Customer Reviews

The Shadow of Saganami (The Saganami Island)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

David Weber has a lot of fans particularly for his Honor Harrington series. There have been ten novels and three collections of stories in that series and books from it have landed on best-seller lists. He has expanded his Honorverse to include two new series. The first in the "Crown of Slaves" branch focuses on politics and war over the issue of genetic slavery. Shadow of Saganami focuses on another area of this universe and brings in a new cast.
The Hexapuma, a brand-new cruiser commanded by a hero of the last war is assigned to bring a new cluster of planets into the growing Manticoran Empire after a referendum in which the vast majority call for annexation. Weber is able to introduce an (almost) entirely new cast of characters. Much of the action is centered around a group of midshipmen on their first cruise but the action involves many of the ship's leaders as well as politicians and terrorists from several worlds.
There is very little doubt that Weber writes from a post 9/11 perspective. The terrorists are being helped by a wide assortment of groups ranging from out of control bureaucrats to businesses directly involved with slavery. Plots abound as different groups and individuals plot their own destinies.
The book is long and exciting. Imagine trying to read more than 700 pages at one sitting! Terekhov, the captain, is a marvelous character, haunted by his past and focused on preventing both terrorism and war. The supporting cast is also strong. Even the villains are, in most cases, three dimensional.
For long-time readers of Weber there is the pleasure of running into old friends like Ginger Lewis, Aubrey Wanderman, Helen Zilwicki and Abigail Hearns. There are new characters who are certain to become favorites as well.
The issues that arise in the book are relevant to today's world and put in the context of good space opera. Fans of Weber will love the book and those who read this as their first Weber experience are likely to go looking for all the other books.

As Honor Harrington has progressed in her career, she has had to abandon the command of a starship, in order to take on squadron and then fleet command. While this is good for her, it's not as good for readers, because David Weber is at his best, I think, when he is telling the story of a single starship captain and what such a person and a dedicated crew can do when faced with a critical choice or puzzling-and-threatening situation.

In this book, Weber returns to the world of a single starship, in the service of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Honor Harrington appears briefly in the book, but it is not a book about her at all. Instead, it is about a new generation of officers, serving on a heavy cruiser. It's a great piece of standard Weber space opera: fun to read, and a bit overloaded with heavy exposition (I'd ding it half a star for the somewhat awkward expository passages if that were possible, but it's not).

At first, I thought the book would not hold my attention, but I was wrong. Once I sorted out who all the players were, this was a rollicking good read. It's not deep or particularly meaningful, but it is an excellent example of the kind of book it set out to be; the five stars are for the good story, the interesting characters, and the excellent fit between the plot and the writing (but as I mentioned above, I wish I could ding it half a star). Highly recommended to anyone who enjoyed the early Honor Harrington books.

After going to college with Dave and then later fixing his Osborne computer for him, I read a draft version of one of his Starfire books. It was excellent and I encouraged him to get it published. Later I got hooked on his Honor Harrington books. Where David excells is when he has a narrower focus and this is why I like his new Saganami Island Series, of which this is the first book. We meet students from Honor's teaching days on their middie cruise in the Talbot Cluster. Why this book re-earns a 5 star rating is because he shrinks down the multiple story lines that dragged War of Honor down to a 4. He also minimizes the repetition of details that dragged that book down as well. This is a nice tightly written book that brings more life to the Honorverse, and looks at other forms of corrupt government. The action is well told and the political points of view make great warnings to us in today's world.

The Shadow of Saganami is the second novel set in the Honor Harrington Universe but not centered on Honor Harrington herself. Instead, it focuses on a cast of new characters, operating in the Talbott Cluster, a "new frontier" for the Star Kingdom of Manticore which threatens to bring it into direct conflict with the Solarian League . . . the most powerful human political uinit ever to exist. The crew of the new heavy cruiser Hexapuma, under the command of a highly decorated captain still haunted by the horrendous losses ships under his command suffered in the previous war, must find a way to defeat the plots of genetic slavers, corrupt Solarian bureaucrats and industrialists, local terrorists, political intriguers, and old-fashioned incompetence. And in the process, they find themselves facing the "tradition of Sganami" . . . the tradition that Manticoran officers may die, but they do NOT give up the fight.

