Customer Reviews

In Enemy Hands (Honor Harrington, Book 7)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ok, Mr. Weber, you've thrown me a curve. What makes it frustrating is that the curve is one of those things that's so obvious in retrospect that you want to kick yourself in the forehead (not easy to do :-) Honor's skill, courage and luck had to meet its match sooner or later, and similarly, the Peeps sooner or later had to get the upper hand. Military campaigns of this length are *never* one-sided, after all.

I'm glad to see the contrast between the Peep 'regular Navy' officers, and the State Security thugs. It seems obvious that StateSec's goons are cast in the same spiritual mould as Hitler's SS (even the initials...) I grant that the purpose and political requirements of StateSec do not require naval expertise of the highest calibre, but I found their personnel to be just a little too 'dumb Imperial stormtrooper'-like for my taste. On the other hand, they *were* up against Chief Harkness, a personage whom even the RMN, not to mention the Marines, has had trouble dealing with on occasion.

My biggest single complaint is that this book, much like Lucas's "Empire Strikes Back" sort of leaves you hanging at the end. The general feeling I got was "So our heroes are OK for the moment, but..." Nevertheless, an excellent read, and I'm waiting with bated breath for the eight volume to come out. Keep writing, Mr. Weber!

The author spends too much time in characters' heads. Conceivably this could be interesting but not here. About 1/4 of the way through I got fed up and skipped over about half of the book, reading only a paragraph here and there. However the last third or quarter is so riveting that I stayed up 2 hours too late simply to finish it, and the next day I bought the book that comes after this one. My general impression of Weber books is that they start slowly, filling in character, but they accelerate, so that at the end they are very exciting and moving - it's the endings that keep me coming back. Same occurs here, but the beginning of the book is too slow.

Here it is! The next in the exciting Honor Harrington series! Honor's orders take her into an ambush where she is outnumbered, outgunned, and unable to run, she has two options: see the people under her command die in a hopeless battle...or surrender them - and herself - to the Peeps. At least the People's Navy promises to treat their prisoners honorably. Honor finds herself bound for a prison planet aptly named "Hell"...and her scheduled execution. She is put into solitary confinement, separated from her officers and her treecat Nimitz, and subjected to systematic humiliation by her gaolers. Her future has become both bleak and short. Yet bad as things look, they're about to get worse...for the Peeps.

***I believe David Weber may be the master of sci-fi, military, and technical writing!***

Another exception book by David Weber in the Honor Harrington series. I love the female heroine, which is not common in the sci-fi genre of this type, and she is totally believable, totally relatable, and simply amazing! I have read each and every book of this series and except for one, I found them all to be equally compelling. Now, I want one of those cats! (read the book to find out what I mean!)

Honor Harrington returns for a seventh installment in David Weber's bestselling series with In Enemy Hands. Honor is now in command of a joint squadron of both the Manticoran and Grayson naval forces. When she and her crew are ambushed by a Peep squadron and find themselves outnumbered and outgunned, Harrington must choose between fighting to the last man and seeing her crew oliterated, or surrendering her crew (and herself) to the People's Navy. Honor chooses the latter and finds herself imprisoned, tortured and humiliated (not to mention sentenced to death) by the Havenite State Security force. With Harrington out of the action, that allows charactaers like McKeon and Harkness to step up to center stage. Weber gives a delightfully cold-hearted villain in Cordelia Ransome, the PRH head of publicity. The Manicorans escape with the help of a renengade, but find the only place they can go is the Havenites' secret prison planet. This is a story that is "to be continued" into the next book. Altogether, In Enemy Hands is a great read and a great entry in Weber's excellent HH series. And I am currently reading (and enjoying) Book 8 in the Honor Harrington series, Echoes of Honor.

It had to happen eventually. Honor's luck had to run dry at some point and the Peeps had to find someone competent. These two facts collide horribly with terrible consequences for the grand Dame Honor.

Honor and some of her top people get captured in this one. That's bad enough. What makes it worse is that one of the head commissars is in the area when she is captured and has an axe she wants to grind...on Honor's neck. There is virtually nothing she can do about this situation either. That leaves it up to her loyal subordinates to get her out of this one. They do but pay a terrible price in doing so. No one is immune from damage in this one.

