As promised, here we are, back in the Crown of Slaves series talking about “Torch of Freedom”, another essential book assisting us in our passage through the Honorverse. This is the second of the novels that comprise the Crown of Slaves series or set of books within the Honorverse. As with the others in this set, Eric Flint was David Weber’s co-author.  The influence of his writing style and perspectives absolutely help us delve into some of the ugly issues associated with the genetic slavery storyline.This is another in what we’ll call the “stacked” novels, in that we are still looking at events that occurred around 1921 PD.  It’s actually the last one we’ll see as David completes his build-out of this significant turning point in the overarching Honorverse storyline.  The layers of events we see added here now span from 1919 through 1922 PD, but they address events we’re familiar with, now from the perspective of the still-new star kingdom of Torch and the associated Mayan sector.  A healthy amount of the story leans on the activities of Anton Zilwicki and Victor Cachat as they continue to investigate mysterious murder attempts on multiple people including Honor Harrington, Queen Barry and others.  It’s not exclusively Anton and Victor’s story, but quite a bit of what happens in the novel revolves around this investigative work they’re involved in.  We also have a heavy dose of the activities of the Mesan Alignment, and fuller attention is paid to the Detweilers.  We may have learned more about the Alignment in this novel than in any other so far.  Related, there are quite a few moral issues that come to the surface, or certainly come near the surface, that were previously only foreshadowed.  Most of them are directly associated with the connection between the Alignment and the genetic slave trade, but it’s not all about that.  We definitely get a lot more of the lives and intentions of Berry, Ruth, the broader leadership of Torch and how they’re doing in finding their place in the greater universe that we call the Honorverse.Note this book is a bit of a slower read in that there’s so much going on.  You’ll see less combat action and a lot more of the weaving together of multiple storylines as this book (along with the several that preceded it) are turning us in a new direction related to the overarching storyline.We rated “Torch of Freedom” with a 3, a 3 and a 4 (out of 5), for an overall rating of a 3.33.As always, thank you for listening and big thanks to those of you who also take the time to like and follow us on social media, to comment on our posts or even reach out through a longer note.Next time on the Honorverse Today podcast, we’re diving back into the “main sequence” to discuss “Mission of Honor”, the twelfth book in that set.  Get ready!  We’re back with Admiral Honor Alexander-Harrington as she finds herself serving as a diplomat as Queen’s Elizabeth’s direct representative and plenipotentiary during significant face-to-face negotiations with the President Pritchart and other senior government officials of Haven.  You’re not going to want to miss reading and discussing this one.  Grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

Swinging back to the Saganami Island series, in this episode we discuss the second book entitled “Storm from the Shadows”.Similar to the previous novel, this is another of several that cover certain key events in the 1921 PD timeframe, but from a different perspective.  This time a lot of what we see is through Admiral Michele Henke’s eyes. We made this point in the podcast and want to re-enforce it here:  this isn’t just a repeat of what we the readers already know.  Yes, certain key events are covered again, but we’re seeing those events differently as David Weber uses this technique to bring more richness or fullness to the story. And that’s not all this book brings us; there’s new material too, so don’t skip this one as David takes us down an important parallel path within the story.  Please consider it essential reading in the context of the greater story arc.   Perhaps most important, as anticipated we get to learn more about the emerging threat of Mesa, or more specifically of a body—a very quiet, or in some cases secret governing body—called the Mesan Alignment.  This is the third political entity we talked about in the previous episode.  The Alignment isn’t just a disruption to business as usual.  Rather, we’re learning just how powerful and manipulative they are as they’ve secretly and effectively orchestrated various events and outright hostility between Manticore and Haven.  It also appears that this manipulation isn’t the whole story, so strap in and hang on to your hats as we start to see just how an already ugly situation might get even uglier.  Much uglier.We rated “Storm from the Shadows” with a 5, a 5 and another 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of a 5 from your hosts.Friends, we always appreciate your encouragement as we make this adventure through the Honorverse together. Once again, thank you for listening and big thanks to those of you who also take the time to like and follow us on social media, to comment on our posts even reach out through a longer note. Next, we’re going to return to the Crown of Slaves series as we dive into the second book:  “Torch of Freedom”, bringing our attention back to the planet of Torch and all the galactic maneuvering around this new star nation.  As a reminder, this is the series that David Weber brought in co-author Eric Flint. Grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

We’re back in the “main series” to discuss the eleventh novel, “At All Costs”. While this is the eleventh of fourteen novels here, we’re only about halfway through all the Honorverse content. So, if you’re enjoying the podcast don’t worry, there’s lots more to come!The timeframe of this novel has us overlapping some of the events we saw in “The Shadow of Saganami.” Again, this is in no way a rehash of events. What David Weber is doing here (and in the next novel we’ll read) is to provide an incredible amount of fullness to a massive part of the Honorverse storyline. With so many threads of storyline happening on such a large scale, this was really the only way David could effectively fill in the incredible amount of story needed to give us the full picture of just how complex the events actually are. While there are things you’ll recognize, you’re not going to get bored. So, fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the ride. The title says it all. We are witnessing the climax of the Manticoran – Havenite War. With a momentary pause in the fighting and a brief moment where peace talks might have happened, due to a series of truly unfortunate circumstances, both sides resume combat operations with a ferocity that represents conducting warfare in a manner that victory will come to one side or the other at all costs.We see confirmed in this book the previous appearance of a possible third party involved in the war — a party that isn’t Manticore or Haven, or one of their allies. We definitely have some idea who it is, but what we know appears to only scratch the surface. This other actor on the universal stage has its own selfish interests and agenda. It wants to see Manticore and Haven continue to attrit each other’s militaries and economies down to a level that leaves them ineffective to deal with anything else. That party would then presumably be able to operate relatively freely and maybe openly, unopposed by either of these primary star nations. When they sabotage the intended peace talks, war resumes, and with incredible scale and violence. We watch what is described as the largest naval battle in history. When the story ends, we see both Haven and Manticore having lost the preponderance of their navies, with Manticore only effectively retaining 8th Fleet under the command of Honor Harrington. The stage is set at the end of the novel for this semi-mysterious third party to become more fully known and begin to take advantage of the new “international” political and military landscape.We rated “At All Costs” with a 5, a 5 and another 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of a perfect 5 from your hosts.As always, we truly appreciate the support of everyone who takes the time to wander through the Honorverse with us. Special thanks for those of you who like and/or comment on our posts, and even reach out and send us a note.Next, we’re going to return to the Saganami Island series to read and discuss book two: “Storm from the Shadows”. It’s going to continue this wild ride we’re on, so grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

