Customer Reviews

War of Honor (Honor Harrington #10)

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(51)
1 star:		(34)

 

 

War of Honor is, of course, the latest chapter in David Weber's bestselling Honor Harrington series of novels, a series which I have been reading practically since the beginning. For the most part I've enjoyed them, even if they do get a little repetitive sometimes. But starting with the last book (Ashes of Victory) and continuing with this one, I'm beginning to suspect that Weber is just running out of steam with Honor. In both books very little actually happens, just what feels to be a lot of set up. Unfortunately, War of Honor suffers from this even more than Ashes of Victory, even though at 800+ pages it is by far the longest of the series so far.

Reading War of Honor brings to mind the old joke description of American Football, namely random violence punctuated by staff meetings. The problem, however, is that Weber places far too much emphasis on the staff meetings. Lots and lots of staff meetings. So many that, at times, you get the impression you are not so much reading a novel as paging through the collected minutes of various conferences. And that is the crux of the problem with War of Honor: there is far too much talking, far too many people discussing or explaining what is happening than truly showing it, to actually get interested in the story. Despite the title the war itself doesn't even start until less than 100 pages from the end, so those who pick up this book expecting a heavy dose of space combat will be highly disappointed.

It's very frustrating, because lurking just underneath there is a fascinating story that Weber simply chose not to tell, opting instead to have his characters talk and talk and talk. The fate of the North Hollow Files, for instance, or an encounter between a Havenite destroyer and a merchant ship, or the opening sequence aboard a warship shadowing a merchant (a sequence which, incidentally, makes for a great teaser, but for which we are never given an adequate explanation of just what the hell was going on!), or any one of a dozen subplots and events that are just begging to be more fully examined. But yet, this is not to be; just when you think that the story has started to pick up legs, just when you think that "at last, a real plot development" is about to occur that we will actually see, the chapter ends and the next chapter begins with some set of characters discussing the results. I'm not kidding. Nearly every major plot point comes to light not from actions, but from everyone discussing what is happening/has happened around a table of some sort. All in all, its very maddening, and not in any way narratively satisfying. It also makes for some very, very boring reading.

Then there is Weber's attempts at characterization, and rather ham-fisted ones at that. He provides a love interest for Honor. But just to make sure we get the point, he outright tells us that the character is a love interest. Several times. Each time pretty much repeating what he had already said. Then he goes and has half the characters in the book say pretty much the same thing he had already said omnisciently. He doesn't so much as make a case for a relationship by the actions of his characters as to tell us bluntly over and over again what is going on.

Now, having said all of this, I wouldn't say that the book is bad. It's just not very good. Mediocre is the best word to describe it, adequate for those who are already fans of Weber and his Honor Harrington universe (NOTE: This is NOT the book to give to people who are not already familiar with the series!). The book needed to be about 1/3 less in length, or failing that, have about 1/3 less talking heads. Weber's attempt, clearly, was to write a novel about politics, and especially about how rapidly relations between nations can deteriorate. That and jump starting the Manticore-Havenite war he had so abruptly ended in Ashes of Victory. But he takes 800+ pages to do it, and still has less plot than any previous entry in the series. Overall, it's a very disappointing outing in an otherwise outstanding series.

SIDE BAR: One thing in War of Honor's favor, however, is that the hardbound edition was initially released with a CD-Rom attached as an extra. This CD-Rom contains e-books not only of the entire Honor Harrington series, but also e-books by a number of other writers (including James H. Schmitz, Keith Laumer, and Eric Flint) in a variety of formats. 25+ books in all, and several very good ones at that. This means you can download them to your Palm Pilot or have them read to you by Microsoft Reader, or just plain print them up and read them on your own. So much is on this CDR that I think it is fair to say that it is worth the price of the book. I'm not certain what Baen Books long term plan for the CDR is, and it certainly won't be available when the paperback edition comes out at the end of 2003, so my recommendation is to pick up the hardbound with the CD-Rom while you still can. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

This is the tenth book in the series, and weighing in, literally, at 864 pages. A tome indeed.

