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.
