Storm from the Shadows

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Jay Snyder

Rear Admiral Michelle Henke was commanding one of the ships in a force led by Honor Harrington in an all-out space battle. The odds were against the Star Kingdom forces, and they had to run. But Michelle's ship was crippled, and had to be destroyed to prevent superior Manticoran technology from falling into Havenite hands, and she and her surviving crew were taken prisoner. Much to her surprise, she was repatriated to Manticore, carrying a request for a summit conference between the leaders of the two sides which might end the war. But a condition of her return was that she gave her parole not to fight against the forces of the Republic of Haven until she had been officially exchanged for a Havenite prisoner of war, so she was given a command far away from the war's battle lines.

What she didn't realize was that she would find herself on a collision course, not with a hostile government, but with the interstellar syndicate of criminals known as Manpower. And Manpower had its own plans for eliminating Manticore as a possible threat to its lucrative slave trade, deadly plans which remain hidden in the shadows.

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

Storm From the shadows

Jay Snyder is listed as the narrator but it is actually Kevan Parasal and he can not do women's voices. Parts of the story in this book have been in other books in the Honor series such as the opening battle where Mike's ship is so damaged she can not go into hyperspace with Honor. In the Honor book we see the events and conversation from Honors view point and the story goes on about Honor. In this book the events and conversation is from Mike,s point of view and the story then proceeds to tell about what happens to her after Honor leaves. It is interesting to look at the same events from a different person view point. There is some action and political intrigue so the story is interesting. I wish they would get a different narrator for this sub series.

ARGH!!!!!

Does NO ONE ever LISTEN to these books??? The horribly annoying DELIBERATE mispronunciations make me regret paying this nattator. I notice that edotors are never mentioned....hmmmmmmmmmm

French pronunciation

While I enjoyed the story written by the author, the narrator sounded like an American that had only seen a half dozen French words in his entire life. He really needs to get with the main line narrator and discuss with her how to pronounce names, Victor’s especially. It was really distracting but I otherwise enjoyed the title.

Good story, bad narrator

The narration is perhaps the worst part of this audio edition. I have all of Mr. Weber's Honorverse books in hardbound. Well almost. Will be getting those I lack soon. Have downloaded them from Baen as well.
My biggest gripe with the narrator is not his voices, few and sad though they may be, but his total lack of inflection. When a line in the books calls for excitement or shock or any other expression, the narrator plugs on through in an almost monotone. He is not the only narrator doing this. The narrator for Mr. Weber's Fifth Imperium series is even worse. In that series, not carried by Audible, the narrator has a halting manner in his reading and a lack of inflection and NO voices, all characters sound the same; male, female and alien.
Audible does not contract for the reading, but converts previously recorded material to mp3 or other format. Wish Audible had more influence with the publishers.

Great Story Marred by Comically Torturous Narrator

As a dedicated fan of David Weber's work, especially his Honor Harrington stuff, I find his writing thoroughly entertaining; and "Storm from the Shadows" lives up to my highest expectations. I've read all the HH books and listened to all the audible editions, and it's been a pleasure to find Allyson Johnson's narration the equal of Weber's story telling. Johnson's ability to tailor the accents and voices to suit each of the characters is masterful; and one of her best performances is found in the voice she gives Michelle Henke throughout the main HH series --which is what makes Jay Snyder's narration of this book so torturously difficult to bare. Snyder doesn't do women well. As several other reviews of this book have noted, it's as though he's doing his Monty Python impression of men doing women's voices, only it's not funny, it's excruciating.

The events in "Storm from the Shadows" play an important role in the overall HH series, so you really need to read this book to fully appreciate the genius of these stories. But, man is it ever a chore to listen to Snyder's narration! And it's not just the female voices either; he often puts an entirely inappropriate inflection on a line that's made instantly apparent by the immediate context (e.g., putting a forceful inflection on a line followed by the words, "she said doubtfully," or a doubtful inflection on a line followed by "she said dryly," etc.). You'd think the producer would have stopped him a few times, and said, "Now wait a minute there Jay, you got that all wrong, let's try it again, and this time make it sound like you're asking a question..."

If you've ever listened to a Scott Brick narration--and Brick is pretty good, but you have to admit he can be a little overly dramatic at times--it's as though Snyder is doing his Scott Brick imitation between Monty Python imitations--and he's not close to pulling off either. But if you're like me, you'll suffer through this narration anyway, because the story is entertaining and important. All else considered, it's a must read for Honor Harrington fans who need to fully appreciate the self-righteous arrogance of the Solarian League Navy--first established in this book--and how the Mesan Alignment is so easily able to manipulate them against Manticore.

Good book -but not great

David Webber's Honor Harrington series has got me hooked. I grabbed this book as a result of this and I'm a bit disappointed. Honor Harrington hardly appears in this book, however, I knew that going in. The problem is, these events have already been touched on in other Honorverse books and therefore feel a bit familiar. Unfortunately - the reader, Jay Snyder, does an amazing job as the 'narrator' - and the male parts within the book are quite good - but his female voices are not exactly spot on. If anything they sound like an imitation of a female voice and this is very distracting from what is otherwise a very good story. True Honorverse fans (like myself) will undoubtedly continue to listen to this one but it isn't the book I'd recommend someone just getting into the Honorverse to listen to.

Honorverse still fun

Would you consider the audio edition of Storm from the Shadows to be better than the print version?

I haven`t read the printed version. So can`t comment on that.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the new setting, with Henke as the main protagonist, reading about the empire building in Talbott. And the tensions with the Solarian league.

Which character – as performed by Jay Snyder – was your favorite?

I don`t have a particular favorite and i rated the performance down some cause i think Snyder creates annoying voices for some of the characters

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not really no

Any additional comments?

If you like the Honor Harrington series then this is a most buy. But you need to have read the previous books before you get this one.

Not to be skipped

A great book. Wonderful interaction between the Star Empire and Solarian League. Don’t skip the Saganami series. These books are better than some of the later Honor books and have essential plot information.

Not the worst performance ever, but YUCK!

How the hell do you mispronounce "Manticore" 3/4 of the time? Wasn't anyone involved in the production besides the reader? The "shadows" series has been the most consistently likable subseries in the Honorverse for a while, but Snyder manages such an over-punchy delivery half the time that the book becomes a mockery of itself. When he relaxes a little and forgets about over-enunciating everything it's not so bad, and a good production team would have been able to guide him to a much better overall result.

Still - when your main character (and Henke is the focus of this book, though it is something more of an ensemble) is female, you should take a long, hard look at any decision to use a male reader. The modern trend seems to be that all readers are expected to "do voices", and Snyder's read of Henke is truly awful. Much better if he just read it in a normal voice.

Recycle much?

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I love David Weber and the Honor Harrington franchise. It seemed to me these books Storm from the Shadows, A Rising Thunder, Shadow of Freedom could have been combined into one. In several cases complete conversations were duplicated from other books. I realize it was during the same time line and there was necessary over lap. Still one or even two longer books would have been better than three with so much duplication. I started to find it hard to pay attention at times as things were rehashed. Of course I did them almost one after another, had I read them as they were released my opinion might be different.