Most of you have probably have read all of the preceding nine books. Here, the Star Kingdom has defeated the People's Republic of Haven and has spent five years negotiating, though not finalising, an uneasy peace. Haven has undergone another revolution and is now a wobbly, democratic Republic of Haven. All the surviving protagonists in the last novel are back, which will please many readers.

Qualitatively, this book is really the start of another series. If you think of it this way, several things make sense, like its length, and the criticisms of other reviewers. I suggest you take a time out here from reading my scribblings and peruse the other reviews, if you haven't already done so.

Several reviewers have panned this novel, saying that there is little action and way too much verbiage. I don't disagree. If it is space opera, there is essentially only one significant fleet action here. But look a little deeper at what Weber has done. In the early books, the Peeps were the out-and-out bad guys. No ambiguity here! And Manticore had several ratbags amongst its politicians and officers. But as the series went on, we saw several decent Peeps. Not so black and white any more. The nineth novel ends with the good Peeps successfully overthrowing their government. Along the way, the Andermani empire was increasingly mentioned. Weber was positioning it as a possible future plot complication.

Do you know what I found strange about the tenth novel? The top leaders amongst the Haveners (they are not Peeps anymore) are all decent chaps. A couple of lower ranking creeps, but not more so than in Manticore. Weber is writing a subtler game. It is also harder to write. He is setting the stage for future novels of greater ambiguity. This in part, I think, accounts for some of the book's length.

Don't forget the Andermani. A large portion of the book is set in the Silesian Confederacy, which sits between the Star Kingdom and the Andermani Empire. The Andermani are clearly modelled on Bismarck's Germany, a militaristic expansionist regime. Anyone reading this book might sense future trouble between them and the Star Kingdom. Clearly, Weber is hedging his bets. So he is fleshing out the terrain. He probably does not know how the future novels will turn, but he is keeping his options open. In part because a straightout rematch between the Star Kingdom and Haven might simply look too repetitive to readers. And there's even a hint that the Terran-based worlds may take an active part in future conflicts.

This is why I claim that this book is really the start of a new series. Compare it to the previous books for logical consistency. But it opens new arenas. Could be very interesting indeed!

So yes, I do agree with those reviewers who say that this book is long, with little action, and is not the best of the ten books. But I say to you: Dig deeper and see WHY this is, and what it implies for the future novels.

Opening Disclaimer: If you click on the "About Fairportfan" link, you will discover that my name is michael a. weber, and that i am David Weber's elder brother. I was the one who asked Baen Books editor Toni Weisskopf (at an SF convention) if she'd like to see a military SF novel by my brother that was getting no respect at another publisher. I mention this at the beginning of any reviews of his work that i write. Mostly if you check my reviews of Dave's work, you'll find the bias is toward five stars -- and not because he's my brother, but because they're Good Stuff in which (mostly) Dave plays to his strengths and minimises his weaknesses.

One of his weaknesses, unfortunately, is that he just can't write Villains that don't remind me of Oilcan Harry menacing Pearl Pureheart in a Mighty Mouse cartoon.

That's *Villains*, mind -- people like Pavel Young or Steadholder Mueller -- as opposed to Bad Guys, like the military types on The Other Side who are just doing their duty as best they can. (Rob Pierre falls somewhere between the two, and is the closest to a Villain who doesn't just do things because he's Evial, but because, at base, he actually has a more or less worthwhile End that he uses to justify his Means that Dave has successfully pulled off.)

Unfortunately, this book is full of Villains, all sneering and twirling their mustachios for all they're worth.

I suppose, for those who agree more than i do with David's politics, this book is a more satisfying read than it was for me -- in fact, i believe that i noticed a five-star review which basically said something like that -- but i bounced off it twice (once in a pre-publication manuscript that Dave e-mailed me) before finally managing to finish it.

Basically, there are:

Too much talk, not enough action.

Too much politics, not enough of the Real World,

and,

Too many characters, not enough people.

Intelligent people act uncharacteristically dumb to make the plot work. Neither side in a complex and important negotiation bothers to double-check that messages between the parties are relayed accurately.

