From /tmp/sf.5173 Mon Apr 12 22:35:20 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!uunet!olivea!decwrl!netcomsv!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: David Weber: Honor Harrington on Basilisk Station Message-ID: <1993Mar6.035843.25996@netcom.com> Date: 6 Mar 93 03:58:43 GMT Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Lines: 25 "Honor Harrington on Basilisk Station" is the first of what's obviously meant to be as many "Honor Harrington" novels as Baen can sell. (The second, "Honor of the Queen", will be out in two months, and presumably sequels will depend on sales.) This didn't deter me from trying it: It looked as though it might be intereting space opera -- and these opening novels of would-be series generally have to be pretty good. And so it was. Pure space opera: Honor Harrington is a brilliant captain in the Manticoran space navy -- the kind who's in the right place at the right time, and whose ship can outfight ten times her number because she's a tactical genius and her heart is pure -- who's made the mistake of seriously embarrassing a petty officer. Unfortunately, when an admiral decides to be petty... So Harrington's ship is assigned to the nether end of beyond, which is *how* she happens to be in the right place at the right time. Pure space opera, but fun. I'll keep reading it as long as it doesn't disappoint. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com The surface of the strange, forbidden planet was roughly textured and green, much like cottage cheese gets way after the date on the lid says it is all right to buy it.--Scott Jones From /tmp/sf.4258 Tue Feb 1 03:24:23 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!paladin.american.edu!gatech!news-feed-2.peachnet.edu!umn.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: David Weber: The Armageddon Inheritance (some spoilers) Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1993 03:43:48 GMT Lines: 35 "The Armageddon Inheritance" is the sequel to David Weber's "Mutineer's Moon". Honor Harrington it isn't. Readers who have not read "Mutineer's Moon" should avoid the sequel. Readers who have will find this book disappointing, but worth reading if you desire to find out what happens next. What does happen next? Well, the BEMs who've been destroying all life in the galaxy for the past seventy million years are making another excursion. Earth is in their path, but if they can just hold off the first wave of a few thousand ships and the second wave of a few million ships, everything will be fine. Meanwhile, the original moon-ship goes back to the Imperium, to find out why there's been no response to their messages -- and finds out that there isn't going to be as much help from that quarter as was hoped. This being a David Weber novel, we know there are going to be major battles in which most of the good guys die. Actually, the most irritating thing about this book is the extent to which Weber has cooked the numbers to make his plot come out: Change his figures by a few light years here, a few ships there, a few months or years elsewhere, and most of the tension disappears. It's very contrived. (As is the secret of the BEMs, which was partly foreshadowed in the first ten pages.) In sum, a book for David Weber completists. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com 'T is with our judgements as our watches, none Go alike, yet each believes his own --Alexander Pope From /tmp/sf.17355 Thu Jun 3 23:56:01 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!news.tele.fi!uunet!noc.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ames!olivea!hal.com!decwrl!netcomsv!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: David Weber: "The Honor of the Queen" Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Wed, 12 May 1993 07:40:20 GMT Lines: 16 "The Honor of the Queen" is David Weber's second novel about Honor Harrington, a space captain who defeats incredible odds because her heart is pure, her tactical sense is unparalleled, and her ship has particularly good electronic counter-measures. Yeah, it's space opera, but it doesn't try to be more, and Weber is good at what he does. The point of reading the book isn't to find out whether the right will triumph; it's to go along for the ride as it does. A nice, if slightly mindless, change of pace from developing your palate. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com Roses red and violets blew and all the sweetest flowres that in the forrest grew -- Edmund Spenser From new Thu Jun 16 18:51:35 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.kei.com!hookup!batcomputer!alchemy.ithaca.ny.us!alchemy!cpf From: cpf@alchemy.TN.Cornell.EDU (Courtenay Footman) Subject: Weber: Honor Harrington Message-ID: <1994Mar6.053906.8756@alchemy.ithaca.ny.us> Sender: usenet@alchemy.ithaca.ny.us Nntp-Posting-Host: localhost Organization: Alchemy International, Ithaca, N.Y. Date: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 05:39:06 GMT Lines: 45 David Weber's new Honor Harrington book, _The Short Victorious War_, is out, and it is as good as its predecessors. For those who don't know, the Honor Harrington series is dedicated to C. S. Forester, and it is not a coincidence that H.H's initials are the same as Horatio Hornblower's. Weber has done a superb job of putting Horatio Hornblower in space. On tSVW, Baen has a unique front cover blurb. It says "WE LOVE OUR HONOR!" Cover blurbs are notorious for their fulsomeness; however, in this case the blurb is accurate. (At least *I* love her, and I have seen others who also seem to have this weakness.) The title does NOT describe the war described in the book; rather Weber is quoting the unfortunate Russian Minister of the Interior who, in 1903 said to the Russian Minister of War "What this country needs is a short victorious war to stem the tide of revolution." He may even have been right! However, that is not what he got. A short victorious war is what the People's Republic of Haven wants; I will let you guess whether or not that is what it gets. (BTW, for those who have not read the series, the PRH is not what is today named a "People's Republic". The PRH has an absurd economy, but it absurd in its own way, not communist.) The three Honor Harrington books are On Basilisk Station, ISBN 0-671-72163-5, 1993 The Honor of the Queen, ISBN 0-671-72172-0, 1993 The Short Victorious War, ISBN 0-671-87596-1, 1994 Field of Dishonor is forthcoming, and is scheduled for later this year. All books are by David Weber and published by Baen Books, New York The next paragraph contains spoilers: I do love Honor; however I am a bit upset with Weber about one thing: He named one character Robert (Rob) Stanton Pierre. I was slow, and did not realize what he was pulling here until he literally spelled it out: Rob S Pierre. AAAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!! Aside from that, though tSVW maintains the standards he set in the first two books. One begins to wonder, though, how much longer the Royal Maticoran Navy will keep giving Honor ships-- Each time they do so, she breaks it! -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Courtenay Footman I finally got back on the net. cpf@alchemy.ithaca.ny.us Now I will never get anything done From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 01:53:12 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!zip.eecs.umich.edu!yeshua.marcam.com!hookup!