 |
At All Costs | 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 war between Manticore and Haven has turned hot again, and things do not look good for Manticore. The previous administration had pissed away the goodwill of the other members of their Alliance, to the point one planet actually dropped out and changed sides - taking with it a good chunk of their technology advantage. They'd also slowed research into gaining more technology, as well as construction of new ships. Haven, in the meantime, had spent the lull doing their damnedest to narrow the technology gap and widen the gap in hull numbers. And they did a good job at both.
Manticore's navy is spread thin protecting the systems the Alliance has left. It's Honor Harrington's job to take the Alliance's sole offensive fleet out and show Haven that Manticore isn't planning to just lie back and wait for Peep raids. Meanwhile, her personal life is getting... complicated. Elsewhere, people are starting to realize exactly why this second war really started, and tensions with the Solarian League are beginning to heat up. And then there's Mesa...
As I read it, this book constantly reminded me of a good meal. First, there was the appetizer, in the form of a short battle as Havenite forces raid an Alliance system. As usual for Weber, it is liberally sprinkled with technical data - missile speeds and accellerations and distances - while quite competently portraying ships' movements and following a person or two on each side of the battle. It projects an air of a godlike but impassive observer of it all who can still dip inside individual ships to see the more personal dramas unfold.
There is then a bit of a lull in the fighting. But not in the action. This is the meal's soup, or perhaps salad - nothing too exciting but tasty nevertheless. It is here we see the situations in Haven, Manticore, and elsewhere. Political and military, their plans and outlooks, as well as a good deal of Honor's personal life, are all depicted. This all takes up a lot of pages, but it's well worth it. Then comes the main course, the meat of attack paired with the potatoes of counterattack, all with a generous helping of the wonderous sauce of more sedate scenes outside of battle. And the dessert... oh, the delectable dessert!
All right, I think I can now legally be charged with abuse of a metaphor.
My point is that this is a very well-balanced book. All Honor Harrington novels have some mix of various elements: politics, behind-the-scenes machinations, Honor's personal life, the war as a whole, and fleet actions. Nearly every book, however, concentrates on a few of those elements and skimps on others. On Basilisk Station is nearly all fleet action (or preparing for fleet action), and Flag in Exile is largely politics and Honor's nonmilitary life. This one, however, has nearly equal doses of each. More, they're all in nearly the perfect places. I might be reading along one line, and just as I started to wonder what was going on over there, Weber would end the chapter and change the book's focus. This happened again and again, and it prevented me from ever being frustrated.
The book is simply beautiful. It could quite possibly be the best book Weber has written for the series. I highly, highly recommend reading it. Of course, you'll have to read the other ten books, first, not to mention the sideline books and perhaps even the anthologies. But it's almost worth reading those just so you can read and understand this one. It really is that good.
| By Title | By Author | By Rank |