In November 2004, David Weber published the first of a second spin-off to the Honor Harrington series: the Saganami Island series. In it, the next generation of young men and women of the HMS Hexapuma must stop the terrorism striking in the heart of the newly connected Talbott Cluster as their leaders vote to allow the cluster to join the Star Empire of Manticore. The events of this novel occur at the same time as At All Costs. Synopsis: The Star Kingdom of Manticore is once again at war with the Republic of Haven after a stunning sneak attack. The graduating class from Saganami Island, the Royal Manticoran Navy's academy, are going straight from the classroom to the blazing reality of all-out war. Except for the midshipmen assigned to the heavy cruiser HMS Hexapuma, that is. They're being assigned to the Talbott Cluster, an out of the way backwater, far from the battle front. The most they can look forward to is the capture of the occasional pirate cruiser and the boring duty of supporting the Cluster's peaceful integration with the Star Kingdom at the freely expressed will of eighty percent of the Cluster's citizens. With a captain who may have seen too much of war and a station commander who isn't precisely noted for his brilliant and insightful command style, it isn't exactly what the students of Honor Harrington, the "Salamander", expected. But things aren't as simple--or tranquil--as they appear. The "pirates" they encounter aren't what they seem, and the "peaceful integration" they expected turns into something very different. A powerful alliance of corrupt Solarian League bureaucrats and ruthless interstellar corporations is determined to prevent the Cluster's annexation by the Star Kingdom . . . by any means necessary. Pirates, terrorists, genetic slavers, smuggled weapons, long-standing personal hatreds, and a vicious alliance of corporate greed, bureaucratic arrogance, and a corrupt local star nation with a powerful fleet are all coming together, and only Hexapuma, her war-weary captain, and Honor Harrington's students stand in the path. They have only one thing to support and guide them: the tradition of Saganami. The tradition that sometimes a Queen's officer's duty is to face impossible odds . . . and die fighting.
The novel opens with Captain Aivars Terekhov waking up from that nightmare to find he's being assigned HMS Hexapuma with new orders for the quiet Talbott Cluster; he's being asked to ease the annexation through by helping the Manticoran ambassador, Rear Admiral Augustus Khumalo. Midshipwomen and midshipmen on their "snotty cruise"--Helen Zilwicki, Aikawa Kagiyama, Ragnhild Pavletic, Paulo d'Arezzo, Leopold Stottmeister--and Lieutenant Abigail Hearnes, with Commander Ginger Lewis, and Senior Chief Petty Officer Aubrey Wanderman board and head off for the Talbott Cluster. Once they get there, they find the situation unlike anything the reports hinted at. Meanwhile, Mesa's spokesperson for the Talbott Cluster, the illusive Aldona Anisimovna, helps set up--via discreet people--the terrorism network; she also helps Commissioner Lorcan Verrochio of the Solarian League's Office of Frontier Security sabotage the Manticoran talks. Agnes Nordbrandt heads one cell on Kornati, and Stephen Westman leads the Montana Independence Movement. Founder and ex-chairman of the Remembrandt Trade Union Bernardus Van Dort comes back from retirement to play politics, but ends up--in a fury--removing chariwoman Ineka Vaandrager as she helps drag the annexation talks out just for profit. Khumalo would just as soon remove Terekhov from the Talbott Cluster than have a war-weary man help; he demands that Terekhov just patrol and do nothing else. Nordbrandt takes a more aggressive terrorism approach and eliminates people whereas Westman just demolishes vacant and abandoned buildings. Eventually, Van Dort crosses paths with Terekhov and company. He helps Terekhov plead with Westman to bring about a resolution, but Steve won't have it; he uses more aggressive means. Westman also meets Helen and remarks how much she looks like Susanne--the deceased wife of Van Dort and friend to Westman. In the course of Hexapuma's cruises, evidence begins to pile up indicating that the local terrorists are actually (unwitting) pawns of foreign interests, and that the terrorist actions are merely the first step of a larger plan for the Cluster.
They then stumble across the Silesian privateer Marianne, which is in the process of delivering weapons to Westman. About to be boarded, and realizing that the penalty for piracy is death, one of the privateers panics and destroys the boarding pinnace, killing seventeen of Terekhov's crew, including Midshipwoman Pavletic. The surviving crew of the privateer, after being decimated by the Manticorans' deadly response, throws themselves on their mercy, and gives up the majority of the OFS's plan to occupy the Cluster. Helen withdraws from helping out with Westman; Van Dort, and the local president and marshal convince Westman to give up; he does when he learns that Mesa was helping his operation and disbands his group under amnesty. After dealing with the local terrorist groups by either force or reason, Captain Terekhov and Hexapuma assemble an ad hoc "squadron" with other Manticoran ships in a mission to prevent the next step of the conspirators' plan: the service entry of a fleet of powerful ex-Solarian battlecruisers which have been transferred to Monica, a Frontier Security proxy system, to be used against Manticore. After dropping into the system, Terekhov demands the surrender of the local fleet until Manticore can validate the cruisers' authenticity, and that they're sovereign of Monica and not the OFS. Playing for time, the Monican Navy manages to lure the Manticoran squadron into weapons range. In the following Battle of Monica, half of Terekhov's squadron is destroyed or crippled, though the Monican Navy is almost completely wiped out. Terekhov then threatens to nuke the remaining Monican military infrastructure, thus buying enough time for relief forces led by Rear Admiral Augustus Khumalo to arrive. After being relieved, and with the formal annexation of the Cluster well under way, Terekhov and Hexapuma return to the Manticore System, and are given a heroes welcome by the Home Fleet and Queen Elizabeth III.