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: croaker%nowhere@uunet.uu.net (Francis A. Ney, Jr.) Organization: Who me? Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Honor Harrington by David Weber Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: Reply-To: croaker@access.digex.net Date: Mon, 04 Apr 1994 22:39:18 GMT Lines: 117 "From: Admiral Sir Lucien Cortez Fifth Space Lord, Royal Manticoran Navy "To: Commander Honor Harrington Royal Manticoran Navy 35th day, Fourth Month, Year Two Hundred Eighty After Landing "Madam: "You are hereby directed and required to proceed aboard Her Majesty's Starship FEARLESS (CL56), there to take upon yourself the duties and responsibilites of Commanding Officer in the service of the Crown. "Fail not in this charge at your peril. "By Order of Admiral Sir Edward Janacek First Lord of Admiralty, Royal Manticoran Navy "For Her Majesty the Queen." Thus, Honor Harrington embarks on her first major command tour as an officer of the Royal Manticoran Navy, and into an adventure that owes much to the Horatio Hornblower genre. The Star Kingdom of Manticore started as a Terran colony. It currently consists of three earthlike planets that share a primary and a number of protectorates and allies. Its primary adversary is a star empire that bears a great resemblance to the Soviet Union in the final years before it collapsed, which annexes surrounding planetary systems to prop up the failing home economy. Manticore is high on the list of desirable property, due to the fact that it owns a hyperspace conduit that links a number of systems, governments, and trade regions. Into this hypergolic mix Commander Harrington and her crew are unceremoniously dumped after failing an impossible task set by the brass. Basilisk Station, the other end of the hyperspace conduit, should have been an important posting. Unfortunately, due to politics and circumstances (including a primitive sentient indigenous people within the system), it is a dumping ground for the worst of the worst who otherwise can't be drummed out of the service. The worst includes an old adversary and current Senior Officer of the station, Captain Paul Young, whom Honor last met socially when he tried to rape her in the shower at the Naval Academy while they were both midshipmen. I say 'tried' because Honor kicked his cojones up around his eyeballs and Midshipman Young got busted for conduct unbecoming. Well, Captain Young has a plan to deal with Commander Harrington's career once and for all: his ship needs to return to drydock (allegedly) for some much-needed repair, so Honor is now in charge at Basilisk station. This leaves Honor with an impossible task (that hasn't been done in five years anyway), short supplies and a demoralized crew to do it with. So, in the finest tradition of the service, she proceeds to kick ass and take names. Oh, brother! (or should I say sister?) That should be enough of a teaser to get you to start reading the first book (On Basilisk Station). On to more important things: the review. David Weber creates a believable universe. His physics hangs together, his development of space battle tactics is so good I'm betting he did computer sims (and if he didn't I'm going to), and his portrayal of a working naval operation is top rate. I especially like the concept of a completely integrated military service. The political maneuvering behind-the-scenes is also well developed and serves to add to the story, rather than going off on a tangent. I have nothing to complain about in David's development of characters, either. Honor develops and grows as a person, and so does everyone she meets -- they are not cardboard cutouts. Her parents (who we meet in the second book) are very believable as such. Even the slimebag Captain Young has a character (of a sort, anyway). This series is definitely worth the time and trouble. On a linear scale of 1- 10 this series of books rates a 9+. This set rates a Hugo nomination. Honor Harrington Novel Series by David Weber Baen Books (SIMON & SHEUSTER) On Basilisk Station $4.99 1993 0-671-72163-1 422p The Honor Of The Queen $5.99 1993 0-671-72172-0 422p The Short Victorious War $5.99 1994 0-671-87596-5 360p + 16p Field Of Dishonor (Forthcoming) -- "Apparently on New Texas, killing a politician was not _malum in se_, and was _malum prohibitorum_ only to the extent that what the politician got was in excess of what he deserved." -H. Beam Piper, _Lone Star Planet/A Planet For Texans_ %T On Basilisk Station %A David Weber %I Baen Books %D 1993 %G ISBN 0-671-72163-1 %P 422 pages %O $4.99 paperback %T The Honor of the Queen %A David Weber %I Baen Books %D 1993 %G ISBN 0-671-72172-0 %P 422 pages %O $5.99 paperback %T The Short Victorious War %A David Weber %I Baen Books %D 1994 %G ISBN 0-671-87596-5 %P 360 pages %O $5.99 paperback From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Dec 12 10:52:22 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!darkstar.UCSC.EDU!news.hal.COM!decwrl!netcomsv!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: cortesi@netcom.com (David Cortesi) Subject: Review of Four "Honor Harrington" Novels by David Weber Message-ID: <199412090338.TAA09602@netcom13.netcom.