8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honor in Exile, July 14, 2002
David Weber has created Science fiction's equivalent of C.S. Forrestor's Horatio Hornblower saga with his ongoing saga of his heroine, Honor Harrington. With her faithful, and empathic, treecat Nimitz, this series is a true delight. This is swashbuckling, space opera sci-fi at its best, with excellent characters, a vibrant universe, complete with an intriguing socio-political plot which drives the overall plot of the background of this fascinating universe.
"Flag in Exile" opens with Honor Harrington having returned to Grayson, the patriarchial planet she saved in the 2nd novel in the series, "The Honor of the Queen." As a result of her efforts in that book, she was made Steadholder Harrington, one of the planet's 80 great nobles, with powers within her own domain far greater than any noble from her home system of Manticore.
Bearing the weight of the tragedies she sustained in the prior novel, ""Field of Dishonor", Honor is content to recover in private. But Grayson is desperately short on experienced officers, and Captain Honor Harrington, Royal Manticoran Navy, on half-pay from that service due to the political fallout of her quest for justice, is offered the rank of a full admiral in the Grayson Navy.
This novel spends time looking into the nature of Grayson politics, and has Honor and her treecat Nimitz dealing with religious zealots who cannot abide by the thought of what Honor, a woman, is doing to their male-dominated traditions. In addition, the Peoples Republic of Haven (Peeps) is attempting a counter-offensive in their war with the Manticoran Alliance. This novel serves to help widen the Honor Harrington Universe with its examination of Grayson politics.
Honor and friends must battle terrorists who would slaughter innocents, rampaging sexist bigots, and the ever-present menance of the Peeps. This book contains a brief afterword by the author relating a certain tragic event in this novel with the bombing in Oklahoma City. That afterword, and this book's look at the minds of religious zealots prepared to do anything for their beliefs, remains sadly relevant after the events of 9/11.
This is an excellent and enjoyable novel. The entire Honor Harrington series is perhaps the best space opera in the past decade plus.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"...I Drew My Snickersnee...", April 9, 2001
If Manticore's politicians are so short-sighted and bound by personal enmity and cynical politics that they won't let the RMN make use of Hinor's talents and abilities, rest assured that Protector Benjamin and *his* Admiralty are not.
The People's Republic of Haven has begun to swing the tide of battle a bit; if not actually in its own favour so far, at least a bit less one-sidedly toward Manticore.
While this book certainly has its quota of lasers, grasers and missiles and deadly space warfare, the more important parts are politics on Grayson, the religion-dominated world where Honor has been made the first female Steadholder (roughly a Royal Duke in terms of our own peerages, and very much the great feudal lord that such a title once implied).
On half-pay from the Manty Navy, she is invited to join the Grayson one -- as an Admiral. She does, and the usual results of giving Honor Harrington spaceships to play with ensue. (This woman attracts Forlorn Hope Last Stands like Jessica Fletcher atttracts murderers...)
Meanwhile, on Grayson, various reactionary elemsnts, offended at the thought of a woman having power, and even more offended that Honor had made no attempt to hide her relationship with her late lover, are trying to stir up bogotry and hatred against her... And some of them are very powerful men, indeed; men who will stop at nothing to discredit her, even if it means the deaths of countless innocents -- possibly even their own people!
But what this book is mostly notable for, in my opinion, is that it shows us more of the Grayson State Church of Humanity Unbound, and its God the Tester... And of Reverend Hanks, the physically but spiritually great man who stands at its head; a truly Good Man in the way so few, even religious, are truly Good Men. ((David swears he is *not* based on Archdeacon (later Bishop) Pinckney of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina, who we both had the good fortune of knowing while we were kids and he he was Archdeacon in charge of missions in that diocese, but i cannot imagine any other face or voice for him...))
And there is a terrible crime -- two terrible crimes, actually -- that shake Grayson and its society to their roots.
And Honor must stand, literally sword in hand, to being justice to a traitor...
Good read.
((In interests of total candour, i am David Weber's elder brother))
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honor Harrington vol. 5 - Honor becomes an admiral in the Grayson navy, July 22, 2007
"Flag in Exile" is the fifth book in a wonderful space opera series set some three thousand years in the future and featuring David Weber's best fictional heroine, "Honor Harrington."
These books are best read in sequence and I strongly recommend that you start with "On Basilisk Station" which is the first one.
The Honor Harrington stories are replete with parallels to the time of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In particular, the Royal Manticoran Navy in which the heroine is a captain is clearly based on the Royal Navy at the time of Nelson. (In this book she finds herself seconded to serve as an admiral in the navy of Manticore's ally, Grayson.)
