
Liked some of the concepts, Good writeing, Would have liked to see more, highly recomend this book.

Drops you into battle and plays you out with music
One of David Drake's earliest stories (and one of his best known), is "Ranks of Bronze", which leads off this volume of tales."Ranks" dealt with a short, ugly campaign by a group of bought-and-paid-for Roman Legionnaires, the survivors of Crassus' utterly disastrous Parthian campaign.To the aliens, the primitive humans are useful puppets who can be used to conquer other primitive worlds.But THESE puppets have swords, which can cut strings... and their masters' throats.

The stories in this volume range from non-stories like S. M. Stirling's "Three Walls", which is a fairly dull run-of-the-action description of a battle, turned into a story only by a throwaway moment at the end which warns of what is to come in the final story.

There's also "A Clear Signal", which doesn't really feel as if it fully belongs in this book, since the political circumstances described don't match anything else, nor do the Romans even get mention.It's not a bad story, but it really belongs elsewhere.

Drake himself contributes "Lambs to the Slaughter", which I'd call the sprightliest tale in the book, being how one underofficer, known to all and sundry as "Froggie", manages to outwit both his masters and his enemies.I laughed like hell at the ending of this one, and Drake doesn't usually do that for me.

David Weber contributes "Sir George and the Dragon," which serves both as solid entertainment and as a reminder that humans are dangerous, whether they be Romans or English, and a tribute to what has probably been the finest weapon of battle ever created, the English Longbow.

Finally, Eric Flint's "Carthago Delenda Est" is the treasure of this volume, and it was worth getting this volume for this story alone, even without Weber and Drake's work.I don't want to spoil it, but read the other stories first, then read "Carthago." The beauty of this one is that you have to read the story to understand both why and how it ends, and in my case, it took me a few seconds to puzzle it out, but the reward for doing so was to know true joy.

Well worth the time invested. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Not bad.Not good either.
This is actually 2 books in one.The synopsis is listed elsewhere, I'll skip that.

The first book is complete and fairly interesting.

The second book is a cliff hanger and you will need to get the next book (the stars at war II) to know the end of the story.

Honor Harrington series is much better.If you are a video game / space opera fan, you may like this book.If not, I'd recommend passing.If you can't get enough of the fleet action sequences in Honor Harrington, then you may like this book.

For a First Contact book with much less (but enough!) combat sequences, I HIGHLY recommend "Enders Game" instead. Ender's Game (The Ender Saga)

A great introduction to David Weber and Steve White
I got this book with a gift certificate I was given for Christmas. A fried of mine suggested David Weber, because he knew I enjoyed military science fiction. I was a little hesitant at first; I'd never read any David Weber or Steve White before. Boy, I could kick myself for not trying this stuff out sooner.
"The Stars at War (I)" is really two books "Crusade" and "On Death Ground" both are prequels to the books in "The Stars at War II". I just started "The Stars at War II", and I really appreciate knowing some of the background of the universe Weber and White have created. It helps when they mention the Theban Jihad against humanity and how that brought the humans and Orions closer together (circa Crusade) and also how the war with "The Bugs" began and how even the heroes of "Crusade" were not enough to stop the juggernaut of the bugs (On Death Ground).
I reall enjoyed reading both books, and the detail and description of space combat is excellent. The only main thing I can find wrong with the stories is because of my family's military background, and the constant calling of women "sir" in science fiction has always bugged me. I could be wrong (my background is army) but I believe the navy uses "Ma'm" also. This however is a minor detail and does nothing to take away from the action packed plot, and all in all it is a great read.

The Wars of Terra
The Stars at War (2004) is an omnibus edition of the Starfire series, including Crusade and In Death Ground.Crusade is the earliest novel in internal chronological sequence within the series and should be read first.In Death Ground is the second novel in internal sequence following Crusade.This is the first hardback publication of these novels.

Crusade (1992) begins fifty years after the Third Interstellar War, in which the Terrans and Orions formed the Alliance and exterminated the Rigellians.An Orion squadron in the Lorelei system is puzzled when an unknown fleet is discovered coming out of Charon's Ferry, the sixth warp point, since no ship had ever returned from there.Also, the bogies are using a very old Terran Federation Navy code in their transmissions.The squadron commander speculates that these ships could be remnants of TFN forces that had fled the Orions 90 years before during the Second Interstellar War.