We’ve already put out toes in the water of the Wages of Sin series (more commonly known as the Crown of Slaves series), and we’ll return to it soon enough. In this episode we discuss the first book in the Saganami Island series, entitled “The Shadow of Saganami”.Events in this novel overlap with and complement, to some extent, events we read about in “Service of the Sword”, “War of Honor” and “Crown of Slaves”. Don’t worry though, there is zero redundancy. What David Weber is doing is giving us more depth and breadth than what we already had. Your hosts all felt this could have been two novels on some level. That said, breaking it into two would have damaged what Mr. Weber does for us by keeping the multiple storylines within a single book. For that, we’re thankful for this lengthy and satisfying book!With the resumption of hostilities between the Star Kingdom and Haven, the story shifts to the relatively new Lynx Terminus of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction. This junction is located in the economically poor Talbott Cluster. Manticore has offered the benefits of annexation to the systems in the Talbott Cluster, which would benefit all parties involved. It would not necessarily benefit other players on the Honorverse stage. It certainly causes issues and concerns for Mesa, and perhaps, to others. This novel captures the story of the resultant honorable (and less than honorable) maneuvering within the Cluster. We’ve used the “DIME'' construct to analyze the story as it’s unfolded in the previous novels. That continues here, but now we see a very clear shift from a focus on the military instrument of power (the “M”) to a much heavier emphasis on diplomacy and economics (the “D” and “E”). For those of you who have been on this adventure for a while, you’ll remember we’ve anticipated this happening.The book is aptly named. We experience a part of the fatal battle Edward Saganami is known for, and we see why he’s regarded as highly as he is within the Royal Manticoran Navy. We get to hear Honor’s words to a graduating class at the Academy at Saganami Island, and then we roll into political intrigue, diplomatic (and less than diplomatic) posturing and maneuvering, piracy, terrorism, and even a large and very significant naval battle. The naval operations and ultimately combat requires the RMN officers, women and men assigned to the ships involved to make comparably difficult decisions to those made by Edward Saganami. They’re inspired by what they know of him, strive to honor his legacy, and ultimately live in the shadow of this great man. It seems this book has something for everyone!We rated “The Shadow of Saganami” with a 5, a 5 and another 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of a perfect 5 from your hosts.As always, we truly appreciate the support of everyone who takes the time to wander through the Honorverse with us. Special thanks for those of you who like and/or comment on our posts, and even reach out and send us a note.Next, we’re going to return to the “main story line” with our discussion of “At All Costs”. Grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

With this series and novel, our adventure shifts away from the story featuring Honor Harrington as the main character or even seeing her as the focal point.  Even so, she’s not gone and appears in the periphery quite often.  Remember, this “related” storyline doesn’t mean we’re shifting away from the “main” storyline.  As you’ll see, we are not.  The Wages of Sin series, and this first novel in it, are absolutely a part of the core narrative that is The Honorverse.    We’ve seen the stories in this series foreshadowed and now we’re going to see why the Wages of Sin set of books are essential to the main story.  By the way, you’ll often hear people refer to this series as the Crown of Slaves series rather than Wages of Sin.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with that at all.  In fact, the series is probably more commonly referred to as the Crown of Slaves series.If you like placing each story into a chronological timeline, the events in Crown of Slaves happen while the High Ridge government is still in power, just before the main events captured in the novel War of Honor.  While there isn’t a lot of emphasis placed on High Ridge and others in the cabinet, Queen Elizabeth and some of the actions revolving around her play a little more of a prominent (but a relatively minor) role.  Crown of Slaves was first published by Baen Books in August 2003.  This is the series we have previously mentioned was written by the dynamic duo of David Weber and Eric Flint.As we saw mentioned in earlier parts of the story, the Star Kingdom’s ally Erewhon has been grieved by the actions and attitudes of High Ridge and the cabinet.  Perhaps outside of Grayson, Erewhon may be the most neglected and offended of all of Manticore’s primary allies.  In an effort to quietly address the problem, and perhaps prevent the loss of a key ally, Queen Elizabeth sends a delegation led by Captain Zilwicki, along with his daughter Berry, and her niece, Princess Judith Winton, to Erewhon.  You’re going to see a small cast of other familiar characters as well.  Within this atmosphere of tension, and significantly amplified by competing agendas outside of the Queen’s control, nothing goes smoothly.As suggested by the title of the series, and especially this novel, the focus of the events that unfold relate directly to Mesa and Manpower, Inc., and broadly to the ugly issue of slavery.  It shouldn’t be a surprise, but the theme is certainly heavy, and the events and language are not “kid friendly”.We rated Crown of Slaves with a 3, a 4 and another 4 (out of 5), for an overall rating of 3.7 from your hosts.We absolutely appreciate the support of everyone who takes the time to listen to our thoughts as we wander through the Honorverse.  Thank you!  And as always, thanks for those of you who like and/or comment on our posts.  Whether you agree with our thoughts, or hold differing viewpoints, your comments are genuinely appreciated and warmly received.   We truly enjoy hearing your thoughts on the Honorverse and the show.Next up:  we’re making a visit to another related storyline as we jump into the first novel in the Saganami Island series:  The Shadow of Saganami.   Grab your copy and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

Here we are, already discussing the fourth Honorverse anthology entitled The Service of the Sword.  This collection of six short stories written by six authors was originally published in April 2003 by Baen.  While we’ll call them “short” stories, two of them are novella-length (or arguably longer), so if you haven’t read this collection yet, be aware that a couple of these stories are lengthy.  The book is long, and since we’re talking about six stories, this summary is longer than usual too.The first story in this anthology is Promised Land by Jane Lindskold, an author we’re already familiar with.  This key story within the Honorverse introduces us to the Grayson character trapped on Masada named Judith.  Along with several other ladies, she’s a part of a separatist group seeking to escape their oppressive culture.  As they execute their plan they come into contact with Michael Winton, Crown Prince and Midshipman, on his “Snotty” cruise onboard the HMS Intransigent.  The ship is on an official visit to Masada and takes place back when Manticore was weighing the pros and cons to an alliance with either Grayson or Masada.  The events in this story helped inform Manticore’s decision, especially as Michael, and the crew he’s a member of, ultimately come to the aid of Judith and her friends.  The story’s important because we’ll see more of Judith in the future.Your hosts all gave this one a “thumbs-up”.Next came the story With One Stone by Timothy Zahn.  We join our favorite heroine Honor Harrington, now a captain in the RMN, and the captain of the Heavy Cruiser HMS Fearless very shortly after the events in On Basilisk Station.  The story returns us to her work to address the problem of apparent piracy as ships are being attached in Silesian space.  Another old “friend,” Sonja Hemphill is also involved in the effort since it seems some sort of advanced weapon is being used in these attacks.  Due to apparent similarities to Hemphill’s past project called a “grav lance,” she and the Office of Naval Intelligence are also involved.  We watch events unfold that ultimately expose the real power behind the attacks with this new weapon:  the People’s Republic of Haven.  We also get to see a young Rafe Cardones continue his early growth as a Naval officer as he’s detailed away from Honor’s crew and onto another vessel conducting intelligence operations related to the same problem.This one received three more “thumbs-up” from your hosts!The third story is A Ship Named Francis, written by John Ringo and Victor Mitchell.  Our authors took a very different approach to the Honorverse in that it was essentially an outlandish story that brought a bit of comic relief to what has really been what we’ll call serious story telling so far.  In this short story, we follow the adventures of a medic (Sick Bay Attendant) Sean Tyler and see the adventures onboard the Grayson Space Navy’s Heavy Cruiser, Francis Mueller.  Nothing is quite right about this crew.  Antics and follies occur as we’re introduced to a whole host of unbelievable and larger than life characters who do their best to do everything badly.  You may or may not be amused, but regardless you’ll go on an adventure with this story!Your hosts represented all the possible votes on this one, with a thumbs up, a neutral vote and a thumbs down.  (Be sure to let us know what you think after you read it.)The next story was Let’s Go to Prague, by John Ringo.   This one is a solo effort by Mr. Ringo, who co-authored the previous story.  While this one has comedic moments and whit, with some similarities in the writing style and “feel”, this is truly its own story and not just more zany adventures in the spirit of the last one.  Here we join two Manticoran...