The technology of space travel and naval warfare in the Honor Harrington stories has been written so as to impose tactical and strategic constraints on space navy officers similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago. Similarly the galactic situation in the novels contains many similarities to the strategic and political situation in European history in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
This seems to be quite deliberate: many thinly veiled (and amusing) hints in the books indicate that they are to some extent a tribute to C.S. Forester, while the main heroine of the books, Honor Harrington, appears to owe more than just her initials to C.S. Forester's character "Horatio Hornblower."
In the earlier book, "The Short Victorious War", Honor's home nation of Manticore, and their allies, were attacked by the People's Republic of Haven or "Peeps" - an agressive superpower which has been gradually conquering the small nations on its borders in bitesize chunks.
Following a coup in the People's Republic after their first round of attacks were not successful, Haven is now run by a "Committee of Public Safety" headed by one Rob S. Pierre, which has imposed a reign of terror. However, the new Peep government is just as committed to the war as the old one was.
Weber clearly means the reader to understand that Haven represents Revolutionary France. Early in this book, the Grayson High Admiral prsents a report to his head of state which concludes that "this is going to be a long, long war unless one side or the other completely screws up" and "this war isn't about territory any more. It's become a war for survival; someone - either the Kingdom of Manticore and its allies, including us, or the People's Republic of Haven - is going down this time, Your Grace. For good."
At the start of this book, Honor Harrington has been relieved of command of HMS Nike and put on half-pay after the fighting two controversial duels. So she has returned to Grayson where she is now a "steadholder" e.g. one of the most powerful people on the planet.
Up to this point in the series, Weber has appeared to show disdain and even contempt for politicians, but now that his heroine has become one, she has to think through the decisions she takes from that very different perspective. From this book onwards in the series, the way that political needs affect military objectives begins to be considered in a far more realistic and less oversimplified way.
However, Grayson doesn't just need Honor as a political leader: they desperately need her naval experience, so they ask her to take command of a squadron of superdreadnaughts.
More traditionalist elements on Grayson are horrified at the idea of a female steadholder, so Honor has to deal with some very nasty tactics, including a horrible act of terorism. Honor has to defend against enemies both within and without.
There is an author's note in my copy (September 1995) explaining that the original manuscript was completed in October 1994. Between the time it was finished and the novel's publication came the Oaklahoma bombing, an act Weber describes as "even more despicable than my fictional villains." He adds "That we cannot allow those actus to go unpunished or extend to those who commit them any shred of respect, whatever the "cause" which motivated them, is a lesson the civilised human community must teach itself."
At the time of writing there are thirteen full length novels and four short story collections in the "Honorverse" as the fictional galaxy in which these stories are set is sometimes known. The main series which tells the story of Honor Harrington herself currently runs to eleven novels; in order these are
On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonour
Flag in Exile
Honor among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
At All Costs
The four collections of short stories set in the same universe, not all of which feature Honor Harrington herself, are
More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Worlds of Honor III: Changer of Worlds
Worlds of Honor IV: The Service of the Sword
The two spin-off novels are "Crown of Slaves" (with Eric Flint) which is a story of espionage and intrigue featuring a number of characters first introduced in earlier Honor Harrington novels or "Honorverse" short story collections, and "The Shadow of Saganami" which is a kind of "next generation" novel featuring a number of younger officers in the navies of Manticore and her ally Grayson.
For amusement, if you want to try to look for the parallels to nations and individuals from the French revolutionary period and the Hornblower books, one possible translation would be:
People's Republic of Haven = France
Star Kingdom of Manticore = Great Britain
Gryphon = Scotland
Grayson = Portugal
Prime Minister Alan Summervale = Pitt the Younger
Hamish Alexander, later Earl White Haven = Admiral Edward Pellew
Honor Harrington = Horatio Hornblower
Alistair McKeon = William Bush
Crown loyalists and Centrists = Tory supporters of Pitt
Conservative Association = isolationist/hardline High Tories
New Kiev Liberals = Whig Oligarchists
Progressives and traditional liberals = Whig radicals
Legislaturist former rulers of Haven = Bourbon monarchy and French nobles
Rob S. Pierre = Robespierre
Committee of Public Safety = Committee of Public Safety
Anderman Empire = Kingdom of Prussia
Silesia = Poland
Solarian republic = United States of America
Wall of Battle = Line of Battle
Ship of the Wall = Ship of the Line
Battleship = "4th rate" sailing warship (in each case too small to form part of the main force in a fleet action, but powerful enough to defeat anything else smaller than a ship of the line/wall.)
Battlecruiser = frigate (5th rate)
Cruisers and destroyers = 6th rate and smaller warships
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