• The Short Victorious War

  • Honor Harrington, Book 3
  • By: David Weber
  • Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
  • Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (3,109 ratings)

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The Short Victorious War  By  cover art

The Short Victorious War

By: David Weber
Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
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Publisher's summary

The families who rule the People's Republic of Haven are in trouble. The treasury's empty, the Proles are restless, and civil war is imminent.

But the ruling class knows what they need to keep in power: a "short victorious war" to unite the people and fill the treasury once more. It's a card they've played often in the last half-century, always successfully, and all that stands in their way is the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its threadbare allies: enemies in the past who have always backed down.

Only this time the Peeps face something different. This time they're up against Captain Honor Harrington and a Royal Manticoran Navy that's prepared to give them a war that's far from short - or victorious.

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.

What listeners say about The Short Victorious War

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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Maybe I'm just stupid...

STORY (military sci-fi) - This is the third book in the series and I've listened to them in order. Each time I finish one, I wonder whether I'm dumb or if this series is just not my cup of tea. There's a ton of politics, military strategy and tactics involved in this war, and you will get "in the head" of a lot of important players on both sides. I found myself getting bogged down with who's who and all the detail. Then my mind would wander till something interested me again. One thing I did enjoy in this book was the softer side which Honor showed. One reviewer called it stupid character building, but I was tired of her always being disciplined, smart and perfect all the time.

You should listen to this series in order, as the plot continues from book to book.

NARRATOR - Good job, nothing special.

OVERALL (3.5 stars) - If you are in the mood for an easy listen for your commute, this is probably not the book for you. If you like complicated plots and are ready to wear your thinking cap, you will probably rate this 5 stars.

ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTION - Another series which is very similar (and IMHO better) is The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell. It has the same great space tactics and battles but less characters to keep straight and less politics. I also prefer its male narrator.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Honor Harrington Universe book 3

"Ready, Steady, Go"

I hope you paid attention when you were listening previous books, because the stage is finally set, all the necessary characters are on it.

Dark clouds are smouldering into red
While down the craters morning burns.
The dying soldier shifts his head
To watch the glory that returns;
He lifts his fingers toward the skies
Where holy brightness breaks in flame;
Radiance reflected in his eyes,
And on his lips a whispered name

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A Short Victorious War

This is the third book in this series, and is building more about the leading character Honor Harrington. At times the story slows down with explaining details about the society or Naval ships but I guess when you are creating it all from your imagination you need to give people some understanding to build on. If you like stories with strong women roles this is a book for you.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • KD
  • 01-11-10

Good Story; Narration a little off

Well written enjoyable story with interesting characters and plenty of action. I was just a little disappointed in the narration. Seemed a little stilted with emphisis not necessarily in the right spots. I thought it might just be a matter of my getting used to it, but still had the same impression of the narration at the end of the book.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Great Exploration of Intergalactic War

This is an insightful review of the issues that come to bear on a galactic conflict in terms of logistics and risk of forces. If you send a fleet on place, another remains uncovered and you have the classic 'wack-a-mole' problem. Good stuff.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

An increasingly interesting series

What did you like about this audiobook?

For my

How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?

I was a little worried that the series would start to become repetitive (Honor faces huge odds, Honor's ship barely survives, Honor becomes an interplanetary hero), and perhaps by the time I hit book 11 it will be, but this book is significantly different. It spends a lot of time on other characters, Honor works as just one part of a team, and there is some interesting political intrigue (however, it is not _all_ political intrigue, like Weber's Armageddon Reef series)

Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does he achieve this?

I like her; whilst some of her accents are a bit questionable sometimes, but she has a lot of characters she needs to differentiate between. The whole

What did you find wrong about the narrator's performance?

Nope. Enjoyable, exciting, interesting. Not great literature, but very good writing and dialog for a sci-fi series. Characters, if not fully 3D, are at least 2.5 dimensional (some sympathetic enemies, though there are a couple of caricatures)

Do you have any additional comments?

Weber does a good job writing about a (near) zero-sexism culture without completely ignoring sexism (like the Lost Fleet series) but also without being blazingly obvious and preachy about it.

The previous book, which addressed the issue directly by pitting Honor against two different patriarchies (one openly misogynistic, the other less so, but still very chauvinistic), did it in an interesting manner; this book doesn't specifically address the issue, although it does reveal the fact that sexual assault still exists in Honor's world.

It's an issue that I think Weber handles well, and is not one usually addressed in action/sci-fi.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

awesome book

the story is great, right along with his other books, safehold. Also reminds me of Jack Campbell's books lost fleet.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Epic space battles in average prose

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Those who don't mind bad prose middle of their epic space battles.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I would drop storylines that try to tell that our main character Honor Harrington to be vulnerable and insecure woman inside her cool outside. And I would have droped whole captain Young plot line too.

How could the performance have been better?

Reader gives her women characters young and vunerable voices which are pain to hear from seasoned military commanders in middle of battle.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It has very good description about technology and space battles which makes listener to endure it to until end.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Honor Harrington Series

Well, I'm on this, the third book in the series. And I'm bored. Really bored. I can already tell you what the plot will be in this book, because it's the same as each of the previous two books. Sigh.

If you have the credits to blow and you need something Mostly Harmless to while away some time, these books are all right, but other than that, I can't recommend them.

For me, the reader isn't so great either. She tries to use different accents for different characters (British, French, etc) and she doesn't do so well. Also I think she follows the Captain Kirk school of voicing - e.g. "Well I... guess I can understand that." "So can you ... see what I mean?"

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Honor again

This book had a great deal of back story and not enough real action. it felt like watching a movie where there is 90 minutes of modest setup and then 10 minutes of action. I still like the character but hope something more happens in the next book

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1 person found this helpful