Here we are, already discussing the tenth novel in the Honor Harrington main series: War of Honor, and if you’re counting the overall number of books we’ve covered in the Honorverse, this would be the thirteenth. For those who read this in the past, you may remember what the rest of us new readers discovered: we thought the previous novel was lengthy at 672 pages; this one buries that one and comes in at a substantial 869 pages! For story continuity, the events in this novel occur approximately three years after the events captured in the short story “From the Highlands'' (in the Changer of Worlds anthology). War of Honor was first published by Baen Books in October 2002. With the war between Manticore and Haven in a pause, as both sides agreed to an armistice, affairs have been dragging along with no formal peace apparent. Both sides have their own agendas driving the desire for a permanent peace. Even so, the current Manticoran government (the Queen’s government, but not the Queen herself) quietly prefers to keep the nation in a technical state of war. This allows them to maintain the wartime taxes they’re currently gathering. At the same time, they don’t believe that delay will compromise peace, which they truly want to endure even though they’re (selfishly) refusing to negotiate with Haven formally and fully. They are inappropriately using the wartime tax revenues to fuel non-wartime domestic and essentially “partisan” social programs. Meanwhile, the government of Haven (no longer the People’s Republic of Haven, having restored their original Constitution and the associated form of government) is growing increasingly frustrated with Manticore’s unwillingness to enter serious discussions about a formal peace. At the center of their desires rests the return of parts of Haven lost to Manticore in the war. More accurately, to allow those parts of their star nation to decide for themselves if they’d like to remain with Manticore, or to return to Haven as members of the restored old Constitutional government, or even have complete independence. The delay, fueled primarily by Manticore, causes concern (both real and contrived) that Manticore actually intends to continue the war. Within the government of Haven, there are those who quietly, if not secretly, desire to finish the war through a return to hostility so as to regain their lost territory and deliver a crippling and permanent blow to Manticore. There are also those who strongly support the idea of peace through strength. These agendas manifest through a secret program which is rebuilding the Navy.We also see the impact of political changes on both sides, primarily on the Manticoran side with regards to allies—for better or worse. While several allies are a part of the story, the focus is on Grayson and their strained relationship with the Manticoran government.In the end, hostilities resume and the pieces on the chessboard shift yet again within each star nation, and with several allies…We rated War of Honor with a 5 and two 4s (out of 5), for an overall rating of 4.13.As always, thanks for those of you who have liked and/or commented on our episodes so far. Your comments are genuinely appreciated and warmly received. Please keep those likes and comments coming! We truly enjoy hearing your thoughts on the Honorverse and the show.Next up: we’re on to the fourth in the Worlds of Honor anthology set, entitled The Service of the Sword. This one’s a cool package of six short stories and six authors, including Mr. David Weber himself, along with a few familiar favorites like Jane Lindskold and Eric Flint. Grab your copy and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

(Be sure to listen all the way through the closing credits. There may be a small surprise...)Time is flying as we work our way through the Honorverse! Here we are on the third anthology in the Worlds of Honor set: Changer of Worlds. It was first published in January 2001, comes in at 469 pages and contains four short stories. As with the previous anthology, the title is apt, given these stories capture key people and events at various times that truly changed the worlds we’ve grown to know and love in the Honorverse. Three of these stories were penned by David Weber and one by Eric Flint. This is significant for several reasons. Eric’s story is our first taste of what’s to come down the road. He also collaborated with David on the Crown of Slaves story arc. It’s a real treat to read what Eric wrote for us here. It definitely has us looking forward to his other contributions. (There’s more to the story behind David and Eric’s friendship. We’ll discuss this more in a future episode.)An important note: this anthology is extremely important, if not essential, to the second half of the Honor Harrington saga, and particularly important to a full understanding of the upcoming novel War of Honor.The anthology kicks off, and not in a slow way, with Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington, penned by David Weber himself. In this story, we join Midshipwoman Harrington as she and some of her classmates embark on what is traditionally called their “Snotty” cruise aboard the HMS War Maiden, commanded by CAPT Thomas Bachfisch. These cruises are when the Middies get to see the Navy they’ve been training for so long to serve in as commissioned officers, and for the Navy to see them and put these youngsters through a few trials of their own. Now they’re in the fleet, and not the classroom to learn.As readers we see what goes into the formation of officer Honor Harrington about as early as possible. Along the way we see a somewhat familiar set of personalities and predispositions in those around her: toward her (and her youthful looks and her early ability to command); her reputation (through CAPT Bachfisch and an officer onboard who is friends with Pavel Young), and her treecat (with many biases and misperceptions still in place about these “pets” not often seen among the fleet), to name a few. We also get to see CAPT Bachfisch directly influence and shape what will become a part of Honor’s command philosophy as she deals with issues and problems—some small and some significant. In this one short story we see snapshots and examples of officership and leadership, command (and how it’s not formulaic or one-dimensional), and to some extent the role and place of midshipmen in the Navy.Three “thumbs-up” from your hosts.The second story also was written by David Weber: Changer of Worlds. This was an interesting tangent in that we get a relatively significant glimpse into the inner workings of treecat polity and inter clan relations. The events in the story take place when Samantha and Nimitz visit the Brightwater Clan. The main point of the story, at least on the surface, is to show us what appears to be the initial proposal and discussion that occurs about possibly ending the treecats’ “Great Deception” and showing the humans their true intelligence. This also involves a related discussion about establishing the first-ever treecat colony in the Harrington Steading on Grayson.The pressing and unaddressed question related to this: what happens if/when treecats begin pairing with those who aren’t aligned with humans in the Star Kingdom? If they’re willing to consider colonies, then they must know there will eventually be contact outside of the Harrington Steading and more broadly, the Star Kingdom. The treecats know humans go to war with each other, and that some are deemed to be bad/immoral, not only by other humans, but also by treecats. We’re left to wonder how...

