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David Weber writes the Honor Harrington series, and the early books (those that I've read) were actually pretty good. It's high-quality space opera, starring a starship captain in the far-future version of the Royal Navy. The books are -- somewhat sketchily -- drawn from the same Napoleonic-era sources as the Aubrey-Maturin series, or the Hornblower series. (The lead bad guy in Nouveau Paris in the early books is named "Rob S. Pierre", get it?) Honor Harrington is a character in the Hornblower t...
This series is beginning to get tedious.this volume contains about 75% more words than anybody could reasonably use, mostly to tell us tedious detail of the politics of Manticore. I know it's not really unbelievable that corrupt politicians could bend and break laws to their own benefit, and actually believe their own lies. after all, politicians fabricated evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and somehow managed to believe those lies too, but just because truth is stranger than ficti...
I'm conflicted about this book. In terms of the last book, parts of this book are much better. There is less Honor worship, which is so nice. However, the plot also requires the reader to buy a relationship between White Haven and Honor, and I just don't buy the love. I really, really don't. It seems totally contrived. Not only because there seems to be no feelings that they actually show, but because of Sam's adoption of White Have. It feels like Weber is beating everyone over the head while sc...
The basic story was again 4 stars, but this book is even thicker than the previous ones due to a lot of extra information that knocked it back a star. It wasn't always bad. There were a lot of interesting back stories & the universe is filled in to a large extent. Unfortunately, either through LONG conversations or pages of explanation, every major point is thoroughly dissected & discussed in such gory detail that I was forced to conclude that Weber thinks his readers are idiots. I wound up skim...
David Weber's writing is space opera pulp claptrap in the best sense. Larger-than-life characters with extraordinary luck thump their chests and bray about honor while cursing the nitwit politicians who keep sticking them in awkward situations. Of course, enough characters die in the meantime to make it seem compelling.The hook: Weber blatantly strip-mines the golden classics of the Age of Sail. It's Hornblower in space. It's Aubrey without Maturin, crossed with Sir Walter Drake, carrying around...
David Weber employs an unfortunate writing device that causes frustration and disatisfaction in this reader. Let me describe it this way. If you spend 912 pages reading a slow political train wreck instigated by some very stupid, vain, manipulative, corrupt, dishonest, and narciscistic politicians leading to a literal war of misunderstanding between the good guys. Why can't the reader have some emotional catharsis by partaking in the come-up-ins of most of the villains. Instead, their punishment...
Not my thing.(view spoiler)[This took me 44.25 hours to get through. It is way too long. And the editor did a poor job of cutting unnecessary material. Sentences range from 40 – 80 words. One of the worst offenders:“If we send them a very brief note, possibly one which responds only to a single point from this one,” he tapped his own hardcopy of the Descroix note, “and does so in a way which makes it obvious that we’re attempting to address their legitimate concerns—their legitimate concerns, De...
The thing that really hurts is the belated discovery (after I picked up this book at the library because it was the only Weber book on the shelf, when I was looking for the third book in the Armageddon Reef series) that this is in fact the tenth volume in the Honor Harrington series--which means, of course, that I either must buy the preceding nine books [yes, it is that well written:] or else order them one at a time through the interlibrary loan system. I am still unhappy with Weber’s proclivi...
Another entertaining entry in the saga of Honor Harrington. I can't deny that some sections of this were slow to the point of tediousness, but the last 200 pages provided the usual riveting payoff. This series is pretty cheesy space opera but sometimes it hits the spot. I've already ordered the next one.While this book evidently wasn't edited for length, someone has taken the trouble to reduce the word and phrase repetition that was so distracting in the previous book. There is also a great deal...
At first I was hesitant that my favorite space opera series was focusing almost an entire book on interplanetary politics. I wanted to see Honor in battle. But, I quickly became hooked by the excellent side character development, as well as the storyline. I thoroughly enjoyed the behind the scenes intrigue, as much as the eventual offensive. As always, an excellent read!
Ah, Weber's finally broken the code. Since his re-telling of series back story has grown to 300 to 400 pages, the only way to have a decent amount of new material in a book is to pump up the total . . . in this case, to over 800 pages. Well, it worked. Much better story telling and character development because he gave himself enough "elbow room" to tell his story.
I "hate" this book, but for different reasons than the first time I read it. I think it does help having read the first nine books in the series (to a limited extent) as the first time I read it, I did not realize it was the tenth book in a series (although I did read the two books prior to this one). I hate that I finished it and felt so darn dissatisfied (view spoiler)[he has these various characters throughout the book who are the "villains" and appear to be being set up for some kind of "com...
I found this to be a difficult read due to the extensive story lines and development of numerous characters. The book itself is based on a war that is not being fought or efforts made to end it due to personal motives of many leaders who benefit from a war without actually fighting it. This edition included a DVD containing a collection of Honor Harrington works.