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: The Internet Date: Sun, 11 Dec 1994 07:07:51 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 337 A review of four novels by David Weber Review copyright 1994 by David E. Cortesi ON BASILISK STATION THE HONOR OF THE QUEEN THE SHORT VICTORIOUS WAR FIELD OF DISHONOR The four David Weber novels reviewed here are well-plotted, readable SF adventure tales. Their protagonist, Honor Harrington, is an attractive character with a complex personality, living in an interesting milieu. Both could sustain more stories. Weber can, if he wants, make a career of cranking out Honor Harrington adventures -- or he could do something better by his own brain-child. After giving short, spoiler-free descriptions of the four books of the series, I will list some points at which I think he has done well or not so well by her thus far. %A Weber, David %T On Basilisk Station %I Baen Publishing Enterprises %C Riverdale, NY %D 1993 %G ISBN 0-671-72163-1 %P 422 %O $4.95 We meet Commander Honor Harrington, with her constant companion, the six-limbed treecat Nimitz, as she takes command of the cruiser _Fearless_. (Weber expects you to know the difference between a commander and a captain, between a cruiser and a destroyer, and similar naval arcana.) This is not the first time Harrington has worn the white beret of a starship captain; she is an experienced and successful officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy. Manticore, we learn gradually, is a multi-star realm settled from Earth some centuries earlier. It is a hereditary monarchy with a two-house parliamentary government and power distributed through a landed aristocracy and a vigorous merchant class. Sound familiar? Not only does its economy and political system echo 18th-century Europe, its space technology does as well. Interstellar journey times approximate those of sailing ships. More important, the combination of gravity manipulation for shielding and computerized missile and laser fire for offence, have led to naval tactics that could be understood by, well, a Captain Hornblower. Once, wooden-hulled ships exchanged cannon fire until one burned, sank, or ran. Now, gravity-enwrapped ships exchange smart missiles until one loses power, explodes, or runs. Harrington's small new command is armed with an eccentric experimental weapon, but in a fleet exercise she exploits it to surprise and embarrass an admiral. As a result, _Fearless_ is assigned to the Manticoran equivalent of Tierra del Fuego, to keep the peace in the Basilisk system. Underequipped, with a suspicious, demoralized crew, Honor finds a neglected outpost where smuggling is taken for granted and the indigenes are being stirred up by agents of Manticore's nemesis, the People's Republic of Haven. Here we learn that Honor Harrington is dedicated, modest, and constitutionally incapable of doing anything less than her best at any job. Through intelligence, with clever ship-handling, and by inspiring her crew to superhuman efforts, Harrington begins to achieve things the Navy didn't expect would be achieved. The more she achieves, the more enemies she makes. The book ends with a slam-bang naval battle, which Weber stages and depicts in gripping style. %A Weber, David %T The Honor of the Queen %I Baen Publishing Enterprises %C Riverdale, NY %D 1993 %G ISBN 0-671-72172-0 %P 422pp %O $5.95 The People's Republic of Haven is fomenting a war between two impoverished star systems, Yeltsin and Endicott. Those two would probably go to war someday in any case, since they are the schismatic halves of a fanatic religious colony founded 600 years earlier. But the Elders of Grayson, the capital planet of Yeltsin's star, have asked for Manticore's help. Since the Peeps support the Endicott system, Manticore is almost obliged to help the opposition. When Admiral Courvoisier is appointed to command the diplomatic and military mission, he chooses his one-time student Honor Harrington as his flag captain. Manticoran society has no gender discrimination. Naval crews, and even their associated Royal Marine detachments, are evenly mixed as to sex. The Grayson culture, however, is strongly paternalistic. At least the Grayson men _like_ their coddled wives and daughters. Their opponents are grim zealots who doubt females have souls. Circumstances conspire to make Honor the ranking Manticoran officer in the Grayson system just as the Peep-equipped Endicott fleet begins to make its move. Until help can arrive from Manticore, only Honor's tiny detachment can defend Grayson. And the Grayson military commanders resist the idea of "that bitch" commanding their forces. This book also ends in a hair-raising naval battle sequence. Weber understands physics and orbital mechanics, and uses the knowledge to add credibility and suspense to space warfare. His space ships do not merely drive toward each other like tanks; they follow orbits, accelerated by engines of limited power. To be nearer the star is the equivalent of a sailing ship's being to windward: you can choose when to close with your opponent. But Honor's ship is outgunned and heavily damaged. Will the Manticoran relief force pop out of hyperspace before she has once more to close into missile range? %A Weber, David %T The Short VIctorious War %I Baen Publishing Enterprises %C Riverdale, NY %D 1994 %G ISBN 0-671-87596-5 %P 376pp %O $5.95 %A Weber, David %T Field of Dishonor %I Baen Publishing Enterprises %C Riverdale, NY %D 1994 %G iSBN 0-671-87624-4 %P 367pp %O $5.95 I will describe these two volumes as a single work -- which is how you should read them. I strongly suspect that Weber started out to write only a third book, but when the set-up for the climactic confrontation stretched near book length, he (or the publisher) cut it off and called it a book. The story resumes immediately in FIELD OF DISHONOR and builds toward the resolution of a conflict that started in ON BASILISK STATION. After lengthy recuperation from the wounds she suffered on Grayson, Honor is assigned a new command, a plum, _Nike_, the newest battlecruiser in the Manticoran fleet. _Nike_ is designated the flagship of a squadron that is assigned to defend a remote naval base. Once again Honor is flag captain to an admiral. There is a great deal of detail of fleet and Manticoran politics. These scenes are intercut with scenes of the incursions, provocations, and machinations of the aggressive People's Republic. It is clear to the Navy that the Peeps are building toward war, but the Manticoran Parliament dithers, equivocates, vacillates. And, we are privileged to know, the Navy's own intelligence is flawed. Where will the first attack fall? Will the Navy be ready, or will its units be in all the wrong systems? The military and political manouvering is enlivened by a plot thread of Honor's finding the first, or at least the first satisfactory, sexual relationship of her career. A person becomes nearly as important to her as her command, for a time. Meanwhile, one of the other captains in the squadron is an old enemy of Honor's; a man who has hated her since they were cadets together. Lord Pavel Young is the officer who left her to sink or swim on Basilisk station. Now