At the end of the last episode, we told you our next episode would be to discuss the anthology “Changer of Worlds”. Well surprise! What you’re about to hear is our interview with the man himself: Mr. David Weber. We had a list of questions of our own as well as some that several of you have submitted. In the interest of respecting David’s time, we paired the list down and took the opportunity to ask him about several things.The conversation was fantastic. We were blown away by two things. First, David didn’t just give us simple or surface answers to our questions. Instead, he dove deep into what we asked and gave us very detailed and full explanations. Second, when our session was over, we realized he didn’t just give us thorough answers, but gave us an incredible amount of time! As a result, you’ll get to hear a lengthy and quality session with the creator of the Honorverse.By the way, as with many of you, we’ve heard other interviews with David and can tell you he gave us equal or perhaps more time to talk with us. While there might be some ground he’s covered in other interviews, he definitely shared things we’d never heard before. As we wrapped up, David offered to join us again sometime in the future when we’re a bit further into the Honorverse. We have more questions to ask him from our original list. This also means if you have more questions to ask, there’s time to send them to us to add to our list. We don’t know when, but our intent is to take him up on his very kind offer.Mr. Weber, thank you again sir, for the incredible time you gave to all of us, your fans.Next time: we will discuss the anthology “Changer of Worlds” — only this time we mean it. We think you’ll all agree, getting to hear from David himself was more than a reasonable excuse to delay our discussion of this book.As always, genuine thanks to each of you for listening, and especially folks who have found the time to send us comments. If you haven’t already done so, consider spreading the word to others who you know are Honor Harrington fans, or to those who might enjoy the Honorverse!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

In this episode we discussed the ninth novel in the Honor Harrington main series: Ashes of Victory. It’s the direct follow-on to Echoes of Honor. And if you keep listening through the end credits you might find a bit of extra “Oops!”At 672 pages (the trade paperback edition), it’s slightly shorter than Echoes of Honor, but not by much and with no complaints from your hosts about the length. The story is large, requiring equally substantial books to capture all that’s going on, and it picks up right where Echoes left off. Ashes of Victory was first published by Baen Books in March 2000. The war with Haven happens and as you can tell from the title, we’re going to see what emerges from the ashes of Honor’s apparent death (covered in the first half of the book), but also from the war (covered in the second half). As for Honor, it seems “The Salamander” is also a Phoenix!As we’ve grown accustomed to, David Weber has seamlessly woven in references to historical events that provide good background to what’s happening: the Battle of Midway (4-7 June 1942), the Battle of Savo Island (9 August 1942) and Operation Bagration (23 June through 19 August 1944). Note: the first two were quick references, while Bagration is mentioned several times because it was the name of a military operation in the book. While knowing the history of these events isn’t necessary or covered, interested readers may want to take the time to learn why David made these references. They add a lot of color to the story.Because the war we all saw coming occurs, the story in this novel brings quite a few things to culmination, and also exposes some new threads within the greater Honorverse storyline. This was done very well, too, given we all seemed to agree the action in this book wore us out at times. Yet it also left us eager to see what comes next. Related to that, consider and ponder just how the war with Haven actually ends…A final thought: we mentioned in our discussions that this book makes it clear how important reading the anthologies can be. Remember, they’re not throw-away side stories. Instead, they very deliberately inform the reader of things going on that weren’t included in the novels. Call it what you want—backstory, amplifying info, sidequels, something else—but whatever you call it, understand we all saw important elements in this novel that tied directly back to select short stories in the anthologies. Do you have to read the anthologies to appreciate how amazing the growing Honorverse is? No. Is it worth your time to read them? Absolutely yes. They’ll make the incredibly mature universe David Weber is building even more robust than it would be otherwise. If you haven’t been convinced already, we encourage you to read (or re-read) the anthologies, and in the order of publication if you can.We rated Ashes of Victory with three 5s (out of 5), for an overall rating of 5.As always, thanks for those of you who have liked and/or commented on our episodes so far. Your comments are genuinely appreciated and warmly received. Remember, we’re fans of the series just like you and we’re honored to have a venue to share our experiences and thoughts as we work our way through the Honorverse with other, like-minded people. Please keep those likes and comments coming!Next up: we’re back to another anthology, the third in the Worlds of Honor set, entitled “Changer of Worlds”. Grab a copy and join in!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

This episode, we find ourselves reading and discussing the second anthology. This one is entitled Worlds of Honor. It was published in 1999 and contains five stories. Aptly named, these stories are as much tied to Honor’s worlds, as to the characters we read about. Through the pens of several authors, we travel to Sphynx, Manticore, Gryphon, and Sylvestria.First comes the story The Stray, written by Linda Evans. Linda brings us to Sphynx for the second bonding between a human and treecat: that between Dr. Scott MacDallan and Fisher, just 15 months after Stephanie Harrington is adopted by her treecat.The story focuses on a stray treecat named True Stalker who, near death, finds Scott and Fisher. He leads them to the crash site of an aircar, located near a facility owned by BioNeering. There are essentially two storylines here. First, we gain additional insights into what humans and treecats experience as a bonded pair. We also glimpse into the treecats’ moral code as Scott and Fisher learn through True Stalker that the aircar crash wasn’t an accident. It was a murder to cover up what’s occurring in the related storyline. In the second storyline, related to this case something has gone wrong at the BioNeering research site with the devastating result of killing off a significant section of Picket Wood trees. As we already know, this species of tree is a clonal organism (much like the Aspen tree on Earth). It is also a primary environment for treecat colonies. The murder of the aircar crew was an attempt to hide the significant damage that had been done to the forest. What wasn’t known or anticipated by BioNeering: one of the crew aboard the shuttle was paired to the treecat True Stalker — the same cat that found and brought Scott and Fisher to the crash site. Ultimately, the crime is revealed.As a side note, we learn of Manpower Unlimited., a company which provides cloned and bio-engineered human slaves to corporate colonies looking for labor they wouldn’t have to pay to work in dangerous environments. This is a company that will play a large role in future stories.All three of us gave this story a “thumbs-up”, with Raul sneaking a second “thumbs-up” in for good measure.The second story was written by David Weber: What Price Dreams? We are introduced to Princess Adrienne and her father King Roger II. We see an estranged relationship which was the result of the assassination of Adrienne’s mother, Queen Solange. The damaged relationship between Roger and Adrienne is further fueled by the Princess’ fascination with treecats. When she makes a trip to Sphynx two important things happen: she’s adopted by the treecat Seeker of Dreams; and next, she’s target of an attempted assassination. The attempt is ultimately foiled by Seeker of Dreams and his clan. Of note, these events occur not long after the first adoptions of Stephanie Harrington and Scott MacDallan. As a result, not much is known about treecats, adoptions are still very few, and as a result, opinions run strong. With Adrienne’s salvation coming through the hands of treecats, King Roger has a change of heart regarding treecats in general, and the rights of these sentient creatures.One nugget of information we gain from this story is of a technique called a “psych adjustment,” with all its unresolved moral baggage. We get just enough information about it to see what happens when psych adjustments are used for malicious purposes where an adjusted individual is effectively programmed and used to attempt the assassination of Adrienne. Another nugget is more background on Manpower and Mesa and especially their attempts to get hold of treecats for “research” purposes.Your hosts all rated this one with a “thumbs-up” as well.Queen’s Gambit was the third story in the anthology. It was penned by the expert hand of Jane Lindskold. Here we move...

