Book Review: Honor Harrington: Field of Dishonor SPOILERS!

Published in October 1994 by Baen Books, author David Weber returns to his ever-popular military science fiction universe in the Honor Harrington series and weaves a tale of politics, honor, and intrigue in Field of Dishonor. Synopsis: Honor betrayed. The People's Republic of Haven's sneak attack on the Kingdom of Manticore has failed. The Peeps are in disarray, their leaders fighting for power in a bloody revolution, and the Royal Manticoran Navy stands victorious. But Manticore has domestic problems of their own, and success can be more treacherous than defeat for Honor Harrington. Now, trapped at the core of a political crisis she never sought, betrayed by an old and vicious enemy she'd thought vanquished forever, she stands alone. She must fight for justice on a battlefield she never trained for in a private war that offers just two choices: death...or a "victory" that can end only in dishonor and the loss of all she loves.

The novel opens with the Manticoran Judge Advocate General Board reviewing the final moments of the Battle of Hancock Station and arrives at the decision that Pavel Young needs to be tried in a court-martial. Baron High Ridge demands answers for this from Admiral of the Green Hamish Alexander (a.k.a. White Haven) and Duke Cromarty, who refuses to change their positions, so High Ridge threatens to have the Conservative Association oppose the war with Haven. On HMS Nike, Honor delivers Young to Manticore for his trial. It's overseen by Adml. White Haven, Capt Thor Simengaard, Commodore Lemaitre, Adml. Thedosia Kuzak, Adml. Sonja Hemphill, and RAdml. Rexford Jurgens. Pavel's father, Lord Dimitri Young--the current Earl of North Hollow--works hard to try and free his son of "injustice." Young is declared guilty of violating Articles 23 and 26 of the Articles of War, exposing units of the task force to severe damage, and casualties, but is dismissed of the two things that would've had him in front of a firing squad: the 4th and 5th charges as Hamish and company are unable to reach a verdict. In short, Pavel Young is stripped of all "rank, rights, privileges, and prerogatives as a Captain in the Royal Manticoran Navy and dishonorably dismissed from the Service as unfit to wear the Queen's uniform, judgement to be executed in three days."*

At this announcement, Dimitri dies of a heart attack and High Ridge petitions to get Pavel Young instated as the current Earl North Hollow, giving him a seat on the Lords, something Honor is uneasy with. Repairs on the Nike are ongoing and Honor is assigned to Task Force Four under command of Adml. Hamish Alexander and he has her go to oversee her Steading on Grayson. After a few weeks, Honor learns that her lover, Paul Tankersley, was killed by the assassin and former member of the Manticoran Marines Denver Summervale. Summervale killed Paul on Young's command as revenge against Harrington. Honor returns to Manticore and challenges Summervale to a duel--something that Summervale always wins in--and kills him. She badgers the Lords into giving her her seat--something long overdue since The Honor of the Queen--and challenges Young to a duel. White Haven orders Honor not to follow through--which is an illegal order and they both know it--but Honor does go through with it. She kills Young after he cowardly disobeys the dueling rules and wounds Honor. In response, Honor is exiled from Manticore, at least until the current political anger is gone. In the end, Honor leaves for Grayson, intending to stay there during her exile.

All in all, a great read and, though somewhat heavy in politics, is a rather satisfying conclusion to the Honor-Pavel tension. It seemed as though Weber knew that if he kept Pavel alive for any more books, the readers would've left the series because the tension would've gotten old.

*page 119 of the mass market paperback version

Book Review: Honor Harrington: The Honor of the Queen SPOILERS!

In June 1993, David Weber produced his second novel in the Honor Harrington series: The Honor of the Queen. At a total of 422 (mass market paperback), this novel does not disappoint. Synopsis: Right Woman, Wrong Place. It's hard to give peace a chance when the other side regards war as the necessary prelude to conquest, and a sneak attack as the best means to that end. That's why the Kingdom of Manticore needs allies against the so-called "Republic" of haven--and the planet Grayson is just the right strategic place to make a very good ally indeed. But Her Majesty's Foreign Office had overlooked a "minor cultural difference" when they chose Honor Harrington to carry the flag: women on the planet Grayson are without rank or rights; Honor's very presence is an intolerable affront to every male on the planet. At first, Honor doesn't take it personally; where she comes from gender discrimination is barely a historical memory, right up there in significance with fear of the left-handed. But in time such treatment as she receives from the Graysonites does become wearing, and Honor would withdraw if she could--but then Grayson's fratricidal sister planet attacks without warning and she must stay and prevail, not just for Honor's honor, but for her sovereign's, for--The Honor of the Queen.

The novel starts off with Captain Honor Harrington at a party--something she dislikes as much as politics--when her former academy instructor, Admiral Raoul Courvosier, tells her about a diplomatic mission to the chauvinistic, male-dominated world of Grayson in the Yeltsin System where the Church of Humanity Unchained is the law and religious zealots appear to run the place while the women are property and have no vote within the Graysonite system. Grayson has problems with its fratricidal sister planet, Masada, in the Endicott System, problems that the Havenites are exploiting, trying to get Masada on their side--though they'd rather have Grayson. Reginald Houseman, a smug and cowardly politician who hates the military, is Courvosiers aide. Honor's role is to escort supplies past Grayson after a few days in the system. Houseman wants to screw the military mission and force Grayson and Masada to put aside their "silly religious difference" and trade with each other instead of fight, something that Honor points out is illogical with the animosity between the two planets. Matthew Simmons of Masada tells Havenite Captain Alfredo Yu about the Manticoran delegates arriving. In Yeltsin, High Admiral Bernard Yanakov greets Courvosier with respect and is repulsed by Honor being a woman in uniform. The Havenites try and exploit this for all its worth. Yanakov lets Benjamin Mayhew IX, Planetary Protector of Grayson, know how the direct view of Honor is blowing downwind.