he has to accept the admiral's orders as relayed by Honor. The Peeps attack; the squadron is outgunned and must defend a base containing thousands of lives, among them Honor's lover. In the second volume, the battle is over but the echoes linger. One echo is the court martial of Pavel Young. Did he, in the heat of battle, turn and flee, disregarding an order given by Honor Harrington? Did Harrington have the right to give the order in any case? Young's father's support in parliament is essential to continuing to pursue the war against the Peeps. Should the Navy even try Young, when pursuing the trial could precipitate a political crisis? Honor's testimony is crucial. The story is a twisting braid of vengeance and retaliatory vengeance. It ends in a duel -- Manticoran society sanctions formal duelling -- that settles the issues in a way that I, at least, did not expect. A comment on the cover art: the covers on the first three books, by Laurence, or Larry, Schwinger, depict a person not impossibly far from Weber's descriptions of Honor. They seem to be three different women of quite different ages; and the depictions of space craft are trivial and unconvincing; but they don't quarrel with the plot. The cover of FIELD OF DISHONOR, by Gary Ruddell, appears to be a grotesque homage to Michael Jackson; and the figure is holding a gun in an amateurish position quite unlikely for an officer who (the text makes clear) is well-practiced in the use of small arms. In brief, these are good, fast reads for an adult. You could also consider using them as Christmas literacy-bait for a technically-minded youth of either sex. They are full of admirable role-models engaging in intense action, and what little sex there is, is playful and affectionate. Here ends the spoiler-free descriptions. In the following some spoilers do appear, so if you have not read these books and think you might, you should stop reading now. >From the dedication to C.S. Forester and the opening events, it is clear that, when he set out to write ON BASILISK STATION, Weber intended, almost as an exercise, to translate the spirit of the Forester's classic Hornblower stories to a future milieu. Weber has worked diligently and cleverly to devise a credible military technology that would still permit something like Hornblower's navy to exist in space. He worked as hard again -- although not, to my taste, as convincingly -- to fashion an interstellar society that would credibly have a hereditary monarch and a landed aristocracy while still exploiting the technologies of genetics, gravity manipulation, and computers. He succeeded reasonably well at these goals; but I have to ask, why bother? If he liked the 18th century so well, why not just write a historical novel? An astute friend recently challenged me with the claim that all science fiction stories are really historical romances with new labels on the props. I am reluctant to tell him about the Honor Harrington novels for fear he would consider he'd won that debate. And in truth, if you reduce the plot events to abstract schematics, there is little that could not have been set in 18th century oceans as well as in 28th century Manticore. The most striking thing that Weber could not have done, in an 18th-century setting, is to play with gender. Half the Manticoran naval crews are female. True, they don't do anything that an all-male crew, equally well trained and led, would not do. But neither do they do less. Thir presence allows Weber to assert, in dramatic terms, that a gender-blind military might work. He could not have made that assertion in historical fiction without being ridiculous, but in SF it is simply one in a long tradition of using fiction, almost incidentally, to run a credibility test on a social or political idea. Weber might intend an homage to Forester, but had he made his central character anything close to Horatio Hornblower, his book would have been a pastiche, not an homage. He needed a dedicated, capable naval officer who was yet unquestionably different from Forester's hero. He chose to use a female, and Honor Harrington was born. And now I must tiptoe cautiously onto the quaking ground of gender politics. There are (at least) four ways to view Weber's choice of a female naval captain. Was it... ...a bold blow against the male dominance of genre fiction plots? Well, no, not hardly. Emotionally strong, physically tough female leads have been portrayed in recent years by Tepper, Cherryh, Moon, Joan Vinge, and others. (Even Ian Banks' potboiler, AGAINST A DARK BACKGROUND, has as confident a female lead as you could want, and Banks gives her some female-to-female dialogue that I find more convincing and entertaining than any Weber supplies). In the mystery genre, there is a pack of tough female protagonists led by Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawksi. Weber was breaking no new ground here. Well, was it what my spouse angrily suggested when I gave her a fast plot summary: nothing but a cynical, patronizing attempt to cash in on feminine progress in our society? She was especially incensed at the idea that Honor would have a love affair in THE SHORT VICTORIOUS WAR. "Oh, right, the captain is a woman so it is a huge plot point that she has a lover. If it was a man, that would be nothing but a side-show, nothing would be made of it, but she's a girr-ull so she has to have a guy." Was it, if not cynical, at least a clever commercial move by a professional writer who wants to sell books? If so, I have to say the gimmick worked on me. I fell for Honor like a ton of bricks, sober work ethic, white beret, treecat, and all. But, thinking about her afterward, it comes to me that Honor achieves nothing that could not equally well be done by a hypothetical twin, *Herman* Harrington. Herman could wear all the character traits Weber gives Honor: high intelligence, natural skills as pilot and athlete, compulsive achiever, dedicated officer -- and Herman would be dead boring. It upsets me to realize that, for me, the traits of a fascinating female character became merely laudable but boring when draped on a male character. This self-discovery seems to call all my judgements about these books into question, and I'm still not sure I am seeing them clearly. At least it does suggest that, since the buying readership for SF is heavily male, if Weber's invention of Honor was a calculation, it was right on the money. Fourth and last, suppose Weber just had a stroke of good luck? I think this is the most likely suggestion: that Honor sprang into his imagination as the result of who-knows-what