A Rising Thunder

this is an aggravating book because so much happens off camera and we get told about it afterward. The focus of the story jumps about wildly and its bits and pieces of whatevers going on in this location with these characters here, followed by snippets dealing with those characters in that placerepeated to the point where it no longer feels like a book, but rather like a collection of scenes loosely organized and covering much too large a scope for the reader to keep track of.

It wasnt satisfying, it had far too much maundering on about this or that factoid, and it simply wasnt an actual book. No wonder Weber keeps rewriting books covering this short time period from so many characters viewpointsnone are complete, none are very interesting (as weve heard too much of the story before), and every book adds another group of minor characters to an already too long series character list, while advancing the plot only a small amount.

Then, too, its frustrating, annoying and feels like a ripoff to call some of these novels, Honor Harrington books, when she only makes cameo appearances. She shows up more here than in the last two stories, but the central characters for much of the story are Mike Henke and the Five Mandarins who run the Solarian League. In fact an excruciating amount of time is spent on various groups having meetings, especially the Mandarins meetings when theyre figuring out how to respond to Manticore. My guess is those meetings take up 35-40% of the book. Thats not the only repetitive aspect of the story either. Webers bad guys are cardboard, and if they stopped smiling thinly, looking at other people coldly, saying things nastily or with an edge (along with a long list of other overused descriptorsincluding Webers inability to stop describing his characters in exactly the same terms every damn time. He especially does this with Honor Harringtons and President Pritchards physical appearance, along with Lester Tourvilles and Thomas Theismans appearance, gestures and habits.

Then too, how many times do we needs to have the treecats conversational signs described in painfully exact detail? In one of these books, Weber spent a whole paragraph describing Nimitzs precise gestures and exactly which hand and which fingers he used to form each sign. . . and then Weber recycled that paragraph several times both in the same book and in a number of later ones. It doesnt matter how the treecats make signsall that matters is what theyre saying! Its as if Weber was describing exactly how each persons mouth, lips, teeth and tongue was shaped to form each syllable of the words they spoke. Complete Overkill.

These books have a word count thats ludicrously inflated because Mr. Weber is obsessed with too many of the nuts and bolts involved in the universe hes created. He feels compelled to tell us far too much about exactly how x works, the history of y and the origin of z. He also spends far too much time talking about his characters looks. Hes described both Eloise Pritcharts platinum hair and topaz eyes and Honor Harringtons height and bearing too many times to count, he also tells the reader how many cms tall each character is, along with the colors of their skin, hair and eyesand then repeats several of those descriptions multiple times per book, using the same words every time. Thats boring and unnecessary.

Some of the information Weber offers does need to be included just to make his universe and characters more real. It adds depth to the story when we learn how each world has shaped the people who settled there, and the first time a character is introduced, it helps to know what she or he looks like. Once is enough, however.

Dont repeat those descriptions multiple times, or go on for several pages about a new weapon or ammunition. in exactly the same terms every damn time dont force your reader to spend more time being told about the Mandarins meetings, what each person said, and what they all finally decided to do, than you spend showing us what happens as a result of those meetings. Show, dont tell. Tell quickly gets boring.

Anyway, this is a long review, but its because the books in this part of the series have major issues and really need a firm editor to make them work as well as the earlier books did. Each of these stories need a clearer focus, a smaller cast of characters and less overlap with other books, so one book no longer contains spoilers for the next book. Weber can be a good writer, but he seems to have gotten lazy and the editors touch is sorely missed. I really hope Weber rediscovers his ability to write sharply plotted stories filled with adrenaline, since that David Weber is sorely missed.

As with the last few books, this installment is chock full of non sequiturs and extraneous scenes that are ment to build involvement but forced me to skip whole pages. Weber’s mania for details is well expressed but causes a seriously slow pace to the book.

Additionally, the final tragedy of the book or more specifically, the foreshadowing of that tragedy almost caused me to quit reading at 81% through. The only reason I can somewhat accept it is the afterword.

Sorry to see her series finish in some ways but the hyperfocus on politics in the last few novels meant it wasn’t what I was looking for anymore.

If you haven’t read On Basilisk Station, stop reading this now. Go read that and its sequels as this is the 13th book in the series. And yes, the series is worth reading. Go! Read!

