Book Review: Honor Harrington: Ashes of Victory SPOILERS!

In March 2000, David Weber penned another Honor Harrington novel, this time putting Honor to the side to focus on the war and a coup that will have repercussions of the entire war. Synopsis: REPORTS OF MY DEATH HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED . . . The People's Republic of Haven made a tiny mistake when it announced the execution of Honor Harrington. It seemed safe enough. After all, they knew she was already dead. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Now Honor has escaped from the prison planet called Hell and returned to the Manticoran Alliance with a few friends. Almost half a million of them, to be precise . . . including some who know what really happened when the Committee of Public Safety seized power in the PRH. Honor's return from the dead comes at a critical time, providing a huge, much-needed lift for the Allies' morale, for the war is rapidly entering a decisive phase. Both sides believe that victory lie within their grasp at last, but dangers no one could foresee await them both. New weapons, new strategies, new tactics, spies, diplomacy, and assassination . . . All are coming into deadly focus, and Honor Harrington, the woman the newsies call "the Salamander," once more finds herself at the heart of them all. But this time, the furnace may be too furious for even a salamander to survive.

The novel opens with Honor Harrington in the galley of ENS Farnese's boat bay, musing on the escape from Hell. Hamis Alexander, on GNS Benjamin the Great's pinnace, boards Farnese and welcomes Honor home. He updates her on the situation in the Star Empire while taking her back to Grayson via Manticore in the GSN Honor Harrington. On Grayson, High Admrial Wesley Matthews and Protector Benjamin Mayhew IX greet Honor and Nimitz. Her father, mother and Samantha are there and Honor and Nimitz realize that his "transmitter" isn't working properly thanks to the State Security goons who clubbed him back on Enki (Honor Harrington: In Enemy Hands). On Haven, in the capital city Noveaux Paris, Secretary of War Ester McQueen, Chairman Robert S. Pierre, and Oscar Sanit-Just learn about Honor's survival from Hell and the war effort. Captain Michelle "Mike" Henke escorts Honor to Queen Elizabeth III. The Queen foists the title of duchess on Honor and a duchy in the Westmount Crown Reserve on Gryphon because she refused to take the Parliamentary Medal of Valor. The PMV is instead given to Horace Harkness.

Admiral Thomas Caparelli tells Honor that she'll be the commandant of Saganami and head the Advanced Tactical Course as well as help the new income of Grayson students mold with the Manticoran students; she's also been promoted to the full rank of Admiral. Saint-Just voices his concern about McQueen to Pierre. Honor asks disgraced Commander Andrea Jaruwalski to help her make changes to the outdated bits of Tactical Training just to poke Santino in the eye even though he's died because of his incompetence. Queen Elizabeth III learns that the Republic of San Martin of Trevor's Star want annexation with the Star Empire of Manticore because their Senate voted and approved it in a closed session in less than two weeks after Jesus Ramirez let slip a casual remark that he agreed with it. Allison Harrington tells Honor that she may have come up with a way for Nimitz to communicate with treecats again: sign language. It'll give them a way to talk with each other and with humans. Honor convinces Dr. Adelina Arif to help her, especially after Nimitz demonstrates that he does understand what Honor's saying by nodding his head. Honor hosts a diner with Rear Admiral of the Red Jackson Kriangsak, Andrea, Mike, and six other officers and nineteen midshipmen, including Abigail Hearns from Grayson, to help the midshipmen further learn more about tactics. The war goes on.

Saint-Just reminds Pierre that McQueen can't be trusted. McQueen, meanwhile, makes preparations to launch Operation Bagration. Saint-Just has Thomas Theisman recalled from the front to lead the Havenite home fleet. At a party, Honor and Nimitz and Samantha (but mostly the treecats) sign to Elizabeth and her treecat Ariel, wanting to teach them to communicate. Arriving at Haven, Theisman and Denis LePic learn that Pierre is dead and McQueen's coup failed; Saint-Just is now the chairman and lets Theisman have control of the home fleet with LePic remaining his commissioner. Theisman informs Saint-Just that it would be unwise to execute Lester Tourville and Javier Giscard now as he's rebuilding the navy's trust in the chairman. Benjamin Mayhew invites Elizabeth to a formal head-of-state meeting on Grayson. During that, the Havenites attack and kill Allen Sumervale, Duke of Cromarty, and his people because Honor can only stop one missile and saved Elizabeth and Benjamin. Baron High Ridge and the senior leaders of the Opposition Party refuse to back Elizabeth because they finally see a way to undermine her authority and government and wrest power away from the Crown and Loyalists. Saint-Just moves to have Tourville and Giscard executed while faking to want peace with the Star Empire of Manticore. Theisman launches his coup and kills Saint-Just.

All in all, a great novel that details heroes on both sides of the war and adds much needed depth into the political parties and structures of the Star Empire of Manticore. This is also the first time that Nimitz and Samantha communicate to the main cast (on the Manticoran/Grayson side, anyway). This book is the last appearance of Oscar Saint-Just, Rob Pierre, Ester McQueen and the Cromarty government, State Security, and the Committee of Public Safety. Great characterization, fantastic descriptions and details. This is a book that's hard to put down.

Apology About No Recent Book Reviews

Sorry, readers. Since I live in America, I took last Thursday off and have to take today off from book reviewing. I'm swamped with four books and none of them are close to being finished, review-wise, that is. Plus, I've got a project that I can only work on at college that's due by the end of the week, so there might not be a book review up on Thursday, either.

