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Ashes of Victory | Rating | |
| B | |||
| 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 | ||
Honor has escaped from the most escape-proof prison ever devised. Her "return from the dead" has galvanized a kingdom that was reeling in shock from the Havenite offensive. Now it's time to put the devastatingly effective new weapons Manticore has devised into full service and hit them back, hard.
Like all of Weber's novels in this series, this book is written well. Action, when it comes, is almost literally gripping, and given in a wonderful excess of detail that truly does make you feel like you're there. But the problem is that it's two-thirds of the way through the book before anything really happens. There's over three hundred pages of Honor recovering from her time on the prison planet Hell, teaching courses at the Naval Academy, and hobnobbing with high-powered politicos like Queen Elizabeth and Protector Benjamin. Meanwhile, both navies are plotting and positioning themselves for offensives to come. It's good in moderation, but I think he overdid it a little this time.
Worse, Honor is at the peak of being a Mary-Sue in this novel. Well, to date at least; who knows what future books might bring? But she gets raised from Countess to Dutchess near the beginning (ignoring the question of what becomes of her Earldom), she's still richer than God, her enemies are sent flying by her soaring popularity upon her return, and she's getting more cybernetics which are a hassle right now but promise to be very useful in the future. The one chink in her status is that Nimitz was injured way back in book eight in such a way that he is now telepathically mute. But this only affects other treecats; the empathic communication he and Honor share is unaffected. And it's not long before a way is suggested to overcome even this defficiency - and in such a way to change humans' understanding of treecats forever.
Now, keep in mind, that despite these problems I still do not call it a bad book. It is still a good book. The climax is long and comes on several fronts, not just space battles, and really very well done. It was a particular treat to see those new weapons used to full effect for the first time. But I do wish Weber would stop heaping rewards on his main character - even if, given her actions, it might take some explaining as to why they're not given. But there's really not many more rewards she can accrue! Slow it down already! Keep the action up, but slow down Honor's role in it.
Even if it's not a perfect book, it's still worth reading. Of course, you should read the others first, or it might get a bit confusing. But you should read it.
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