When the bogies identify themselves as TFN and refuse to believe that the Orions are allies, the TFN onboard liaison contacts them and explains the Treaty of Valkha.The bogies agree to parlay and, as the main party stands down, the vanguard comes to the Orions.Shortly thereafter, however, the bogies attack with missiles at minimum range and then with X-ray lasers.The Orions release their Omega drones and fight back, but three ships are soon lost.The Orion flagship is then boarded, but self-destructs before being captured.

After studying the available information, the Khanate of Orion decides that the invaders are Terrans.The Strategy Board wants to attack the Federation, but the Khan agrees with the squadron commander's idea of lost TFN forces escaping through Charon's Ferry.He tells the Federation Ambassador that Orion will not attack the Federation or the unknowns, but that the Federation must exact suitable vengeance upon their errant fellows.The Federation agrees and the politicians send a Peace Fleet to Lorelei upon invitation by the unknowns.Under secret orders, the TFN is subordinated to the diplomatic corps with disastrous results as the bogies repeat their underhanded tactics.

In Death Ground (1997) is the first in a duology with The Shiva Option.This story takes place 60-odd years after the Theban War.The enemy ambushes Survey Flotilla 27, destroying or severely damaging the survey cruisers and their escorts.The enemy then pursues the survivors through warp point after warp point.The Terran Federation Navy diverts two nearby task forces to reinforce the survivors of SF27 and sends all available freighters and transports to evacuate the colony planets.

TF58, under Admiral Anthony Villiers, is the first task force to reach the SF27 survivors in the Golan system.He holds the warp point for a while, bleeding the enemy and evacuating part of the population, until forced to withdraw to Erebor.TF58 has a month to prepare, receive reinforcements, and to start evacuations, but the enemy then attacks through the warp point with devastating tactics, mass, and a new weapon.Villiers is forced to commit his battleline to slow the advance, losing his battleships, and leaving Admiral Jackson Teller in command of the withdrawal into the K-45 system.

This story describes the desperate battles to stop the enemy advance. Since the warp points are bottle necks, the fighting is more separated than surface naval combat.Each warp point is defended and the TFN makes the Bugs pay dearly despite overwhelming odds against them, but more Bug ships keep coming through.TFN reinforcements are still arriving, but will they be enough to stop the Bugs?

These stories have many similarities to historical conflicts.The genocidial destruction of the Rigellian Protectorate in the Third Interstellar War parallels the actions of Rome in the Third Punic War. The actions of the Thebans reflect the fanatical behavior of both sides in the long conflict between Christianity and Islam, particularly in the Eastern Roman Empire and in Spain.

The Bug advance is similar in many ways to the Japanese campaign in World War II.After the attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed or severely damaged every US battleship in the Pacific, the US Navy was forced to rely on aircraft carriers and escort ships.Therefore, the strategy was to harass the enemy with destroyers, PT boats, and submarines, while the carrier task forces struck at enemy concentrations and tried to destroy the Japanese carriers.At the Coral Sea, aerial attacks by US carrier planes severely damaged three Japanese carriers and destroyed several escorts.Then, at Midway, the US carriers destroyed four of the remaining Japanese carriers.These two battles effectively stopped the Japanese advance.

This book is recommended for all Weber & White fans and anyone who enjoys tales of spatial battles with a touch of political intrigue.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Space opera at its best (but be aware this is a reprint of Crusade and In Death Ground)
If you've never read any books in the "Starfire" universe but are a fan of either David Weber or military Sci-Fi/space opera, you will not be disappointed.
The book consists of two separate novels taking place 50-60 years apart in the near future, each describing a separate interstellar war between Terran Federation and an alien enemy (in the second book, "In Death Ground", humans fight as part of an alliance with the honor-driven and aggressive Orions and several other races). As is common for Weber, military operations and politics are described absolutely superbly with a lot of technical background but the main characters and different races involved are also described with surprising quality if not always depth. I would actually rate these books well above the more popular "Honor Harrington" series.

As several reviewers already said, this is not an actual new book but rather a compilation of two previously published and available in paperback novels, "Crusade" and "In Death Ground". "In Death Ground" is also rather not a complete read (cuts off halfway through the war) and requires you to read one more novel, "The Shiva Option" (which is available either separately or as part of "The Stars at War II" together with the last novel in this universe, "Insurrection" which takes part about a century later). The universe is derived from a "Starfire" RPG

Two Separate Books
The Stars at War is actually two separate but related books under one cover. Both have been previously published. This has caused some consternation from some people who believed they were getting something new and instead got something they already had. If you have not read either of them, however, it's a great deal.

