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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DisappointedDevon:
I've been an avid supporter of everything David Weber has written since I first picked up On Basilisk Station 10 years ago. I love the strong, fully fleshed out characters and the well reasoned plots. However, this book seems to be the culmination of everything I disliked about the last few books. I enjoy reading sub plots and going into detail about some tertiary characters, but this book is ONLY tertiary characters and sub plots. I have never been more frustrated reading an Honor Harrington novel then when I got to the end of this book and found out that none of the main plots (by now there are several) have been advanced at all. We know more about events already presented in precious novels, but nothing new. I love the Honor Harrington series, it is without a doubt my favorite, but if David Weber does not have enough new material to justify several new books, then please, please have the courage to wrap up the series and give the devoted fans some closure.
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NOT a Honor Harrington novel!Whatever BAEN says, this book is definitely NOT a Honor Harrington novel. First, she is there for barely 10 minutes of pointless talk with heads of 'Great Alliance' (that's new, BTW). Second, she does not add anything to the plot (if there is one, but about it later). So, Baen needs to be sued for misleading advertizing:)
As for book itself - don't waste your money - it's incoherent hash of old stories, as previous reviews mentioned. I am getting tired of RMN Captains inventing catchphrases to throw on their SLN opponents, really, David? I am getting tired of skipping between characters without any progress. Mind you, skipping between characters (multiple ones) could work - Harry Turtledove and Tom Clancy (R.I.P) are excellent examples. Not in this book...
Anyway, I'll wait till other book, but starts to smell like another 'Wheel of Time"...Posted on
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So bad it will have repercussionsIn my opinion, this book is bad enough it will affect future sales - at least when it comes to the next one or two books Weber releases. Some people will choose not to buy the e-arc and some will decide to pirate the next few books to "punish" the author. Some people will probably decide to never read Weber again.
I wont pirate Weber, but i'll definetely pass on the next few e-arcs and wait for reviews and a finished product.Posted on
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Where's the beef?While the book was well written and the action was actiony, this book backs way up and takes a run at it, only to end up at pretty much the same point as Cauldron of Ghosts,Shadow of Freedom and A Rising Thunder. When are we going to see some progression in the plot?
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Great but repeats of other storiesI really liked it although much of it was expansion or even regurgitation of recent tales. We know they blew things up. We know they escaped to a new planet. What about that happens after that? What about what is going on with the Sollies after so many decisive defeats?
Come on Mr Weber, please give us some new stories. We've been through all of this stuff before.Posted on
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Milking it! Again!Wish I'd read some of the earlier reviews complaining about the lack of story progression and unforgivable recycling of material from previous books. The heavy use of recycled material was irksome but tolerable in 'A Rising Thunder'. To see the SAME material used a THIRD time in a 'new' novel is just... well it's just abusing the trust of the readers. The new material should have been included in Shadow of Freedom, Rising Thunder and Cauldron of Ghosts, instead of recycling parts from all three and sprinkling new material on top. If Basilisk Station was Filet Mignon, this book is Hamburger Helper Casserole.
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Waste of MoneyThe Bad News: An almost total rehash of old story lines on new planets, that served no purpose, other than filler.
The Good News: It put me to sleep every night for a week, from boredom.Posted on
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It's time to progress the narrativeIf the author reads the reviews, there is a common theme to the criticism of this and his last 2-3 books, they recap and represent the existing narrative and make ZERO progress. At the end of this book we are where we were pretty well 2-3 books ago. And that is getting really irritating, along with skipping entire sections recapitulating bits we have all read before (about 50% plus) of this book.
Seriously ... It's time to progress the narrative. If there need to be some cleanup - hey give everyone a cheap volume called "shadow of cleaning up the details in the narrative."
But it is waaaay waaaay past time for a volume that progresses the overall story. And that so many loyal readers are furious at getting this regurgitation, well, come on. It's a bit of a cheat to ramp up expectations for the third time and, well, meh - nothing that goes anywhere.
Indeed, perhaps it is time to discount the next volume to everyone who bought the last three. I mean all this waiting, the last minute delay - and that's it! I'm sure there are some Czech profanities that apply.Posted on