Yes, this is marketed as military SF, but it is more sophisticated than that. There are battles, but this book looks at what causes war in the first place, how to make peace, and where corruption leads. As such, it is an interesting book. We learn more about the capabilities of the treecats and more about the machinations of the Mesan Alliance. Right now, they are more one-dimensional villains than I like, but then the Havenites were like that at the start of the series and look at how much depth has been revealed to the readers.

I would recommend this book to fans of the series who enjoy discovering the backstage part of war, the smoke and mirrors of politics.

As a Caveat I love the Honorverse Books and the spin-offs, so I’m probably biased.

I feel like Rising Thunder must be building toward something, because those whole book was pretty much a lot of politicking and foreshadowing and planning.

I understand that this sort of thing was kind of inevitable in a story about an officer in a star-faring Military. Honor is repeatedly successful in a string of Naval engagements of Trafalgar-levels of import – she’s going to be promoted. I get it.

But “Thunder” spends so much of its time on Earth, dealing with “the bad-guys” that Weber forgets to write about his main character. I think Weber was so concerned about writing a novel about his heroes going to war against Earth, that he needed to go out of his way to establish that Earth has been so thoroughly corrupted that our heroes are *really* responding to the Machiavellian maneuverings of a small cadre of super-corrupt bureaucrats and the well-meaning, honest Earthlings who are just following orders. I get it Mr. Weber, everyone gets it – lets get back to our heroes please.

I’ve spent all these books reading about Manticore and its Allies, and Honor and her colleagues in the RMN. I want to keep reading about them! I don’t care about corrupt bureaucrats on Earth, I get plenty of that in my News, thank you very much. This series was touted to me as the best of Military Sci Fi, with an emphasis on Hard SF – and up until now this has generally held true. But in “Thunder” I think this series has moved beyond the realm of MIL SF and into general SF or Political SF.

I don’t really know how to fix it, but something, which made Honor’s earlier outings so special, is missing in Rising Thunder, I think.

tl;dr – A somewhat longwinded set-up for something grand in the next novel. If you’ve followed Honor this long you may as well keep going, but this is not Weber’s finest hour.

Incidentally, if you haven’t read them – the Shadows of Saganami series is beyond excellent.

This is the 17th of a group of novels set about two thousand years from now in the future which David Weber initially created for his character Honor Harrington. Of these “A Rising Thunder” is the thirteenth novel in which Honor Harrington herself is the most important character. Currently (Summer 2012) there are seventeen full-length novels set in the same universe at the same approximate time, and this does not include a prequel series set only fifteen hundred years in the future and featuring Honor’s ancestor Stephanie Harrington.

The preceding book in the series, ”

Mission of Honor: Honor Harrington, Book 12

” concluded with a handshake between Queen Elizabeth of Manticore and President Pritchard of Haven which marked the final end to the series of wars between these two star nations which dominated the first eleven Honor Harrington books.

I refer to “A Rising Thunder” as a bridge novel, however, because it more or less completes the transition or bridge from a “Ms Hornblower in Space” storyline about a conflict between Manticore (clearly inspired by Britain at the time of Nelson) and Haven (an enemy power which has elements inspired by nazi Germany and soviet Russia but is mainly equivalent to Revolutionary/Napoleonic France), to a different story arc in which the sinister Mesan Alignment is trying to manipulate pretty well the whole galaxy into a gigantic series of wars, including one between Manticore and the vast “Solarian Republic.”

During the past few books the situation between Manticore and the Solarian Republic, which is the biggest star nation in the galaxy, has been getting worse and worse. The reader knows, but at first most of the characters don’t, that they are being manipulated by the sinister “Mesan Alignment.” However it was clear before the start of this book, both to the reader and to many characters in the series, that the entire galactic order is in danger of collapsing into war and chaos.

“A Rising Thunder” largely follows on from “Mission of Honor” except that David Weber adds a little more detail about the trip back home from Mesa of two super-spies who discovered in the book ”

The Torch Of Freedom

” an outline of what the Mesans are really up to. This forces the author to recapitulate a couple of scenes from “Mission of Honor” including the final one when Elizabeth shakes Eloise Pritchard’s hand.

