Honor Among Enemies

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 19 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

Despite political foes, professional jealousies, and the scandal which drove her into exile, Capt. Honor Harrington has been offered a chance to reclaim her career as an officer of the Royal Manticoran Navy. But there's a catch. She must assume command of a "squadron" of jury-rigged armed merchantmen with crew drawn from the dregs of her service and somehow stop the pirates who have taken advantage of the Havenite War to plunder the Star Kingdom's commerce.

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.

©1997 Baen (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

I like honorable heroes!

This series has been very enjoyable to listen too. These books are somewhat uplifting - I guess that's the fantasy part of a galactic war - but - The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad, however, they may or may not be enemies.

There is a couple improvements that Audible could make on most of these series of books - like the honor harrington series. First, I'd like to know what book in a series I'm buying without having to research the series, book 1,2,3, etc. You can't go by audible's release date, they tend to release some of the latest books first, look at "War of Honor" in this series. The easiest way I have found to identify the series order is to Google them. Googling the series brings up the author's comments in Amazon which usually will tell you the series order.
The following is the order of the Harrington series:

1) On Basilisk Station
2) The Honor of the Queen
3) The Short Victorious War
4) Field of Dishonour
5) Flag in Exile
6) Honor among Enemies
7) In Enemy Hands
8) Echoes of Honor
9) Ashes of Victory
10) War of Honor
11) At All Costs
12) Mission of Honor (forthcoming)

My second recommendation for improvements was to do with getting comments/reviews on the books in Audible. I believe that Amazon is the parent company to Audible, so why not have Audible reviews "hot link" to the Amazon reviews of the same book, especially where there are no reviews in Audible. This would eliminate someone from having to copy the title, going to Amazon and searching their books for reviews and comments. Sorry, for straying a little, but I hope it helps.

Just a note about my high 5-star ratings - I usually only rate books that I really enjoy, hence high ratings in all my rating history. Maybe I will change in the future, but since I have so many books, maybe not. JWP

159 of 166 people found this review helpful

Honor Among Enemies

I have enjoyed this series about Honor Harrington and have read them in order for far. Unlike the other reviewers I actually like Allyson Johnson's narration of the series. I like the fact that enemies can act honorably in spite of a war. It was nice that a villain from the first book in the series became man enough to admit he was wrong and apologize to Honor. Can not wait to read the next story in the series.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Great Series

I didn't read the Honor Harrington series before listening to them. Perhaps because I had no preconceptions I'm not bothered by the narrator's reading. I think she does fine. I'm not sure why people need a list of the order of the books when Audible tells you which book number it is in the title. That being said this series has great characters, well explained technology and interesting story lines. I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the books.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Honor Harrington Universe Book 6

"Hunting"

It's been three years since Honor was put on half pay, but now she is offered a new command.
Instead of feeling grateful, this new assignment can be considered a slap in a face.

But.... it can be good opportunity for pirate hunting , but you never know what you fish out.

Next book is "In Enemy Hands"


Proper Reading Order (Based upon internal chronology)

01.On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1)
02.The Honor of the Queen (Honor Harrington, #2)
03.The Short Victorious War (Honor Harrington, #3)
04.Field of Dishonor (Honor Harrington, #4)
05.Flag in Exile (Honor Harrington, #5)
06.Honor Among Enemies (Honor Harrington, #6)
07.In Enemy Hands (Honor Harrington, #7)
08.More Than Honor (Worlds of Honor, #1)
09.Echoes of Honor (Honor Harrington, #8)
10.Worlds of Honor (Worlds of Honor, #2)
11.Ashes of Victory (Honor Harrington, #9)
12.Changer of Worlds (Worlds of Honor, #3)
13.War of Honor (Honor Harrington, #10)
14.The Service of the Sword (Worlds of Honor, #4)
15.Crown of Slaves (Honorverse: Torch #1)
16.The Shadow of Saganami (Honorverse: Talbot #1)
17.At All Costs (Honor Harrington, #11)
18.Storm from the Shadows (Honorverse: Talbot #2)
19.Torch of Freedom (Honorverse: Torch, #2)
20.Mission of Honor (Honor Harrington, #12)
21.In Fire Forged (Worlds of Honor, #5)
22.A Beautiful Friendship (Honorverse: Stephanie Harrington, #1)
23.A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington, #13)
24.Shadow of Freedom

13 of 17 people found this review helpful

Really getting into it now

The series is certainly picking up the paces and becoming a far more interesting. Particularly after book five. Now that the world is laid out in more detail I think I'm going to be pretty happy following the series through.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Go Honor

What made the experience of listening to Honor Among Enemies the most enjoyable?

The story was great. Sound and performance carried it well.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Honor, because she works though her problems. And the enlisted petty officers carrying the load.

What about Allyson Johnson’s performance did you like?

I like her performance. Pace and inflection draws you into story time.