They two included books are CRUSADE and IN DEATH GROUND. Individual reviews appear below:

CRUSADE
I am hooked on the Honor Harrington series. I have spent so much time reading them that, when I was done, I was disappointed because I had nothing else from Weber to read until the next one comes out. I forgot to check for some of his other works. I wouldn't have thought he would have time to write anything else. WRONG!

CRUSADE pits the human federation against a new alien species which considers itself saviors dedicated to saving Terra and humanity for the evil Orions who just happen to be uneasy allies of humanity. It takes a while to figure out how this strange turn of events came to be but, when it finally comes out, it makes sense. Religious zealots are at work promoting a jihad for personal advantage. Their only contact with humanity came at a time when it was at war against the Orions.

A major problem is that the Orions are a warrior culture and their alliance with humanity is an uneasy one. When the new aliens, the Thebans, are first encountered, it is the Orions they attack and they do so in the name of humanity. Resolving this is left up to humanity but the Orions are keeping a suspicious eye on the situation.

The battles are well thought out and fans of space battles will appreciate the book. Just as interesting are the political battles. For me, they are even more interesting to read. It's a good book worth the time.


IN DEATH GROUND
Humanity and its allies face a deadly enemy. That enemy is one so different that even communication is impossible with them. Only a few things are really known. They look like giant spiders. They attack without warning. They are very powerful. They eat most of their victims. The rest they raise as livestock for future consumption.

The naval commanders charged with protecting humanity, and later the rest of the alliance, face terrible choices with frightening consequences. They can't save everybody. That means that the ones who are not saved are going to be eaten. They realize that throwing themselves into battle anyway just increases the odds that all of the allies will lose. Before they can fight the big battle, they must fight rearguard actions and marshal their forces. Whatever they do, people are going to die, people are going to be eaten and the nightmares will come. This book and its sequel do the best job I have ever encountered of pointing out the pain that can come with major commands.

Its not a fun read but it is a good one. Its also a cliffhanger.
... Read more

Amazon.com
In this sixth outing, Honor is invited to rejoin the Royal Manticoran Navy at the instigation of some of her worst enemies.The RMN has withdrawn from the Silesian Confederacy in an effort to focus on its war with the People's Republic of Haven and the shipping cartels have been losing vessels:cargo, crews and all.Klaus Hauptmann sees a glorious opportunity:invite Honor to command the Q-ships which will draw pirate and privateer fire.If she dies, great; if she succeeds, even better.

Honor and her companion Nimitz find unexpected friends(and enemies) along the way, and fans of this series' spacebattles will not be disappointed.In addition to a better glimpse of the Silesian systems, we finally get to meet a few of the Andermani.

Want to read more about Honor?Read about Honor's early career in On Basilisk Station, her first encounter with the Graysons in The Honor of the Queen, the beginning of the war with the Peeps in The Short, Victorious War, the continuing story of treachery at home in Field of Dishonor, and her ignominous exile (or training to be an Admiral?) in Flag in Exile. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (32)

Slid to rock bottom
Honor Among Enemies [6]

Slid to rock bottom.

Honor has been assigned to patrol the Confederacy with Q-ships (armed freighters) to control piracy that is threatening the Kingdom's supply lines.Of course, everyone wants to help her since she is Honor Harrington.

At the state dinner the she remarks that her staff is willing to start their own war if anything is impolite to her.This is ridiculous, what would they have done; killed the offender?

Honor states that the only people who outrank her in the House of Lords supported her killing of Pavel Young.Weber should have instead written that those Grand Dukes and Duchesses were the ones who lobbied for her exile from the Kingdom.It would have been more consistent with the events in "Field of Dishonor".

When Harrington captures Caslet she decides to treat him with respect and not conduct an interrogation despite the fact she is violating the spirit of her orders and failing to get needed intelligence.Weber states that Harrington is going to treat Caslet with respect.This implies that if another Manticorian officer had captured Caslet then they would have conducted an "immoral" interrogation that in reality (WW2) was part of an officer's duty.She then invites him onto the bridge despite the fact that the Articles of War would in real-life consider this treason.

Hauptmann also sees the error of his ways and naturally offers his complete support to Harrington.

Harrington then releases the Havenite prisoners despite the fact they know the layout of Manticorian Q-ships.She does this for humane reasons that are in violation of a soldier's wartime duty.Furthermore, it is easy to imagine that she would have released a Havenite admiral even if that admiral was a leading tactician.

Finally, the intelligence services are written as evil and immoral people who view any good and humane actions as obstructing the war effort.Tom Clancy has always maintained a more balanced and real-life view of spies.

