New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and international best-selling phenomenon David Weber delivers book #18 in the multiple New York Times best-selling Honor Harrington series.
Wrong number? There are two sides to any quarrel . . . unless there are more.
Queen Elizabeth of Manticore's first cousin and Honor Harrington's best friend, Michelle Henke, has just handed the "invincible" Solarian League Navy the most humiliating, one sided defeat in its entire almost thousand year history in defense of the people of the Star Empire's Talbott Quadrant. But the League is the most powerful star nation in the history of humanity. Its navy is going to be back—and this time with thousands of superdreadnoughts.
Yet she also knows scores of other star systems—some independent, some controlled by puppet regimes, and some simply conquered outright by the Solarian Office of Frontier Security—lie in the League's grip along its frontier with the Talbott Quadrant. As combat spreads from the initial confrontation,the entire frontier has begun to seethe with unrest, and Michelle sympathizes with the oppressed populations wanting only to be free of their hated masters.
And that puts her in something of a quandary when a messenger from Mobius arrives, because someone's obviously gotten a wrong number. According to him, the Mobians' uprising has been carefully planned to coordinate with a powerful outside ally: the Star Empire of Manticore. Only Manticore—and Mike Henke—have never even heard of the Mobius Liberation Front.
It's a set up . . . and Michelle knows who's behind it. The shadowy Mesan Alignment has launched a bold move to destroy Manticore's reputation as the champion of freedom. And when the RMN doesn't arrive, when the MLF is brutally and bloodily crushed, no independent star system will ever trust Manticore again.
Mike Henke knows she has no orders from her government to assist any rebellions or liberation movements, that she has only so many ships, which can be in only so many places at a time . . . and that she can't possibly justify diverting any of her limited, outnumbered strength to missions of liberation the Star Empire never signed on for. She knows that . . . and she doesn't care.
No one is going to send thousands of patriots to their deaths, trusting in Manticoran help that will never come.
Not on Mike Henke's watch.
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Product ReviewThe book as more or less the same pace of A Rising Thunder, which means that it follows numerous storylines which don't really matter, present at least two bold and condemned Resistance movements, a phalanx of brave and bold Manticoran officers, and corrupt and sneaky Solarian ones. Manticorans always win, Sollies always lose, sometimes fighting, sometimes not. Nothing else happens. Seriously: you can read A Rising Thunder, just assume "and things go on like this" and simply skip this book. Mesan charachters appear if I'm not mistaken in TWO whopping scenes and do absolutely nothing.
Not only it doesn't advance the main storyline, but it's actually a boring read: characters are hard to distingush from each other, and the same plot we already saw in ART is reapted over and over. Heroes come, bad guys get wiped out in seconds or surrender, everyone cheers.
I expected much much better from David Weber; I'm profoundly disgusted by this book, and I'll wait for reviews instead of outright buying the next one as soon as it comes out as I've always done.Posted on
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Product ReviewContrary to the first dozen reviews here, I don't think the book is that bad. And it lasted me all the way through Easter, so it's not like it is that short.
Yes, Honor Harrington is not in the story, it is all about Michelle Henke, aka Admiral Gold Peak, Empress Elizabeth's cousin and her adventures as a very independent admiral out in the Talbott Quadrant where the Mesan Alignment is stirring up trouble. The end result of Henke actions is to complement the big battle at the end of A Rising Thunder with the opening of a new front in the war against the Solarian League. And attacking the enemy on two fronts simultaneously is never a bad thing.Posted on
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Product ReviewI am VERY annoyed that a new "Honor Harrington" novel isn't about Honor Harrington. lately, david has been cutting corners. Combine this with baen's new price policy, and baen (AND mr. Weber) are going to lose one dedicated reader.
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Product ReviewThis book falls short in comparison to other stories in this series. Focusing the story in a different character in another sector is fine, however this novel rehashes a bit too much from other books. More importantly, it fails to advance the mainline story arc in a meaningful manner. While it sets up a number of new developments in the Talbott Quadrant, this novel fails to bring most plot elements to a satisfactory conclusion. After finishing this book, I feel like I'm still waiting for the second half. Shorter books of mediocore quality at a higher price is not a way to foster continued loyalty.
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Product ReviewThe pros and cons of "painting on a broader canvas" - I like the "galaxy-spanning" conflict, but ... In order to grant everybody in the large cast some "page time", it was apparently necessary to give everybody only a little time. For me this meant I could not really identify with anybody. IMO Shadow of Saganami managed this balance in a better way.
What I'd prefer are books that follow a narrow cast of characters through one aspect of the conflict - and I don't mind having the odd chapter duplicated in order to make that happen.Posted on
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Product ReviewHave to agree with others. Cut and Paste from previous books seemed like Half the book. The other half, while a very good Start, seems to have left out the Payoff. How is Manticore going to help the verge planets being set up as Suckers? We seem to be missing about half the book compared to Weber's usual way of resolving setups like this.
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Product ReviewChap 1 Page 4 in HB , Kindle & Sample Chapters. Typo.
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Product ReviewMeh. Too much that was copied from other books, like the scene with Anton Z & Victor C. There were some interesting parts, but it didn't feel like a full novel, and Baen's price increase didn't help. I'm willing to pay a bit more for no DRM, but I think they went a bit much on this.
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