Six of the “Honorverse” books covering a slightly earlier phase in the story are organised into three linked but distinct sub-series which portrayed unfolding events with the focus on three different perspectives of the galactic situation, but Weber moved away from that approach with “Mission of Honor” and both that book and this one cover the whole picture.

If you have not read any of the Honorverse books and are interested in doing so, do not start with “A rising thunder” as these stories work far better if read in sequence. Start with the first book, which is ”

On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington)

.”

As hinted above, the first eleven “Honor Harrington books, despite the futuristic setting, exhibited strong parallels with Nelson’s navy. Assumed technology in the stories to this point imposed constraints on space navy officers similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago. Similarly, the galactic situation in the novels up to the eleventh book. “At All Costs” had marked similarities to the strategic and political situation in Europe at the time of the French revolutionary wars. However, particularly after the gigantic battle at the end of that book which roughly corresponds to Trafalgar, the story has started to go in a wholly different direction.

This divergence applies to both the political diplomatic storyline and to naval technology. For the first few books you could see close parallels for the characters, nations and ship classes with those in C.S. Forester’s “Hornblower” series or the real history of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. E.g. Manticore was Britain, Haven was France, Honor Harrington was a mix of Horatio Nelson and Horatio Hornblower, Rob S. Pierre was Robespierre, the Committee of Public Safety was the Committee of Public Safety, “ships of the wall” were ships of the line with superdreadnaughts as first rates, etc, etc. One book,

Echoes of Honour (Honorverse)

was even an almost exact parallel to the Hornblower book

Flying Colours

.

However, as the story diverges from that of the Napoleonic wars, so the parallels with 20th century naval warfare or with space battle games like “Starfire” (of which Weber was one of the creators) have become stronger than those with the age of fighting sail. First he brought in Q-Ships, then spaceships which correspond to aircraft and carriers, and a ship type introduced in “Mission of Honor” could be seen as equivalent to submarines.

Before the tensions between Manticore and the Solarian Republic led to actual hostilities, those tensions could be seen as equivalent within Nelson-era parallels as imposing similar strategic considerations on the Manticoran navy that the threat of war with the USA (which, of course, eventually happened as the war of 1812) had on the British Royal Navy prior to 1812. But the Solarian Republic in this story is so much more relatively huge, populous and wealthy relative to Manticore than the infant United States was in 1812 relative to the British Empire, that the Nelson era parallels are no longer helpful.

If you are trying to work out in what order to read the “Honorverse” books, here is a description of the sequence of the first 17 novels. The main sequence of 12 novels prior to this one follows the career of Honor Harrington herself, and consists of

1) On Basilisk Station
2) The Honor of the Queen
3) The Short Victorious War
4) Field of Dishonour
5) Flag in Exile
6) Honor among Enemies
7) In Enemy Hands
8) Echoes of Honor
9) Ashes of Victory
10) War of Honor
11) At All Costs
12) Mission of Honour

I would have considered “A Rising Thunder” to follow in that list because it is the next novel in which Honor Harrington herself is a major character, but David Weber himself apparently does not. The author’s website lists only the 12 novels above as the “Honor Harrington” books and then describes all subsequent novels in the same universe including “A rising thunder” as “Honorverse” books. I presume this is because, although she is still a major character, Honor herself does not dominate this book to the extent she does most of the twelve listed above.

The “Torch” or anti-slavery sequence (with Eric Flint as co-author) focusses on the battle for freedom of people who have been held in slavery by “Manpower,” which at first is seen as a huge and corrupt company corresponding to the slave trader interests in Britain and America some two hundred years ago. The books with this focus are

(i) Crown of Slaves (set at about the same time as “War of Honor”), and
(ii) Torch of Freedom (set at about the same time as “At All Costs”).

The “Shadow” or Talbot Quadrant sequence consists of three books which focus on that area of the Galaxy, and particularly on the rapidly worsening crisis between Honor Harrington’s home star nation of Manticore and the Solarian republic. The books to date in this sub-series are

(a) The Shadow of Saganami (overlaps the 1st half of “At All Costs”), and
(b) Storm from the Shadows (overlaps “At All Costs” but starts and finishes later.)
(c) Shadow of Freedom (set at about the same time as this book, “A Rising Thunder”)

According to David Weber’s website, he is collaborating with Eric Flint to write another Honorverse book which will have a title influenced by Shakespeare’s Macbeth: he was originally going to title it “Cauldron of Ghosts” but is now thinking of “Cauldron Boil, Cauldron Bubble.”