What space warfare there is is curiously uninvolving.

And the subplot of Honor's starcrossed romantic life is irritating.

All that said, this is a necessary book, getting us from, essentially, the Napoleonic Era to, maybe, World War One in terms of the Realpolitik of the Galaxy, and setting up the new framework that future books will be set within.

That doesn't make it any more readable.

I think i'll go back and reread some of David's books that i gave five stars to while i'm waiting for the next Honor to see if i'm right...

I agree that this is long. There's not nearly the action in this novel that was in some of the others in the series. But...

The groundwork is now laid for at least two - three more novels in the series. (An upcoming war with the Solarian League should be in the offing.) And there is a depth to the characters that normally isn't explored in a science fiction series. The comments that Honor is acting like a teenage girl - think about it (and her) for a second. Prolong kept her gangly - then she was assaulted and nearly raped. Paul Tankersly was killed because he loved her. She has lost an arm and an eye. And she happens to be one of the wealthiest women in the Star Kingdom - who also has a full time naval career in addition to being a Steadholder. Now answer this question.

When has she had TIME to find out about love and her inner feelings?

As a seasoned reader of the series, after a while the space combat really becomes secondary to the characters. You get to know these people as friends - Rafe, Scotty, Sir Horace, Shannon Foraker. Action is nice - but after a while, it's all the same.

I am starting to get the impression that Honor is slowly approaching that place fighter pilots don't ever want to be in: Low, Slow and out of Ideas.

I got cornholed by folks for my review of David Weber's Ashes of Honor because I thought it was slow and spent too much time dealing with minor sidebars instead of Honor being Honor. This book only confirms what I had feared in the last book.

The book was awful. I received this book for my birthday and as soon as I picked it up I got a bad feeling about this. After reading through it three months later, my instincts were proven right. Normally, I can finish one of his books off in one night, but this one was an epic struggle to go through this one.

Most of the reviewers are dead bang on about its characterization weaknesses so I won't dwell too much on that.

First of all, it spent so much time in discussions and meetings. This is what I do my damndest to avoid as much as possible at work so why would I want to spend my time reading about them?

As I said before and I am now pleading. David, please stop beating us over the head with the obvious. She's pretty, she's smart, she loves her Treecat and she's very humble. Enough. After ten books this is starting to come across as really needy and annoying.

Finally, I think David Weber is a good author as long as he can keep everything short and to the point. He's fallen into what I call Tom Clancy disease. It appears that he is so wrapped up into the world that he created and feels every minor twist is of absolute importance. This is why we end up with 900-1100 page painful to read monsters instead of a good flowing book of 500-600 pages.

Please get back to the descriptive, yet compact style that made Honor Harrington so good in the first place.

I am truly hesitant to say this because I have greatly enjoyed David Weber's 'Honor Harrington' series in the past, but it seems that Mr. Weber has jumped on the Robert Jordan bandwagon of 'fluffing' or writing for writings sake. Whether this is a conscious effort on Weber's part or in response from his publishing house to sell more pulp, the result, is in fact, more pulp.

My anticipation for this book was great. But 800 pages of redundant diplomatic chit-chat later and my anticipation had turned to dread. Most of the novel revolves around the seemingly endless diplomatic back-and-forth between the Manticoran government, who are now, in a stunning plot twist (as if in a 10 book series EVERY other plot device hasn't been used), the bad guys, and the new and sympathetic Republic of Haven government. Chapter after chapter is filled with the endless interpretations of these messages by both the Manticoran and Haven governments. Throw in the Grayson point of view as well as Honor and her think tank and you have 600 pages of fluff and 200 pages of actual novel.

The name of the book would lead the reader to believe that Honor Harrington is the main character. This is far from the truth. Honor has been relegated to a minor player who has reached such elevated political heights that she has been effectively insulated from the `man in the trenches.' Honor is now an example of the impotent political animal that she so despised in the previous 9 books of the series.

I realize that this was a transitional book, but at the prices publishers want for literature these days a `transitional' book just doesn't cut it.

