Honor Among Enemies

After a few years wearing the hat of a Grayson Navy Admiral, circumstances have allowed Honor Harrington to return to her native Manticoran Navy as a mere Captain… Honor is anything but mere though. Facing a personnel shortage and a decreasing availability of naval ships to help with anti piracy patrols and merchant ship convoy protection… Manticore has put in a plan to use armed merchant ships to try and prevent further losses to its vital merchant marine ships. Although less capable than true warships, the “Q ships” pack quite a punch. Still, with the personnel shortage, Honor is forced to deal with inexperienced crew on their midshipmen cruise and a number of people that their captains couldn’t wait to get off their own ships. Given a task with difficult odds and trying to get an uneven crew to come together all on their own, is too much to expect from most people. Luckily, Honor Harrington isn’t most people.

What an excellent book! Behind the scenes of Honor Harrington’s return to the Royal Manticorian Navy are plots and plans. She has made some enemies and those enemies have made plans that they believe will benefit them in one way or another. So yes, there are battles to be fought brilliantly and doggedly.

However, what made the book sing for me were the characters and growth. From a young engineer who is helped to grow a spine (and taught to be able to defend himself) to a merchant who finds out that he isn’t always right, people grow and change. We also gain more insight into the decent people who are part of Haven, making the enemies less cardboard and more real.

If you like military science fiction, start at On Basilisk Station and keep going. You won’t be disappointed.

Honor Among Enemies continues to develop important characters in the HH series and moves the series back into space, whre it belongs! The shipboard dynamics and challenges are explored thoughtfully and the losses are up close and personal. The concept of honor itself is examined and reminds the reader that sailors and soldiers are people who are fighting for governments that protect people and society.

The space battles are easy to follow and the truism that battles are fought by people is borne out again.

This is definitely a book to set up more books, but it is a fun read in itself.

Military SF
Book 6 continues the adventures of Honor Harrington. The only plot quibble I had is a spoiler, which is down below. Otherwise, new side characters join and some others become casualties. Satisfying conclusion.
Recommended. Yes, I’m buying book 7.

Spoiler
When Honor goes through the motions of demanding the pirates surrender or be blown up, she had previously had her crew destroy the vessel’s com systems, so the theatrics were unnecessary; she meant to kill the pirates and it was the firdt blatantly unscrupulous act by HH. On the other hand, her final scene, providing the Vaubin’s crew with a small lie to ensure their return to Havenite territory was inspired.

While this isnt my favorite Honor Harrington book, I really cant think of any reason not to give it five stars, so thats what Im doing. In this book, Honor is still an admiral in the Grayson Navy, but Manticore comes crawling back to her, begging her to rejoin their navy as a mere captain to lead a four ship squadron of Q ships in the Silesian Confederacy area, where pirates are destroying merchant shipping and crews. Its an ugly invitation, but she wants back in the Manticoran Navy so badly, she accepts. Crazy.

Q ships are converted merchant freighters with no armaments to speak of, but in this case, with lots of weaponry. They are to act as targets for pirates and when they are attacked, to destroy the pirates. But obviously, they have to do so immediately, as they cant sustain damage. Honor is gratified to learn that her captains and execs are of good quality and she knows some of them, but the crews are a combination of cast offs and new recruits fresh out of the academy. Not good.

Klaus Hauptman figures in this book. He asks that she be chosen for this assignment because shes a great combat commander AND if she gets killed, thats great for him too, as he hates her. So when she saves his sorry butt late in the book, its pretty ironic.

A nice piece of writing in this book has to do with Haven. In the past, the Havenites have always been evil, for the most part. In this book, we see some evil Havenites, but we see some good ones too. It makes for a more realistic and humane look at this group of people. One Havenite cruiser is in the same area as Honors ship and its going after pirates too, and the captain rescues some Manticorans, even though he knows he probably should have destroyed them.

Speaking of pirates, there are some pretty evil ones in this book. Led by a maniac. With nukes. And of course, Honor outwits him. Couldnt have it any other way. And also, the body count is high in this book. Honors crews always suffer high casualties. Makes ya wonder why so many people want to serve under her.

One nice touch was a new kid fresh out of the academy. He shows some promise in Engineering and is promoted, but theres a crew of about five nasty bullies, led by one utterly insane nutjob. He loves to hurt people. He wants to murder people. And he wants to desert the navy, knowing its an execution squad he would be facing if he were caught. Well, he catches this kid alone and beats the heck out of him. Someone spots them and runs him off, but neither of them will say anything other than the kid fell down. Right. Everybody knew who did it, but theres no proof. Later, one of the kids friends, a female of the same rank, has her space suit (?) sabotaged, and nearly dies, but again theres no proof. Meanwhile, this kid has been working out with the Marines on board the ship, learning how to fight. He goes and tracks down the bully. He goads him into taking a swing at him and then beats the heck out of him and its a pretty sweet scene to read. Honor gives the bully 90 days in the brig, followed by a court martial. She gives the kid one day of sitting in his room and docks him one weeks pay. Hes stunned. He thought hed lose his stripes and maybe be court martialed himself. She knew what was going on. She approved. Nice.

It was good to get Honor away from the religious nuts and politics of Grayson. That was starting to get old. But it was bad not seeing her in the captains chair of a dreadnaught. However, she worked wonders with those Q ships and it was a pretty good story, so five stars it is. Recommended.

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