For Honor We Stand

Man of War, Book 2

By: H. Paul Honsinger

Narrated by: Ray Chase

Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

In 2315, the Earth Union is losing a 30-year-long war with the Krag Hegemony.

Having encountered the Krag before, Space Commander Max Robicheaux now faces daunting challenges aboard the USS Cumberland: The dangers from the enemy without…and clashes with crew and superiors within.

Meanwhile, Doctor Sahin receives a coded message summoning him to a secret meeting which aims to forge an alliance that could change the balance of power in Known Space. But first, he must circumvent the fighter ships and heavily armed troops of the traitorous emir bent on killing him before he reaches the negotiating table.

Both men must call upon their developing skills and growing friendship to bear the burden of carrying between the Krag Hegemony and the Earth Union a fateful ultimatum and the shocking answer: An answer that could spell eternal slavery, or even extinction, for all humankind.

The second novel in the Man of War series, For Honor We Stand continues the galactic naval adventures of Robicheaux and Sahin.

©2013 H. Paul Honsinger (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

The ending was a leveler- a surprise right off the fiction page!

Though I'm hardly a knowledgeable person about anything military, I think that H. Paul Horsinger's writings are similar to Jack Campbell's who served in the military. In For Honor We Stand, the maneuvering, the combat, the daily ups and downs of life on a military ship, soon made me feel like I was an unseen participant in all! I loved it! Of course, without the talent of Ray Chase, For Honor probably would have been put in the Return No Questions Asked Box that Audible thoughtfully maintains for its listeners. I've grown to anticipate another unique book ending in this series even though this is only the second book. This one again brought me to tears- but of pride! I highly recommend this book to those who don't care for coarse language, too graphic bloody battles, and appreciate subtle humor, characters with depth, and a little flag waving.

Excellent book

Good story. Well narrated, definitely a book you can listen to again. Sci-fi with a bit of comedy.

Worth the Listen

This book started out with a bang and kept building. I appreciate the lack of total cliff hangers in this series. The writing is filled with witty dialog, interesting tactics and solutions as well as a political intrigue that is easy to understand for those of us watching our modern world full of conflicts. I find the use of historical references and "training tips" add credibility to the character of Max, he does an excellent job of explaining why such a capable officer would have been slow to rise in the ranks of captains. On the whole I look forward to buying many more books from this author and narrator combination.

love it

So far I am into this series. Waiting for the next book to come out.

read

it's outstanding. just sit back and get taken to another world, still wating for nr4

Super fun book

Like the first book it seems like the captain can do no wrong and everything seems to work in his favor for the most part. But that doesn't detract from this book. Not only is the reader for this book perfect, but the story is a lot of fun. The naval portrayal in the book feels authentic and helps add to the story. I can't wait to listen to the next book.

Decent Second in the Series

This second book in the Man of War Trilogy manages to not fall into a sophomore slump and continues in the tradition of the first book. The characters are still smug, overexplain every situation, and do a lot of speeches. Despite my frustration with the egregious use of telling and not showing, there is something endearing about the series that will keep me reading to the third volume.

Story: The Cumberland crew continue their work in space, but this time earning new alien alliances while at the same time escalating the war with the Krag. Just as the doctor pulled off at the end of book one with the glass art, so does Robichaux pull off at the end of this book with, of all things, a Krag battleship.

What I like about the series is the diversity: of religions, ethnicities, viewpoints. We have a wide range of characters from different places on Earth (even non existent ones, as done with the Romanovs and Latin). As well, the story does have many characters and they are decently fleshed out and idiosyncratic.

What frustrates me (though these are likely style choices of the author and therefore not something changeable) are the constant speeches, excessive dialogue (every person always asks another to fully explain any point like a teacher to a student, regardless of who they are), and that there's just too much knowledge on hand. Our captain knows physics, obscure military history, observational information on alien species, as well as perfect psychology with his staff. It beggers belief, to be honest, that everyone knows everything all the time, off the top of their head, at the right moment, and will explain it in finite detail. It can quickly veer into Marty Stu territory.

If you've read the first book and enjoyed it, you'll definitely enjoy the second. I was on the fence about reading the second but an Amazon Kindle deal/Audible deal swayed me. I did roll my eyes several times at all the pompous and smugness - but that was also exacerbated by the Audible narration, which had a very good narrator but his way of trailing off sentences as if bored ended up feeling a bit like William Shatner in Star Trek. It was so overly emoted that it overemphasized the excessive unnatural wordiness of the dialogue.

Wow, great book; need to write more in the series!

The very best sci-fi book I have read and heard on audible! Mr Honsinger please write another three book follow up, these books are just beyond outstanding!

Great story that I enjoyed sharing with my son.

I don't mind a bit of rough language here and there in context. This story makes a great story to share with my teenage son. It presents well the difference between right and wrong as well as an established moral foundation for loyalty and honor.

Max Robicheaux - A Leader of Men

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. This book and its predecessor just zipped along. I had a chunk of fun just sitting there as my mind followed the story. The Krag are the perfect enemy - heartless and genocidal, bent on the total liquidation of all things human.

I learned a bunch of eclectic things about space, space travel and naval tradition and customs even though this book is set over 300 years in the future.

What did you like best about this story?

How Commander Robicheaux interacted with his crew, especially the little tykes like Park. Commander Robicheaux was a fount of knowledge when it came to thinking up new ways to turn those rat - headed bastard Krag into twitching corpses.

If I was on a space frigate zorching through some god forsaken intergalactic backwater patrol sector and Krag ships popped up on the view screen, I would basically give my left testicle to be on Robicheaux's ship in any capacity up to but not including window washer. Robicheaux finds a way every day to stay one step ahead of humankind's mortal enemy.

Which scene was your favorite?

I think it was when Commander Robicheaux was talking to his junior midshipmen cadets and the legend of that boy who hid for 27 days in the ship captured by the Krag came up. The internal and spoken dialogue was quite moving. If hadn't made the big slouch from pissed off pessimist into soul scarred cynic two and a half weeks ago I would not have been averse to getting all choked up.

Ray Chase did his standard performance - 10.0 out of 10.0 again, especially in this scene.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Refer to the above typed response for the same answer to the same basic question.

Hey Audible, you only have to come up with 4 types of questions for us to answer. Is it asking too much for the mono-browed morons who shake that 8 ball to get the topics to give me a chance to do as good a review as possible for a book that totally deserves huge props?

Any additional comments?

Absolutely worth the small pile of $$$$. You will be entertained by a very well written book narrated by a bona fide pro in Ray Chase - his voices are diverse and unique to each character. I hope this dynamic duo keep their partnership going into the near and not so near future.

This series is screaming for at the very minimum 16 more sequels. Commander Robicheaux has at least 50 more productive service years left to chase those evil rodents out of our galaxy cluster. Keep them coming!