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Echoes of Honor | Rating | |
| A | |||
| David Weber | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Honor Harrington | Jayne's Intelligence Review: The Royal Manticoran Navy, Jayne's Intelligence Review: The Havenite Republican Navy, On Basilisk Station, The Honor of the Queen, The Short Victorious War, Field of Dishonor, Flag in Exile, Honor Among Enemies, In Enemy Hands, Echoes of Honor, Ashes of Victory, War of Honor, At All Costs, More Than Honor, Worlds of Honor, Changer of Worlds, The Service of the Sword, Crown of Slaves, The Shadow of Saganami | ||
The Alliance is absolutely devastated when word of Honor's capture and subsequent execution reaches its worlds. And thanks to the titles she had gained over the years, there is no small political turmoil as well. What will become of Harrington Steading when she has no heir?
More importantly to the war itself, though, is the fact that the war is stalled. A great many of the Alliance's ships have been pulled from the front in order to undergo necessary refits and repairs. The Havenites, and especially their new Secretary of War, have a plan to take great advantage of the respite they have been given with an offensive campaign of their own.
And all the while, Honor Harrington is stuck on Hell, where man cannot eat the native wildlife. It's Haven's ultimate prison planet, absolutely inescapable. But Honor is intent on doing exactly that.
For some reason, Weber chose to organize this story differently than the others. The novel is seperated into six books, alternating between the events in the Alliance and those on Hell. I would have preferred that the two be intermingled a bit more, to better help with the sense of simultanity.
The only other problem I could find was that Weber is fond of quotes. This is fine, for they're good quotes. Previous books had a spattering of them throught, maybe a half dozen in each novel that I recognized as quotes. But this book had far more; it seemed at times I couldn't read a chapter without hitting two or three. And I found it particularly hard to believe so many modern sayings and observations have lasted two thousand years, and only once in the entire book does a character "quote" a character that is born in the future. I should think some sayings more recent to the speaker would be used.
But both of these are nits. They're noticable, but minor problems that have no effect whatsoever on the story. (Or maybe very slight effect, for the simultanity one.) The two aspects are very well done, even if they are entirely seperate stories from each other. The space battles are done with Weber's usual superb style, and we get to see several traps and ambushes laid by both sides. And Honor's side is difficult to fathom. How do you escape a planet when all you have are thirty people and two shuttles incapable of hyper, when the other side has the food, obital guns and missiles, and everything else?
This is definitely one of the better stories in the setting, even if it is not pure space opera. Indeed, I feel it is good because it it not pure ship on ship battles. It is a nice mix, even better than Flag in Exile, thanks to events on Hell.
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