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War of Honor (Honorverse) by: DAVID WEBER

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Rating: - Poor politics, too much romance not enough battles!

Picking up about five years after "Ashes of Victory", Duchess Harrington is one of the most prominent opponents of the new government of Manticore - an unholy Alliance between the Liberals, Progressives and Conservatives - who have been stringing out the peace Treaty with the new Havenite regime of President Eloise Pritchard. Meanwhile in Silesia, things are going from bad to worse as the usual pirates are being supplemented by an influx of renegade Peep vessels gone independent. And the Andermanian Empire is getting increasingly uppity at the presence of the Manticorean base at Sidemore station (established by Honor in "Honor Among Enemies"). And now that Haven seems less of a threat, the Emperor seems more prepared to threaten war with Manticore to get what he wants.

The trouble is, this book is way too long. What David Weber does best is space battles, and yet Honor doesn't even get into space for nearly three hundred pages. Instead we get a long and (for the most part) unbelievable discussion of the politics of Manticore - there is no way three parties with such a diametrically opposed agendas could stay together for as long as the High Ridge government supposedly had, short of continuing the war, which is the one thing they're all opposed to - coupled with the complications of Honor's love life (and if I wanted to read about people agonising over the tragedy of their love lives - I'd read Anne Rice). The new government are all too unprincipled, without any indication of what their aims actually are (unlike, say, the fanatics in "Flag in Exile" who, although abhorrent, were all too believable). The Havenite politics was more interesting, in that I could actually believe they would be rather more dynamic (given the new regime is in its infancy) but I couldn't believe Foreign Secretary Giancola seriously believed he could control the situation between Haven and Manticore sufficiently to take them to the brink of war but no further when he doesn't control either government (it would have made more sense IMO if he wanted to resume the war because he thought Haven could win it ), but I guess hubris is the bane of politicians everywhere. And as for the idea that the Andermanians wouldn't mind the presence of a Havenite fleet in Silesia (sent to destroy, or at least tie down Honor at Sidemore station) - militarily it might make sense but politically the Havenites might as well have asked the Andermanians to ally with Manticore against them (just imagine an analogous situation where the Chinese send a task force to overthrow Hugo Chavez in Venezuela - I doubt the Chinese would seriously consider the USA would shrug its shoulders and say "No problem - we didn't like the guy anyway!"). Even the potential of the new junction to the Manticore Terminus was wasted (when it's first mentioned I'd assumed it was going to exit in either Silesia, leading to conflict with the Andermanians or somewhere near Haven, destabilising the Peace talks) as it turns out to be in a system near (but not in) the Solarian League.

By the end of it, the only battles that Honor is actually in is a brief one at the end and all the engagements are tactical triumphs for one side or the other (brief and decisive) - and this is from an author who made a three ships battle last several chapters in "Honor of the Queen". I just hope the next book ("At All Costs", which I've yet to read) concentrates more on the military and less on the political or the personal conflicts.

Rating: - Interesting Times!

With the Manticoran Alliance's overwhelming fleet at the throat of the People's Republic of Haven, things should have been rosy for the Alliance. But there's a new government in Manticore and they don't see any reason to call an end to hostilities. With Haven also putting a new government in place, they aren't in any particular rush either, at least initially, but eventually they wanted a proper peace treaty. However, the High Ridge government on Manticore has no intention of signing anything as it would mean ceding power to the opposition. Honor Harrington and Lord White Haven are the chief spokesmen for the opposition as cuts are introduced that would destroy Manticore's naval strength. The Manticoran government also treats its allies with contempt - not wise with the interstellar situation in an increasingly desperate situation! Now, this is a huge book by the standards of the genre and the fact that large portions of the book are made up of people talking about things rather than doing them makes things difficult for those of us who prefer our space opera to be purely about battles in space. Personally, I don't generally find this too much of a problem, though it does go rather stronger on the exposition than I would really have preferred. I had more of a problem with the utter stupidity of most of the High Ridge government - although (mostly) of aristocratic stock, therefore not having to worry about such things as being elected, they were all fairly prominent in their own parties, which means they have to have somewhat of a clue. I fear I can accept venal and corrupt, but not the depths of their utter stupidity. I have the same objections to the interactions between President Pritchard and her Secretary of State on Haven. Despite this, the attempted character assassination of Honor and White Haven felt all true! I'm not quite sure if David meant it to be, but the interaction between the scientific staff and their government appointed minders at the RMAIA gave the book a welcome leavening of levity.

Overall, the balance of politics and action may be considered too far on the side of the politics but it's a decent book for all that.

Rating: - A great disappointment.

This 929 page book is a thoroughly unworthy addition to the Honour Harrington saga; a rambling work of commercial fiction, devoid of the fast paced action for which David Webber is known so well, full of gratuitous navel-gazing, underdeveloped and over complicated plot lines. A great disappointment.

Rating: - War of Honor

This time the conflict is between the Andermani empire and Manticore and the Peeps and Manticore. The Peep government has been overthrown by the Navy. This time the leaders of the Peeps try to close a peace treaty, but the government in Manticore are dragging their feet. The government that took over from the assasinated leaders of state, are anti-war, anti-growth and anti-Harrington. In addition certain elements in the Peep government are adding and deleting small phrases of treaty suggestions from the Peep side, making it even more difficult to further the peace process.

In order to discredit Ms. Harrington and Hamish Alexander, who both fight for more funds to the military effort, the government portray them as lovers. Earl Alexander is married to the Kingdoms most popular person, and they have therefore become big bad wolves. But when Emily, his wife, shows herself to be a friend of Honor the effort blows up in the government's face.

The Andermanis want more space, and the Manticorans are having nothing of it. The government sends Ms. Harrington (mostly to die or fail in the attempt) to resolve the situation without too much bloodshed. She disappoints her enemies in due course, but not without things getting a bit hairy.

In her usual fashion, Honor Harrington saves the day in a truly heroic fashion.

Rating: - War of Honor

I'm an Honor Harrington fan. This book was as enjoyable as the previous ones.

The war between the Manticoran Kingdom and Republic of Haven was at a seeming end in the previous book. Because politicians in the future are as power hungry as politicians today truth is misrepresented and falsified. This is not good when two systems are trying to establish peace between them. Part of the tension in the Honor series is of course that the Manticorans and Peeps are not able to come to terms with each other. Honor and Hamish are struggling to keep apart in all of this. This is not made easier by their political positions. They "nobly" suffer their love for each other in silence. I was not disappointed - once again.

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