Honor Blade

After re-reading MY ENEMY, MY ALLY and THE ROMULAN WAY (thus reminding myself once again why I consider Diane Duane the best writer of quality Trek fiction), I tore through SWORDHUNT and HONOR BLADE, only to be outraged (as so many of my fellow reviewers have been) by a "to be continued" at the end. Since the first two books were complete stories unto themselves, I had no reason to expect such a nasty shock. If I'd had any inkling that the story wasn't yet finished, I'd have waited before reading #3 and #4. Where is the last third of this one, giant novel that's been so cynically sold in separate pieces, and when may we expect to see it in print?

Honor Blade and Sword Hunt are really one story, and at that, the story isn't yet concluded. But it is an excellent story, perhaps the best Trek I have read in a while. The story, like others by Duane, is really about several people, not just Enterprise crew. The Romulan characters are examined just as closely as the humans. Character development is a key part of the enjoyment, but there is plenty of action too. While reading books #1 and #2 would be somewhat helpful, you can start with Sword Hunt and be able to follow it.

I was very excited when I found out that Diane Duane wrote more of Ael's story. My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way are two of my favorite Star Trek stories. I was not thrilled that at the end of Honorblade it says To Be Continued. The story is unfinished with no promise by the publisher that there will be another book or when it will come out. So for all those readers who hate an indefinite cliffhanger (and I am one of those people) wait until the next Rhiannsu book is published before you buy this one. You will save yourself alot of aggravation!

I really liked this book. I really wanted to like this book, and I did. It's got lots of great new characters, cameos by people we haven't seen in a while like Sam Cogley and Herb Tanzer, and the tension is slowly but surely ratcheting up. I want to see what happens next. But.But I am *outraged* that nowhere on the packaging is it indicated that this story is not finished. It's as if someone took a 600-page novel and simply separated it into several sections of equal length. "Swordhunt" ends in a completely random place, and "Honor Blade" has no sense of closure either. If you are writing an ongoing story, you at least have the responsibility to tell the reader so.At $6.99 per volume (cover price), that's a lot of money to pay for a story without having the entire thing available. If Pocket decided to publish it in sections because they'd make more money by selling several smaller books than one big one, well, the joke's on them. I'm not buying the next one: I'll wait until it makes it to the library.I hope to god Ms. Duane didn't have anything to do with this marketing decision because it's cheap, and I think she's a fine writer who knows better than to do this to her audience.

The Rihannsu series is the singularly best set of Star Trek novels out there. Diane Duane is able to capture the essence of the characters she writes about with far greater vision and accuracy than the majority of Star Trek writers. (including the whole of TNG writers) I'll be the first to say that I prefer TNG to TOS any day, however Diane Duane is the exception to this rule. I will say this: Honor Blade and Swordhunt should be ONE novel, not TWO. This is one story, and reading Swordhunt is far more difficult to get into knowing that the story ends with three words: "To be continued"-- that said Honor blade at least wraps up some loose ends. But it suffers from a similar problem--those same three words. *sigh* Note: This novel also does very well at wrapping up and tying togeather some loose ends and missing links between TOS & TNG.. BRAVO!!