combination of half-digested social and literary influences, the kind of happy invention that comes to the lucky writer once in a while. Since he was graced by her invention, how has he done by her? And what should we hope he will do in future volumes (which seem inevitable)? In fact, the volumes at hand are merely good time-passers; entertaining SF/military adventure with some original twists. Personally I think the Harrington character could sustain a much deeper, more powerful novel than these (but see above about my questionable judgement). The first problem with these books is Weber's generally flat prose style and tin ear for dialogue. The prose is grammatical and clear enough; and Weber does have good plotting skills; so when there is a battle or a confrontation, you can't turn the pages fast enough. But when characters slow down and talk to each other quietly, or when there is scenery to be described -- you can't turn the pages fast enough. Perhaps a larger problem for some readers is Weber's open admiration for all things military. Most Naval types, indeed almost anyone in a uniform, is honest, reliable, warm-hearted and clear-sighted -- even the military on the enemy side. One of the first things I noted about a Hornblower story, when I reread one to check Weber's inspiration, was that Forester's Navy was peopled with highly fallible humans. Honor has only one discipline problem in three campaigns (a medic who won't serve under fire). She never has to steel herself, as Hornblower does regularly, to condemn crewmembers to punishment, and to watch punishment carried out. Very well, England's navy was crewed by conscripts; the Manticoran Navy is apparently an all-volunteer force. I have it on reliable report that even a volunteer military has more than a fair share of time-servers, shirkers, fools, and jealous in-fighters. And a mixed-sex military might have entirely new kinds of disciplinary problems -- something that these books avoid exploring. Not only are all Weber's military folk straight-arrows morally; they possess almost the only accurate political perception in Weber's universe. The civilian government perpetually holds them back from doing the right thing (striking hard, first, and fast) and it is portrayed as weak and morally compromising. This kind of fawning after the military really isn't necessary and it unbalances the stories, removing what could be a rich source of irony and plot conflict. Honor simply doesn't understand how to do a bad job; and we are deprived in not seeing how she would cope when she had to work with and through people who never want to do a good one. But that wasn't the root cause of the dissatisfaction, the vague sense of possibilities unfulfilled, with which these books left me. Finally it came to me: Honor never faces a hard choice. She faces difficulty, hard work, and personal danger with bravery and panache; but in every case the proper, morally good, course of action is obvious; she only has to have the courage to pursue it. That is the essence of military adventure, of course. These books are at a far higher level than a game of DOOM -- so is it unfair of me to want more? Weber could, like Robert Asprin, keep extruding books with word-play titles -- Honor as prisoner -- Honor as admiral -- Honor as embassador to old Earth. But in order for Weber to write a story as memorable, as powerful, as Honor Harrington could sustain, he will have to put her in a situation where neither military skill nor physical courage is enough -- a situation in which she has to choose the lesser of two evils or, better, has to choose between two fundamental goods that are of different orders. And in this effort, Honor's gender might at last be useful. Manticore has life-prolonging technology, so an officer like Honor has time to have a career and still bear children. (Incidentally, Weber has not made explicit this key point: that it could be precisely this stopping of the biological clock that makes a gender-neutral society possible.) But ultimately Honor might choose to have a child. That's something that Herman Harrington could never do. And on that hostage to fortune a large plot might hinge. I look forward to reading it. From rec.arts.sf.written Mon Jan 16 19:06:51 1995 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!news.funet.fi!news.eunet.fi!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.cac.psu.edu!news.pop.psu.edu!hudson.lm.com!godot.cc.duq.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!schulman From: schulman+@pitt.edu (Christina Schulman) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: _Oath of Swords_ by David Weber Date: 16 Jan 1995 06:48:11 GMT Organization: St. Dismas Infirmary for the Incurably Informed Lines: 57 Message-ID: <3fd4rb$m64@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: unixs4.cis.pitt.edu _Oath of Swords_ is the new book out by David Weber, best known for his very enjoyable "Honor Harrington" series. Unlike the Honor books, _Oath of Swords_ is a sword-and-sorcery (mostly swords) fantasy. Also unlike the Honor books, _Oath of Swords_ is pretty bad. The hradani are an undercivilized, overmuscled race characterized by pointy ears and a susceptibility to a berserker rage, imaginatively named "the Rage." Bahzell Bahnakson is a prince of the Horse Stealer hradani tribe. When he's forced to flee his homeland, he and his friend Brandark wander all over the map printed at the front of the book, killing people, dodging assassins, killing people, saving damsels in distress, and killing people. When he's not busy either killing people or rescuing them, Bahzell fills in the gaps in his time arguing with the War God, who wants to make Bahzell his paladin. (That constitutes a spoiler only if you haven't read the back cover.) _Oath of Swords_ reads like a bad rehash of _The Deed of Paksenarrion_. It's populated with the standard elves, half-elves, halflings, evil wizards and loathesome demons. The dialogue is frequently silly, and the writing can only be described as, well, bad. The plotting is very clumsy, and after the climactic fight, the resolution sort of limps along for another 30 pages as if Weber wrote until he grew tired of it and stopped. This is not to say that nobody will like _Oath of Swords_. I read the whole thing, and I found myself enjoying it at the same time that I was saying, "Geez, this is bad!" However, I have a fairly high tolerance for bad fantasy. If you're in the mood for a mindless quest fantasy, I suppose it's possible that you could do worse than this (recent Eddings, for example). Otherwise, Weber fans should avoid _Oath of Swords_, and reread your Honor Harrington books instead. "And so I owe you my life again, Bahzell Bahnakson," she'd said, voice wavering with the aftershock of her tearing sobs. "Oh, Bahzell, Bahzell! What god sent you and Brandark to me, and how can I ever prove worthy of you?" "Hush, lass," he'd growled, and patted her roughly, awkward and uncomfortable as a stripling before the glow in her eyes. "You've no call to be 'worthy' of such as us!" Yeesh. %A Weber, David %T Oath of Swords %I Baen %C New York %D February 1995 %G ISBN 0-671-87642-2 %P 489 pp. %O paperback, US $5.99, Canada $7.50 -- Christina Schulman schulman+@pitt.edu From rec.arts.sf.written Mon Feb 5 00:06:03 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!fizban.solace.mh.se!paladin.american.edu!