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The Shadow of Saganami | Rating | |
| B | |||
| David Weber | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Saganami Island | 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 | ||
When Helen Zilwicki, Aikawa Kagiyama, and Ragnhild Pavletic graduate from officer's training at Manticore's prestigious Saganami Island, they're expecting to be transferred to the front. The war with Haven has turned hot again, and the Star Kingdom needs bodies badly. Instead, they get assigned to the HMS Hexapuma, which is due to tour the Talbott Cluster that is at the other end of the recently-discovered wormhole terminus. The Cluster is a group of poor and backwards star systems, hardly able to put up a real fight against Manticore. Not that they want to - the Cluster just voted to join the kingdom! All that's left is to bang out terms.
But this might not be so quiet a cruise, after all. If most residents of the Talbott Cluster want Manticore to move in, there is a loud minority who do not. And there are forces outside the area who have their own eyes on the suddenly valuable real estate. They're willing to join forces in an effort to force the Star Kingdom to back its bags and go home. Success wouldn't hurt Manticore much, but the CLuster would be in big trouble indeed!
The very first thing that I noticed about this book was that the back cover went out of its way to mention that these characters graduated after taking classes under Honor Harrington. In fact, the front cover goes even further, calling them, "Honor Harrington's hand-picked elite." So I was very surprised and disappointed to find Honor is barely involved with the story at all. She's in the first chapter - that's it.
I was expecting a large, unweildy cast, not unlike Crown of Slaves. I fully expected to get lost in all the new names being tossed around. To my pleasure, this was not the case. Thanks in part to Zilwicki being a familiar name, I never got confused as to who was whom.
On the other hand, it seemed like there were only a dozen people who really crewed the Hexapuma. Whenever some extra body was needed, the Captain invariably tapped one of those few crewmen that we have been following - usually, one of the midshipmen. Weber has generally been pretty good at spreading credit around, especially of late, and throughout the entire Honorverse he's never been shy about creating a new viewpoint character just for a scene or two. But he flubs it, this time.
This is one of the Honorverse's more political sroties, focused less on ship action than civilian maneuvers and machiavellian scheming. Oh, there's some fighting, most notably about a thrd of the way through the book and, of course, in the climax. But there's never any real doubt who will win those. As good as those scenes are, they lack that crucial element. The drama is reserved for the more political side of things.
Those politics are very good, well worth a reader's interest. Just how can a small band effectively resist a star nation? Turning terrorist resists, yes, but just how well does it actually work? Conversely, how can that nation put down those that choose the path of murderers and terrorists, without becoming in truth what they are falsely accused of being? How can Manticore deflect accusations of expansionism, imperialism, and weilding its economic might unduly and unfairly? All are issues that must be addressed.
My one complaint about this novel, and it's a tepid one, is that a 900-page book might deserve a few more scenes devoted to getting readers' pulses racing. Politics, terrorists, and the sometimes thin line between the two is interesting but hardly exciting.
Still, I look forward to more books in this new branch series of the Honorverse. I'm also curious to see whether this line will continue to follow Helen and her friends, or if it will return to Saganami Island to use a fresh batch of Midshipmen and so follow its series name more appropriately. Either way, this is a good start.
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