Customer Reviews

Echoes of Honor (Honor Harrington # 8)

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

For Honor Harrington fans this is a real winner, but if you are just joining the series it would be a mistake to buy now. You would be better off starting with the first book, "On Basilisk Station", which I believe is selling for $1.99 now. In the novel, Mr. Weber, finally gives us at least the possibility that our Manticoran heroes can lose the war. Upto now it has been one victory after another and it was getting a little stale. Now the RMN is in a real fight and fortunately they have some new weapons in the hands of some old friends to deal with it. Weber, does another good job of putting ther reader in the middle of the action. The biggest fault I have with the book, besides the length, is that he tends to get a little too technical. It's no where near as bad as Clancy, but it seems to get worse with every book. It's a long book that can be a little slow at times but it genarlly moves well. The book is also broken up into six large sub-sections that helps the reader to keep focus.

In _Echoes_ Weber gives us shades of the time Hornblower sailed the recaptured HMS Witch of Endor into a foggy British port by way of escape from the French. While the nicking of the idea is a little obvious, it doesn't detract from the story.

There's a lot of tension here, and a lot to tug at the sentiments of any Honor Harrington fan: treecat messed up, Honor messed up, no medical care available, eagerness to get off horrible prison planet. We do find that Honor continues to get more and more human as the series goes on: more able to be herself and less having to maintain an impenetrable facade; this is a nice touch. It's a lot of fun just watching the People's Navy get repeatedly humiliated, too. Say this for Weber: it's easy to hate his villains.

Fine reading.

Even missing an eye and her left arm, Honor Harrington is still one of the most dangerous enemies Haven ever made. Marooned on a prison planet known as Hell with a handful of her men, she vows to free not only herself, but every other prisoner on the planet. Meanwhile, ignorant of her survival, her adopted homeworld surges to the front of a genocidal war. Not since 'Remember the Alamo!' has a battle cry been so fervently invoked as 'Lady Harrington, and NO MERCY!' In a desperate arms race, the Manticoran Alliance must out-build and out-engineer the Peeps of Haven, or be utterly destroyed.

David Weber delivers another great installment in his Honor Harrington series, one of the greatest space opera series in recent memory. Echoes of Honor continues the story which had begun in In Enemy Hands. The Star Kingdom of Manticore vows revenge for Honor's "death" after her supposed execution by the People's Republic of Haven. But she is actually marooned with a handful of her men on the Havenite prison planet known as Hell. She assembles a force of POW's and begins to plan an escape for herself, her remaining crew and the rest of the prisoners incarcerated on Hell. Weber has continued to develop the character of Honor Harrington very well over the course of these novels, as she has become more emotionally mature. He has also continued to further develop the "Honorverse," which no longer revolves around Honor herself, as evidenced in spinoff novels such as Crown of Slaves and The Shadow of Saganami. This series continues to get better with each new installment. Echoes of Honor is an excellent read, which I enjoyed thoroughly. I look forward to reading Book 9, Ashes of Victory.

David Weber continues to develop his "Honorverse" and does so in a delightful manner. The latest installment of his space opera series is just another example of this excellence and brings to light much more of the goings and happenings of the universe of Honor Harrington.

While it would be wrong to say that Honor herself is not the central character of this installment, her presence is always felt, it would also be misleading to think that this one is all about her. Instead, it follows several story lines after everyone believes her to have been executed by the enemy. The thing is, though, that she has survived and she has blood in her eye. She manages to put together a force of POWs, cause the Peeps no end of trouble and get herself and her people out of Dodge. It is a good read.

I will not say that this one has been my favorite in the series. Some of the others are more exciting. It is, however, one that most tugs at the heartstrings. it also fills in a lot of holes and lets a few other characters come to the fore at times. It is definitely worth reading but as the series progresses, readers would be well advised to start at the beginning. It would be easy to get lost in the later ones, especially this one, if you do not already have the background stories.

And David Weber's Honor Harrington universe marches on with Echoes of Honor, like an army of undead, unstoppable and thirsting for brains. This time, we get to follow several distinct story segments as Honor and her team struggle to take over Hades and ultimately escape. The action this time around is almost unrelenting, and probably more importantly, relevant to the current story and future engagements.

Weber has a thing for political intrigue, and of course it's no stranger here. Haven's Admiral Esther McQueen is finally sticking it to Manticore and simultaneously juggling her new role as an official member of The Committee of Public Safety. It's her strategies and tactics which ultimately confound Manticore's military, and make her just indispensable enough to be dangerous to the Committee itself. To start the propaganda war with a bang, the new head of Public Information releases a video of Honor being hanged.

This, to me, is the weakest point of the novel, though it comes at the very beginning. Anyone who knew our Honor, would have balked at the reluctant and fearful wretch Haven magicked up; they should have expected the cold defiance she'd likely display at the results of a mock trial, just as she did in her duals. Sadly, everyone in both Manticore and Grayson accept the execution without question, and thus begins Honor's two year escape plan while Haven launches a four-pronged attack at Manticore's outer systems and the holding that started it all: Basilisk Station.

