At All Costs

It pains me to admit it, but despite my own longtime love of Honor Harrington books, I waited a long time on this one, and only read it because my local library had a copy. You see, I found "War of Honor", the previous installment, to be almost agonizingly boring. Honor never commanded a single vessel up until the very end when she just happened to have her Elysian Space Navy on maneuvers at the right place at the right time. Nearly the entire book was spent on such things as Honor's "battle" with the smear campaign involving her, Emily, and Hamish; the Saganami Island students she was befriending; and the new efforts to communicate with treecats through sign. "War of Honor" was probably the most boring military sci-fi book I have ever read. I pretty much decided when it was over that David Weber must have forgotten how to tell an exciting story, and if I ever bothered to read "At All Costs" it would only be if I could get it free and felt like I didn't have anything better to read. So having gone into sufficient detail how much I hated "War of Honor", "At All Costs" was absolutely gripping fiction at its very best. For the first time, both Haven and Manticore are led by honest politicians. The war, by rights, ought to be ended. Republic of Haven's President Eloise Pritchart learns early in the story that it was her own Secretary of State that had been the one to alter the diplomatic dispatches with Manticore, resulting in her decision to launch her surprise attack. Now she desperately wants to bring a diplomatic end to the war. Unfortunately, the mysterious organization "Manpower" introduced in "Shadow of Saganami" has other plans for the two Star Nations. Honor Harrington has been newly installed as Eighth Fleet's commander - the primary offensive fleet for the Royal Manticoran Navy. Her job is to find a way to convince the Havenites to cover their rear areas and reduce their fleet strength available for offensive operations. Unfortunately, she faces an opponent with an almost two to one advantage in hulls that not even superior Manticoran technology is sufficient to offset. Not only that, but they enjoy an advantage in ongoing construction, meaning their superiority is only going to increase. Her job won't be an easy one. Tom Theisman, the Havenite Secretary of War, wants the war to end just as badly as President Eloise Pritchart. His dilemma is that while he too knows about the way his Star Nation was manipulated into going into war, the war itself enjoys too much popularity at home. Congress won't allow their forces to simply surrender and bring the fighting to a close. And if Manpower is going to sabotage any chance for a peaceful settlement, then the only other option is to end the war through an all-out military victory. And while he prays it won't come to that, Tom Theisman knows he's got the strength to make it happen. "At All Costs" is not a book to be read if you can only devote a few hours to it here and there. From nearly the

If you have not read any of David Weber's other books about Honor Harrington: this is number 11 in a series of space opera novels set two or three thousand years in the future. Despite the futuristic setting, however, there are strong parallels with Nelson's navy. The assumed technology in the stories imposes constraints on space navy officers in the stories which are remarkably similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago, and the galactic situation in the novels contains some strong similarities to the strategic and political situation in European history at the time of the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. This appears to be quite deliberate: and a number of thinly veiled (and often quite amusing) hints in the books indicate that they are to some extent a tribute to C.S. Forester, while the main heroine of the books, Honor Harrington, appears to owe more than a little to C.S. Forester's character "Horatio Hornblower." If you have not read any of these books and are interested in doing so, do not start with this book. These stories work better if read in sequence, and I suggest you start with the first book, which is "On Basilisk station." Rather like "Star Trek" the Honor Harrington series is starting to develop a number of spin-off storylines. You can characterise the novels set in this Universe (sometimes nicknamed the "Honorverse") into three groups, although they share a common history which links together in a reasonably consistent manner. At the time of writing there is the main sequence of 11 novels which follow the career of Honor Harrington herself and also give an overall view of the wars between her home nation, "The Star Kingdon of Manticore" and its enemies. The full list of titles in the main Honor Harrington sequence is: On Basilisk Station The Honor of the Queen The Short Victorious War Field of Dishonour Flag in Exile Honor among Enemies In Enemy Hands Echoes of Honor Ashes of Victory War of Honor At All Costs There are currently four collections in the "Worlds of Honor" series of short stories by Weber and several co-authors set in the same universe, and featuring a range of characters, some from the main series of books, others new. Some of these are espionage stories, and Weber has produced a book called "Crown of Slaves" co-written with Eric Flint, which brings together several of the most prominent spies from the novels and short stories in a novel of intrigue and revolution. Another book, "The Shadow of Saganami" kicks off a "next generation" sequence featuring some younger officers in the Grayson and Manticoran navies such as Helen Zilwicki and Abigail Hearns. The events of "The Shadow of Saganami" take place at approximately the same time as those of "At all costs". If you are planning to read both books I would strongly recommend that you read "The Shadow of Saganami" before you tackle "At all costs" for two reasons. First, although the ac