After our jaunt over to the first anthology in the Worlds of Honor set, we’re back to the main series and discussing book 8: Echoes of Honor. This seemed like two books that were woven together through the way this novel was assembled. At 718 pages, this is the largest novel yet in the series, and was published by Baen Books in September 1998—a year after In Enemy Hands. The events in this book occur just short of a year (approximately 10 months) after Honor and her colleagues destroy the Tepes and head to the surface of Hell; not as prisoners, but as downed pilots surviving behind enemy lines. Some might think Behind Enemy Lines might have made a good title for this book. While it could have, the title David Weber selected has a much more significant relationship to the overarching storyline. To everyone outside of Honor’s immediate party, Honor is understandably believed dead. Her public “execution” by the People’s Republic of Haven was broadcast for all to see — a deep faked piece of well-done propaganda. Because of this, the echoes of the impact Honor had on the RMN; on Grayson, its Space Navy, and the people of her steading; and specifically on her parents are heard and/or felt. At the start of this story, only we, the readers, know she is still very much alive and relatively well.The novel was put together in a way that the two-pronged story presented itself through the length of the novel as alternating chapters, or technically “books”. Books 2, 4 and 6 were the events associated with Haven’s Operation Icarus, as they strike the Star Kingdom at key locations during a Manticoran operational pause. Honor’s parents and their stay on Grayson are also significant parts of these books. Books 1, 3 and 5 revolved around Honor’s exploits on Hades. She and her people create what is essentially an insurgent movement and take over the prison planet’s command center at Camp Charon. Securing a sufficient number of transports, she liberates all who want to depart from Hades. At the end of the book, these two storylines merge when Honor appears at Trevor’s Star with her crew and half a million prisoners. The story ends, leaving us to wait and see just how all those who thought they lost Honor will react to the news of her survival. Exciting stuff!We rated Echoes of Honor with three 5s (out of 5), for an overall rating of 5 from your hosts.We extend our thanks and appreciation in the podcast for those of you who have liked and/or commented on our episodes so far, and we’d like to extend our thanks here as well. Your comments are genuinely appreciated and warmly received. Remember, we’re fans of the series just like you and we’re honored to have a venue to share our experiences and thoughts as we work our way through the Honorverse with other, like-minded people. A special thank you to Mr. David Weber, who we’ve learned has been listening to us. We definitely appreciate your comments, sir. Please continue to let us hear from all of you!Next up: we’re rolling right into the second book in the Worlds of Honor anthology set; the book for which the set is named entitled Worlds of Honor. This book contains stories written by David Weber, Roland Green, Linda Evans and Jane Lindskold. Grab a copy and join in the conversation and the adventure!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

Here we are, with the first seven novels in the main Honor Harrington series already behind us and taking our first detour to read More Than Honor, the first anthology in the Honorverse.  As a reminder, we’re doing this based on a volume of recommendations and with the understanding that this anthology was published between the seventh and eighth novels on purpose.  You’ll notice our podcast format for the episodes that cover anthologies is slightly different.  We’ll discuss/review each story or part of the anthology, and each of us will rate it with either a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or a “neutral” vote.  Then, at the end of the book, we’ll rate the entire volume with our standard numeric rating scale.  And so, here we go!There are four entries in this anthology:  three short stories and one essay.The first story is titled "A Beautiful Friendship," written by David Weber.  In this story we travel to Sphinx and join Richard and Marjorie Harrington, and their daughter, young Miss Stephanie.  This story is in the early years of the human settlement on Sphinx, and we learn of the very first treecat-human bonding.  Our main series hero, Honor Harrington (middle name Stephanie) is the descendant of Stephanie in this story.  You may recall hearing the briefest of references to this in the first novel, On Basilisk Station.  This is the set of events that constitute the first contact between treecats and humans, and specifically between a treecat named Climbs Quickly and Stephanie.One of the more interesting aspects of the story is that it’s told from two perspectives.  We see the circumstances and many of the events through the treecats’ eyes, who view themselves as “the People” and view humans (referred to as “two-legs”) as an alien species.  We also see events through Stephanie and her parents’ eyes.  Ultimately Stephanie and Climbs Quickly meet, though not intentionally.  In that brief encounter, without warning or understanding, a bond forms between our two main characters.  As the story progresses, it seems the bond has strengthened.  Adversity and events bring them back together again, with both of their lives on the line.  This results in a broader meeting between Climbs Quickly’s people and Stephanie’s people.  As we already know, the relationship between humans and treecats grows and endures from there.All three of us gave this story a “thumbs-up”, with Raul sneaking a second “thumbs-up” in for good measure.The second story is titled "A Grand Tour," written by David Drake.  It was probably unfortunate that this story had to follow “A Beautiful Friendship.”  First, having to follow such strong and engaging story writing by the creator of the Honorverse puts you at a slight disadvantage.  Second, while Mr. Drake is an accomplished writer of military science fiction, we didn’t find his contribution here as particularly strong.  The story seemed out of place and didn’t support much of what we’ve read in the main series so far.  Across the fandom it seems to be the consensus that this story doesn’t have a strong relationship to the Honorverse.  This is what we saw in our own reading.  Instead, it was a bit disjointed and seemed to be more of a thought piece than an actual, integrated story. Your hosts each rated this one with a “thumbs-down”.The third story was titled "A Whiff of Grapeshot," written by S.M. Sterling.  Sterling is another accomplished science fiction and fantasy author with multiple series to his credit.  Like the previous story, we have another guest author writing within the Honorverse.  Unlike the previous story, this one was well-received by all three of us. Here, we join on some familiar characters and events within the People’s Republic of Haven; specifically Esther McQueen and Rob S.

