At All Costs (Honor Harrington #11) [Hardcover]

David Weber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2005

What price victory? The war with the Republic of Haven has resumed . . . disastrously for the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Admiral Lady Dame Honor Harrington, Steadholder and Duchess Harrington, the single victorious Allied commander of the opening phase of the new war, has been recalled from the Sidemore System to command Eighth Fleet. Everyone knows Eighth Fleet is the Alliance's primary offensive command, which makes it the natural assignment for the woman the media calls "the Salamander." But what most of the public DOESN'T know is that not only are the Star Kingdom and its Allies badly outnumbered by the Republic's new fleet, but that the odds are going to get steadily worse. Eighth Fleet's job is to somehow prevent those odds from crushing the Alliance before the Star Kingdom can regain its strategic balance. It's a job which won't be done cheaply. Honor Harrington must meet her formidable responsibilities with inferior forces even as she copes with tumultuous changes in her personal and public life. The alternative to victory is total defeat, yet this time the COST of victory will be agonizingly high.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Nobody does space opera better than Weber, and his heroine, Honor Harrington, introduced in On Basilisk Station (1993), remains as engaging as ever in the latest tome to chronicle her adventures. At the start, intelligence agents of the newly democratic Republic of Haven detect a hidden hand behind their renewed hostilities with the Star Kingdom of Manticore. As the Havenites struggle to convince their foes that they are being manipulated by common enemies among the genetic slave trade, the Manticoreans force their hand until there's no alternative but the Mother of All Space Battles. Weber manages to invert the respective moral positions of his sides quite adroitly, showing how emotion and prejudice can impair even the finest among us. The sweep of interstellar conflict contrasts with developments in Honor's personal life that could have been maudlin, but succeed in being highly moving. Reading like a fusion of Horatio Hornblower, Robert A. Heinlein and Tom Clancy, this is easily the best installment in the series to date; one can well imagine that when future star warriors develop their tactics, Weber's narratives will provide a template. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Seasoned voyagers through Weber's Honorverse (the Honor in question being Harrington) mustn't be put off by the stupendous size of the eleventh volume of the lady's adventures. All the pages are needed to encompass a fast-paced tale that brings together all the elements developed in previous books, and push them a good way along toward an ultimate conclusion. [...] The climax is bloody and fine preparation for at least one more desperate round of fighting. It also leaves Honor reflecting on the price of war in warriors' lives. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 864 pages
• Publisher: Baen; X edition (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416509119
• ISBN-13: 978-1416509110
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #404,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952. Weber and his wife Sharon live in Greenville, South Carolina with their three children and "a passel of dogs".

Previously the owner of a small advertising and public relations agency, Weber now writes science fiction full time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weber Evil, August 18, 2005

By 

Detra Fitch (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: At All Costs (Honor Harrington #11) (Hardcover)

The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven are still in the bloodiest war ever known. In a previous novel, readers learned that the Havenites believed the Manties, during a cease-fire, altered documents. Therefore, the Havenites fired the first shot, ending the cease-fire without even bothering to notify the Manties. Now the Havenites have reason to believe that the Manties never altered anything. In fact, it appears that one of their own did the altering, hoping to cause the war to continue ... and succeeded.

Haven President Eloise Pritchart wants nothing more than for the war to end. She releases a POW, who happens to be close to Honor Harrington, with a message for Queen Elizabeth. Eloise wants to meet and discuss terms for peace. Elizabeth is given the choice of when and where. Eloise asks that Honor be included, as well as, the treecats.

Honor Harrington is still close to Hamish and Emily (of White Haven). As Honor begins her return to the front, she learns that she is pregnant. Though all know, in the back of their minds anyway, who the father is, no one dares state it aloud. Since being killed in battle is always a possibility, Honor has her unborn child removed from herself and placed in a tube to mature. (Totally safe.) Those on Manticore and Grayson, depending on how they feel about Honor, are either thrilled to learn about an heir or furious and wanting to use the child as a weapon against the mother.

***** First off let me state that I hope the author creates a whole new series about Torch, its teenaged queen, and its Amazonian people. Such potential exists there. Queen Berry Zilwicki came across much better than Queen Amidala could ever hope to have done.

Honor Harrington is something of "a personal bogeyman" for the Havenites. As always, Honor's reputation for unusual strategies grows, with great reason. If a student is only as good as his or her teacher, then the author, David Weber, is down right scary! The planning, tactical details, and battle executions are unnerving to me. I totally believe Weber to be a genius in this regard.