Despite the political dimensions of the book, Weber achieves a better balance between the action he writes so well and the political machinations of his villians than he was able to maintain in the previous mainstream Honor novel, War of Honor. It looks as if he is deliberately spreading into two new series-- this one, the Saganami Island series, and the Crown of Slaves series of collaborative novels with Eric Flint -- in an effort to broaden his canvas and permit more of the swashbuckling adventure of the earlier Honor novels while moving the political dimension of the Honorverse ahead in more managable sized bites. If that is his intention, he has succeeded admirably in this volume. I believe this may be the best Honorverse novel since Honor Among Enemies, which is high praise indeed.

Honor Harrington is mentioned a few times here but very much "off camera" as a few of her students get the spotlight.

Weber's trademark storyline of a routine show-the-flag mission becoming a desperately outnumbered battle rings true. But this time we've got a flawed captain, an irresolute admiral and midshipmen on their first cruise! Add in two very different terrorist groups, greedy corporate raiders, human slavery and corrupt politicians and you've got a can't-put-down blockbuster.

If you've been curious about David Weber's "Honorverse" here's a good way to get started!

If you are looking for Honor Harrington, this is not the book to find her. This is a great book focusing on her students and how they apply her lessons. While a good read, and a good book; Don't be pulled in by the jacket cover. Honor Harrington is mentioned but the book has nothing to do with her.

David Weber can write a great naval war story when he really tries to. This is one of the very best Weber novels I have ever read. The key element is that he has freed himself from the conventions which have dragged down the recent crop of Honor Harrington books.

First, and most importantly, there is no Honor Harrington. In one blow he solves his biggest problem -- Manticore characterization. No longer are all Maniticore characters either spineless bigots or honorable Honor-worshippers. They are free to be three-dimensional characters, with strengths and weaknesses that are completely unrelated to whether or not they are politically aligned with Honor Harrington.

Some of the stock villains remain -- the weak self-serving politicians, the evil and ruthless slavemasters, and even a shipload or two of former Saint-Just StateSec baddies. But even here Weber has partially restrained himself from resorting to the extreme caricatures of novels like FIELD OF DISHONOR.

Next, he has improved his pacing and cut down (somewhat) on the tiresome pages of dialog where various characters explain star system politics to each other. There are still some examples of this, but it is nowhere near as bad as ASHES OF VICTORY or WAR OF HONOR.

Most importantly, he has returned to his primary strength -- writing about the trials and tests of an honorable officer on a independent detached mission. He clearly communicates the intelligence, honesty, and courage required when making the wrong decision (or even the right one!) is going to result in loss of life.

Honor Harrington simply evolved into a character that Weber is not very good at writing about. When that happened to Horatio Hornblower, Forester's response was to go back to Hornblower's early years. Weber has done some of that as well, writing a few short stories in his "Worlds of Honor" series. But unlike Forester, Weber also controls the overall history of the universe he writes about, and he seems to have some plan for where it is going. Because of this, retreating to tales of Ms. Midshipman Harrington is not as attractive to him.

His answer is to go back to the roots of the "Honorverse" with a story about a cruiser captain and crew who do what they have to do because they are the only ones able to do it. The reward for making that decision is a very good novel, the best one Weber has published in several years.

Just when I was afraid that the Honorverse was in danger of running out of steam Weber launches this brilliant new off-shoot. The Shadow of Saganami is fresh, fun, and a great read, building on the universe we know and love with intriguing new characters and a great plot. While you don't really need to have read the prior books they do help you understand how things work in this new series.