“Mission of Honor” pulled the threads together again, beginning shortly after the end of “Storm from the Shadows” and taking forward the characters and stories from that book, “At All Costs” and “Torch of Freedom.” As explained above, this book then carries the story on after “Mission of Honor.”

The most recent book in the Honorverse series as at March 2013, set at about the same time as “A Rising Thunder” (not counting the prequel series) is called ”

Shadow of Freedom (Honor Harrington)

.” Before reading this I had assumed from the fact that Baen Books had put Honor Harrington’s image on the front cover that it would be the next book about her, but it isn’t. As the title infers, this is the third book in the “Shadow” sequence, the main character is Honor’s friend Admiral Michelle Henke, and Honor does not appear at all in the book. So it was rather naughty of Baen Books to pur her picture on the cover. Never mind.

I ought for completeness to add that besides the volumes listed above there are several collections in the “Worlds of Honor” series of short stories by Weber and co-authors set in the same universe, and featuring a range of characters, some from the main series of books, others new.

Having mentioned the prequel series I should also explain that one of these short stories was extended to form the first of a new Honorverse series for young adults, with the eponymous novel ”

A Beautiful Friendship

” released in October 2011. It features Stephanie Harrington, a member of an earlier generation of Honor Harrington’s family, who lived about 500 years before Honor and was the first human to be “adopted” by a “Treecat,” a member of the planet Sphinx’s native intelligent species. The Treecats are telepaths among themselves and can read human emotions, and some of them form a lifelong telepathic bond with humans: for example Honor Harrington has been adopted by a treecat called Nimitz.

At the time of updating this review the second book in the prequel series has been published and is called ”

Fire Season (Star Kingdom)

,” and this will be followed by “The Treecat wars.”

“A Rising Thunder” is slightly shorter than some of the recent books in this series, and a better book for it. Weber has also been working on his tendancy to give far too much detail about the vast size and power of the fleets which his characters are commanding or in which they serve.

The “Mesan Alignment” behind Manpower, who have been moving other characters in the story around like chess pieces for the past few books, began to act more openly with devastating consequences in the last one. But this time they are frantically trying to cover their tracks.

The best way I can think of to give a potentially interested reader a hint to help you decide whether you want to read about these guys, without spoiling the story, is to say that their leader Albrecht Detweiler is what you might get by combining

* Dr Soong from Star Trek Enterprise but without the scruples,

* the rulers of Lois McMaster Bujold’s

Cetaganda

but without the humour, and

* the arch-villian from the James Bond stories, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, without the cat. Honor and some of her friends are the ones with cats – or rather treecats – in this series.

I can recommend this book. My biggest concern about David Weber is that he has so many projects on the go: he says on his own website that

“I have more stories I want to tell than I have time in which to tell them.”

He quite rightly adds that this is a better problem than the reverse. At the moment he is working on or considering books in no fewer than eight different series. These are

1) the Honorverse (with sub-series set in various quadrants and different centuries),
2) the Multiverse series which begins with “Hell’s Gate” although this one is stalled for the moment while he works on other things,
3) the Bahzell Bahnahkson/War God series in which book four “War Maid’s choice” has just come out and there will be at least one more,
4) The Safehold/Nimue Alban series which begins with

Off Armageddon Reef

); the most recent in this series was “Midst Toil and Tribulation” and the next one will be “Like a mighty army” due September 2013.
5) The Prince Roger/Empire of Man series in which a prequel about the founding of the empire is being considered
6) The Dahak trilogy which he would like to expand to five books by adding a prequel to the currently first book “Mutineer’s Moon” and a sequel to the third one, “Heirs of Empire.”
7) Dave Weber would also like to write a couple of additional books in the “In Fury Born” universe, and
8) His editor has asked him to consider extending the book “Out of the Dark” to a series.

Wow! That should keep him busy for a few decades!

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