Fulminata reviewed Field of Dishonor by David Weber (Honor Harrington, #4)
Review of 'Field of Dishonor' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Even more politics, even less space battle.
Paperback, 367 pages
English language
Published March 7, 1994 by Baen Books.
Honor in Trouble:
Having made him look like a fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her.
Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station.
The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens.
Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called "Republic" of Haven is Up To Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system.
But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad.
Even more politics, even less space battle.
I enjoyed this when I read it. The world building was interesting, and the in-depth construction of the space battles and technology was entertaining. In retrospect, the characters were a bit two dimensional, and while it's good that the protagonist is a woman, it's a bit too obvious at times that she's being written by a man. Not in a gross way, just in an occasionally unfortunate way. As pointed out by other reviewers, the fact that she is a beautiful woman who doesn't realize her own beauty is problematic, and the fact that we're constantly being told about her beauty by other characters is very male gazey.
Still, a much better attempt to do "Hornblower in space" than some other attempts done around the same time cough Seafort Saga cough.
Sometimes you want a steak and sometimes you want a cheeseburger, and this book was a delicious fuckin cheeseburger.
An excellent read!