At All Costs

Honor Harrington, Book 11

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 32 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

What price victory? The war with the Republic of Haven has resumed... disastrously for the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Admiral Lady Dame Honor Harrington, Steadholder and Duchess Harrington, the single victorious Allied commander of the opening phase of the new war, has been recalled from the Sidemore System to command Eighth Fleet. Everyone knows Eighth Fleet is the Alliance's primary offensive command, which makes it the natural assignment for the woman the media calls "the Salamander." But what most of the public DOESN'T know is that not only are the Star Kingdom and its Allies badly outnumbered by the Republic's new fleet, but that the odds are going to get steadily worse.

Eighth Fleet's job is to somehow prevent those odds from crushing the Alliance before the Star Kingdom can regain its strategic balance. It's a job which won't be done cheaply. Honor Harrington must meet her formidable responsibilities with inferior forces even as she copes with tumultuous changes in her personal and public life. The alternative to victory is total defeat, yet this time the COST of victory will be agonizingly high.

A Note from Author David Weber
There's been some confusion—not to say, um, energetic debate, readers and fans being readers and fans—about the correct pronunciation of "Manticoran." The truth, alas, is that a stitch was dropped. An error occurred. A mistake was made… and it wasn't Audible's fault. It was mine. Before Audible recorded the very first Honor Harrington book, narrator Allyson Johnson and I not only corresponded by e-mail but actually spoke to one another by phone. She wanted to make absolutely certain she had the correct pronunciations for names, places, star nations, etc., and I tried to make certain all of her questions were answered. And so they were. Unfortunately, at some point in the process, I replied to one of her e-mails by telling her that "Man-ti-core-ahn" was pronounced "Man-tik-er-ahn." Exactly how this happened is more than I can say at this point, except to blushingly disclose that the original e-mail remains intact, confirming to all the world that it was, indeed, my fault. I can ascribe it only to a temporary mental hiccup on my part and crave your forgiveness. If, however, you must blame someone for the mix-up, that someone should be me and not Audible, who have done everything they could to get it right.

Listen to another Honor Harrington adventure.

©2007 David Weber (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Weber Rocks!

Awesome book and series. sets the standard for space Opera and military Science Fiction. if a TV or movie series could be made of these books that were ture to the books, it would leave star trek and star wars in the dust.

At All Costs

My review is not simply regarding this book but others in the series, Honor Harrington is really a very great character and once again I must say I enjoy how this character grows through the series. How she starts as a commander and becomes so much more, and how she is unsure of herself somewhat and overcomes that as wel as how her life touches others in her life. I also really like the characters around her, and how they help her become strong. One thing I must say this hold thing about the narrator is so unfair, Ms. Johnson voice works so well for this series please everyone give this a rest.

Great work

This is a great story that did an amazing job at bringing the readers into the story. #FemaleProtagonist #Inspiring #SpaceTravel #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Much better than Book 10 in the series

The more I though about Book 10, 'War of Honor' after reading it, the less I liked it. It seemed like it was all just people sitting around talking.

Honor and 'Beth the Queen' seeing how much sugary praise they could heap on each other, how much 'tee hee hee' cackling they could engage in, and how much bitching they could share about the incumbent government.

Meanwhile the bad incumbent government guys are twirling their mustaches in glee.

Anyway, let's just say I didn't like book 10, and waited months to buy book 11.

I was pleasantly surprised that 'At All Costs' was much better. I liked that we get to know the Haven Navy better, and I remain convinced that Honor and Theisman will hook up one day, both in a combined fleet and maybe in a bedroom.

I liked that the two navies are evenly matched.

There are number of excellent space battles, one causing several million casualties. The gigantic crew complements of Honorverse warships used to bother me, but I've come to terms with it.

Even though Book 11 is significantly longer than book 10, it moves along much faster.

There is of course the normal subplot involving Honor screwing up her personal life, but we know it will all work out in the end, which of course it does.

Would you be surprised if I told that Honor's kids are the best babies in the history of mankind? Just sense their mindglow. Lots of coo-cooing over babies if you like that kind of thing. Honor's Mom is really cool, I'll give her that.

It was kind of fun to see Queen Beth go full Louis Carrol mad queen 'off with their heads'.

The Queen freaks out because there is an evil Lex Luther kind of supervillain pulling strings in the background that we, but not the characters, know about.

[RANT]
This was fine too, except for Weber throwing in the most trite, silly, and ridiculous evil superpower ever.

One of the evil doers is a SHAPE SHIFTER! Talk about something that has been done to death. Star Trek ran into a bunch of races that saved on costume budgets by being identical to humans. The Cylons were not only perfect replicas of humans, down to their dna, their women were all hot. At least in that Tom Cruz movie, Tom could change his face but not his whole body.

Mr Weber, you didn't have any reason to include on this very tired and cheap trope. That's worse than starting a book with 'it was an dark and stormy night, a hand reaches for the alarm clock'.
[/RANT]

I have no problem with Ms Johnson's narration. She has about four or five distinct voices, each with slight variations. These she does well , but since there are literally millions of characters in these books it can get confusing at times.

I would suggest to whom ever edits these audio books that he or she insert brief pauses when the character dialogs shift from one group of players to the other group.

Weber does a great job in the space battles, as he shifts focus from one ship's bridge to the opponent's bridge in real time.

A brief pause in the narration between these focus changes would be very helpful

Overall, this book is a big improvement over book 10, and I bought book 11 the day after I finished this one.

Game of Thrones in Space

Drama, humor, intrigue, heart pounding action, and great characters. Also excellent narration. The only way it could be better would be to make it a TV series. That would be outstanding!

Honor seems like a part of my family!

I absolutely love these Honor Harrington novels. I've spent my morning and evening drives for the past 9 months listening through the series. Weber has a way of creating characters you love to hate along with the ones you love to love. And when the bad guys finally get their due "rewards" ... it is SO sweet! I'm on book 11 so I look forward to the next several months as I finish the series. I highly recommend you join the Honor Harrington family!

Another great story.

however I would gladly have granted the Cats ability to "Sign" without the need to describe how they make every Sign for every letter of every word.

Great, Lengthy, DL high quality.

I love this entire series. It is very lengthy at times, and I do feel that there is almost too much detail on every topic. But it's still worth the read. I would advice to download it at the highest quality though. When the book is downloaded compactly there is no pause between the transitions in scenes. So if your attention drifts for a second you could end up in Haven after just listening to Manticore characters and get VERY confused. Especially when it's a new character you haven't heard of before and you don't know what side if the war they are on. Ha! I noticed that with all the books that are 50 chapters and beyond.

Love the books. Can't listen to this narrator.

I've been reading the HH books since they were first released. And I love audio books. I actually find I get into stories more fully when listening to audio versions and retain more of the stories afterward.

Unfortunately, I simply cannot listen to this narrator. I'm sure she's a very nice person and all that, but I just can't stand her voice. I can't even tell you what it is about her voice that's so bothersome; I just find it irritating and so I can't get into the book at all. It's sad really, but there it is.

Honor Harrington Universe Book 18

"To be near the goal while the enemy is still far from it,
to wait at ease while the enemy is toiling and struggling,
to be well-fed while the enemy is famished: —
this is the art of husbanding one's strength." Sun Tzu " The Art of War"

"Only a fool will try to put himself on the enemies sword"
Musashi Miyamoto " Book of 5 Rings"

"This is the way the "True War" supposed to be fought"
Carl von Clausewitz "On War"

PS
I wanted to write a quote by Niccolò Machiavelli but it sounded too much like a spoiler.