The Mesan Alignment is revealed, and, for Honor Harrington and the Manticoran Star Kingdom, this means war!
Unintended Consequences
Sometimes things don’t work out exactly as planned.
The Mesan Alignment has a plan—one it’s been working on for centuries. A plan to remake the galaxy and genetically improve the human race—its way.
Until recently, things have gone pretty much as scheduled, but then the Alignment hit a minor bump in the road called the Star Empire of Manticore. So the Alignment engineered a war between the Solarian League, the biggest and most formidable interstellar power in human history. To help push things along, the Alignment launched a devastating sneak attack which destroyed the Royal Manticoran Navy’s industrial infrastructure.
And in order to undercut Manticore’s galaxy‑wide reputation as a star nation of its word, it launched Operation Janus—a false‑flag covert operation to encourage rebellions it knows will fail by promising Manticoran support. The twin purposes are to harden Solarian determination to destroy the Star Empire once and for all, and to devastate the Star Empire’s reputation with the rest of the galaxy.
But even the best laid plans can have unintended consequences, and one of those consequences in this case may just be a new dawn of freedom for oppressed star nations everywhere.
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OK but not worth the earc priceMixed feelings but mostly disappointed. Well written and some good action but no real advance of the plot. Mostly more of the Fringe resistance movements. Many sections are different perspectives of "off scene" characters from earlier books. Some stage setting for future events if the story ever, you know, progresses
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DisappointingThis is the worst Honorverse novel ever published, taking the title away from Torch of Freedom. Indeed, it is difficult even to call it a novel; it is more like a series of vignettes that might have been better served by being published as a short story anthology. The few really interesting chapters could have been published in prior books. That said, it is only because of those chapters that I'm giving the book 3 stars instead of 2.
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Skip itThis was a really tedious filler episode.
Lots of characters introduced for a page, and never mentioned again. Maybe it'll be tightened up in the edit, but even then, it feels like milking the overall storyline. Almost nothing at all of consequence happens until the very last chapter.
This was a waste of my money, I might be done with this series and its cynical stringing-along.Posted on
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Skip itThis was a really tedious filler episode.
Lots of characters introduced for a page, and never mentioned again. Maybe it'll be tightened up in the edit, but even then, it feels like milking the overall storyline. Almost nothing at all of consequence happens until the very last chapter.
This was a waste of my money, I might be done with this series and its cynical stringing-along.Posted on
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Unintended consequences, indeedIf this book had come out before <i>A Rising Thunder,</i> rather than after, I’d bet half the negative comments wouldn’t be appearing here. I gather some scheduling issues were involved, but when such things affect reader perceptions this profoundly, one has to question the decision to press on with the schedule change. Whether that decision was Mr. Weber’s or the publisher’s, I don’t know, but it certainly seems to have tarnished both brands at least to a degree.
This apparent switch certainly resolves one question I’d had: In <i>Thunder,</i> Harahap abruptly is working for the Alignment instead of the Gendarmerie. (Huh?) There are allusions to his change in allegiance, but it happens off-stage; no explicit narrative covers it. This book fills in that gap, another indication this and <i>Thunder</i> effectively swapped places.
I appreciate the “show, don’t tell” aspects of spotlighting the plights, and rebellious responses, of various transtellar- and OFS-dominated single-star polities, but between this and <i>Thunder,</i> it does seem to be carried to extremes: When I re-read <i>Thunder,</i> I tend to skip the first chapters. In this book, moreover, it’s a bit hard to tell whether the reader is on Chotěboř (the Czech-speaking world) or Włocławek (the Polish-speaking world).
Using foreign languages and names reinforces the idea of disparate cultures settling far-flung star systems, but walking the fine line between flavor and incomprehensibility is tricky. My profession as a graphic designer and typesetter has exposed me to all sorts of readability issues, especially now that my work is dominated by localization projects. (Speaking of which: the dead giveaway for the Polish names is the presence of “ł”, a uniquely Polish character if I understand correctly.)
A lot of the irritation value could have been reduced with two simple precepts. First, present an organization’s name untranslated in its first mention, followed <i>immediately</i> by a translation, and use the translation thereafter, perhaps occasionally sprinkling in an untranslated abbreviation or nickname as a reminder. Second, choose character names carefully to minimize a foreign reader’s “alphabet soup” impression, particularly for English with its unusual lack of diacritical marks. Maybe that doesn’t convey a precisely accurate impression of the culture’s naming conventions, but it’s a small price to pay.Posted on
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DisappointmentShadows on the Cuttingroom Floor is nothing but all the deleted scenes and entire plot threads from the last 3 doorstoppers David wrote. A minority of the former might have been salvageable as catchup/filler material in the next book; but 80-90% of this one never should've seen the light of day.
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DisappointmentWhen I read the tagline I thought; "this is where the book starts. I can't wait to find out what happens." But I was wrong, it is where the book ends. There was absolutely no progression in the story-line.
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To wordieWeber must be paid by the word. The story of H.H. has advanced from action to a political hash that is so boring. In stead of capital punishment I would make criminals read this book.
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To wordieWeber must be paid by the word. The story of H.H. has advanced from action to a political hash that is so boring. In stead of capital punishment I would make criminals read this book.
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Waste of TimeLess than ten pages of actual new story. A pastiche of already-printed material, with tons of filler giving more background to additional verge revolts. I kept hoping for new material... and kept reading... and was disappointed.
I deeply regret spending money for this complete waste of time, and Baen should be ashamed to take money for it.
Based on this, I will evaluate the next Honorverse novel under a very harsh standard -- if there is ANY hint in the preview of an yet another alternate POV to events already revealed, I will not buy it. Period.Posted on