Negotiations begin and, except for Houseman trying to raise his topic once to no avail, things seem to be going smoothly until the Masadans and their Havenite allies launch a surprise attack from Blackbird and destroy the ships Courvosier and Yanakov are on, killing them. Honor returns from her escort duties and learns of Courvosier's death, something that shocks Honor considering that Courvosier was like a second father to her. Houseman threatens Honor when she refuses to abandon Grayson and slaps him once (Houseman, for the rest of the series, continues to bitch about this). Honor demands to meet with Benjamin, something that doesn't sit well with his cabinet. Benjamin agrees and during their talks, a group of assassins working for someone called "Maccabeus" attempt to assassinate Benjamin and frame the Manticorans. Thanks to an early warning from her telepathic treecat Nimitz, Honor defeats them and ends up with a dead eye and broken face, things that will be fully repaired once she returns to Manticore. Grayson witnesses the events on the news and throws its support behind Manticore. It turns out hat Jared Mayhew, a cousin of Benajmin's, was Maccabeus and behind the whole coup attempt and has since been dealt with.

Admiral Matthews (Grayson) and Honor attack Blackbird and penetrate its defenses. During the roundup of Masadans, Honor, Lieutenant Scotty Tremaine, and Petty Officer Horace Harkness find survivors from the attack that killed Yanakov and Courvosier; the female survivors were all raped and tortured and some even dead. In anger, Honor tries to kill the Masadan base commander but Scotty manages to stop her, saying that Benjamin and therefore Grayson will handle the punishment. Alfredo Yu and a young officer named Thomas Theisman surrender and tell Honor that, though they knew things were bad, they didn't realize things were this bad. Simmons, meanwhile, has stolen a Havenite ship and imprisons the Havenites while taking the ship into battle. Honor faces off against him in space and destroys his ship while Admiral Hamish Alexander, White Haven, of Manticore arrives to help subdue Masada personally and Grayson signs the alliance with the Star Empire of Manticore. As a reward, Benjamin makes Honor a Steadholder of the new city called Harrington Steading and awards her the Star of Grayson. To match this, Manticore makes Honor a Countess, though it's significantly below the rank of Steadholder.

All in all, a great novel in the Honor Harrington series. Full of wonderful characterizations and prose and world building, it drives home the point that David Weber knows excellent sci-fi military drama.

Book Review: Honor Harrington: On Basilisk Station SPOILERS!

First published in April 1993, David Weber put to use his knoweldge of military and history to form one of the most compelling series every. And it all started with Honor Harrington: On Basilisk Station. Synopsis: Honor in trouble: Having made him look the fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her; Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station; The aborigines of the system's only habitual planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens; Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so called "Republic" of Haven is Up To Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system. But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad.

The novel opens in a prologue with a meeting between Havenite president Haris talking to his cabinet about their shrinking economy amongst their cluster of planets. They decide that war is the way and with that will come more planets and, more importantly, money. On the Manticoran Space Station Hephaestus, Commander Honor Harrington and her treecat, Nimitz, board Honor's assigned HMS Fearless from it's former commanding officer, a Lieutenant Commander named Alistair McKeon, who's somewhat resentful for the fact that he didn't get command. They take Fearless out for the war games where the head of R&D, Admiral Sonja Hemphill, wants to test a new toy that ultimately prove useless after the initial surprise attack. When her side loses the game, and in anger, they ship Honor and her crew, plus Fearless to the most useless place in the Manticoran Empire, Basilisk Station. Once there, Honor's former rival and that man who raped her in the academy, Pavel Young, the son and heir to the current Earl North Hollow, commands that station and abadnons her when she arrives, claiming his ship is due for maintenance--which it does and his crew rebels against him when he returns to Hephaestus for plot related reasons.

Once there, Honor senses the anger and hatred for her that her crew has because they're been shipped--exiled--to Basilisk Station. She demands that her crew get over it and works them past their abilities to get Basilisk Station back to operational status as befits with the Queen's will. The Havenites, who have been bribing certain politicos in the Empire, want Basilisk for their war strategy. After refusing to accept bribes, backdown, or even see common sense, and months after having used her ships probes short-range probes to become more effective and long-range sensors and getting the Basilikan population of indigenous beings under some control, the Havenites launch their strategy via rebellious indigs who are drug dealers but are stopped when the Marine guard under Honor prevent them from fully staging the coup. Honor, meanwhile, fights dirty with the lone Havenite ship at the edge of the Basilisk system. Fearless becomes heavily damaged during the fight and the Havenite commander moves in for the kill but dies surprised when Honor uses Adml Hemphill's toy against them and destroys the Havenite ship. At the end, the Manticoran Navy arrives to stop the rest of the Havenites from encroaching on Basilisk and Honor and the crew of Fearless head back home.

All in all, a great start to one of the best science-fiction sagas out there and proves why David Weber is one of the best in military sci-fi. He knows his stuff and isn't afraid to show it. For those people who like Lois McMaster Bujold, you're really going to love David Weber's Honor Harrington series.