The Short Victorious War

I started reading science fiction in the 60s, and David Weber’s Honorverse is simply one of the best book series I ever read. It was my introduction to military sci-fi. I’ve followed the series over the years, and I’ve been delighted as the breadth has increased. At first I was hesitant with his other books that featured different main characters, but the stories and characters are all phenomenally well done and well developed. The characters, protagonists and antagonists alike are consistent and believable. And the “science” of the Honorverse is absolutely dazzling. I also was delighted to discover another pearl, John Ringo’s writings, through his collaborations with Weber.

Although I’ve read the entire series in paperback and hardback, I’m re-reading it now on Kindle. David Weber is particularly thoughtful of his readers in making some Kindle editions free, and even publishing the series to date on a CD included in one of the later hardback editions.

Even with the series in-hand, I am re-purchasing the series on Kindle, which I hope is a very small way of saying thank you for an incredible amount of entertainment, wonder and satisfaction.

Jim

Weber’s treatment of Honor Harrington begins to resemble a person with some feminine characteristics. And, this novel introduces a new strong female character Michelle Henke (though referred to as Mike). The story is interesting and fairly fast paced until Weber decides to go back to the Pavel Young story line which is both a distraction and ultimately the weakest most unbelievable story line. Needless to say, making time for this sees the ending of the war itself and the battles that made it possible an after thought, rushed in to close the book. Weber clearly hopes to be writing a book about feminine empowerment but this is not at all what he is accomplishing. Honor, the most kick ass powerful human in the story runs around being afraid of Young who she beat senseless in the incident that supposedly scarred her? But, this is unbelievable, just as the idea that influence could keep a physical and mental coward in the captain’s chair on his part. This is because the effort to idealize the Manticoran Navy runs smack into the need for it to be corrupt enough to sustain such privilege and Weber just doesn’t make this case. Also, in this book we learn more detail on the Ships of the Manticoran Navy and amazingly they are made to resemble sailing ships from the 18th Century. The gun ports that open and close in the side walls is the place where he lost me. Weber’s fascination with the technology and parlance of sailing become really valuable in the “Off Armageddon Reef” series but in this, the analogy is too close as to become comical. However, this book is clearly worth reading where as “The Honor of the Queen” was simply annoying.

This is another good military science fiction book. The reader gets to learn some of what goes on behind the scenes to make a squadron of ships function as one. I also liked bringing more of the Havenite side of things into the narrative as a balance to the Manticorian viewpoint.

The battle scene really got my heart going (literally — it went up over 20 beats a minute!). I wasn’t sure who would live or die and I cared about the characters. I have to admit the appendix about the technical aspects of the Manticorian ships made my eyes glaze, but at least it was easily skimmed.

If you like military science fiction, start at the beginning of the series. It is well worth the read.

I got started with this series by listening to “On Basilisk Station”, which turned out to be surprisingly engaging. The second book “The Honor of the Queen” continued the series. In this book, the story branches out into the broader scope. It begins with a meeting of the leadership of Manticore’s archenemy Haven where they make the decision to finally initiate war with Manticore. There’s a lot of Tom Clancy – like treachery occurring on the Haven side. On the Manticore side there’s a lot of storytelling about naval strategy and the personal cost of war. In this book, Honor Harrington’s character is further developed and she finally takes on a love interest – whom she meets in the middle of the night in a hot tub, of course. “C’mon in, the water’s warm!”. There’s a funny scene where Capt. Tankersly, Honor’s date, answers the com in his room. It’s Honor’s best friend “Mike” (a woman) who tells Capt. Tankersly that the admiral is looking for Honor. She says she though he “might know” where Honor is. Honor Harrington overhears the call and promptly rolls out of the other side of Capt. Tankersly’s bed and rushes to meet the admiral, but is intercepted by Mike who reminds her that she’s still wearing makeup. They remove the makeup, and she has to change into her uniform while her male personal assistant discretely looks the other way.
On the flip side, the story reintroduces her antagonistic relationship with Lord Pavel Young and explores how a sexual assault that happened back when she was a cadet is still affecting her. She has to report to Vice Admiral Parks, who is the cousin of the ambassador whom she physically assaulted in the previous story, which makes for more conflict.
Most stories seem to be dominated by men, but in this series the author makes a consistent effort to distribute the roles evenly between the genders, so some of the most treacherous, high-ranking, and high profile roles, as well as some of the most mundane are filled by women as often as by men. The author does a very good job of realistically portraying each gender.
The author takes special care to set up the rules for this story – how the ships work, their capabilities and limitations. He then weaves a story around these rules. When you understand the rules, it adds to the drama and impact of the story. However, there is one thing I still don’t understand. Apparently Honor Harrington spends most of the story in the company of this semi-sentient cat who seems to be hanging on her shoulder to the point where she had extra padding added to protect herself from the cat’s claws. Apparently the cat is not a pet and it’s not a true symbiotic relationship, so what’s the deal?
The first book had a really dramatic and unexpected ending. The second book had a less unexpected, but still very dramatic ending also involving single-ship combat. This book involves a multi-ship fleet engagement with a lot of naval strategy and plotting. It didn’t seem to have the same punch as the first two books, but those were pretty high bars. I’m looking forward to following the rest of the Honor Harrington saga.
If you consider yourself to be a feminist, I think you’ll really like this story.

What can I say about David Weber’s Honor Harrington series but wonderful.
This is not the ideal book for a new reader of the series though, it is much better to read them in order. This is book three.
It also it starts with the political situation in Peoaple’s Republic of Haven. You may start thinking they are the good guys. But they are shortly going to esculate the war with Mantiicore and so bring Captain Honor Harrington back into conflict again with her old enemy.
I recomend this series of books to anyone who likes militart space fiction series. I own every one and csn’t wait for Amazon to put a new one the top of my front page as soon as it is to be published. You also may like David Weber’s Apocalypse Troll and The path of the fury as well.
Competing with David as my favoutite author is Lois McMaster Bujold with her Barrayar Series.
I love them too.

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