Book Review: Honor Harrington: The Short Victorious War SPOILERS!

In 1994, David Weber finally opened the Havenite/Manticoran War in The Short Victorious War and reintroduced a villain from On Basilisk Station to antagonize Honor. Synopsis: The families who rule the People's Republic of Haven are in trouble. The treasury's empty, the Proles are restless, and civil war is imminent. But the ruling class knows what they need to keep in power: another short, victorious war to unite the people and fill the treasury once more. It's a card they've played often in the last half-century, always successfully, and all that stands in their way is the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its threadbare allies. Enemies who in the past have always backed down. Only this time the Peeps face something different. This time they're up against Captain Honor Harrington and a Royal Manticoran Navy that's prepared to give them a war that's far from short... and anything by victorious.

The novel opens with Havenite Hereditary President Sidney Harris telling his cabinet that what Haven needs is a short, victorious war to help build up its treasury. His cabinet agrees. Captain Dame Honor Harrington receives a letter from Manticore, telling her that she'll be in charge of HMS Nike and will be sent to Hancock Station on Adml. Hamish Alexander (White Haven) and the First Space Lord of the Manticoran Admiralty Webster's orders. Honor's exec, Michelle "Mike" Henke, is a friend from Honor's academy days and a relative of the Queen of Manticore. VAdml. of the Green Sir Yancey Parks is less than pleased with Honor being assigned to his area and shows this by refusing to allow Honor to sit in on staff meetings. This displeases Honor's C.O., RAdml. Mark Sarnow, to no end. Yancey has it out for her because of the way she treated Reginald Houseman and her "stunts" at Basilisk Station and Grayson. Honor meets and starts to fall in love with Paul Tankersley, a former member of Pavel Young's command in On Basilisk Station, and he helps fix the engine the breaks after she arrives at Hancock Station.

After Sarnow has it out with Yancey for his exclusion of Honor, she is allowed to attend meetings. Soon afterward, the arrival of the Havenite Navy has Yancey in a panic. He leaves for Seaford Nine with most of the ships, leaving Sarnow to defend Hancock Station with the task force under his command. Battles rage as the Havenites, led by Captain Thomas Theisman, attack Manticoran allied systems, except for Hancock Station. HMS Warlock, still under the command of Captain Pavel Young, arrives at Hancock Station. During his time there, Young meets Commodore Van Slyke and Arthur Houseman, and both Young and Houseman poison Van Slyke against Honor. In Nouveau Paris, the capital of the People's Republic of Haven, Robert Pierce meets with Oscar Saint-Just and Cordelia Ransom to discuss a coup. Back at Seaford Nine, Yancey realizes that the Havenites suckered him into leaving Hancock nearly undefended. He recalls his ships and leaves for Hancock, hoping he's not too late.

At Hancock, the word is out about the Peep invasion. Under Sarnow's orders, the fleet leads the Havenites (Peeps) on a chase through the system. Commodore Van Slyke is killed during the battle and after a missile impacts with Nike, RAdml. Sarnow is rendered unconscious. Honor, knowing the next in command is on a ship with no working comms system thanks to the battle, can't hand the tactical command off. Young shows his true colors and panics, ordering the task force to break up without authorization. Honor orders the ships back into formation, but Young keeps fleeing the battle, which leads to the destruction of two more ships. He refuses to obey Honor's repeated orders to return to formation. The Manticoran ships pass the timed marker and Honor springs Sarnow's trap, detonating the mines, ripping the Havenite ships to pieces along with Yancey's returning fleet. Back on Nouveau Paris, Pierce, Saint-Just, and Ransom pull off their coup and kill Sidney Harris. At Hancock Station, Yancey removes Young from command and writes orders for him to be tried under court-martial after a captain's board renders him guilty. In light of that, Yancey places Young under arrest and transports him back to Manticore to face the court-martial; Yancey asks Honor to take Young home as well as Paul Tankersley since Paul is now a high ranking officer and exceeds the junior status to remain on Hancock Station.

All in all, a great, short, fast-paced novel that shows the scope of the war with all the various fronts, a break from Weber's previous two novels where the entire book stays with Honor and the current planet/station she's at. Great read, fantastic characterizations, explosive prose.

Book Review: The Ephemera Series Book One: Sebastian SPOILERS!