Weber needs to write that genetic engineering is not evil.Genetic engineering has always been portrayed as causing people to become/stay evil.He has never written about the evils of cybernetic surgery.The ethics of genetic engineering have always been written in good-and-evil terms.Cybernetics have been written as being irrelevant to a person's morality.

The things that Honor Harrington can do without failure
----tactics
----strategy
----martial arts
----duels using a gun or sword
----hang gliding
----politics
----leadership
----character judgment
----emotional control
----ethical behavior
----moral behavior
----bravery
----courage
----integrity
----honor
----common decency
----non biased actions

If you want excellent writing with the correct shades of gray/grey then read the books by Tom Clancy, Patrick Robinson, Joe Buff, and John Ringo.

Expect this style of good-and-evil writing in all of the anthology short story collections.

Honor Harrington no. 6, and it's off to Silesia in Q-Ships
A magnificent read, but why oh why do so many sci-fi wargame designers seem obsessed with Q-Ships?

I'll forgive Dave Weber this once, partly because this book does at least make clear that the damn things are death traps, but mostly because it's such a cracking read. In fact this is my personal favourite of the current 17 books in the Honorverse.


"Honor among Enemies" is the sixth book in a wonderful space opera series set some three thousand years in the future and featuring David Weber's best fictional heroine, "Honor Harrington."

These books are best read in sequence and I strongly recommend that you start with "On Basilisk Station" which is the first one.

The Honor Harrington stories are full of parallels with the time of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In particular, the Royal Manticoran Navy in which the heroine is an officer is clearly based on the Royal Navy at the time of Nelson.

The technology of space travel and naval warfare in most of the Honor Harrington stories has been written so as to impose tactical and strategic constraints on space navy officers similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago. In this book however, and unlike the rest of the series, Honor Harrington's ships are based on one of the most crack-brained concepts from the World War One era - and considering how many badly designed ships fought in that war, that's saying something!

This book continues the pattern of thinly veiled (and amusing) hints in the stories that they are to some extent a tribute to C.S. Forester. The main heroine of the books, Honor Harrington, appears to owe more than just her initials to C.S. Forester's character "Horatio Hornblower." Indeed, at one point in this book one of the other characters actually gives Honor one of Forester's books to read.


In this sixth book in the series, there is no sign of an end to the all-out war between Honor's home nation, "The Star Kingdom of Manticore," together with allies like Grayson in whose navy Honor has been serving, against the People's Republic of Haven or "Peeps." As the demands of the front line grow ever greater, Manticore has been forced to pull ships away from anti-piracy duties in other parts of the galaxy such as the Silesian Confederation. Naturally, space pirates have been taking full advantage of this and merchant losses have started to mount up alarmingly.

A number of influential politicians and business people on Manticore who don't like Honor Harrington very much, but who recognise that whatever else they have against her, she is a first rate fighting commander, see an opportunity to use one problem to solve another. They let the Admiralty know that they will withdraw their opposition to Honor going back on active service in the Manticoran navy if they give her a squadron and send her to get rid of the pirates. There are no proper warships available, so all she can have is Q-ships. Whether Honor takes out the pirates, or they get rid of her, Honor's domestic opponents come out ahead.


A word on Q-ships. This was a glamourous, but not terribly successful tactic used during the First World War to hunt U-boats and commerce raiders as a feeble alternative to the convoy system. The idea was to take a merchant ship, fit her with lots of carefully concealed weapons, fill the hold with material much lighter than water so she won't sink quickly when torpedoed, and sail her unescorted along a trade route looking like a big, fat, vulnerable target.

If a U-boat fired a torpedo at a Q-ship, the tactic was to try to deliberately ensure the torpedo hit, send off a "panic party" who pretend to abandon ship, and then the rest of the crew would wait for the submarine to surface to finish the supposedly abandoned ship with gunfire. Sometimes the U-boat would think it could use its gun to deal with the easy target without wasting a torpedo, which was even better for the Q-ship. Either way, when a surfaced submarine came close, the Q-ship's concealed guns would suddenly open fire and hopefully sink the enemy.

Some very brave men served on Q-ships during WW1, and they earned between them no fewer than EIGHT Victoria Crosses. (That's the highest award for bravery open to a member of the British armed forces: this is roughly equivalent to eight sailors from one small squadron earning the Congressional Medal of Valour.) They did get a number of two U-boats, but at a heavy price. You can see why Honor's worst enemies would like the idea of giving her command of a squadron of them!