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

Sad about losing some favorite crew.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A return to what's good about the series

Any additional comments?

I like this series enough to keep reading it, but it's not the best thing I've ever read. It's strongest when it focuses on naval operations and the particularities of the far future setting. I enjoy the "Napoleonic Wars In Space," schtick. The political infighting within all the big nations is completely believable. The way the space technology works is extremely detailed, which is fine, and the way the setting re-creates an interesting historical period in the far future is a treat.

This book was a partial return to what made the first book successful. Honor Harrington does "Navy Stuff,"- she commands a starship, fights space pirates, makes life or death decisions, and suffers the consequences. The subplots are all set up well and all pay off. I particularly enjoyed the plight of the People's Navy officers who were too decent for their own good. The theme that civilized states, even when they fight one another, are all superior to barbarians resonates with me.

The series is weakest when it wallows in the protagonist's emotional life (for someone who has killed thousands of people in space battles she sure has a lot of angst about relatively minor problems), with the absolute low point in every book being when the space cats appear. Cats don't belong on naval vessels, ever, and should be thrown over the side, or out the airlock, whenever an infestation appears. These animals gain more intelligence, telepathic powers, and page space in each successive book of the series and are obviously not ever going to be killed, by anything, ever, despite how ridiculous they are. To me, they are the Jar-Jar Binks of the whole fictional universe. Maybe David Weber likes cats?

When Honor Harrington becomes an action hero, able to defeat anyone at their own game, I roll my eyes. This is the stuff of B-grade action movies. Since the tone of these books is light, perhaps I shouldn't complain about it. "Honor Among Enemies," only has one scene like this, but it's set up before hand (unfortunately that setup is a big clunker, having to do with a madman, a nuclear trigger, and an over-involved negotiation that I mostly skipped through.) The resolution was a surprise, using a "Chekov's Gun" that I'd mostly forgotten about.

The "Navy Stuff," is very well done. I served four years in the the US Navy, and the books have a good grasp of what it's like to be in the service. The "lower decks" subplot with Petty Officer Wunderman is sadly a very common experience. My understanding is that David Weber is a naval historian, and it shows.

All in all, this is a much better book than the previous entry of the series, which spent far too little time in space.

The narration is good. I don't know why so many people are annoyed by it, but with the main character being female dictates that a female narrator should be reading the book. The narrator does a much better job with the male voices than almost any male reader would do with female voices, and since Honor Harrington is doing most of the talking it makes complete sense. The one character that, to me, sounded silly died in book four. I can always tell the characters apart, and the foreign accents make sense given that this is the "Napoleonic Wars In Space."

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good story, bad reader

This is the 6th book in the main Honor Harrington Series, and covers her rehabilitation as an officer in the RMN. The story continues with Honor leading a squadron of Q ships. Excellent story, but the same abysmal performance from Ms. Johnson. I've learned to mostly ignore it and just enjoy Mr. Weber's book.

4 of 7 people found this review helpful

A Decent, though not amazing, Sequel

I recently finished listening to Honor Among Enemies written by David Weber and narrated by Allyson Johnson.

This is book six of the core Honor Harrington series. I will do my best to avoid spoilers, however, it's hard to review a later book in a series without some spoilers. If you want to avoid spoilers I suggest skipping to the conclusion.

In this book Honor Harrington is given a chance to resume her service in the Manticoran navy. There is no such thing as a free lunch, thus she is given command of a squadron of Q-Ships. These are basically merchant ships refitted with tons of armament, but lacking the drives and the armor of a warship.

She is tasked with hunting down pirates in the, relatively lawless, Silesian Confederacy. Merchant raiding has been seriously hurting Manticoran trade in this territory and she is sent in to put a serious dent into the pirates operation.

This is another excellent entry into the Honor Harrington series. Generally this feels very much like the Honor Harrington we know and love. With that being said I must mention that at least one huge decision she made was wildly questionable. In fact it was so questionable that she had given specific orders to her other captains to not do the very thing she did. It felt like this choice was more about creating an interesting situation than following the logic that a captain must follow.

Allyson Johnson is a great narrator. She has her finger fairly thoroughly on the pulse of these books and it comes through in her inspired reading of the text.

Conclusion: This is another excellent book in the Honor Harrington series. I feel this was more plot driven than character driven and thus I don't think it's quite up to Weber's usual standard. Despite it's flaws it's still a fairly good book and the great narration really adds to it.

Great Book

This was one of my favorites in the series. Good pacing and kept my attention.

Great book - awful accents

I am a big fan of this cheesy space opera series and have read it many times.

The narrator is absolutely fine until she tries her range of random accents - the British is possibly the worst, but the German/French/Italian attempts are all bad enough to mar your enjoyment of the book.

this series is awesome!

it has tree cats... which are like Cats in space. you have to love that. I actually love how the characters keep growing in this series. its currently making me think on how crazy war truly is. every book has a desperate situation and each book just ups the ante.