In February 2006, acclaimed fantasy author Anne Bishop created the world of Ephemera and embarked on a journey about love, magic, corruption, and something evil called The Eater of the World. Synopsis: "Let your heart travel lightly. Because what you bring with you becomes part of the landscape." Long ago, to stop the onslaught of the Eater of the World, Ephemera was split into a dizzying number of strange and magical lands connected only by bridges that may take you where you truly belong, rather than where you intended to go. Now, with the Eater contained and virtually forgotten, the shifting worlds of Ephemera have been kept stable by the magic of the Landscapers. In one such land, where night reigns and demons dwell, the half-incubus Sebastian revels in dark delights. But in dreams she calls to him: a woman who wants only to be safe and loved--a woman he hungers for while knowing he may destroy her. But a more devastating destiny awaits Sebastian, for in the quiet gardens of the Landscapers' School, evil is stirring. The prison of the Eater of the World has weakened--and Sebastian's realm may be the first to fall....

The novel opens with the half-incubus Teaser telling Sebastian that "we found another one." Three weeks earlier, a Landscaper apprentice named Nigelle, in anger for not being promoted to Level One Landscaper, breaks into a deadly garden that contains a lone wall. She throws a brick against it and a crack forms, letting the Eater free. It (and the Eater is always referred to as It when we're in It's POV) kills one of the Landscaper teachers, Lukene when she attempts to mentally figure out why Glorianna Belladona, a former student who has been declared a rogue and rules her own lands for she can rearrange Ephemera by appealing to the world, is as powerful as she is and why the Landscapers and Wizards couldn't contain her in a small world to let her die. In another part of Ephemera, Lynnea is being treated horribly by her adoptive family and wishes she were with someone who loved her and cared for her. In the Den in Iniquity, Sebastian, Teaser, and a couple others try and figure out what could kill a woman and leave only bones and rags; Teaser fears it is Glorianna who is doing this but Sebastian knows that this kind of perverse evil isn't in his cousin. Sebastian leaves for the Wizard City and demands to talk to his Wizard father--who loves to berate him, among other things--and tells him that he fears that the Eater of the World is free, but his father dismisses the claim and fears, especially when Sebastian easily passes through a Wizard trap, that the Wizard side of his half-incubus son is waking up and that he'll be a threat.

It tries taking over the world, but Glorianna cleanses the Den of it's kind of evil and Lynnea runs away from her adoptive family because Sebastian told her in her dreams--where incubi and succubi provide pleasure for women or men--to come to him. She does and Sebastian feels that she doesn't fit into the Den, but nevertheless orders all the demons in the Den to leave her alone. The following day, he takes her to the Landscapers' School and finds the place full of dead bodies. It sent its pets to kill the Landscapers so It could be free to do what It wants. Sebastian and Lynnea use one of Glorianna's rocks that she left behind to teleport out and they run into Nadia, Sebastian's grandmother. When he returns to the Den, and after telling his cousin Lee--a Bridge--about the school, Glorianna and him talk, especially about Lynnea. Sebastian helps her settle in and eventually, she starts working in the tavern owned by Philo while Sebastian comes to terms with his growing Wizard powers, which fully manifest themselves when two pure incubi and succubi try and force the Den and Sebastian to bow to their will. Sebastian declares himself the Den's Justice Maker and kills them.

Fearing rumors of Sebastian and Glorianna, It demands its old followers, the Dark Ones, find a way to kill Glorianna and Sebastian. The Dark Ones use Koltak, Sebastians father, to do this. Koltak lures his son out of the Den and the Dark Ones leave a note for Glorianna to come and perform Heart's Justice on Sebastian, but it's a ruse to lure her out so they can kill her. Glorianna takes Lynnea and Lee with her and performs Heart's Justice, hoping that Lynnea will follow her heart and rescue the beaten Sebastian--who believes he is of no worth to himself or the citizens of the Den of Iniquity--because if Heart's Justice takes him to the Dark Place where Glorianna's sending the Dark One, he'll never come back. Lynnea holds onto Sebastian and the two of them end up outside a cottage near Nadia while a few of the Dark Ones are banished to It's lands. The others are revealed to be pure incubi. They throw a remorseful Koltak in with a savage succubus as a reward for helping them see who Belladonna is and the succubus promptly uses him for sex until he dies, or rather implies that he dies; it could go either way. In the end, It retreats to a distant land filled with slight dark emotions and urges them to darker ones.

