Honor Harrington (Spoilers for the books)

[admiraldave]

From the SF book thread:

I have to disagree -- I admit War of Honor was far more political than action, but the action at the end of the one where she's taken prisoner is just so good. Also I'm very interested in seeing where the treecat and White Haven subplots go. Last of all I've gotten to like enough characters on both sides of the war (in particular Theisman, Tourville, and Forraker for the Havenites) that I really want to see how they stop the war this time.

Honor was captured in In Enemy Hands, which was a solid book. Not as good as the earlier ones, but still a good one. And you're right, the action at the end was pretty awesome. I have to admit, seeing her armsmen die getting her out of the prison was emotional reading.

War of Honor is the lastest Honor book, that leads into restarting hostilities between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven after peace was declared at the end of Ashes of Victory. And it's problems are numerous. First, the book's repetitive nature kills a lot of interest, as 90% of the book is characters sitting around discussing the situation. We'd have the Manticorans send a diplomatic message to the Havenites, then have to sit through a Havenite meeting (or two!) as they discuss the message and their response, then once the response was sent, we'd see more meetings and discussions on the Manticoran side. It was incredibly dull.

That said, the ending battle between Honor and Tourville was pretty cool. Finally, we get to see both sides armed with all the neat new weapons that were first discussed in In Enemy Hands. But considering the book is a whopping 59 chapters, it's overlong.

 

[KoshFan]

I remembered that Honor wasn't captured in War of Honor, but I couldn't remember the name of the book where she was. Thanks.

I'll admit the character of the series is changing. Now that we have highly sympathetic characters on both sides, the best of all possible worlds for our charactes would be peace... yet this would be boring.

The repetitive nature of the book, I think, is reflective of the repetitive nature of reality.

 

[admiraldave]

The repetitive nature of the book, I think, is reflective of the repetitive nature of reality.

Doesn't make it any more interesting to read. I'll admit, it is interesting to see a war between two sympathetic sides. But all plot development in War of Honor could have been easily compressed into a few chapters of a more eventful book.

Also, the main thing that drew me into the series was Honor herself. She was a strong, capable commander and a fun character to watch. But I haven't been happy with her development in later books. I find her dithering over Hamish to be more vexing than endearing, and as she's gone up in rank, I don't get to see her do that hands-on commanding that was so cool in On Basilisk Station. I understand that's the nature of the game, but Honor is still the biggest draw into this universe. Also, the ever-increasing cast of characters means that Honor herself gets much less booktime, and I find I miss her presence.

 

[KoshFan]

Well, each to his or her own. I like Honor a lot, and occasionally I've raised my eyebrows at the number and frequency of the recurring characters, but frankly I like most of them. I'm always glad to see Rafe Cardones or Shannon Foraker or -- need I mention him? -- Harkness. Personally I find it a plus that Honor doesn't have to do everything, that there are interesting people doing interesting things elsewhere.

But I'll admit that does make for distractions from the people who find Honor to be most important, and I take it this is the main reason you didn't like "In the Shadow of Saganami."

 

[admiraldave]

Shadow of Saganami was, admittedly, a step up from War of Honor, and while I did miss Honor's presence, it wasn't that bad. My main problems were that I wasn't really connecting with all the new characters, and again, the book was overlong and in drastic need of editing. I found myself skipping sections simply because I knew nothing serious plot-wise would happen.

BTW, did you read the other non-Honor book, Crown of Slaves? I haven't read it and was wondering if it was worth a try.

 

[KoshFan]

I haven't read any of Weber's fantasy.

Incidentally, we nee more people in this thread.

 

[admiraldave]

Crown of Slaves isn't fantasy, it's still an Honorverse book. It's an espionage story centered around the Zilwicki's, and one of the crown princesses. And it takes place in Erewhon.

Yes it'd be nice if others joined in, but I'm guessing there aren't a lot of Honor fans on this board.

 

[Loburian]

I love Honor! But i think its kinda funny how David W. had to try to keep finding ways to make Honor go through "worse" situations. hehe.

 

[KoshFan]

Crown of Slaves has the Zilwickis? I did not know. Thanks. The whole slave sideplot has a certain fascination. But again, I like the fact that there's so much else out there in the Honorverse.