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!boulder!ucsub.Colorado.EDU!brock From: michael@pcnet2.pcnet.com (Intermix Ltd.) Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.reviews,rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Reviews of David Weber military SF Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 30 Jan 1996 19:46:21 GMT Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder Lines: 85 Approved: brock@colorado.edu Message-ID: <4elsid$oj8@peabody.colorado.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: ucsub.colorado.edu Originator: brock@ucsub.Colorado.EDU Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.books.reviews:1250 rec.arts.sf.written:131013 _Flag in Exile_ by David Weber [Copyright 1995 by David Weber; First printing September 1995 by Baen Books SF. U.S. $5.99 / Canada $7.50, paperback, 443 pages. ISBN: 0-671-87681-3] _Path of the Fury_ by David Weber [Copyright 1992 by David Weber; Second printing September 1994 by Baen Books SF. U.S. $5.99 / Canada $7.50, paperback, 423 pages. ISBN: 0-671-72147-X] by Michael Hicks Perhaps I'd seen one generic spaceship book cover too many, but the striking figure of warrior-woman Honor Harrington (rendered by artist Gary Ruddell) on the front of Weber's _Flag In Exile_ caught my attention. I'd never heard of Weber's work before, and if you haven't either, you've been missing out on some excellent military SF. This latest work is part of an ongoing series based on the life and times of the exceptional Honor Harrington. As the book opens, Harrington has been disgraced by political enemies and forced into early retirement from her military career. Grief-stricken and haunted by the murder of her beloved, she must take up the uncertain mantle of Steadholder -- a traditionally male role -- on a planet that she once saved from disaster. Though nursing bitter wounds, Harrington rises to the challenges of leadership. Her straightforward manner, a mix of common sense blended with decency and courage, brings prosperity to the people of her Steading. But her progressive ways bring her into violent conflict with the status quo... those religious leaders and Steadholders who cannot abide sharing the reins of authority with an unmarried woman. Outside forces threaten Harrington's adopted homeworld as well, and the newborn space navy of planet Grayson finds itself in desperate need of her command experience. Weber's work is pure pleasure. Strong intriguing characters, on both sides of the moral fence, excellent interweaving of the two main storylines of political and military conflict, and superb building -- and climatic release -- of tension. My only regret in purchasing this book was that I should have started at the beginning of the series. No matter... as the reviewer from the Philadelphia Press so aptly put it, "I want more!" Even though I now know the results of Honor Harrington's later exploits, I'm still looking forward to going back to her early days. * * * But first, after the pleasant encounter with Lady Harrington, I wanted to see what, if any, other gems Weber had brought forth. _Path of the Fury_ is a great SF/Fantasy crossover. Firmly rooted in the future, it's the story of ex-commando leader Alicia DeVries quest for vengeance against the planet-wrecking space pirates who have callously tortured and murdered her family. DeVries discovers two unique allies to aid her: a spaceship with a cutting-edge artificial intelligence, and a creature straight from the myths of Old Earth. The last of her kind, Tisiphone is one of the three original Furies, the avenging spirits of the Gods of Olympus. Though their association is often stormy, each of the three "beings" is changed in ways none originally expected, nor would necessarily have desired. Unlike the Harrington books, _Fury_ is a self-contained story (although the story's ending =does= leave open the possibility of sequels). If it has less intrigue than _Flag_, which is quite understandable given the context, it serves up a greater helping of pitched battle scenes... which is what many folks read military SF for in the first place, anyway. This is Weber's forte: he conveys clear, concise images of space combat that are in no way dull or dry. The action flows so smoothly that the pages just fly by! Original ideas, memorable characters, and exciting storylines make David Weber's military SF one of my new favorites! ### Note: This review appears in the Feb 1996 issue of the "INTERMIX SF/Fantasy Online" e-zine. Subscriptions are free. To join the INTERMIX mailing list send e-mail to . From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:44:51 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Aug 18 15:23:25 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!mn6.swip.net!nntp.uio.no!nntp.se.dataphone.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter1!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!europa.clark.net!205.252.116.205!howland.erols.net!infeed1.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!eecs-usenet-02.