The Honor of the Queen (Honor Harrington, #2)

I enjoy the space opera (or Horatio Hornblower) aspects, adore the treecat, but find the politics unpleasant. I don't mean the political machinations in the plot, but the ones assumed in the book's point-of-view. [return][return]All military personnel, with the exception of some of the enemy officers, are Good. They are honorable, hardworking, and smart. [return]The only civilian we see much of at all in this book is an economist (Reginald Houseman). He is Bad. Arrogant, abusive, cowardly, and deeply stupid about political conflict. He is from Mannheim University's College of Economics, and Honor notes that Mannheim wasn't called 'Socialist U' for nothing.[return][return]The empire that Honor's Manticore will end up fighting directly somewhere down the line (I'm just on book #2) is Haven. Haven is referred to as a hellish and oppressive place to live, but just about the only fact I've gleaned about it is that they have a large proportion of the population on the dole. That seems like the sort of shorthand description of 'bad place' that FOX news would sketch.[return][return]I'm also very uncomfortable with the torture in this book. Some captured women officers are tortured by being raped, and this is presently as horrific (as it should be). However, captured male soldiers are interrogated by Grayson Intelligence using means that Honor and the Protector don't want to know too much about, and they are very pleased at how quickly they get useful information. It read to me as if one was supposed to understand that torture was being used.