Look. I could spend a lot of time trying to warn potential readers from buying this book. The truth is that it is well written. But the harder truth is that it is not worth spending the money on the Hardback version. I rated this novel 2 stars because this book is an example of the commercialization of serialized writing. Authors and publishing houses are increasingly producing this kind of fluff writing to take advantage of an established customer base. The idea works. I bought the book. I feel suckered. Don't make the same mistake. Wait for the paperback version, or better yet, wait until it hits your local library.

Wait for this one in paperback if you want to have the entire series.

It must be terrible to have a conversation in War of Honor. Imagine a room of people who will say three sentences and then look off into space for several minutes while completing their inner monologue. This happens to some extent in all this series, but it was very pronounced in this one.

I really like the series as a whole, most books are four or five stars. This one gets two because it is setting up the Napoleonic Wars (with a few twists from later continental conflicts), and that takes some background. This much background is really overboard. I found this book to be a waste up through the mid-four-hundred page range, leaving a moderate book at the end that wasn't bad, yet wasn't up to any of the prior ones.

It is obvious early in the book that England and Prussia (Manticore and Andermani) are going to war with France (Haven), having agreed to partition Poland (Silesia). Russia (Solarian), with its huge outdated military, waits in the wings. Napoleon (Tom Theisman) has overthrown the Committee for Public Safety and restored the morale of the military. Is the moral to the physical as three to one? Find out in the next book.

War of Honor
by David Weber
2002 Baen Press
ISBN 0-7434-3545-1

(Includes CD.)

I love the Honor Harrington series. I've read them all, some more than once, and I've given them away as presents too.

Having said that, this is not the best of the bunch. War of Honor is 864 pages long (868 counting the nice glossary) and there are three pages of maps which I am not counting. Of those 860+ pages, 600+ are devoted entirely to . . . committee meetings.

Committee meetings on Manticore held by the enemies of Honor who are still running the government. Committee meetings on Haven, where Admiral Theisman & Co. have thrown out the old dictatorship and installed a constitutional democracy (restored the original one, actually). Committee meetings where they plot to avoid war. Committee meetings where they maliciously manipulate events to cause a new war. Committee meetings on top of committee meetings. What's bad is that all the committee members tend to talk alike, using the same grammar and turns of phrase, no matter if they are on Manticore or Haven. (It's easy to forget which is which, without referring back to the character's names and titles.) What's worse is that Honor is not in most of them -- 600+ pages without Honor Harrington, only talk, talk, talk and more talk.

I would gladly dispense with 90% of the committee meetings pages and settle for their gist. The result would be a 320+ page novel which features Honor Harrington and space battles (Admiral Harrington gets a whole fleet this time), with just enough committee stuff to add spice to the stew, and no action scenes shortened by one word.

If one wanted a 600 page history of how nations inadvertently drift into war, let me recommend one of the excellent historians who have studied this topic, Barbara Tuchman for instance.

All in all, it is an Honor Harrington novel, and I willingly (more or less) plowed through the mountain of chaff to get the wheat hidden in there. Weber shines when he writes action, and it's in there somewhere.

First, the good news: the hardback I bought of this book came with a CD-ROM bound in, which contained a number of goodies:

* all 10 previous Honor Harrington book, in various file formats
* a cover gallery of the Mattingly covers for the books, which are generally very, very nice to look at
* the various star charts and ship schematics that have appeared in the books
* the two collections of stories set in the "Honorverse," by various authors like David Drake and Weber himself
* a number of books in various file formats by military scifi authors like John Ringo and David Drake

Other good stuff:

* the book has a glossary of terms found not just in this book, but in many of the other "Honor" books. It would have been nice if it had been more extensive, but it's a good start. Perhaps we'll eventually get a "Guide to the Honorverse" out of Weber? One can only hope.

* Weber doesn't balk at shaking things up amongst his characters and within his setting. I don't know how much foreshadowing Weber actually intended, but I have to admit that I became concerned early in the book that some major characters would die, or that the stellar political landscape would change even more drastically than it did at the end of Ashes of Victory. This is a good thing overall, since it keeps the reader guessing.

