War of Honor

Honor Harrington, Book 10

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 35 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

No one wanted another war.

Thomas Theisman didn't. Not after risking his life to overthrow the Committee of Public Safety's reign of terror and restore the Republic of Haven's ancient Constitution.

Baron High Ridge didn't. The Prime Minister of Manticore was perfectly happy with the war he had. No one was shooting anyone else at the moment, and his government could continue to milk all those "hostilities only" tax measures for their own partisan projects.

His Imperial Majesty Gustav didn't. Now that the fighting between the Star Kingdom and the Havenites had ended, the Andermani Emperor had his own plans for Silesia.

Protector Benjamin didn't. His people had made too deep a commitment to the Manticoran Alliance to risk seeing it all thrown away.

And Honor Harrington certainly didn't. The Salamander knew too much about how much war cost.

Unfortunately, what they wanted didn't matter....

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.

©2003 David Weber (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"With War of Honor coming in at over 800 pages, Weber has room to expand subplots and secondary characters and bring to the reader a feeling of depth and completeness seldom seen in science fiction novels. Favorite characters from past stories return, many of them growing in stature from unimportant secondary characters to major players in the 'Honorverse.' Weber serves up trouble in Silesia, the excitement of a new wormhole junction, scheming in Manticorian politics, strange events deep in Peep territory, and plenty of exploding spaceships - and, as publisher Jim Baen says, "We like exploding spaceships." (Amazon.com review)

A necessary but painful listen

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

This is by far the worst of the HH series (so far), because it spends almost the entire book building up the political background to a resumption of war and another change of government. It's all talk about doing things, with very little actually being done by anybody.

I felt I needed to stick it out as there IS some important story arc in there, but it drags horribly. The essential story could have been written with a quarter of the words and a lot less filler.

Hopefully the next one gets us back on track.

Has War of Honor turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, since this is clearly an aberration from an excellent author.

Have you listened to any of Allyson Johnson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Allyson puts a lot of effort into putting some emotion into an empty story, but she's pushing a rock up a hill.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I can't say I was disappointed, since other reviews had warned me this was going to be a tough job of work to get through.

Book was great, app sucks

Perfect app for someone not much interested in reading. Audible constantly tries to get you to find new customers . Send this book, buy that book, rate the other thing. I mean in the book, before and after, " why don't you send this to a friend " ,after all we all want our friends to send us garbage from the net.

Virtually Irredeemable Trash

This book is quite literally the absolute worst book I have ever read. The only thing to be taken out of it is that the generational elite should be keep away for the reigns of power. Nothing but 30 hours of politcal stupidity and backstabbing.

Only for the committed Honor Harrington reader

This is easily the worst of the Honor Harrington books so far. Long winded, flabby and not at all well written or edited. Inside that 36 hour book there's a good 15 hour book hiding, but it's really hard to find it. This is the first convincing argument I've ever seen for an abridged version! Clearly, Weber needs serious reining in by his editors, and he needs to slow down and take the time to write a shorter, and better, book.

The narration by Allyson Johnson is what we've come to expect. Well paced, but with positively awful and inappropriate accents. I've learned to live with it, but not to like it. And for 36 hours??? WAY too much of her and Weber. Fortunately, the next book in the timeline is one with both a different reader and with Eric Flint as co-author. Should be much tighter and more enjoyable.

Least favorite book so far from this series.

Way too much drama and nasty political discussions and backstabbing. I had to skip a great 1/3 at least of this book to get to the more meaningful chapters. It was extended a little too long for my taste. I am seriously hoping the next book is much better than this. I love the protagonist characters but my goodness there was too much stupidity from the opposing characters. I was practically ready to delete.

Alternative Title: "The Internal Monologues."

This book is 98% exposition. Why show the readers what someone is thinking when you can tell them with a long internal monologue? And the internal thought processes are at about a sixth-grade level.
Also, I think someone dared the author to see how many times they could have characters shrug in their novel. So. much. shrugging.
This was a painful entry in the Honorverse.
If you are tired of fast-paced, action-packed novels that keep you turning the audio pages, and if you want to know what everyone in Honor's universe is thinking, I highly recommend it.

Boring book

Could not get past chapter 8 without falling asleep, most blowhard book about politics finance graph I have ever read.

The balance has shifted - and not in a good way

By this far into the series, you're either going to like David Weber's style, or your not. The Honor Harrington series tend to be on the dialogue heavy side, which I'd probably enjoy less if I were reading the books directly. However, with the audiobook narrations that I favor, Allyson Johnson's excellent reading of this series makes it far easier to accept.

Weber lured us in with the first tale of a woman starship captain on her first command in a far future time where mankind had moved out into the galaxy and settled into several star nations. Those early books centered around a major military engagement and were presented in an engaging fashion.

The later books have shifted to be more political thrillers as the protagonist has not remained stagnant, but has risen (and fallen) in power and prominence over the course of the series. It's been an interesting ride which I have, on balance, enjoyed.

Yet, I do think this book has lost that balance. It's by far the longest book up to now. While I certainly appreciate an epic yarn that's heavy enough to act as a doorstop, in this case, the story is just not substantial enough to warrant this many pages. The back and forth exchanges between the political combatants become tiresome, and the adversaries come across as comically one dimensional and mind numbingly incompetent.

In the later half the book, there is a build up to a major engagement. While Harrington's victories have always relied on a bit of well placed coincidences, the resolution this time was the hardest to buy into. Ships are on the move and actions are taking place over many months, and it all turns on the actions that happen in the last few hours. The timing is just too convenient this time.

Probably the best thing about this book is the resolution is brings to several antagonists who we hopefully won't be bothered with again. I'm going to give the next book a chance, but if this book indicates how the series is going to continue, the next book may well be my last.

Please, no more talking! I'll tell you everything!

The book downloaded in 5 parts. So far I have listened to the first 3 parts and almost nothing has happened except conversation and exposition. A good editor could have saved this book.

So much politics

Interesting "telling" rather than showing standpoint of presenting the story and how it leads to the political misunderstandings and decisions, and a lot of universe building, but it's a bit of a drag (albeit about as interesting as one could possibly make it). It was also pretty horrible being exposed to the minds and reasoning of the Highridge government. Awful people. Enlightening, but I do hope the next book doesn't continue in this vein :)