DEAR LISTENER: There were technical issues with portions of the recording quality. We considered re-recording the episode, but we would never be able to re-create the spontaneity that we got on this show. We hope the quality of the content will make up for the quality of the recording. The issues have been fixed and should not happen again. =====We’re officially halfway through the original set of Honor Harrington stories already!  How did we get here so quickly?  The individual novels are flying by, and the larger Honorverse story is unfolding.  It’s hard to believe just how fast it seems the story is developing, especially because there is incredible depth and complexity to this world—this universe—David Weber is creating. “In Enemy Hands” is book seven in what is regularly referred to as the main series, but your hosts will quickly caution you not to assume the content outside of that set of 14 novels is simply extra content in the form of sequels, prequels or “sidequels”.  More on that at the end of the summary. This novel is 530 pages, published by Baen Books in August 1997.  In the story, we see some great space combat (of course), but also get a lot smarter about matters like the role and importance of international law (what we’ll call the laws of war), the honor found among professional military members on opposite sides of a fight, loyalty (properly placed and also misplaced), and the influence of politics on military capability.  We see the impact of the war on Manticore and Haven as each manages strained or limited resources in the context of their national ideologies, technological advancements, and changes in military tactics.  It’s also driven home in this novel that war is ugly and dangerous, and in the end, everyone is vulnerable. We saw the impact of a lengthening war and limited resources in the previous novel, particularly frustrated by the impact and role pirates and privateers play.  Here we see a more traditional impact on military forces as forces spread thin find themselves in extremis.  In this case, the unit at risk is a squadron of traditional naval vessels commanded by Commodore Honor Harrington.  While time permits, her unit takes on an optional convoy escort mission:  one that should have been a “milk run,” with regular naval resources and not the Q-ships she was previously commanding.  Early in the mission, however, Honor is in the lead element of the escorting forces and discovers a trap set by Haven.  Consistent with her view of the roles and responsibility of an officer - a senior officer - she provides sufficient warning for the main convoy to flee to safety, using her lead element to lead the enemy away from the main convoy and escorting forces.  Out-gunned, Honor makes the decision to surrender her lead forces rather than simply sacrificing those assets and personnel for no real gain for Manticore.  Honor finds herself in enemy hands, along with her officers and crew.What follows from this situation is the blatant immoral and unlawful treatment of her and her subordinates by the authoritarian Havenite government and the members of state security who had not been purged after the coup that brought Haven’s current government to power.  Even so, we get to see the risk some of Haven’s traditional naval officers take, as they work to do the right thing — the lawful, moral and honorable thing — for their Manticoran prisoners.  There is a lot to contrast with the previous novel, where we saw Honor (once again) demonstrate what the honorable and lawful treatment of the enemy’s military looks like when they’re prisoners of war.We rated “In Enemy Hands” with a 4.5, a 5, and another 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of 4.83 from your hosts.Next up:  we’re going to step away from the core series of novels

Book 6 is the topic of our discussion today as we continue our journey through the Honorverse!“Honor Among Enemies” is a robust 544 pages, published by Baen Books in June 1996.  In some ways we return to some of the events that happened in “On Basilisk Station”, specifically Honor’s actions against an enemy Q-ship.  What’s a Q-ship, you ask?  Well, if you want to know more, this is your episode!  The purpose and use of Q-ships in combat abounds in this novel.Two things come into play at the same time in this story.  First, the war with Haven has gone on long enough that as Manticore shifts resources to account for Haven’s evolving war plans, sections of space are left under-protected by the RMN.  This results in an increase of pirates and a significant increase in commercial freight losses.  Second, the Manticoran government realizes they need Honor back in uniform to help deal with the problem.  This isn’t just fueled by military necessity.  Two of Honor’s enemies, complaining to the Navy over the lack of protection, find this a good opportunity to advocate for her return to uniform and to command a special squadron of ships to help patrol the areas where piracy is causing the most harm.  These opponents view this as a win for them either way:  Harrington succeeds and quells the piracy, allowing for freer commercial navigation and trade; or Harrington dies in the process of doing her duty, viewed as a sufficient payback for the frustration she’s caused to these individuals.  Due to her personal growth over the past several years, she accepts the offer with full awareness of the politics and ill intentions woven throughout the problem.The squadron Honor commands is composed entirely of armed merchant vessels, also known as Q-ships.  While heavily armed and deceptive in appearance (because they don’t look like warships), they’re also very lightly armored (because they’re not standard military vessels).  The squadron is assembled and sorties out to begin their mission to escort and defend merchant shipping.  We see an assembly of familiar faces, as well as some new ones.  Among the new faces are a few troublemakers who aren’t mere annoyances.  One problem sailor has criminal intentions in terms of how he conducts himself as a member of the crew, but also has larger, bad intentions that show themselves as the story unfolds.  All of this happens, of course, in the midst of some more amazing naval combat.  Don’t worry, this isn’t more of what you’ve already seen.  War conducted by these Q-ships in the context of more traditional naval operations is what David Weber delivers to us.In this novel we also see more detail about a different facet of leadership as Honor is commanding other commanders—a higher level of responsibility as she continues to grow and mature as a senior naval officer.  We also get to see how she handles the very internal and initially “tactical” disciplinary problem within her assembled squadron as the problem is also one that falls within the purview of one of Honor’s subordinate commanders.The title of the book is reflected throughout the book, but primarily when the battle against piracy includes both Manticoran and Havenite naval resources.  While enemies at war, Weber does a great job of showing how there can be a shared sense of honor and professional duty between the military officers of opposing forces.  Moreover, when those officers find themselves in the hands of the other side, honorable conduct based on shared values and ideals across the profession of arms, we see what honor among enemies looks like.  In a final note, we also get a very good glimpse into the authority a ship’s captain possesses while “at sea” and especially while in combat.Since they play a significant part of the telling of the story in this novel, during

Today our discussion turns to book 5 in the Honorverse. Let’s continue our journey!“Flag in Exile” is 443 pages, published by Baen Books in September 1995. I’m not sure it’s quite accurate to say Honor takes a break after her duel with Pavel Young. Our hero is forced into retirement from the Royal Manticoran Navy due to the political fallout and consequences of lawfully killing Young. Honor takes the opportunity to move to Grayson (sort of an exile) to fully establish and settle into her leadership and business responsibilities as a Steadholder. In this role, she’s the newest member of the government of Grayson, and first female to hold the office in Grayson’s history. It’s also a time to heal as she strives to move past the loss of Paul Tankersley. Things don’t go quite as planned or intended.The People’s Republic of Haven’s attack on Manticore failed and set the stage for an authoritarian element to stage a coup (blamed on, but not conducted by Haven’s military). David Weber does a great job of keeping Haven a fictitious place, but draws from historic periods of time. It parallels the behavior of similar governments when they’ve seized power in the real world, such as the French revolutionary period, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany. Haven’s new government uses the false claim that their Navy attempted the coup, then purges much of their former civilian and military leadership as “enemies of the people.” It establishes the powerful “Committee for Public Safety” to ensure governance continues during the “crisis”. This Committee is supposedly temporary while the turmoil and danger of the coup fades and a new government is formed. Even so, it institutes draconian rules in the name of ensuring “safety” for the people, setting itself up to weaken threats to itself and the ability to maintain power rather than transition it to a form that supports a free society. The war with Manticore also continues, now rooted firmly in a conflict between the ideologies of freedom and authoritarianism.While there’s a significant space battle that occurs, this book is also a strong part of Weber’s world-building. He lays big pieces of the ideological foundations for conflict between great powers. As a result, the book is as much an education in government, domestic, and foreign affairs as it is a military adventure!Honor, with all her accomplishments and true talent as a military leader, is settling into her life on Grayson. Before the dust settles, the government of Grayson offers her a commission in its Navy. Not just any commission. They offer her the flag rank of Admiral and a position that would make her the second highest ranking officer in the Grayson Space Navy. While this would have been highly unusual within the RMN, Grayson’s Navy lacks the experience and leadership needed to defend itself and to fully participate as an effective ally of Manticore. Honor is hesitant, but ultimately accepts the position, driven by her sense of duty. In this position, she not only helps Grayson, but helps Manticore by presenting a more capable allied military to fight against the People’s Republic of Haven. She’s serving her new “nation” as a Steadholder and Admiral, and still serving her Queen by supporting Manticore’s war efforts.Amid all this, Honor’s civilian responsibilities do not go smoothly. While she’s openly recognized as a hero of Grayson, and responsible for saving them, there are still many on Grayson who take offense at the power and position Honor holds because she’s a woman. Grayson society is changing, fueled by (but in no way forced) their exposure to Honor. Even so, elements loyal to past objectors take action to undermine and destroy Honor’s influence, wealth, and even take her life. While some of this begins while she’s on Grayson, the worst happens while she’s away on Naval duty, and therefore unable to defend herself and her honor. Through acts of sabotage and...

