343 pages
English language
Published Nov. 7, 1994 by Baen, Distributed by Simon & Schuster.
Novel 3 of the Harrington Series. Follows "The Honor of the Queen". After almost a year to recover from the injuries suffered in the previous book, Honor is returned to command of a brand new battlecruiser. She now has to face an overwhelming force as open warfare with Haven breaks out. This novel is followed by "Field of Dishonor".
This is the point where the author's re-creation of the French Revolution in space really starts to get going which means that if you are familiar with that history, then there aren't going to be many big surprises in the developments on the Haven side of things.
Actually, what I enjoyed most about this book was the multiple viewpoints of each side as they advanced their forces according their information. How someone can make the perfectly correct move locally, and how that correct move is completely wrong on a grand over. It was interesting seeing everyone's decision process, agreeing how that makes sense, and then watching it all fall apart.
Granted, the first page mocks the thought of a "short victorious war" and then all but hands Manticore one. Also, it feels that the big bad of the series has been gutted, and be reading the description of the next book, I'm not as eager to read the fourth.
Actually 1.5 stars out of 5, not 2. But I'll round it up, hoping that the sequel will be better. If not, well, too bad.
The problem with this book? Nothing happens. Not really. Yes there is a war, and another battle. Weber is good at writing space battles. But it is very repetitive. A battle as a story climax, every book, no. That's getting old.
We get some half-assed romance in here, making us care about some redshirt who will probably die in one of the next books, so we never really get to know him. There's another old mentor/protector/whatever dude who likes Honor and gets thrashed during that final battle. Weber sucks at writing characters. They are flat and one-dimensional. There is no development, nothing.
A battle can be beautifully written, but if your reader doesn't care about the characters in that battle, what's the point?
I'll read …
Actually 1.5 stars out of 5, not 2. But I'll round it up, hoping that the sequel will be better. If not, well, too bad.
The problem with this book? Nothing happens. Not really. Yes there is a war, and another battle. Weber is good at writing space battles. But it is very repetitive. A battle as a story climax, every book, no. That's getting old.
We get some half-assed romance in here, making us care about some redshirt who will probably die in one of the next books, so we never really get to know him. There's another old mentor/protector/whatever dude who likes Honor and gets thrashed during that final battle. Weber sucks at writing characters. They are flat and one-dimensional. There is no development, nothing.
A battle can be beautifully written, but if your reader doesn't care about the characters in that battle, what's the point?
I'll read one more book in this series. Not straight away, maybe I've been reading too much sci-fi lately and have become jaded. So I'll take a short break, then read the next book. If that one too falls flat, well, then it's goodbye Honor Harrington. Then that series is just not for me.
After the 2nd book in the series, I'd concluded that I didn't want to read any more, but my husband picked this one up. I struggled through the massive info-dump about politics at the beginning, soldiered on for awhile, and concluded that it wasn't worth reading. I did skim enough to enjoy the space battle scene. I won't be reading any more of this series. The 'As we know, Bob' interludes are many and leaden. The characterization is to often done by telling rather than by showing. My husband did actually read it, but concluded that he didn't want to read any more of the series.