This book was nice in that it further developed characters on both sides of the war. Honor, while still prominent, takes more of a backseat and lets some of the other shine. We get to see courage, stupidity, sacrifice, venality and, yes, honor.

This is a fine book in the series. It is not my favorite but I still had a hard time putting it down.

After the superb 'On Basilisk Station,' 'In Enemy Hands' is my favorite HH novel. As the war starts turning in Manticore's favor, Honor is captured by recurring Peep admiral Lester Tourville. Cordelia Ransom, Citizen Committeewoman for Public Information, takes Honor aboard her flagship and announces that Honor will be executed for the events of OBS (remember, she was tried in absentia in the PRH). The rest of the story follows our heroes (including old series favs like McKeon, Venizelos, Tremaine, and Harkness) and Honor aboard Ransom's battlecruiser as it voyages to the secret Peep prison known as Hell... and Honor's appointment with the gallows. A good deal of the story is in character interaction, showing how the various members of Honor's crew (and Honor herself) deal with the brutality of their State Security (SS--get it?) captors. There is, though, quite the battle in the end, by far my favorite action sequence in an HH book. Longtime fans might shed a few tears as some old friends don't make it out alive, but the experience is definitely rewarding. This book ends in something of a cliffhanger, so you'll want the next one, 'Echoes of Honor,' on-hand as soon as you finish!

My second Honour Harrington novel, which now has me firmly resolved to go back to the beginning and start from the first to catch up. There is a sense of dramatic irony which Weber takes full advantage of. We know from the back-cover description that Honour gets captured; it is what the novel is about after all. So as certain decisions take her closer to that end, it makes you scream "look out behind you" with a sense of exciting anticipation: "how is Honour going to get out of this one?" Action, character and plot are all handled excellently: background and motivation dealt with in an intelligent manner rather than two-dimensionally. Generally the novel goes off in new directions, away from pure space-battles of the last few novels. I can see further diversions ahead as the novels continue (as they must, please as this novel ended on a great 'to be continued...'). Recommended SF action. One note on quality: my edition fell apart during reading. Perhaps this is a one-off, but I'm going to read the next book very carefully.

Many people have complained that Weber is becoming increasingly annoying in the way he describes HH. Yes she seems to be Superwoman but she has quite a few flaws - the biggest of which is the moving element of this book's plot. She can't put herself first and that is why she runs away from Hamish and straight into the Peep's hands. We've always known about her temper is a source of weakness (as well as strength). She can't sing to save her life, she grew up thinking she was ugly (something that's very hard to get over even in adulthood) and she suck's at math. She might have lesser flaws than someone else but she has the advantages to go with them. Charisma, discipline, single minded determination, love for her work and a great deal of intelligence. People worship movie stars these days for far, far less - Can you blame a planet like Grayson for worshipping her.
This book was good, particularly because it shows that Honor is human. She's imprisoned and humiliated by SS troops that everybody says are to stupid to live. But remember what their job is - They're not supposed to fight the enemy outside, they're supposed to prevent the navy from launching "another" coup. Remember also that Weber has forever told us that the Peep education system sucks, so if you're going to recruit from the Dolist ranks watch dogs for the navy this is the best you can do.
My favorite part of this book is the point where Honor is removed from the action which allows her people to take the center stage for a change (like Harkness and Alastair). It also provides us with a better look into the enemy and it's officers. We learn things about the relationship between The Navy and the SS. We finally get to meet Cordelia Ransom and we revel at her untimely demise. And finally it sets the stage for future stories. This is a good book.

A lot of fun to read. Honor is captured and sent to her death? Well, that last doesn't quite happen as planned. You know there will be a sequel in which Honor really razes Hell.

Many readers of the Honor Harrington series have caught on to the "Committee for Public Safety" run by Robert Stanton Pierre, but I wonder how many grasped the significance of Weber's choice of a name for the ship operated entirely by State Security personnel. You can enjoy a great story without understanding either of these literary touches, but they do add a nice bit of spice.

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