All in all, a great opening novel to a so-far great story. Can't wait to see where it all goes in Belladonna, the second novel in the Ephemera series. Great characters, wonderful prose, and a fantastic story that'll have you on the edge of your seat for the entire ride. If you don't mind some bouts of erotic romance, that is. 

Book Review: The Vorkosigan Saga: Ethan of Athos SPOILERS!

Fasten your seat belts for this breakneck pacing that entraps one poor doctor against a certifiable maniac who happens to find Miles attractive. Yeah, that's right. It's Ethan of Athos. Synopsis: Dr. Ethan Urquhart, chief biologist from the all-male world of Athos, must travel to other planets in search of new genetic material, as their current supply of ovarian tissue is no longer viable.
Ethan encounters what to him is practically an alien species--women!--and also finds himself hunted by Cetagandan ghem lords and helped out by Miles' Dendarii officer Elli Quinn.

The novel opens with Dr. Ethan Urquhart helping to birth a child from a uterine replicator. A shipment of new ovaries arrives on Athos, but they're not the ovaries the geneticists of Athos are looking for; they're just animal parts and garbage. The Population Council sends Ethan to Kline Station to figure out what went wrong. He meets Commander Elli Quinn who puts a tracer on Etham that gets him noticed by Cetagandan ghem-Colonel Luyst Millisor and his men (Captain Rau, Sergeant Okita, and Setti). They capture Ethan and interrogate him for seven hours before deciding that he knows nothing. Okita is tasked with making Ethan's death look like an accident, but Quinn puts and end to that by killing Okita and taking Ethan back to her safehouse, much to Ethan's annoyance. She's on Kline Station after accepting a contract from Bharaputra Labratories (via the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet and on the orders of Admiral Miles Naismith with whom Elli Quinn is suggested to find Miles quite attractive) to kill Millisor and Okita. After spending days cooped up with a female and talking, Ethan figures out that the shipment switch must've happened before it reached Kline Station. They also meet Helda, a pissed off woman angry at her gay son for fleeing to the all-male planet Athos and hates Athosians with a passion. When tempers flare, Ethan leaves Quinn and returns to his place on Kline Station and meets the young man who is also a telepath and whom one ghem-Colonel Millisor is trying to get his hands on, Terrence Cee.

It turns out that Terrence Cee was shipping his dead telepathic sister to Athos in pieces so that the Athosians could use her DNA to recreate her, though cloning is forbidden on Athos. Ethan is disgusted by this news. After Ethan, Cee, and Quinn devise a plan to smoke Millisor and his gang out and after Quinn's cousin, Teki, is kidnapped and tortured by Millisor and Rau, Ethan and Quinn get Helda and two Kline Station security men to arrest Millisor and Rau (Setti is suspiciously missing). It's then that Ethan figures out that it was Helda who switched the ovaries and burned them in an effort to force her son off Athos and marry a woman and as a bonus, kill off the all-male Athosians. Talk about you're psychotic, purely right-wing Republican hell bent on killing homosexuals. Geez, this lady could use some time in the nuthouse. Helda, thankfully, is imprisoned permanently and Ethan is free to go after answering a few questions. Ethan is about to leave Kline Station when he gets a call from Cee, summoning him to a docking area. Before he arrives, Ethan runs into a stranger who gives Ethan a message capsule for Millisore. At the docking area, Ethan finds Cee held at gunpoint by Millisore and Quinn being held by Setti--Setti, dressed as a Kline Station guard, took Millisor and Rau out of the prison and helped them set this up. Ethan and Quinn activate the devise and watch it kill Millisor and his allies. Turns out that the mystery guy was a member of the House Bharaputra and didn't believe Quinn was moving fast enough. After pardons are paid, Quinn goes back to the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet and Ethan with Cee go to Athos. Ethan has what is left of the ovaries via Teki and some new ones donated by Quinn.

All in all, a great paced story with some new insights into Jackson's Whole, genetics, the uterine replicators, and "growing" babies from known male DNA and donated female ovaries. It casts a rather ugly light on how human kind would advance with such a technology, going so far as to program children with telepathic abilities and letting them loose in society without rules.