I'll just leave you all with the titles of the books I'm working on:

• Stranded by Anne Bishop, James Alan Gardner, and Anthony Francis.
• The Sharing Knife 1: Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Honor Harrington: Ashes of Victory by David Weber
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

I hope to be able to finish them by the weekend and post them up for next week and the week after to give myself some time to write other reviews. Sorry. 

Book Review: Halo: The Thursday War SPOILERS!

Released on 2 October 2012, Halo: The Thursday War is the third entry into the Halo Universe for Karen Traviss, the first being a short story called Human Weakness and the novel Glasslands. It picks up where Glasslands left off. Synopsis: Welcome to humanity’s new war: silent, high stakes, and unseen. This is a life-or-death mission for ONI’s black-ops team, Kilo Five, which is tasked with preventing the ruthless Elites, once the military leaders of the Covenant, from regrouping and threatening humankind again. What began as a routine dirty-tricks operation―keeping the Elites busy with their own insurrection―turns into a desperate bid to extract one member of Kilo Five from the seething heart of an alien civil war. But troubles never come singly for Kilo Five. Colonial terrorism is once again surfacing on one of the worlds that survived the war against the Covenant, and the man behind it is much more than just a name to Spartan-010. Meanwhile, the treasure trove of Forerunner technology recovered from the shield world of Onyx is being put to work while a kidnapped Elite plots vengeance on the humans he fears will bring his people to the brink of destruction.

The novel opens with a first person POV from ONI head, Admiral Margaret Orlenda Parangosky as she receives news about Professor Evan Phillips going dark and Captain Serin Osman going to extract him. On Sanghelios, Evan Phillips is with Avu Med 'Telcam. He's wounded and stranded in the Forerunner complex. 'Telcam's going to perform his coup that minute. On Venezia, ODSTs Vasily "Vaz" Beloi and Malcolm Geffen get recalled by Sgt. Lian Devereaux because Osman's pulling out to get Phillips. On the way to Sanghelios, Mal tells Naomi Sentzke, Spartan-010, and the rest of Kilo Five that the terrorist leader on Venezia is Staffan Sentzke, Naomi's father. On the UNSC Infinity, Parangosky notes that the crew isn't die-hard loyal to Captain Andrew Del Rio--and from what I've seen in Halo 4, I can hardly blame them--but his first officer, Commander Thomas Lasky, might get a reward for his quiet patience later (as seen in Halo 4 when he becomes the Captain of the Infinity because of Del Rio's stupidity). On/In Onyx, Jul 'Mdama ruminates about his fate while ONI scientist Irena Magnusson tries to use reverse psychology on him to get him to tell them what he knows. On Sanghelios, Raia 'Mdama grows worried as Jul's absence continues. Phillips finds out that he's a hostage from 'Telcam. Kilo Five's in orbit around Sanghelios. BB's running a scan on the planet, starting with Ontom, but BB's having trouble penetrating the Forerunner complex. Raia becomes restless and threatens 'Telcam. Phillips learns that there's more than one Shield World. He touches one of the walls and it tells him to find someone or seek something beyond, or higher, or better. Phillips thinks he might've primed a Halo. Vaz, Mal, Naomi and BB, via Devereaux, land on Sanghelios. They learn that Phillips is in the Forerunner complex and they enter. Phillips is lost in the temple and holocaptures a ton of Forerunner hieroglyphs.

Phillips, running out of time, tries to use his trick with arums to open some doors and touches the first symbol on the list. 'Telcam, Raia, and the majority of the Servants of Abiding Truth attempt to flee Sanghelios. Their forces bear down on the Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and his keep, especially when other keeps seemingly rise up against 'Vadam for allowing human soldiers to set foot in a sacred temple. Vaz, Mal, Naomi and BB can't find Phillips. Turns out that Phillips is 80 kilometers away from Ontom, near Nes'alun Keep, in the state of Acroli. He comes across slave Unggoy who take him to the nearby keep. Prone to Drift escorts Jul for a walk on Onyx. Phillips is found and everyone rushes to get him. BB updates Parangosky on Infinity and both she and Admiral  Lord Terrence Hood head out to lend the Arbiter a hand, though Parangosky has more devious means for their trip. Del Rio and Lasky get Infinity to Sanghelios; Osman and company have retrieved Phillips. The civil war on Sanghelios continues to rage. On Onyx, Jul learns more about the Forerunners. Kilo Five boards Infinity. Hood opens fire on the rebels while Kilo Five attempts to extract 'Telcam. Raia and Forze are shot down and die. Prone warns Jul about the Didact. Scanning the recordings, Kilo Five learns that the word "not" is placed next to the symbol for Didact. Jul finds out that the Didact is on Requiem and tells Phillips about the Didact being locked away. Jul manages to escape Magnusson's hold and uses the failing transport system to flee the Shield World. Parangosky's pissed about that and removes Magnusson from command of Onyx and learns about Requiem. Jul makes it to another Sangheili world and updates people on the war and about the Didact. Vaz and Naomi insert on Venezia. Jul learns that Forze and Raia are dead. The elders and Jul find the coordinates for Requiem and plan to go there, which give the impression that Karen's third Halo novel will lead directly in to Halo 4.

All in all, a well-paced novel that builds into the lead up to Halo 4, alongside Greg Bear's Forerunner Saga trilogy. Great character development, superb pacing and prose, great action, Halo: The Thursday War is the best addition to the Halo franchise and Karen Traviss deserves all the praise.