Perhaps the one wasted opportunity in this book: maybe it could have been dedicated to the brave men who risked their lives in Q-ships to keep the sea lanes open?

For anyone who wants to read more about the history of Q-Ships I can recommend "Smoke and Mirrors: Q-ships Against the U-boats in the First World War" by Deborah Lake.


As usual, Honor's opponents, and a lot of other people, have badly underestimated her. And the weapon systems which "Horrible Hemphill" and the ordinance experts have given Honor to try out include some better ideas than the ones that made her job so difficult "on Basilisk Station." Some of these systems will have critically important implications for the future course of the war and hence for the rest of the series.

Very complex book: Honor has to deal with opponents back home, one or two nasty pieces of work on her own ship, a Manticoran merchant family who start out as deadly enemies, pirates, corrupt Silesian governors, and the Peeps.

Weber also moves the quality of his treatment of people in the opposing navy into another gear: the development of characters on the Peep side goes beyond being just evil or honorable enemy figures to the point where some of them effectively become a second group of heroes. Meanwhile some of Honor's internal opponents also show that they are capable of more than being cartoonishly evil bad guys.

This was the book which persuaded me to raise my view of David Weber from thinking him an entertaining author to being, at his best, a first rate one.

A note on how this book fits into the series as a whole:

At the time of writing there are thirteen full length novels and four short story collections in the "Honorverse" as the fictional galaxy in which these stories are set is sometimes known. The main series which tells the story of Honor Harrington herself currently runs to eleven novels; in order these are

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonour
Flag in Exile
Honor among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
At All Costs

The four collections of short stories set in the same universe, not all of which feature Honor Harrington herself, are

More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Worlds of Honor III: Changer of Worlds
Worlds of Honor IV: The Service of the Sword

The two spin-off novels are "Crown of Slaves" (with Eric Flint) which is a story of espionage and intrigue featuring a number of characters first introduced in earlier Honor Harrington novels or "Honorverse" short story collections, and "The Shadow of Saganami" which is a kind of "next generation" novel featuring a number of younger officers in the navies of Manticore and her ally Grayson.

For amusement, if you want to try to look for the parallels to nations and individuals from the French revolutionary period and the Hornblower books, one possible translation would be:

People's Republic of Haven = France
Star Kingdom of Manticore = Great Britain
Gryphon = Scotland
Grayson = Portugal

Prime Minister Alan Summervale = Pitt the Younger
Hamish Alexander, later Earl White Haven = Admiral Edward Pellew
Honor Harrington = Horatio Hornblower
Alistair McKeon = William Bush

Crown loyalists and Centrists = Tory supporters of Pitt
Conservative Association = isolationist/hardline High Tories
New Kiev Liberals = Whig Oligarchists
Progressives and traditional liberals = Whig radicals

Legislaturist former rulers of Haven = Bourbon monarchy and French nobles
Rob S. Pierre = Robespierre
Committee of Public Safety = Committee of Public Safety

Solarian republic = United States of America
Anderman Empire = Kingdom of Prussia
Silesia = either Poland, or non-Prussian Germany

(I've always taken "The Silesian Confederation" to be Poland because European Silesia is now part of Poland, and was the first part of central Europe which Frederick the Great grabbed on the track from turning Prussia into the German Empire, followed by large parts of Poland. Also because late 18th century Poland was a chaotic mess which ended up by being carved up between neighbouring powers. However, you can also think of Silesia as being all the squabbling principalities of pre-unification Germany and that parallel also works.)

Wall of Battle = Line of Battle
Ship of the Wall = Ship of the Line
Battleship = "4th rate" sailing warship (in each case too small to form part of the main force in a fleet action, but powerful enough to defeat anything else smaller than a ship of the line/wall.)
Battlecruiser = frigate (5th rate)
Cruisers and destroyers = 6th rate and smaller warships

Q-Ship = Merchant ship with concealed weapons used by regular navy as a trap for commerce raiders.
Armed Merchant Cruiser = General term for a large merchant ship fitted with weapons and used by the regular navy as a substitute for a purpose built warship.

One of the Better Volumes in the Honor Harrington Saga
David Weber does a fine job introducing "friendly" People's Republic of Haven naval officers and an interesting assortment of "below decks" Royal Manticoran Navy enlisted and petty officer personnel in the sixth volume of the ongoing Honor Harrington saga. We also finally get the chance to visit Andermanni space, meeting several Imperial Andermanni Navy officers too. While the series overall doesn't quite rise to the literary heights attained by its Napoleonic Wars precursors written by Forrester and especially, O'Brian, there is much in these books which will appeal to avid fans of military science fiction and, in general, space opera that's truly a cut above most of the generic "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" novels I've read so far. Indeed, I must admit that reading the Harrington saga has been a guilty pleasure of mine; some light, thrilling reading which I've enjoyed immensely.