I don't know why other people read the Honor Harrington series, but here's why I read it. I read it for the payoff at the very end, where Honor uses some brilliant plan to bring justice to the utter filth that is her enemies. It gives me a primal satisfaction that I rarely find in other book series. I read this series for that satisfaction.I don't read it for the universe, because it feels like Weber is shoving it into my face against my will with his technical terms and history lesson segues in...
Wow! :D War of Honor continues about 3+ years from the previous book in the series Ashes of Victory! :D The political and military landscape has altered in a big way on the Manticorian side following the assassination of the Manticorian Prime Minister and subsequent collapse of the government in the previous book that has left petty small minded and corrupt people in charge of government and led to the Manticorian military dominance to ebb into seriously dangerous territory! :DThe character agai...
46 out of 100 for 2010. Let me warn you, this is a LONG book (over nine hundred pages). Took me more than a week to read, which is a long time for me.That being said, it's one of my favorite in the series. In some ways, it's a more 'mature' book than earlier ones, because the book shows how good, reasonable people can do unreasonable things (like start wars) when misunderstandings occur, or people put political ideology over the best interests of their nations.Political leadership has changed on...
1. I'm on page 114 and no one is on a frikkin' space ship! 2. A month later, I have finally finished this behemoth and I have some observations, not just on 'War of Honor', but on this Honorverse Mr. Weber has created. The starships and technology are convincing and interesting. The space battles are fascinating and fast-paced, having a consistent interior logic that he follows unerringly. The milieu is marvelous as well, there's a map (I love maps) and different political bodies born out of a p...
This is the 10th book in the Honor Harrington series. It is extremely long (976 pages in paperback) and about 85% of it deals with politics. Those parts of these books have always moved the slowest for me so in some ways this was a bit of a slog, but I have to say Weber does a great job with his world building.The plot of the book deals with the build-up to another war between Manticore and the Havenites. It is fascinating to watch the story unfold and see how two kingdoms who really don't want
Sadly, I am officially abandoning this series ... at least until I retire and can dedicate as much time as I'd like to get through it. I made 2 attempts over 6 years to complete the saga of Honor Harrington all the way through. Each time I burned out, right about when this book takes place. Its now 4 years later, and I still don't see myself completing the series anytime soon. The most upsetting part is that regardless of how emotionally taxing, and frustrating this series has been, I've enjoyed...
2018 re-read. Very good. The whole series is excellent.
Lots of politics as discussed by other readers. Last chapter contains some action.
This one felt way to political. There was not as much action given the page count as the rest of the series has been.
What the one- and two-star reviewers wrote is right on point. My husband Jim and I have long enjoyed Mr. Weber's books…then when I got to "At All Costs", something changed. They all became these big, thick books with SO much filler, exposition, back story, talk-talk-talk. Eventually I've learned how to read them; when I get to the filler parts, I just glance at the first or last sentence in a paragraph (sometimes for pages and PAGES) until it gets back to something I want to read. I still enjoye...
[MAY 2012]The next installment in the Honor Harrington series, this is, in some ways, the last Honor book -- as in the last of the series that focuses primarily on Harrington, vs. the ever-burgeoning cast.The threat of war is upon the Kingdom of Manticore, but the current administration is too selfish, dimwitted, and conniving to realize it. Convinced that they have the Republic of Haven cowed by the new weapons unveiled at the end of the previous war, the Conservative/Liberal alliance is too bu...
It took me awhile to get into this installment in the Honor Harrington series, but once I did, I really got into it.The leaders of the Republic are, right now, the most interesting characters in the saga. While I don't understand all of Secretary of State's maneuvering, I do understand enough to know that it didn't turn out quite as he planned. I have really enjoyed Weber's development of the "enemy" as 3-dimensional people who could just as easily be the "good guys" in certain circumstances. It...
There is something about Weber's Honor Harrington that I just can't read it fast enough. I need to find out what's going to happen next. Who's going to be affected. Will a character I adore be killed???I guess...okay, so I'm a masochist...I also "enjoy"?? the stupid politicians and seeing them get their comeuppance however long it may take! I've always enjoyed the strategy of war and when combined with my love of gadgets...Honor Harrington is a perfect fit!In War of Honor the tension ratchets ba...
I love David Weber’s ‘Honor Harrington’ books, absolutely brilliant stories with a great heroine. BUT could his editor please get out the red pen and remove half the waffle. I don’t need to know every single thought and the reason for those thoughts for every single character, I don’t need every single conversation explained from everybody’s perspective. All in excruciatingly excessive detail !!!!!I do like that David loves detail but not when it detracts from the flow of the story. This book is...
This is an extremely well done novel, and each character is given the attention they're due to make every twist and turn of the story relevant; however, as the tenth novel in this series, it really felt like more of a filler in order to set things up for things to come in later editions to this book series.
I do love me some Honor Harrington, but this book is a bit of a slog. Some good editing could have condensed this doorstop into a really good story. It was better on a re-read because I could skip over the boring bits. (3 stars for the first read, 3.5 stars rounded up for the re-read.)
Action decreases again and politics increases. Still an enjoyable read.