Here we are, kicking off the discussion of the fourth book in the Honor Harrington main series. Let’s continue our journey into the Honorverse!“Field of Dishonor” is 416 pages of pure military adventure. It was published by Baen Books in late 1994. Events in this book take place shortly after the events in the previous novel. This book is reportedly the only one in the original 14-book series that doesn’t contain any combat in space. Don’t be discouraged though; the story is full and satisfying. The phrase “field of dishonor” appears once, in Chapter 13. This is when Pavel Young, Earl of North Hollow, is sentenced after his court martial, stripped of his commission, the symbols of his military status and authority, and must leave the proceedings in dishonor.In this story, we see a dramatic growth in Honor Harrington after the People’s Republic of Haven’s sneak attack on the Start Kingdom fails. The “Peeps” are now distracted by what amounts to a hostile, authoritarian revolution; giving Manticore the time to deal with government problems of its own.With the conclusion of combat in the previous novel, Honor returns home victorious and hailed a hero. Pavel Young faces a military court on five criminal counts, two of which carry a sentence of death: his cowardice and fleeing in the face of the enemy. The story isn’t without a good bit of tension and drama, but for those who have been following the saga, there’s significant closure.As with previous novels, we’ve learned that David Weber doesn’t try to make complex things simple for the sake of readers. Instead, he uses the story to educate the reader about the complexities of life. Here Weber brings great depth and explanation to military tactics, operations, military life, and especially command. He addresses politics as they’re tied to the trial of Pavel Young, not only a Navy officer, but also a member of nobility holding the title of lord. He explores the intersection of those two worlds and the subordination of the military to civilian authority and control. In the end, Weber shows us just how complex and messy the concept and principle of honor can be: easy to define but not easy to live out in the real world. Through Honor Harrington, we see that doing what’s right (related to justice in this case) often results in undesirable consequences.Pavel Young is spared the death sentence but is stripped of his commission and all respect and honor associated with his military service. He is disgraced as the consequence of his own dishonorable actions. Still, he refuses to accept that the results are due to his own deeds. Instead, he blames Honor Harrington and he seeks revenge by killing the man she loves to cause her pain, then killing her. He hires an assassin who kills Paul Tankersly by taunting him into a duel. The assassin is a professional dualist, who has no problem ending Paul’s life. What the assassin didn’t expect: Honor is honorable and lives by this virtue. She finds him and publicly names him as Paul’s killer, obligating him to defend his own “honor”. In his arrogance, he sees the stage set to put finish the contract for Pavel Young and makes the challenge. Honor kills him, then announces openly that she seeks justice and is coming for Pavel Young as the one who hired the assassin. Young hides from Honor.Until now, Honor had never formally taken her seat in the House of Lords. She uses this as an excuse to appear before the assembled Lords, including Young who had been in hiding. She openly confronts Young and demands justice, challenging him to a duel. He’s terrified but sees no other option than to accept. The day arrives, and Pavel Young’s cowardice is on display for all to see. The duel is heavily covered by the press. With the world watching, Young acts dishonorably again. This time when he turns early and shoots Honor in the back. Wounded, she returns fire and kills...

Welcome to the third book in the Honor Harrington main series. Let’s continue our journey into the Honorverse! “The Short Victorious War” is 376 pages of pure military adventure. It was published by Baen Books in 1994. The events in this story take place approximately a year after the events that occurred in “The Honor of the Queen”. Of note, the title of the book is a historical reference to the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905. The quote the title originated with Russia’s Minister of the Interior V.K. Plehve, on the eve of the war, who stated, “What this country needs is a short, victorious war to stem the tide of revolution.” For the history fans out there, at times it’s also attributed to Czar Nicholas the Second, although most references attribute it to Plehve. For fans of military history, you’ll see similarities to the war in this book as compared to the real war between Russia and Japan. Don’t look for a tight coupling though; Manticore and Haven aren’t directly mirroring Japan and Russia. This isn’t a history book. David Weber is clearly using Russia’s historical error to fuel the context of his own story. An authoritarian government manufactures a war to justify assuming a tighter control of the population, and to blame the crisis for the discomfort of the people, who may otherwise be poised for revolution. These people lack basic freedoms, they’re oppressed subjects rather than citizens, and things are going from bad to worse with their economy after hundreds of years of abuse by the authoritarian government. In this story, the People’s Republic of Haven is suffering a self-inflicted economic disaster based on how they’ve set up their economy. We would recognize the economy as a picture of the old Soviet Union’s (or Russia’s) approach to their domestic economy’s role in how to handle their domestic population. In this case, Haven is a welfare state. With their inflation and debt causing domestic economic problems, unrest is erupting and growing worse among the people living on the government’s dime, or on the dole (bluntly called “Dolists” by their own government). With discontent on the rise, and the threat of domestic instability or even violence, the government decides what they need is a short (and assuredly victorious, because they’ll control the circumstances) war they can point at and blame for the economic crisis and related domestic problems the Dolists are experiencing. Easy! Problem solved. Or is it? This isn’t a new situation. Haven has been preparing for an eventual war with Manticore. However, for all the reasons major powers don’t go to war in the real world, they continue to work for the necessary advantage they feel they need to win. This includes some very discrete (and some not so discrete) military actions that the Havenites conduct to shape the posture of Manticore’s Navy, gather intelligence, and then provoke the Manticorans to strike. With Manticore throwing the first punch, they now have their justification for the short victorious war and believe they can stand on the moral high ground publicly. Manticore sees the Havenite posturing and sends a diplomatic mission in an effort to establish an alliance. As the Manticorans and Graysons work through significant cultural differences while acknowledging they share a common problem, the war breaks out. Honor Harrington and her unit follow the direction and intent of the Queen and defend Haven at great expense, including the apparent death of Admiral Sarnow and Haven’s senior Admiral as well. In the midst of the battle, Captain Pavel Young, also a ship’s captain within the assembled task force, flees the battlefield against orders. As a result, Honor’s ship the HMS Nikeis severely damaged, and Honor almost loses her life. With Manticoran reinforcements arriving at the battle, Haven’s navy ultimately suffers unacceptably heavy losses and retreats. Three important things wrap the...

