The Honor of the Queen

Honor Harrington, Book 2

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

It's hard to give peace a chance when the other side regards conquest as the only option and a sneak attack as the best means to that end. That's why the Kingdom of Manticore needs allies against the Republic of Haven, and the planet Grayson is strategically situated to make a very good ally indeed. But Her Majesty’s Foreign Office overlooked a “minor cultural difference” when they chose Honor Harrington to carry the flag: women on the planet of Grayson are without rank or rights and Honor’s mere presence is an intolerable affront to every male on the planet.

At first Honor doesn’t take it personally. But, in time, such treatment becomes taxing and she makes plans to withdraw until Grayson’s fratricidal sister planet attacks without warning. Now, Honor must stay and prevail, not just for her honor, but for her sovereign’s, for the honor of the Queen.

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.

©2002 David Weber (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Following in the best tradition of C.S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian and Robert A Heinlein! These hugely entertaining and clever adventures are the very epitome of space opera." ( Publishers Weekly)

reader still can't pronounce MAN-TI-COR-an

It's not man-TICK-eran. and her simulation of a mans voice, with an accent is bad.

Great story, but narrator messes it up!

Where does The Honor of the Queen rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Narrator makes this darn near the bottum of all thr audio books I have ever listen to, and that's hundreds.

What other book might you compare The Honor of the Queen to and why?

Horacio hornblower

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Allyson Johnson?

Barabara rosenblatt she does not read in nearmonotones and more importantly she can pronounce names correctly! Allyson can't or won't pronounce manticorean correctly.she can pronounce manticore correctly. The way she pronounces manticorean she might as well be saying manhole.

Any additional comments?

This is. My favorite Honor book, its reaally too bad the narrator is AHFUL. I can deal with near monotone reading, I can handle the minor differences in the sound of her mens voices and females (she does far better than I could with that). But what really upsets me and takes away a lot of my enjoyment with it iswhat can only be a deliberete mispronouncement of names! Here's. The BIG onr she can pronounce manticore correctlywhich is the name of the main star kingdom in which the story is set. But she can't pronounce it when you add an

Story is pretty decent, but need to get past the reader.

There are a couple specific things about the reader I don't like. First, she's not so much monotone, but stilted throughout. Second, she seems to pick random accent amalgams for every other character and it's just distracting. It's usually somewhere between Russian stereotype and French stereotype.

The story though is solid. My only complaint there is that, while I do like politics in my sci fi, the board room scenes drag on and on...

A great story

David Weber is at the top of his game. The only thing that bugged me was the narrator seemed to throw in accents for no apparent reason. The voices were off. Other than that I highly recommend this audiobook.

Phewww.....

Nothing short of brilliant. Twists, turns and shear thrill in this one! At some times I almost ignored work to finish a chapter....holy crap. Better yet, I found myself waking up early to enjoy a few chapters before work! If the first book drew you in like it did me, then buckle up....

Courage in the face of certain death.

The story remains in the tradition of Weber's finest storytelling. A great story and dialogue that draw you into the high drama of fierce combat against great evil in high places and the treachery of hidden evil and subterfuge. A great listening experience of heartbreaking sorrow over the loss of honorable friends and warriors. The exaltation of unexpected victory and the unexpected vindication of justice over cruel fanaticism. A great read and listen.

Rich Sci-fi World

The Second book in the Honor Harrington universe and it's a big step up from the first in the series. This book features Honor and co. visiting the planet Grayson and attempts to sign a treaty to help in the upcoming war against Haven. Haven in the mean time is teaming up with the Masadan's whose arch enemy are the Graysons. Both countries are religious fanatics and believe that women should not be soldiers, much less captains. It's up to Honor to work through the prejudices and get the treaty signed without letting Masada destroy Grayson and try to stop war between Haven and Manticore.

This is a big step up from the first book. The stakes are higher and there's a much more complete story here. Weber lets us know that no one is safe in the Honorverse, and there are repercussions for everyone's actions. I thought that the story was really fleshed out with the politics of Grayson and Masada and their philosophies around religion, women and politics.

Allyson Johnson does a great job with her cast, but there's a point where speech patterns change for a character and she doesn't quite hold it together for the rest of the book which is understandable as it would be very difficult to narrate that for a large portion of the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to reading more about Honor Harrington and the world he's created.

Excellent 2nd Book

The Honorverse books are and acquired taste, and if your willing to sit through the political intrigue that sets each novel up you will get a treat in the last half of these novels. This was my second actual Honor novel, since Ive also listened to the Manticore Rising books as well, and I was pretty delighted by the book. I’ve also gotten use to the narrator now as well having been taken out of the story a few times in the first book by her. Overall good book!

Another Fantastic Read!

Great political and moral issues raised in this book bringing Honor Harrington to be even better.

Excellent book

Actually, I didn't finish it. After it started, I realized that I had read it before. The story line kept coming back to me. David Weber writes a great book. I didn't listed to the audio enough, but had to rate it to get to the next part of the review.