Disgraced RMN Captain Honor Harrington - who's embarked upon a second career as an admiral in the Grayson Space Navy - receives an offer she can't refuse from the First Space Lord of the Royal Manticoran Navy. A chance to revive her RMN career as Captain and commanding officer of a small squadron of armed merchant cruisers sent to the distant Silesian Confederacy, in charge of a seemingly impossible mission to protect Manticoran commercial shipping from piracy while the Star Kingdom of Manticore wages its latest war against the People's Republic of Haven. Unknown to Harrington, two enemies from her recent past are among those responsible for her new appointment, hoping she will not emerge unscathed - or better yet dead - from her latest command. Not surprisingly, Captain Harrington and her valiant officers and crew once more rise to the occasion, discovering a truly tangled web of intrigue - as well as piracy - lurking within the Silesian Confederacy.

Honor
This is a classic in the Harrington series.Much of it deals with the Naval forces on both sides and shows that not all Peeps are evil.There are some one-dimensional characters but overall this is a good read if you liked the other books.

Good and fills in the gaps
Well, Weber is the master of space combat even if his approach is somewhat conventional.This book really shouldn't be as good as it is given the events it covers, but Weber as always rises to the occaision.It becomes obvious by the end of the book though that its mostly a vehicle to introduce some Havenite characters other than Theisman we can cheer for.It also begins to de-stupify the Havenite forces making them a bit more of a threat for the next couple books.Middle stories frequently struggle, but this one doesn't and is highly recommended. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Faux Hardcover Book!
I bought this book in paperback, and very much enjoyed it.I am not going to duplicate the other fine reviews of the content.

I ordered the "hardcover" from Amazon because I was switching all of my Honor titles to hardcover editions.What I received was a little 6" x 4" mass-market paperback with a hard, shiny cover on it.

Very disappointing for the price.

It isn't really a hardback.
I have the entire Honor Harrington series, and have added the hardback editions that were originally only published in paperback. (On Basilisk Station, the Honor of the Queen,The Short Victorious War, Field of Dishonor, and Flag in Exile.) When I saw More Than Honor listed as hardback, I assumed it was a real hardback special edition as were the others I have listed. However, this is merely a paperback that has been hardbacked. In order to do this, the pages themselves must be trimmed, and the hard cover is glued onto the book's endpages. If I'd wanted to hardback my paperbacks, I could have gotten it done for a bit less, as there are companies that offer this service. Since what I received should, in my opinion, have been advertised as a rebound paperback with hard covers, I was a tad miffed. Unless you really want a hard bound paperback copy of the book, which is itself well worth the reading, don't bother with this edition. You can purchase a realio truelio paperback, for far less, and get the same stories.

Exceptional!
Another exception book by David Weber in the Honor Harrington series. I love the female heroine, which is not common in the sci-fi genre of this type, and she is totally believable, totally relatable, and simply amazing! I have read each and every book of this series and except for one, I found them all to be equally compelling. Now, I want one of those cats! (read the book to find out what I mean!)

Background info on the Honorverse.
More Than Honor is a collection of short stories set in David Weber's Honorverse, or the universe of Weber's Honor Harrington series.This book contains three short stories and one essay, none of which are about Harrington herself, but provide lots of background information enhancing the reader's understanding of the Honerverse.The first story, Weber's A Beautiful Friendship, recounts the first contact between humans and treecats, and how the relationshihp between the two species developed.We learn much from this story about the 'cats and their culture.David Drake checks in with the next story, A Grand Tour, about Hakyon Nessler, who encounters some disreputable naval officers committing an act of piracy, and how he takes matters into his own hands in dealing with them.S.M. Stirling delivers the third story, A Whiff of Grapeshot, set on Haven.This story is about Esther McQueen, the head of the military, and the suppression of the Leveller Revolt.The essay, The Universe of Honor Harrington, is written by Weber himself.Weber gives us a condensed history of the Honorverse, with some added insight into the technology and science of the the Honor Harrington universe, as well as the history and the political landscapes of the star nations within that universe.If you're looking for an Honor Harrington story, you'll want to skip this book, but if you would like to deepen your understanding of the Honorverse, then More Than Honor is an oustanding read.

The Background Builds
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