Just finished Honor Harrington book 10 a little while ago for the second time. This is the first HH book that left me feeling a little lacking. One, it's VERY long, and there is more political stuff than space stuff in it, and I like the space stuff and action more. Two, it feels very much like a transitional book. My feeling is that Weber kinda wrote himself into a corner where he was forced to write a book to deal with all the loose threads in the intermission between the interstellar conflicts, so he could proceed to the next phase of the Manticore/Haven saga. However, this book could have been trimmed down a bit and still accomplished that task.

Overall, still a good Weber book, but not quite in the same league as the rest of the HH books. ( )

Still really good David Weber, but not his finest.

This book is setting up the plot for later books, still enjoyable, some great scenes but slow. ( )

The fragile "truce" between the Star Kingdom and the Republic of Haven is getting frostier with both sides not moving an inch. Still on the outside of her government Honor is trying to balance things politically as well as trying to make her government see sense. With the news of a secret Republics' military fleet coming to head, this suddenly cold war is about to heat up. As usual, this book was a nice wave of actions rising and falling before one really big rise and fall. I look forward to reading how the end of this book with the war heating up, a switch in the government of the Star Kingdom, and the Republic now able to challenge the Star Kingdom, the next book is sure to be entertaining.
( )

This massive episode in the Honor Harrington series was filled with all sorts of political maneuvering.

In Manticore, High Ridge's government is too busy with their pork barrel projects and fear of needing to call a general election to put any effort into actually forging a peace treaty with Haven. High Ridge's government is a loose group of politicians who have very little in common except their desire to have power and push their own projects. The admiralty is in the hands of a politician masquerading as an admiral who is more interested in pushing his own agenda and covering his butt to actually do anything. He is proud of the way he is gutting the navy and putting all the good officers on the beach.

In Haven, President Pritchart is trying to form a democracy but she is being undermined by her Secretary of State who has his own agenda. He wants her job and he wants power and he is willing to do anything including "adjusting" the messages that go back and forth in the peace process to slant them in ways that make him look good and Pritchart look bad.

While Manticore's navy is contracting and deteriorating Haven is busy building new ships and developing new techniques under the supervision of Admiral Foraker. They have managed to keep their new developments secret which is helping to build the High Ridge government's sense of false security.

This is also the book where Honor and Hamish Alexander become the victims of a smear campaign which says that they are lovers and are cheating on Hamish's wife. Now, Hamish and Honor are in love but both are too honorable to do anything to hurt Emily Alexander. And it takes a while before either is willing to admit what they feel to each other. However, the smear campaign does its bit to turn public opinion against them and distract them from things High Ridge and his cronies are doing. It is also one more straw that is wrecking Manticore's alliance with Grayson since the Graysons strongly dislike the way Honor is being treated.

As diplomacy fails, Haven gears up for war against the alliance. Honor is in Silesia where she is having problems with the Andermani who are getting more aggressive. Turns out that the scheming Secretary of State from Haven has been whispering in their ears about what they should be doing in Silesia. Luckily, Protector Benjamin has sent the Protector's Own to Silesia as backup for Honor's forces because a large Havenite force has plans there. Of course they also have plans at a number of the other frontier areas that Manticore had taken away from them during the war and they are much more successful there as the Manticorans are dealing with the admiralty's cost-saving measures and are under strength and under armed.

This wasn't really my favorite of the series because there was just so much political stuff. I think a couple of hundred pages of it could have been deleted. I am looking forward to what is going to happen next in the series though. ( )

This massive episode in the Honor Harrington series was filled with all sorts of political maneuvering.

In Manticore, High Ridge's government is too busy with their pork barrel projects and fear of needing to call a general election to put any effort into actually forging a peace treaty with Haven. High Ridge's government is a loose group of politicians who have very little in common except their desire to have power and push their own projects. The admiralty is in the hands of a politician masquerading as an admiral who is more interested in pushing his own agenda and covering his butt to actually do anything. He is proud of the way he is gutting the navy and putting all the good officers on the beach.

In Haven, President Pritchart is trying to form a democracy but she is being undermined by her Secretary of State who has his own agenda. He wants her job and he wants power and he is willing to do anything including "adjusting" the messages that go back and forth in the peace process to slant them in ways that make him look good and Pritchart look bad.

While Manticore's navy is contracting and deteriorating Haven is busy building new ships and developing new techniques under the supervision of Admiral Foraker. They have managed to keep their new developments secret which is helping to build the High Ridge government's sense of false security.

This is also the book where Honor and Hamish Alexander become the victims of a smear campaign which says that they are lovers and are cheating on Hamish's wife. Now, Hamish and Honor are in love but both are too honorable to do anything to hurt Emily Alexander. And it takes a while before either is willing to admit what they feel to each other. However, the smear campaign does its bit to turn public opinion against them and distract them from things High Ridge and his cronies are doing. It is also one more straw that is wrecking Manticore's alliance with Grayson since the Graysons strongly dislike the way Honor is being treated.

As diplomacy fails, Haven gears up for war against the alliance. Honor is in Silesia where she is having problems with the Andermani who are getting more aggressive. Turns out that the scheming Secretary of State from Haven has been whispering in their ears about what they should be doing in Silesia. Luckily, Protector Benjamin has sent the Protector's Own to Silesia as backup for Honor's forces because a large Havenite force has plans there. Of course they also have plans at a number of the other frontier areas that Manticore had taken away from them during the war and they are much more successful there as the Manticorans are dealing with the admiralty's cost-saving measures and are under strength and under armed.

This wasn't really my favorite of the series because there was just so much political stuff. I think a couple of hundred pages of it could have been deleted. I am looking forward to what is going to happen next in the series though. ( )