And though the copious battles that follow are as one-sided as expected due to Haven's surprise offensive, the unexpected aid of the new long-range missiles; the missile-pod carriers; and the LAC-carriers that tote around massively improved Shrike-class attack craft, reverse the fortune of at least two of those engagements. There's hundreds of pages describing this attack in various aspects, from setup to execution, and the end result is spectacular: stuff gets blowed up real good.

For all that, all we really know about Grayson is that they, unlike Manticore, dove right in to manufacturing the new prototype designs Honor helped draft in In Enemy Hands. There's also the sticky situation of Honor's "death" causing problems with the inheritance of her titles, and the involvement of her parents in that particular solution is as amusing as it is creative. Her work as a geneticist also unveils just why the Graysons survived on such an inhospitable planet, and just why the male/female birth ratio is so unbalanced. This last has been an unanswered question for at least six novels, so it's great that Weber has finally gotten around to answering it.

Manticore seems only able to revel in its ability to allow its nobility to usurp common sense, and let its adherence to existing methodology threaten to derail research into their new prototype weapons. We see another aspect of Manticore here that has already appeared occasionally, and it's an unfortunate extension of their society. In this novel, we learn that our favorite star kingdom is a year behind Grayson in building the new classes of LAC and missile carriers. We continue to watch as political ties and family connections lead to promotions of complete imbeciles who would rather die in a blaze of vainglory, than escape an unwinnable situation. We watch impotently as one idiotic decision after another puts them at a continuing disadvantage in the war.

And none of this even approaches the effort Honor puts into securing the escape from Haven of not just her crew, but nearly half a million refugees stranded there over the course of last few decades of Haven's offensives. It's a very near thing, and the suspense in these areas was just as enticing as the space battles and political machinations. It's probably one of the strongest novels in the series thus far, because it sits at the crux of what is almost a perfect storm of opportunity as the focus of the war shifts. This is a very long read, and very little is wasted in irrelevant details; everything drives the plot forward, and there's a lot of plot to drive.

That this is technically merely an interim novel while we wait for Honor to enter the fray again, makes its strengths even more unexpected and refreshing. This could have been "Honor escapes valiantly from Hades, and blows stuff up as she goes!" What we got instead were several different layers of simultaneous and decisive events critical to drive the universe forward, not just Honor's character. It's easy to see why Weber's creation has so many fans even at such a ponderous length.

So - finally, I get to find out the other half of the story! I see there are a number of people who gripe about Honor, and how David Weber tends to write unbelievable characters. Well, his characters are definitely larger than life, but what makes them so is their depth of commitment to their respective causes. As for the story itself, given the preconditions established at the beginning (from the end of "In Enemy Hands"), it is possible - long odds, but possible. And long odds seem to be Honor's specialty, to the Peeps' dismay and ruination. Go, Honor!

Just finished Echoes and have only read one other of this series (Field of Dishonor) but I will proceed to get and read the rest. Honor's values and humanity are what makes these books interesting. The various subplots complete and incomplete, sets the stage for more adventure. I look forward to watching the Honor Harrington story unfold.

Why does this book rock, you ask? I've been reading the Honor Harrington series since "On Basilisk Station", and the novels just keep getting better. David Weber is an excellent author, balancing action, storytelling, character development, and just enough hard SF to make this future time a beleivable one. This novel is the best of the series, with solid character development, great storytelling, and plenty of action, all working in concert to keep the story going instead of bogging it down like some other authors are wont to do. I won't go into the story itself, but suffice it to say, if you liked the rest of the series, YOU WILL LOVE THIS ONE! Mister Weber, keep up the great work! And by all means, please, GIVE US MORE HONOR HARRINGTON!

An alternate title for this book could be "The Return of Honor". Basically what this book covers is how, in the time that Honor Harrington has been away, the Peeps have finally begun to get their military organized. With the RMN (Royal Manticoran Navy) still trying to recover from their latest thrust into Peep territory, the PRH (People's Republic of Haven) sets out on a mission to strike at the RMN where it is most vulnerable.

Honor and her other escapees, are stuck on a prison planet. They not only have to overthrow the SS goons (I mean guards...sorry) in charge, but then, to properly escape with all the other prisoners, they must capture, intact, several vessels capable of carrying near a quarter of a billion people.

The book is divided into alternating books, each covering either what Harrington and her fellow escapees are up to, or what is going on in the rest of the universe at large. Though this organization makes Weber's normally shifting focal points a little more understandable, it limits the time spent on Honor - which, in my mind at least, is who is the central character of the book.

This organization also contributes to a "double climax" wherein the events in the universe at large come to a boiling point and finally erupt in several confrontations, and then climatic final fight for Harrington and all those following her. Even so, the ending of the book was actually very sudden. I would recommend having the next book of the series (Ashes of Honor) on hand, because it picks up within a month or so of the conclusion of this one.

The pace overall was very strong and steady, only lagging in a few places. The characters are pretty well done here as well, though I had enjoyed spending a more time with Harkness in the last book, and his character takes a little more backseat in this one.

In conclusion, this is yet another Harrington novel I recommend whole-heartedly. I would actually recommend this as the second part of a pair (Echoes of Honor coupled with Honor Among Enemies). Excellent science fiction as well as a strategic or military book.