For those of you who don't remember from before, Commodore Edward Saganami went down fighting superior odds in a heroic battle that inspired generations of Manticoran navel officers, sparked a naval tradition of courage and honor, and led to his name being placed on the main Manty training center. The opening sequence of the book has a brief "cameo appearance" by Honor Harrington who replays that epic battle for a graduating class of midshipmen. It is stirring and memorably written.

Okay, on to the rest of the plot... The central action surrounds a newly launched cruiser, Hexapuma (affectionately known as the nasty kitty), led by Captain Terekhov, a hero from the last war who may or may not have lost his nerve along with his last ship and much of it's crew. Hexapuma is assigned to bring a new group of planets (the Talbott cluster) into the Manticoran Empire after a referendum in which more than 80% of the population called for annexation to get away from nefarious Sollie influence. It's the disaffected fringe within the 20% that our heroes need to worry about...

The plot is complex, twisting, and hard to predict. The pacing is great. There is a bit more political intrigue and a bit less action than some previous Harrington novels but it is extremely well done nevertheless. The perspective is primarily centered around the aforementioned midshipmen (and woman)'s first cruise, though various ship's leaders, politicians, business moguls, and terrorists from several worlds are involved as well, creating a wonderful melting pot of characters, skullduggery, and intrigue. The new characters are great and the action quite memorable. Even the bad guys are three-dimensional. Like real people they didn't just wake up one day and decide to be evil. Everyone has sincere motivation.

Highly recommended. A great read!

This novel is intimately associated with the universe created for David Weber's character, Honor Harrington, but she has a cameo role only at the beginning, at the graduation exercises of the Manticorian Naval Academy. From there on out, the story is given over mostly to new characters. It does not suffer for that.

Although this is a volume of space faring naval adventure, it reads much less like that than as a political thriller. There are a few space battles, well thought out and well written (to be expected from Weber) but most of the book deals with the political intrigues that take place in the Talbot Cluster after they request annexation by Manticore. Although a plebiscite overwhelmingly approved annexation, most of the systems and people did so for differing reasons. There are also a few people who are violently disposed against annexation. These run the gamut from home grown terrorists to a slightly more respectable freedom fighter to other political entities with a vested interest in seeing this backwater remain a backwater. It turns out that it is the foreign influence which is most dangerous and it is the crew of the Hexapuma which is sent to bring order from chaos. They do so with flair, gallantry and bitter losses.

This book is billed as the first in a new HH series but I must have missed something along the way. I had some knowledge of many of the characters but there were some gaping holes in my knowledge of the back story. I can only assume that I should have read CROWN OF SLAVES (the only one I have yet to read) first and I plan to do just that immediately. This did not hamper my enjoyment of this book but I suspect I would have enjoyed it more had it been read first.

This is another winner.

While war rages between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven in another sector, the Talbott Cluster has voted to join the former. As a show of diplomatic unity, flag-raising, and military strength, the heavy cruiser HMS Hexapuma journeys to this remote sector. Though Captain Terekov is a weary war hero, much of the crew remains untested as recent graduates from the Saganami Island Royal Naval Academy.

However, the simple show of strength turns dangerous as an alliance has sprung up abetting local terrorists opposed to joining the Star Kingdom. Apparently a pact to destroy Manticore has been agreed to by the Manpower slaveholders, the genetic slavers of the kingdoms of Mesa and Monica, and the Solarian League bureaucracy. The crew of the Hexapuma is all that stands in the way of a rear attack on the Star Kingdom, but how will this untested crew stand up when brothers and sisters in arms start dying?

THE SHADOW OF SAGANAMI may be military science fiction great David Weber's best tale in the Honorverse as he shows war from various perspectives mostly from five newcomers. The audience can taste the excitement and fear that death stalks anyone and everyone and no one is immune. The rookie warriors will learn honor comes from the long tradition of those who previously served and in some cases died doing their military duty irregardless of mission for their kingdom. Mr. Weber provides an action packed tale with a fully developed multiple cast that lives up to the values of today's American army (Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless-Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage)


Harriet Klausner