The book itself is the longest of the Honor Harrington books. Unfortunately, it feels like it.

One of the things that bothered me was just how black and white the characters were. The Machiavellian High Ridge government has few redeeming qualities amongst its principle movers and shakers. Not a single thing they do, even the few things that are actually worthwhile (like a scientific project to find a new wormhole juntion), are done for any reason other than sheer lust for power. This has been true of the political "bad guys" in all the Harrington books, and it is blazingly evident in this book especially. I mean, in a society as progressive and as capable of producing nobly-motivated people as the Star Kingdom of Manticore, it seems curious that it oculd be run by such despicable characters.

Now, I try to remain aware that this is a book about good guys and bad guys, that in Weber's "Honorverse" the characters are all highly exaggerated in their deeds and words. This is, after all, a space opera, in the best sense of the term. These stories are about Heroes with a capital "H," jut-jawed and nigh-infallible. Certainly they need appropriate villains, as diametrically opposed to them as possible. It just gets tiresome to read page after page of craven, double-talking politicians discussing how to spin-doctor everything to their advantage.

In addition, it seems that almost no one in Weber's "Honorverse" makes a mistake, especially a truly bad one, unless they're a total, spineless incompetent. That is, any given character who is written by Weber to be sympathetic at all is pretty much infallible. There are, to be fair, a few examples in the books, including this one, of "good guys" who do make mistakes, but Weber bends over backwards to make the reader aware that these characters only made such mistakes due to extenuating circumstances. It would be interesting if a good guy occasionally just simply messed up, or made a dumb decision, without an accompanying explanation as to how it really wasn't that character's fault.

Conversely, it'd be nice if there was the occasional routinely competent character. That is, someone who actually knows their job, and is neither spectacularly good or devastatingly bad at it.

Certainly these are decisions for the author to make, and as a reader, if I dislike his decisions, I can always simply choose not to read the books. Still, I really do love these books. I just have to admit that it's become very predictable; anyone who shows any sign of disagreement with any major protagonist, or who does anything that a major protagonist would not do, will always be shown to have thoroughly screwed up everything they've done, and will be revealed to be a total incompetent.

As a reader, I guess I crave antagonists who are both sympathetic or even likable, and who actually do things with which the protagonists disagree, but don't screw everything up. Especially when it comes to the political stuff. However, even when it comes to the space battles, it'd be nice to see a martinet commander who actually is good at being a starship captain, or a nobly-motivated space commander who really isn't very good at what he does. Yeah, I understand that the space opera genre is all about noble, infallible heroes and craven, petty villains, and I love the genre for that, but mixing it up a bit on occasion would provide enough variety to keep boredom from setting in.

Speaking of political stuff...I have to admit that I grew restless with what seemed like endless stretches of the book which dealt with High Ridge and his cabinet bickering and plotting. I understand that much of it was laying groundwork for what later resulted in the book, and what will result in later books entirely, but I can't help feeling much of it could have been edited down (like this review, I guess ;) ).

Overall, I liked the book. It feels more like a transitioanl piece, which shifts the focus from one area to another, rather than a major landmark in the series. It does open a number of new narrative possibilities, all of them potentially fodder for plenty of new books. Where it fails, in my opinion, is in the overwritten political aspect. My initial inclination is to give it 3 stars, but I'm adding a 4th star for the spectacularly cool CD-ROM found in the hardback edition.

I guess what lies ahead will be a SPOILER, so be aware...I think it's interesting that Weber has set up things so that further combat with the Republic of Haven may be necessary, and a conflict with the Solarian League is in the offing.

A few things I'd love to see as a reader of these books:

* a more extensive glossary
* a guide to the "Honorverse" that lists and explains people, places, and things
* how about a conflict with spacefaring aliens?

Some of the other Honor books have been page-turners, all of the other ones I've read have been entertaining. This one is just boring. The first 80 pages consist of endless explanations of the politics of the various star nations and - I'm not kidding - and interminable explanation of the game of baseball. I don't know what happened after that. I put the book down and have no intention of picking it up again. Mr. Weber, get an editor.