The Shadow of Saganami

This book is set in the same Universe and timeframe as David Weber's "Honor Harrington" novels, sometimes nicknamed the "Honorverse." The events take place at approximately the same time as "At all costs". If you have not read any of the other books in the series: this novel is a space opera set thousands of years in the future. It tells the story of a group of mostly new and inexperienced crew members on a brand new and powerful space cruiser, "Hexapuma." They face first intrigue and terrorism, and then increasingly desperate battles against some really evil bad guys. The Hexapuma's home star nation, Manticore, has just been attacked by a star nation called Haven, and her crew were expecting to be sent to join in that war. At the last minute their orders are changed and they are sent to show the flag in a relatively poor and underdeveloped area of the galaxy called the "Talbot Cluster". This cluster has just voted in a plebiscite for annexation to Manticore: a number of people in the cluster are deeply unhappy about this and start to make trouble. This trouble is stirred up by some truly evil corporations, and the people they have bought in various governments: the bad guys are making big profits from an illegal trade in slaves, and want to stop the annexation because Manticore is one of the nations which enforces the laws against slavery most strictly. The crew of Hexapuma are in for a more dangerous and exiting time than anyone expects! If you are familiar with the rest of the series, this book features a group of new central characters, mostly in the next generation from the heroines and heroes of the previous books. Some of the main characters in "The Shadow of Saganami" are completely new, others have had parts in previous books or appeared in short stories. Two familiar characters from "Honor Among Enemies" are serving on Hexapuma and take part in the induction of the new cadets - Ginger Lewis, who has earned a commission and is now the ship's Engineer commander, and Aubrey Wanderman, who is now a Senior Chief Petty Officer. It is obvious that they are still at least friends, but Weber deliberately leaves it to the reader's imagination whether Ginger and Aubrey are now an item. With the most recent group of books in the "Honorverse" Weber and his collaborators seem to be establishing three groups of characters and storylines, although they are all linked in a reasonably consistent manner into one history. There is the main sequence featuring Honor Harrington herself, in which the most recent novels are "War of Honor" and "At All Costs." There is a series of espionage stories, in which "Crown of Slaves" is the first full length novel. And "The Shadow of Saganami" kicks off a "next generation" sequence featuring some younger officers in the navies of Manticore and the allied nation of Grayson, such as Helen Zilwicki and Abigail Hearns. (Other crew members on Hexapuma who have appeared in previous novels include Ginger Lewis and Aubre

As Honor Harrington has progressed in her career, she has had to abandon the command of a starship, in order to take on squadron and then fleet command. While this is good for her, it's not as good for readers, because David Weber is at his best, I think, when he is telling the story of a single starship captain and what such a person and a dedicated crew can do when faced with a critical choice or puzzling-and-threatening situation. In this book, Weber returns to the world of a single starship, in the service of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Honor Harrington appears briefly in the book, but it is not a book about her at all. Instead, it is about a new generation of officers, serving on a heavy cruiser. It's a great piece of standard Weber space opera: fun to read, and a bit overloaded with heavy exposition (I'd ding it half a star for the somewhat awkward expository passages if that were possible, but it's not). At first, I thought the book would not hold my attention, but I was wrong. Once I sorted out who all the players were, this was a rollicking good read. It's not deep or particularly meaningful, but it is an excellent example of the kind of book it set out to be; the five stars are for the good story, the interesting characters, and the excellent fit between the plot and the writing (but as I mentioned above, I wish I could ding it half a star). Highly recommended to anyone who enjoyed the early Honor Harrington books.

After going to college with Dave and then later fixing his Osborne computer for him, I read a draft version of one of his Starfire books. It was excellent and I encouraged him to get it published. Later I got hooked on his Honor Harrington books. Where David excells is when he has a narrower focus and this is why I like his new Saganami Island Series, of which this is the first book. We meet students from Honor's teaching days on their middie cruise in the Talbot Cluster. Why this book re-earns a 5 star rating is because he shrinks down the multiple story lines that dragged War of Honor down to a 4. He also minimizes the repetition of details that dragged that book down as well. This is a nice tightly written book that brings more life to the Honorverse, and looks at other forms of corrupt government. The action is well told and the political points of view make great warnings to us in today's world.

The Shadow of Saganami is the second novel set in the Honor Harrington Universe but not centered on Honor Harrington herself. Instead, it focuses on a cast of new characters, operating in the Talbott Cluster, a "new frontier" for the Star Kingdom of Manticore which threatens to bring it into direct conflict with the Solarian League . . . the most powerful human political uinit ever to exist. The crew of the new heavy cruiser Hexapuma, under the command of a highly decorated captain still haunted by the horrendous losses ships under his command suffered in the previous war, must find a way to defeat the plots of genetic slavers, corrupt Solarian bureaucrats and industrialists, local terrorists, political intriguers, and old-fashioned incompetence. And in the process, they find themselves facing the "tradition of Sganami" . . . the tradition that Manticoran officers may die, but they do NOT give up the fight. Despite the political dimensions of the book, Weber achieves a better balance between the action he writes so well and the political machinations of his villians than he was able to maintain in the previous mainstream Honor novel, War of Honor. It looks as if he is deliberately spreading into two new series-- this one, the Saganami Island series, and the Crown of Slaves series of collaborative novels with Eric Flint -- in an effort to broaden his canvas and permit more of the swashbuckling adventure of the earlier Honor novels while moving the political dimension of the Honorverse ahead in more managable sized bites. If that is his intention, he has succeeded admirably in this volume. I believe this may be the best Honorverse novel since Honor Among Enemies, which is high praise indeed.

David Weber has a lot of fans particularly for his Honor Harrington series. There have been ten novels and three collections of stories in that series and books from it have landed on best-seller lists. He has expanded his Honorverse to include two new series. The first in the "Crown of Slaves" branch focuses on politics and war over the issue of genetic slavery. Shadow of Saganami focuses on another area of this universe and brings in a new cast. The Hexapuma, a brand-new cruiser commanded by a hero of the last war is assigned to bring a new cluster of planets into the growing Manticoran Empire after a referendum in which the vast majority call for annexation. Weber is able to introduce an (almost) entirely new cast of characters. Much of the action is centered around a group of midshipmen on their first cruise but the action involves many of the ship's leaders as well as politicians and terrorists from several worlds. There is very little doubt that Weber writes from a post 9/11 perspective. The terrorists are being helped by a wide assortment of groups ranging from out of control bureaucrats to businesses directly involved with slavery. Plots abound as different groups and individuals plot their own destinies. The book is long and exciting. Imagine trying to read more than 700 pages at one sitting! Terekhov, the captain, is a marvelous character, haunted by his past and focused on preventing both terrorism and war. The supporting cast is also strong. Even the villains are, in most cases, three dimensional. For long-time readers of Weber there is the pleasure of running into old friends like Ginger Lewis, Aubrey Wanderman, Helen Zilwicki and Abigail Hearns. There are new characters who are certain to become favorites as well. The issues that arise in the book are relevant to today's world and put in the context of good space opera. Fans of Weber will love the book and those who read this as their first Weber experience are likely to go looking for all the other books.