Welcome to the second book in the Honor Harrington main series of books. Let’s continue our journey into the Honorverse! The second book in the series is titled “The Honor of the Queen”. Like the first book, it was also published in 1993 by Baen Books. This one ran 422 pages. The events in this story take place approximately three years after the events that occurred in “On Basilisk Station”. After a strong setting of the stage in the first novel, David Weber tosses us right into the action in this second book—and that’s almost an understatement! Honor is selected to be the senior, uniformed military officer on a diplomatic delegation to Grayson, under the leadership of Admiral Courvosier, who serves on the delegation out of uniform and in a diplomatic capacity. He selects Honor to participate based on his knowledge of her abilities spanning her career back to her days at the Academy. He is not only Honor’s professional mentor, but also a father figure for her. There is also a career academic on the delegation—Reginald Houseman. He is a participant based on those credentials, but he has very limited practical experience, and as a result, a very narrow view of foreign policy, politics, leading to a somewhat different agenda than that of the Queen and her Foreign Office. He also holds the military in disdain, causing very real problems for Admiral Courvosier and the rest of his team. As you read the book, you’ll notice most of his criticisms of the professional military aren’t true and are in fact self-indictments. The situation is this: the great opposing power to Manticore is the People’s Republic of Haven. In an effort to create a defensive buffer to Haven, Manticore works to influence Grayson to ally with them, essentially blocking a future invasion route into Manticoran space. At the same time, Grayson is engaged in a struggle with a radical and increasingly hostile neighboring system called Masada. Haven is supporting Masada in their attempt to conquer Grayson and secure the invasion route to Manticore. To add a layer of complexity to the situation, Grayson is essentially a theocracy that had previously separated itself from humanity many centuries prior, finding society too secular. In an ironic turn of events, Masada separated itself from Grayson for the same reason, now viewing Grayson as apostate. The relationship between Grayson and Masada was abrasive to begin with and has only grown cooler as time has passed. To add one more layer of complexity to the situation Admiral Courvosier and Honor enter: the government of Grayson, based on their particular view of religious law, has placed women in their culture in a status that leaves them subordinate to men and essentially without rights. In practice, they’re more akin to beloved pets rather than equal humans. They have very few rights, especially when it comes to holding positions of power or responsibility within the government, including serving as officers in the military. When the delegation makes contact with Grayson, the culture of Manticore, and the senior commissioned female officer (also a ship’s captain as well as a squadron commander) finds herself at immediate odds with Grayson and the purpose of the mission. In the midst of that friction, things begin to go badly when tension becomes combat. Hostilities break out with significant tactical (and possibly more significant) losses for Grayson and Manticore, Grayson cautiously (perhaps reluctantly) accepts the offer of alliance made by Manticore, placing their cultural views (biases?) on the back burner. Honor’s expertise, actions and leadership are on display for all to see as she represents the Queen’s intent when it comes to protecting Grayson and working to achieve a formal alliance. Honor also suffers a significant physical and personal loss as the result of her faithful and honorable service. David Weber gives us an incredible...

Our amazing journey through the Honorverse begins now! The first book in the series is titled “On Basilisk Station”. Published in 1993 by Baen Books, it ran 458 pages and leads a series that David Weber originally thought might only be five books or so. For those not familiar, it grew into a 14-book series, with a number of related, spin-off sets of books. All that aside, “On Basilisk Station” is where the adventure begins. For a time reference, this story takes place sometime in the 41st Century (using our calendar). In the book there’s a primary timeline used, oriented on an event called Post Diaspora. Based on that calendar, the events take place from 1900-1901 PD. We meet Commander Honor Harrington as the new captain of the HMS Fearless. Her first act as the captain is to take her Battle Cruiser and crew into fleet exercises, armed with a new type of weapon that has taken traditional (and proven weapons) off of her ship. Along with this new weapon, she attempts a new tactic that makes best use of its capabilities. This requires her to place the ship closer than would normally be acceptable to the “hostile” force but allows a great surprise advantage. It works…once, then the fleet quickly adjusts its tactics to account for the new threat. What follows is a successive set of losses for the Fearless, and a demoralized crew who loses confidence (or perhaps never establishes confidence) in their new captain. Following the exercise, the Fearless is assigned to a relatively isolated part of the Star Kingdom, to support a place called Basilisk Station. The assignment is commonly considered a relegation to less-than-important duties, further demoralizing the crew. Making things worse, when Harrington and crew arrive, the local senior officer takes his ship and departs, claiming he needs repairs that can’t wait, and leaving Honor in charge. As a loyal and capable officer of the Queen’s Navy, she accepts the cards she’s dealt, and begins to address long-standing deficiencies in terms of what the Navy is supposed to provide to the local system. She pushes the crew to their limits in many cases but begins to make a positive impact in the system, and with her crew. The result: her successes fuel the failures of a cartel that had grown accustomed to conducting illegal ops. What should have been a boring, quiet, and frankly horrible assignment quickly turned intense. With the relationships Honor had established within the system early on, she confronts the cartel, begins damaging their operations, and draws the attention of the wrath of the cartel’s leader, who attempts to intimidate Honor into submission. It doesn’t work. Her crew sees her professional loyalty to the Crown and her orders, how she leads, and also relies on her crew to accomplish what quickly became an almost impossible mission. When the dust settles, Fearless has engaged in combat action. As they dealt with the cartel, they also exposed secret operations being conducted by Manticore’s enemy, the Peoples’ Republic of Haven, in an attempt to eventually take control of the wormhole junction (and therefore trade) through the area. Haven was hiding combat capability in the form of a significantly armed Q-Ship, which Fearless engages. The enemy ship is destroyed and Fearless is critically, perhaps fatally, damaged. Honor and crew receive recognition from the military, and from the Queen as the story ends. In this first book, the stage is set for the epic story that follows. We learn a lot about Honor Harrington and her leadership. We also get insights into her weaknesses and flaws. While very capable, she’s not a fictional, perfect officer. We also meet a significant cast of characters, many of whom we’ll see in other books as the series continues. Don’t worry about memorizing who they are—within a few books, you’ll recognize the ones David Weber needs you to focus on and be familiar with. In...