The Short Victorious War

The book was excellent addition to the on going series or a stand alone by itself. I would highly recommend it for any David Weber fan, or anyone else that likes action sci-fi. Enjoy, Pete.

"What this country needs is a short victorious war to stem the tide of revolution" and "The belief in a short decisive waris the most dangerous of all human illusions." These twoquotes are on the quote page of the third book in the HonorHarrington series, The Short Victorious War. The first wassaid by the Russian Minister of War to the Russian InteriorMinister and the second is by Robert Lynd. So you know where this is headed. Right? Right! Honor Harrington, on medical leave since the events of The Honor of the Queen,in which she'd foiled the attempt on the life of Protector Benjamin Mayhew, the leader of Grayson. When we first seeher, she's on a mountaintop overlooking the Tannerman Ocean on her homeworld of Sphinx. One of three planets in the binary Manticore System. She and her treecat, Nimitz,are about to go hang gliding. She's getting bored with her life on Sphinx and wants to return to space. She finally gets her chance. She's given command of a battlecruiser with aname that has a lot of history behind it. HMS NIKE. She's theflag captain of Admiral Mark Sarnow. The Peeps have beguntheir war against Manticore. Will Manticore and her allies win? That's for me to know and you to find out.

For those unfamiliar with David Weber series, this is the third book in the Honor Harrington series, which started with On Basilisk Station. While this book might be read apart from the others, one loses too much background. Better start at the beginning.For those who have read the first two books, on the other hand...Other reviewers seems to be of the opinion that this is a good book, but there is just something not quite right with it. I had to agree on my first read, but now, having re-read the first nine books a second time, I know what it is.In the first two books, we only saw Manticore (well, Manticore and Grayson). The sections told in from the point of view of the opposition were short and mostly to the point. Well, that stops here. There is a lot of Haven background here, and by the middle of the book you really wish now and then Weber had cut it shorter. Unfortunately, all this background is really important to the _series_, because you do get to see a lot of story told from Haven's point of view in later books, and this lays the groundwork for that.But perhaps the most disconcerting fact is that Honor is not really the main character at all in this book. She might get more pages and more development than anyone else, but the REAL story here is the battle fought between Admiral of the Green Sir Thomas Caparelli, First Space Lord of the Manticoran Admiralty, and Admiral Patricia Givens, Second Space Lord of the Manticoran Admiralty (Buraeu of Planning, which controls the Office of Naval Intelligence), against Fleet Admiral Amos Parnell, CNO of the People's Navy, in the skirmishes that will finally bring the Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven to war.Dozens of characters make small lone appearances, usually fighting one-sided battles or spying. Meanwhile, Honor Harrington is just a good officer doing a good job. She is actually in charge just in a small section of the book. _Her_ story is mostly about personal relationships, not the war.This is a good book, but one is likely to have different expectations after On Basilisk Station and Honor of the Queen.

This is the first book that I have read in the series, and I intend to read the entire series, I found that although I missed the first two novels, I was able to pick up the plot line with relative ease, even though it took me a while to get used to the flotilla of characters I loved its great pace and the way information was eased into the plot rather than coldly explained simply to get new readers into the plot faster.

I just finished "A Short, Victorious War", the 3rd book in the series (the first two being "On Basilisk Station" and "Honor of the Queen"). All were excellent, and near the top of the line for a sci-fi series. By contrast, I might compare it to the "Star Trek" series as I would compare a filet mignon to a hamburger. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy Star Trek very much, but I feel that, if space travel to this degree was a reality, the Honor Harrington series does a much better job of reflecting that reality. That said, I have to suggest that a couple of additions to these books would enhance my enjoyment: A cast list of the major characters, with a few words about each, and a glossary of abbreviations/explanations (e.g. RMN-Royal Manticoran Navy). More than once, I found myself forgetting someone's earlier connection, and who can remember all the acronyms floating around in outer space? Nevertheless, I find myself anticipating the subsequent books in the series. I do recommend to anyone reading this: Do plan on reading these books in sequence, since there are so many recurring characters, and references to events in the earlier books abound.