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Worlds of Honor | Rating | |
| C | |||
| David Weber | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Worlds of Honor | 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 | ||
This is the second anthology of stories set in Weber's "Honorverse." This time there are five stories, and no essay. The tales are mostly prequels, in that four take place before the first Honor Harrington novel, On Basilisk Station.
The stories are told in chronological order, so the first story is well before that book. Taking place only fifteen months after humanity's first contact with the treecats, it is a tale of a crashed aircar and emaciated treecat leading a small-town doctor to suspect murder or worse was at fault. It was a poor way to start the book, though, for it offers absolutely nothing new to readers' understanding of treecats and is utterly irrelevant to the war against Haven in the setting's present. Worse, it doesn't even stand very well on its own. Embedded in the story is a flashback lasting nearly forty pages. It repeats many of the same themes and scenes of the last anthology's opening story, and since it's a flashback there isn't even the tension of wondering if the character will live. And since it is so long, it leaves little room for the mystery of what happened to the aircar and the treecan to be resolved. As a result, it's nearly a case where the character walks in and the culprit confesses everything.
The next three stories are definitely winners, though. Weber tells the tale of the first Manticoran of royal blood to adopt a treecat, and the unexpected consequences of it. Jane Lindskold details the events surrounding Queen Elizabeth III's ascent to the throne - and quite eventful it was, too. Nothing in the main line's mentions of it prepared me for the actuality. Then Weber returns with a tale of Honor Harrington herself, but when she was merely an XO aborad the HMS Broadsword. When an avalanch hits a ski resort on Gryphon, she must batle not only the elements but a superior with a personal grudge if she's going to save anyone. Meanwhile, a young, pre-Marine Susan Hibson is going to have to fight for her life.
These stories were excellent. We see several characters we already know, but in their formative years. Lindskold's portrayal of Elezabeth and Manticoran politics were spot on, and Weber's stories were at his usual high level. The intrigue - and infighting - were both clever and believable. Very well done.
But the last story brings the book low once more. It is the only story to take place after hostilities have broken out, and it is about the battle for a strategically-placed planet well to the side of the main conflict. Its biggest problem was that it was simply confusing. There were no familiar characters, and I don't recall even hearing of the planet other than in this story. It gave me no familiar ground to stand on. Obviously this wasn't of major importance to the war effort, or there'd have been at least some mention of it elsewhere. Combine that with a main character who is - I think - from Erewhon, not the Star Kingdom, and the fact that this is a battle fought with almost modern-day weapons (our modern, not Manticore's) and you can see why I was a bit dissatisfied. Haven and Manticore are helping too much to claim only the planet's own resources are free to use, but they're not using their own. It just makes no sense, in several respects.
While the heart of the book was good, very good indeed, both the opening and closing shots left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Combined with how many of the stories don't affect readers' understanding of the main plotline at all, I found myself thinking this is among the worst of the books in the setting. Those three stories save it from being a total waste, but this volume can easily be skipped if you like. Buy it only if you want to own, or at least read, everything at all concerned with Honor Harrington.
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