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news!wex From: Alan Deikman Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: _In Enemy Hands_ by David Weber Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 06 Aug 1997 20:25:39 GMT Organization: @Home Network Lines: 92 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: ~Reply-To: aland@home.com NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1472 Review By: Alan Deikman, aland@home.com Bottom Line: **** (out of *****) Review Copyright: 1997 by Alan Deikman. May be reproduced only with copyright message attached for noncommercial use. All other rights reserved [As a review of a book with a continuing character, this review can be said to have minor spoilers for the earlier "Honor Harrington" books. --AW] Once again Honor Harrington puts it all on the line for Queen and country in David Weber's most recent installment in this series, _In Enemy Hands_. If you liked the previous novels you won't be disappointed the latest adventure; if you didn't like the story so far you won't find much here to change your mind. Personally, I found it a page turner and believe that this is the best modern space opera or military SF to be found anywhere. Honor Harrington is now quite grown up -- a peer of the realm on Manticore, a Steadholder (like a duchess but with more authority) on Grayson, a Commodore in the RMN, an Admiral in the GSN, a billionaire, a virtually un-equaled martial arts expert, much decorated hero and, to top it all off, the designated representative of the enigmatic treecats, the indigenous sentient species of her home planet. She looks like she's 18 even though she a 30 year career under her belt and is definitely attractive to both men and women, friend and enemy alike. Think you could bring this one home to meet mom and dad? Sidebar: the hardback cover illustration by David Mattingly is the best of the series, with Honor looking more like Terry Farrell with every issue. However, the ships in the picture don't match their descriptions in the story very well. This could be considered the worst characteristic of this particular work of fiction: that the protagonist is too unrealistically perfect to believe in. This is a trap that more than one author has fallen into but somehow Weber manages to craft this character in such a way that you end up relating to her and you get drawn into the fantasy. Perhaps this is because he does not neglect his other characters, including peers, juniors, seniors, and villains. Since the matrix is well built, Honor seems to fit in and even make sense no matter how heavy she would seem taken by herself. _In Enemy Hands_ does spend considerable time with the "bad guys" of the story. Some are more venal than others -- one is a real piece of work -- and in this novel's case all the enemies that appear are on the other side of the war that is going on. Honor Harrington seems, for the moment at least, to have routed all her domestic opposition. The only residual of earlier conflicts is that she has not yet been seated in the House of Lords (Manticore's upper house of Parliament) but there seems to be little doubt that will happen if she just manages to live long enough. In spite of the war between Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven -- an obvious projection of the U.K. vs. the cold-war Soviet Union -- being at its peak, there is little space warfare in this installment, but more than appeared in _Field of Dishonor_. This is a story of interstellar politics and personal struggles, excellently woven into an epic backdrop. Weber has done a superior job of managing both the macro and micro-scopic aspects of his universe. One complaint about the series sifted from the Internet has to do with the "treecat" character. This is a sixed-limbed sentient, but not verbalizing, race that has the capability of empathetically bonding with specific humans. Some critiques posted have groaned over this gimmick, calling it too cutsey and sentimental, to say nothing of being a tiresome cliche. There is some justification for this and, if I had been asked beforehand, I would have said "yeah, lose the cat." However, this would have been a mistake. It may be just be a gimmick but Weber has made it work and at absolute worst it does not get in the way of anything else in the story. _In Enemy Hands_ is a definite must read, but not without the prequels. For reference, they are: _On Basilisk Station_ _The Honor Of the Queen_ _The Short Victorious War_ _Field of Dishonor_ _Flag in Exile_ _Honor Among Enemies_ %A David Weber %D 1997 %G ISBN 0-671-87793-3 %I Baen Publishing Enterprises %K Keywords %O $22.00 US http://www.baen.com/ %P 530 pp %S Honor Harrington Series %T In Enemy Hands Alan Deikman aland@home.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Sep 9 19:23:18 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!feed1.news.erols.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!howland.erols.net!netnews.com!eecs-usenet-02.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news!wex From: sfrevu@aol.com (SFRevu) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Honor Harrington: In Enemy Hands by David Weber Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 02 Sep 1997 21:08:46 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 72 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1526 Honor Harrington: In Enemy Hands by David Weber (reviewed by Bob Devney) Review Copyright 1997 by Ernest Lilley Honor's in trouble again. She's suddenly developing feelings for an attractive older man she's liked for a while, but not THAT WAY until now. Unfortunately, he's her superior officer. Even more vexing, he's got entirely the wrong slant on some new multistage missiles with a performance envelope she'd gladly sacrifice 18 percent of her broadside for! As if that weren't bad enough, comes the most one-sided defeat in the history of the Royal Manticoran Navy. Plus, since the book title already gives it away, let's just say that anybody whose fantasies feature Honor looking fetching in handcuffs may be pleased with this seventh far-future space navy thriller starring the beautiful and deadly Lady Dame Honor Harrington: Countess, Steadholder of Grayson, newly promoted Commodore of the Royal Manticoran Navy, and complete 40th-century fox. The Honor books combine a dash of Danielle Steele's romanticism with a big dose of Tom Clancy's technothrills and anti-leftist politics in an SF military/adventure milieu. Usually, they're a pleasant read if you like anything in that mix. Unfortunately, here the politics threaten to thwart the thrills. The book's three measly space battles are swamped by three thousand political discussions. Starting with the opening scene, which excitingly features people sitting around a conference table thinking about recent political history. In a nod to the French Revolution, the kakistocratic nogoodniks heading up Honor's enemies, the People's Republic of Haven, are called the Committee of Public Safety. Led by Rob Pierre, get it? The Peeps are set up (and I do mean set up) as a straight Marxist/socialist bureaucracy. While the good guys, Manties and Graysons, are enlightened products of 40 centuries of human political development. You know, a hereditary monarchy and a hereditary oligarchy ... Weber does get your blood boiling as his bad guys commit the usual socialist