As resumed hostilities between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven call Admiral Honor Harrington back to combat duty, she gets the surprise of her life thusfar. The "foolproof" birth control methods of the far future can still fail, given enough opportunity for human error (not hers). She's pregnant by her lover, Hamish Alexander - Earl White Haven, who is very much married to Emily. Who, since she (Emily, that is!) must spend the rest of her days in a life support chair, has given her husband's relationship with Honor her blessing. Will it be too much even for Emily, though, if Honor gives White Haven an heir? That's one of the plots playing out in this absorbing, multi-layered latest novel in a deservedly popular military science fiction series. The struggles of various political and military factions on both sides, Manticore and the People's Republic, provide the other major storyline. Unlike the preceding book, this one has plenty of action - something I miss sorely when it's not there, since too much politics makes me yawn - and plenty of Honor, too. For me, at least, thoroughly enjoyable. I didn't even mind when I read the last page, and then realized that one intriguing and vitally important plot thread had been left hanging. After all, I'll definitely be reading the next book!

Honor Harrington is back - and Haven is in trouble. David Weber neatly ties The Shadow of Saganami into the main series with this book. One of the biggest problems when you have a series of books that has lasted this long is that you end up with lots of characters. While the main character focus has, of course, been Honor Harrington all the way from her snotty cruise to being a Fleet Admiral, there are so MANY additional characters that are more than just passing names. Allistair McKeon, Scotty Tremaine, Horace Harkness, Mike Henke, Elizabeth Winton, Hamish Alexander, Allison Harrington - these are just a few of the vital members of Honor' crew and family that over the last several years we've grown to know from the series. Eloise Pritchart, Javier Giscard, Thomas Theisman, Shannon Foraker, Victor Cachat - the personalities of the Haven enemy has also been fleshed out. Seeing how these people act and why has become as much a part of the series - and is much more fulfilling - than simply saying, "Gee, I think Haven may attack us." "Darn, Haven attacked us, I wonder why." It is hard, at times, to wade through the numbers in the book. But in space combat - especially in this book - we're dealing with combat at a level that no one the Honorverse has EVER seen before. Remember back about book 2 or 3, when there was talk about how most combats really were just posturing - because neither side really wanted to destroy the other? Or when 20 or 30 ships was a HUGE fleet? Now we're dealing with, quite literally, 50 plus years later from the start of things. There HAVE been technical advances. There are more things to keep track of. And yes, there are the destruction of entire fleets in this book - along with the deaths of many characters that you've grown to know over the course of this series. (Potential spoiler - because I'm not David Weber and I don't know WHAT the next book is going to contain.) Let's just state that, when the truth actually becomes known, I suspect that the Solarian League could find itself at war with not just Manticore, but potentially an alliance between Manticore AND Haven. It's not nice to force two star governments to go to war over the Chertwell Convention so that slavers can profit. And I'm certain that the results are going to be even uglier in terms of loss than ANYTHING we've seen to date.

I have been a big fan of the series for eight years, and had begun to despair at the moribund state of Weber's storyline during the last two books. "Ashes of Honor" had hardly any Honor in it -- he might as well have left her out entirely. "War of Honor" was much better, but still felt like a vast historical epic with too little of its main character. Thankfully, Weber's sideline novels, including "Crown of Slaves" and the Saganami Island series, have allowed him to expand Honor's universe (the "Honorverse"), introducing a raft of characters and subplots while increasing the focus on Honor herself in the books that bear her name. Indeed, Weber has brought the epic storyline full circle in this novel -- putting Honor at the leading edge of a revolution in tactics and technology -- to portray his biggest battle yet. The Battle for Manticore is so big that Weber can merely portray its scope; even ships' computers are unable to fully understand and display it. It is Weber's Somme, with equivalent casualties. It is the largest battle in any of Weber's universes since the final battle in "The Armageddon Inheritance" -- and it is far more compelling than even Dahak's suicide-run. Fans of Weber's technology will be delighted to see that longtime subplot reach its best, and most surprising, achievement to date: a new weapon that had me slappng myself and saying aloud, "of course! Why didn't I see THAT coming?" New readers of the Honorverse are advised to begin with "The Short Victorious War" and work their way up through these novels. Longtime followers of the series should also reread Weber's postscript to that novel, in which he explains that the Manticore-Havenite War is merely the first act in a far larger war that will affect "almost all of known space." Weber has sown the seeds of that larger war in his sideline novels, but they begin to sprout here. My own gut feeling is that the Manticore-Havenite War has maybe one more book left -- after which we will be reading about the Solly-Alliance War, brought on by Mesa and Manpower, Incorporated. For the first time since "Echoes of Honor," I am excited by the direction of this series. The awesome scope of Weber's battles has finally begun to coalesce into something less distracting and more complimentary to Honor's own story. *Spoiler Alert:* For those readers who have lost track of all the characters in Weber's series, this book ends with a 14-page dramatis personae. HOWEVER, I would guess that three-quarters of them are dead by the end of the text. Baen would be WELL ADVISED to issue an Honorpedia in the future; it would be a welcome addition to every fan's library, because even WE lose track of all the names and events.