A reprise of a previous work focusing on Honor's conclusion of her relationship with Pavel Young, which is revenge served cold but very rewarding to us readers. War with the Peeps is pending but the Supreme Council is still dithering when it starts. ( )

This is the first book in The Expanded Honorverse series which are novels dealing with earlier periods in Honor's life. Therefore, much of the first half is very much a repetition of events written about in other books in the long-running series. It deals with a critical part of Honor's life centering around her disputes with Pavel Young and the death of Paul Tankersley and the way Honor deals with it.

This first part of the book is also concerned with political issues regarding the declaration of war against the Peeps. None of this political maneuvering is helped by Honor's actions in the aftermath of Pavel Young hiring the murder of her lover. Lieutenant Brandy Bolgeo is watching these goings on mostly from outside as she is going through regeneration of her lost leg and rehabilitation after the events of the Battle of Hancock. She's an Honor partisan even though she's never met her.

The second half of the book focuses on Lieutenant Brandy Bolgeo who is an engineer on the Prince Adrian commanded by Alastair McKeon. Also on board are Scotty Tremaine, Horace Harkness and Sargeant Major Babcock. The Prince Adrian is part of the Sixth Fleet's mission to harass the Peeps and chip away at their superior tonnage while waiting for the Manticore industries to ramp up to war standing.

Around the raids and battles, we get a chance to see the courtship between Harkness and Babcock which has been something fans of the series have wanted since both characters were introduced.

I enjoyed this story especially the second half which contained mostly new material. It has, however, made me want to reread the whole Honor Harrington series of which this is book 20 so that I can go back and spend time in this world and with these characters. ( )

Gotta say that the book's description on Baen and Amazon really doesn't accurately describe the story.

David Weber's mostly filling in some Honorverse backstory here, with a novel that runs parallel to Field of Dishonor and Flag in Exile. Lots of battle scenes (many are just sketched, though a couple get the full Weber treatment of throw weights and defensive failures and suchlike); those are mostly embedded in a story about Lieutenant Brandy Bolgeo's early career. Honor dominates the book for a while, to fight two duels and to present another perspective on her early years on Grayson. Like most Honorverse stories, this book often alternates between battle scenes and discussions in offices. There seem to be a couple courtships in progress, too.

A good book, methinks. I should have reread Field of Dishonor first, though. ( )