All in all, a great addition to the saga that sets up the next generation of heroes before Honor's child takes the mantle. Worth reading for the saga. Great characterization, fantastic plotting, and wonderful world-building create yet another stunning piece to the Honor Harrington series.
The novel opens with Captain Aivars Terekhov waking up from that nightmare to find he's being assigned HMS Hexapuma with new orders for the quiet Talbott Cluster; he's being asked to ease the annexation through by helping the Manticoran ambassador, Rear Admiral Augustus Khumalo. Midshipwomen and midshipmen on their "snotty cruise"--Helen Zilwicki, Aikawa Kagiyama, Ragnhild Pavletic, Paulo d'Arezzo, Leopold Stottmeister--and Lieutenant Abigail Hearnes, with Commander Ginger Lewis, and Senior Chief Petty Officer Aubrey Wanderman board and head off for the Talbott Cluster. Once they get there, they find the situation unlike anything the reports hinted at. Meanwhile, Mesa's spokesperson for the Talbott Cluster, the illusive Aldona Anisimovna, helps set up--via discreet people--the terrorism network; she also helps Commissioner Lorcan Verrochio of the Solarian League's Office of Frontier Security sabotage the Manticoran talks. Agnes Nordbrandt heads one cell on Kornati, and Stephen Westman leads the Montana Independence Movement. Founder and ex-chairman of the Remembrandt Trade Union Bernardus Van Dort comes back from retirement to play politics, but ends up--in a fury--removing chariwoman Ineka Vaandrager as she helps drag the annexation talks out just for profit. Khumalo would just as soon remove Terekhov from the Talbott Cluster than have a war-weary man help; he demands that Terekhov just patrol and do nothing else. Nordbrandt takes a more aggressive terrorism approach and eliminates people whereas Westman just demolishes vacant and abandoned buildings. Eventually, Van Dort crosses paths with Terekhov and company. He helps Terekhov plead with Westman to bring about a resolution, but Steve won't have it; he uses more aggressive means. Westman also meets Helen and remarks how much she looks like Susanne--the deceased wife of Van Dort and friend to Westman. In the course of Hexapuma's cruises, evidence begins to pile up indicating that the local terrorists are actually (unwitting) pawns of foreign interests, and that the terrorist actions are merely the first step of a larger plan for the Cluster.
They then stumble across the Silesian privateer Marianne, which is in the process of delivering weapons to Westman. About to be boarded, and realizing that the penalty for piracy is death, one of the privateers panics and destroys the boarding pinnace, killing seventeen of Terekhov's crew, including Midshipwoman Pavletic. The surviving crew of the privateer, after being decimated by the Manticorans' deadly response, throws themselves on their mercy, and gives up the majority of the OFS's plan to occupy the Cluster. Helen withdraws from helping out with Westman; Van Dort, and the local president and marshal convince Westman to give up; he does when he learns that Mesa was helping his operation and disbands his group under amnesty. After dealing with the local terrorist groups by either force or reason, Captain Terekhov and Hexapuma assemble an ad hoc "squadron" with other Manticoran ships in a mission to prevent the next step of the conspirators' plan: the service entry of a fleet of powerful ex-Solarian battlecruisers which have been transferred to Monica, a Frontier Security proxy system, to be used against Manticore. After dropping into the system, Terekhov demands the surrender of the local fleet until Manticore can validate the cruisers' authenticity, and that they're sovereign of Monica and not the OFS. Playing for time, the Monican Navy manages to lure the Manticoran squadron into weapons range. In the following Battle of Monica, half of Terekhov's squadron is destroyed or crippled, though the Monican Navy is almost completely wiped out. Terekhov then threatens to nuke the remaining Monican military infrastructure, thus buying enough time for relief forces led by Rear Admiral Augustus Khumalo to arrive. After being relieved, and with the formal annexation of the Cluster well under way, Terekhov and Hexapuma return to the Manticore System, and are given a heroes welcome by the Home Fleet and Queen Elizabeth III.
All in all, a great addition to the saga that sets up the next generation of heroes before Honor's child takes the mantle. Worth reading for the saga. Great characterization, fantastic plotting, and wonderful world-building create yet another stunning piece to the Honor Harrington series.