As my husband or I read ANY book by Weber, we lose a lot of sleep. We no longer bother to inform the other of WHY we look so tired and exhausted. We simply look into the eyes of the other and say, with a voice of pure disgust, " Weber Evil." Those two words say it all. This series has my highest possible recommendation! *****

(...)

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much exposition, not enough action, November 9, 2005

By 

Meneldir (Orange County, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At All Costs (Honor Harrington #11) (Hardcover)

I've been a fan of David Weber's for many years and I've been growing increasingly disappointed with his Honor Harrington series. Weber developed a very real-feeling universe for his character to live in but over the last several books he appears more interested in talking about the universe than in developing the characters, plot, or story. In SHADOW OF SAGANAMI, Weber got back closer to his roots, but AT ALL COSTS feels too much like a wandering text and not enough like a story. His characters move around like pieces on a board and don't have the same emotional impact they once did.

For example, part of this book is supposed to be a love story--a love between Harrington and White Haven. I don't feel it like I did Honor and Paul's story. I don't feel the dramatic impact of a main character's death, because that character barely had two lines in the whole novel. If it were a TV series, I'd assume the actor had wanted out of his contract.

No, David Weber is still a good writer, but he has to get back to basics with this series. Cut down on the breadth and go for the depth, Mr. Weber; you can make it work again.

43 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars David Weber's Honor has been Restored, November 23, 2006

By 

Deborah Wolf "Creator of RomanceADay.com" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: At All Costs (Honor Harrington #11) (Hardcover)

It pains me to admit it, but despite my own longtime love of Honor Harrington books, I waited a long time on this one, and only read it because my local library had a copy. You see, I found "War of Honor", the previous installment, to be almost agonizingly boring. Honor never commanded a single vessel up until the very end when she just happened to have her Elysian Space Navy on maneuvers at the right place at the right time. Nearly the entire book was spent on such things as Honor's "battle" with the smear campaign involving her, Emily, and Hamish; the Saganami Island students she was befriending; and the new efforts to communicate with treecats through sign. "War of Honor" was probably the most boring military sci-fi book I have ever read. I pretty much decided when it was over that David Weber must have forgotten how to tell an exciting story, and if I ever bothered to read "At All Costs" it would only be if I could get it free and felt like I didn't have anything better to read.

So having gone into sufficient detail how much I hated "War of Honor", "At All Costs" was absolutely gripping fiction at its very best.

For the first time, both Haven and Manticore are led by honest politicians. The war, by rights, ought to be ended. Republic of Haven's President Eloise Pritchart learns early in the story that it was her own Secretary of State that had been the one to alter the diplomatic dispatches with Manticore, resulting in her decision to launch her surprise attack. Now she desperately wants to bring a diplomatic end to the war. Unfortunately, the mysterious organization "Manpower" introduced in "Shadow of Saganami" has other plans for the two Star Nations.

Honor Harrington has been newly installed as Eighth Fleet's commander - the primary offensive fleet for the Royal Manticoran Navy. Her job is to find a way to convince the Havenites to cover their rear areas and reduce their fleet strength available for offensive operations. Unfortunately, she faces an opponent with an almost two to one advantage in hulls that not even superior Manticoran technology is sufficient to offset. Not only that, but they enjoy an advantage in ongoing construction, meaning their superiority is only going to increase. Her job won't be an easy one.

Tom Theisman, the Havenite Secretary of War, wants the war to end just as badly as President Eloise Pritchart. His dilemma is that while he too knows about the way his Star Nation was manipulated into going into war, the war itself enjoys too much popularity at home. Congress won't allow their forces to simply surrender and bring the fighting to a close. And if Manpower is going to sabotage any chance for a peaceful settlement, then the only other option is to end the war through an all-out military victory. And while he prays it won't come to that, Tom Theisman knows he's got the strength to make it happen.

"At All Costs" is not a book to be read if you can only devote a few hours to it here and there. From nearly the first chapter, David Weber weaves his most masterful and exciting plot ever, and putting the book down, even for a minute, can be almost agonizing. I know some will find it frustrating, and particularly the end might be unsatisfying for some. But I will enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who likes military sci-fi. This is absolutely the best I've ever come across within that genre, and certainly the best book in this series.

One last thing... David Weber's recently released "Shadow of Saganami" takes place in parallel with "At All Costs", and provides additional background on the workings of Manpower. You may want to read that one first, even though it isn't technically an Honor Harrington book.