outrages. Tying the hands of the military, gutting free speech, providing welfare to the poor, and so on. But in extrapolating a huge star-spanning socialist empire just to expose its sins, isn't he flagellating an extremely ex-equine? Luckily, there are other familiar pleasures here. We get the first inkling of a new parallel to wet navy technology, with mention of sortieing the Manties' light attack craft from something reminiscent of an aircraft carrier. This kind of thing is an enjoyable constant in the series. Space navy technology 2,000 years from now seems to be a mixture of 1805 (broadsides and a 3D equivalent of lines of battle) and about 1985 (lasers, missiles, electronic countermeasures). You keep waiting for Weber's swabbies to start sponging out their impeller missile tubes. Also returning, naturally, is Honor's cute, furry yet formidable empath/ symbiote/pet treecat, Nimitz, along with so many relatives that the next volume may be called THE TROUBLE WITH TREECATS. There's also the usual quota of old friends, subordinates, and retainers. All so besotted by what a good person and outstanding officer our heroine is that they're glad to be slaughtered so Honor can move on to higher command in the next book. %G ISBN 0-671-87793-3 %D August 1997 %P Baen Books hardcover SFRevu - Reviews and interviews from the world of Science Fiction and Fantasy. http://members.aol.com/sfrevu/sfraug97.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Sep 11 16:00:26 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!netnews.com!news-xfer.netaxs.com!newsfeed.fast.net!ptdnetP!newsgate.ptd.net!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!not-for-mail From: hklaus6073@aol.com (HKlaus6073) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Echoes Of Honor by Weber Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 09 Sep 1998 20:49:19 -0400 Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 36 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2104 ECHOES OF HONOR by David Weber Review Copyright 1998 Harriet Klausner The war between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven has been ongoing for eight long years with no end in sight. However, the morale of the Manticoran galactic fleet is abruptly shaken with the TV showing of their captured military leader and heroine, Admiral Honor Harrington being accused of murder and hung like a common criminal by the Haven security forces. Though shocked and outraged over Harrington's public execution, the Manticorans vow vengeance. However, unbeknownst to them, their heroine's death was a staged TV event and she is actually being held prisoner on the inescapable prison planet of Hell. Though no one escapes from this aptly named prison, Honor plans to have the honor of being the first. She knows that her forces not only need her leadership, but the morale of her return from the dead could be the difference in the almost decade old war. Like the seven previous Harrington novels, ECHOES OF HONOR is a well written space opera along the lines of Star Wars that will temporarily satiate fans waiting for the next Lucas movie. Though the story line may, at first, seem hackneyed, under the deft writing of David Weber, the book is actually a stupendous work of science fiction. The military characters for both sides seem apropos as they are motivated and intelligent. The same cannot be said of the politicians, who seem more to be more of a mirror image of a not so marvelous DC crowd. Bottom line is readers of non-stop, action-packed, shoot-em-up sci fi thrillers will relish Mr. Weber's wonderful work, including his latest ECHOES OF HONOR. Harriet Klausner %T ECHOES OF HONOR %A David Weber %I Baen %D Oct 1998 %O $24.00 %P 569 pp. %G ISBN 0-671-87892-1 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Jun 20 12:15:45 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!18.181.0.26!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!usenet From: tillman@aztec.asu.edu (P.D. TILLMAN) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books.reviews Subject: Review: Apocalypse Troll by David Weber Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 11 Jun 1999 11:48:36 -0400 Organization: Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (USA) Lines: 53 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: Reply-To: tillman@aztec.asu.edu (P.D. TILLMAN) NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2368 rec.arts.books.reviews:2804 Apocalypse Troll by David Weber Review copyright 1999 Peter D. Tillman Rating: "A" -- Well-written mil-SF/romance, fast-paced & fun. Highly recommended. As Apocalypse Troll opens, 25th-century humans have been at war with the alien Kanga for centuries. The Kanga are on the ropes; in desperation they send a battle group into Terra's past, to cut off the foe at the roots. BatDiv 92, Terran Navy, is soon in hot pursuit. The two task forces virtually annihilate each other. Col. Ludmilla Leonovna shoots down the last Kanga ship -- with some help from the US Navy of 2007 -- but is herself shot down by the last cyborg Troll's fighter. She falls to Earth, and into the arms of USN Capt. Richard Aston: "Take me to your leader", she said with a perfectly straight face. The last Troll is at large, with 25th-century weapons and a bioengineered compulsion to waste humans. Ludmilla must convince 21st-century Earth of the terrible danger they face... About here I got worried that Weber was cloning SM Stirling's DRAKON, but he deftly switches to Tom Clancy mode: a technical military-political procedural, but with a lighter touch and better-drawn characters than Clancy manages. Milla is demonstrating her sidearm: < *BIG* flash-bang here > "What the hell *is* that thing? What d'you call it?" "I'm afraid we call it a 'blaster'," she said apologetically... It's all good, clean fun and brother, do those pages turn -- this one kept me up til 2 AM. Everything *works* here -- the people, the aliens, the future technology, the battles, the romance .... I had a great time, and so will you. Apocalypse Troll is Weber's 18th novel. He's developed into a much more polished and effective writer than he was the last time I sampled his wares -- I read a couple of the early Honor Harringtons and was underwhelmed. With Apocalypse Troll he's firmly in the first ranks of military-SF authors. Fans of David Drake or Elizabeth Moon -- or Honor Harrington -- won't be disappointed. I'm going to have to pay more attention to David Weber. %T Apocalypse Troll %A David Weber %D 1999 %I Baen %O $22 %P 312 pp Read more of my reviews: http://www.silcom.com/~manatee/reviewer.html#tillman