This is a collection of five short stories all set in David Weber's Honorverse. If you aren't already familiar with the Honorverse, this probably isn..Show More »'t the place to start. The best place to start would probably be with the first full-length novel in the series, "On Basilisk Station." I will review the stories individually:

"THE STRAY" by Linda Evans
This tells the stories of two treecats and their people. The main thrust of the story involves a stray treecat that shows up at a human home asking for help. The main helpers in the story turn out to be Dr. Scott MacDallan and his treecat, Fisher. The story of how Scott and Fisher met is told in flashback. I like this story quite well: 4 stars.

"WHAT PRICE DREAMS" by David Weber
This tells the story of a young treecat who wants to adopt a human. The title of the story relates to an analysis of what he will stand to gain AND lose if he does so. Quite good: 4 stars.

"QUEEN'S GAMBIT" by Jane Linskold
I didn't like this story. The king of Manticore is assassinated. The story revolves around the investigation of his murder and the consequences to the conspirators. I thought both were ludicrously unlikely. Imagine (or remember) the investigation around the assassination of the American President. FBI, CIA, Secret Service, special investigators, the Attorney General, thousands of law enforcement people would be involved. In this story, you have not the leader of a single country but the leader of three planets, and the investigation is carried out by the new queen's boyfriend and a semi-retired palace guard. Give me a break. I don't want to provide spoilers or I could go on at length. Also, I hated the ending. Anyway, I read some reviews on Amazon and some people liked it, so you might want to try it. My score: 2 stars.

"THE HARD WAY HOME" by David Weber
This is my favorite story in the collection. It involves a young Honor when she is the executive officer of a ship, and it introduces us to Susan Hibson as a teenager. In most Honorverse stories, the dangers come from other people and politics. In this one, nature is the bad guy. Insight into true heroism. I give it 5 stars.

"DECK LOAD STRIKE" by Roland J. Green
I first read this anthology several years ago, and in coming back to it on Audible, I had absolutely no recollection of this particular story, although I remembered the main plot points of all the other stories. In reading through reviews on Amazon, no one seemed to like this story, so I've chosen not to listen to it at this time. No review.







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I personally like the Honor Harrington series. It is military science fiction. This is not usually my favorite genre, but this series is well writte..Show More »n. This book contains great short stories that fill in Honor's background or flesh out that universe. Good stuff.

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“PROMISED LAND” by Jane Lindskold
I read this story when it originally came out, and I recall that I liked it, but it was fairly grim. I wasn’t f..Show More »eeling like listening to anything grim this week, so I skipped it. However, it is the story of a girl who is kidnaped and enslaved by Masadans. Queen Elizabeth’s younger brother Michael gets in on the action here.

“WITH ONE STONE” by Timothy Zahn
On the Honerverse time line, this takes place between “On Basilisk Station” and “The Honor of the Queen”. Honor has been given command of a new starship to replace the one destroyed in “On Basilisk Station,” and she and her crew are being sent on anti-piracy duty in Silesian space. However, Honor isn’t the main character in this story. Rafe Cardones is. The story is well written. My rating: 4 stars

“A SHIP NAMED FRANCIS” by John Ringo and Victor Mitchell
This story is short. It is also horrifyingly funny. My Rating: 3.5 stars

“LET’S GO TO PRAGUE” by John Ringo
This is what happens when two hotshot secret agents make their vacation plans while under the influence. It is funny and well written. My rating: 3.5 stars

“FANATIC” by Eric Flint
As I was listening to this today, I kept thinking what a good writer Eric Flint is. I really like this story. It tells the story of Victor Cachat. For those who haven’t read all of the Honor books, Victor is a Havenite spy. But he isn’t working against the Manticorans in this story. He is sent to troubleshoot when an Imp Sec bigwig is murdered. I Really like this story. My rating: 5 stars

“THE SERVICE OF THE SWORD” by David Weber
This story is about Abigail Hearns. We first met her in “Ashes of Victory.” She was the first Grayson woman to enter military service. In this story, she is on her Midshipman’s cruise. The ship she is serving aboard gets into some trouble, and so does she. This story and “Fanatic” are two of my favorites among all the Worlds of Honor anthologies. My rating: 5 stars

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Please understand me right!
If you wish to read every story in HH universe then go ahead, but otherwise you can skip this book completely and don'..Show More »t feel any consequences.

"RUTHLESS" by Jane Lindskold
A sequel to her previous short story ("Promised Land" from The Service of the Sword), involving the Royal scion Michael Winton and Judith of Masada.Skip it, don't waste time.

"AN ACT OF WAR" by Timothy Zahn
A sequel to his previous short story ("With One Stone" from The Service of the Sword). It features "Charles", a slippery, conniving, elusive, less than totally honest dealer in black-market technology.Up to you to decide , but my rating is 2.5*

"LET'S DANCE" by David Weber
The longest story. It covers the Casimir raid prior to On Basilisk Station, and how then-Commander Honor Harrington broke up a slave depot on Casimir (an event mentioned in At All Costs).More or less good story, but completely marginal, without any nececary facts or information for HH Universe.My rating is 3.5*

"AN INTRODUCTION TO MODERN STARSHIP ARMOR DESIGN", by Mr. Hegel DiLutorio, CAPT, RMN, ret. HMSS Hephaestus, 1906 PD is an in depth design study regarding the history and design of laser heads and armor.


NEXT BOOK IS "Crown of Slaves"


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