A Rising Thunder

Honor Harrington, Book 13

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Peril and strife strike on a double front for Honor Harrington and company. After a brutal attack on the Manticoran home system, Honor Harrington and the Star Kingdom she serves battle back against a new, technologically powerful, and utterly nefarious enemy. And as if that weren’t task enough, Honor must also face down a centuries-old nemesis in the crumbling, but still mighty, Solarian League.

The war between the People’s Republic of Haven and the Star Kingdom is finally won and peace established, but grave danger looms - for there is a plan well on its way to completion designed to enslave the entire human species. Behind that plan lies the shadowy organization known as the Mesan Alignment.

Task number one for Honor is to defend against another devastating Mesan strike - a strike that may well spell the doom of the Star Kingdom in one fell blow. It is time to shut down and secure the wormhole network that is the source of the Star Kingdom’s wealth and power - but also its greatest vulnerability. Yet this is an act that the Earth-based Solarian League inevitably will take as a declaration of war.

The thunder of battle rolls as the Solarian League directs its massive power against the Star Kingdom. And once again, Honor Harrington is thrust into a desperate battle that she must win if she is to survive to take the fight to the real enemy of galactic freedom: the insidious puppetmasters of war who lurk behind the Mesan Alignment!

©2012 Words of Weber, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Love the series

What made the experience of listening to A Rising Thunder the most enjoyable?

Strong female lead with old fashion values, like a female John Wayne.

What other book might you compare A Rising Thunder to and why?

It's a sci-fi space series, I think one of the best.

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

Yes, great narrator, easy too listen to, allows listeners to concentrate on the story not the narration.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

It would take a HBO (or the Like) series to tell the main story and this book is a small piece.

Any additional comments?

Wish the author would write more books in this series faster!

great story

fun continuation of a great series, well worth the read. interesting how some of the story line lines up with today's politics

good book!

good follow on, leaves you hanging. cannot wait for the next book. hopefully more Honor there.

want more

Loved it . when is the next book coming out?
have read entire series.

I'm 13 books in so obviously enjoying this series

this series is fun engaging and just shows people are people and we dont change much even in the future .

very enjoyable for people that love depth -like me

I just re-read it. Sow parts and a vast cast of characters, but overall a great read for mil / political science fiction nerds. The series has certainly moved towards political in a big way, but I still enjoy it and look forward to the next.

Finally starting to agree with the whiners

Dear Mr. Weber,

I appreciate dramatic irony and a fleshed-out universe as much as the next reader, but I just Do. Not. Care about the Solarian League enough to want what this book had to offer.

I genuinely have no problem with the amount of politics, intrigue, and meetings that have cropped up as the series has gone on. Hnor is an admiral now, the story has expanded to include the Solarian League, just as Manticore has expanded to include part of Silesia and the Talbot quadrant. It makes perfect sense for the story to change the way it has with all of this in mind, and all too many of the people giving these more recent books bad reviews fail to realize that.

But this is too damn much. We get it. The Five Mandarins are arrogant. The League is decadent. The average "sollie in the street" is basically a peep dolist, and the League is going to have a bad time against the Grand Alliance. Cutting away from legitimately interesting Manticoran developments to shove in another chapter of evidence for well-established facts is just obnoxious though.

There was plenty to enjoy in this book, don't get me wrong. I still get misty-eyed thinking about Sorrow Singer, and the first half of the book in general is a good read, but after that it feels less like a rising thunder, and more like one long, monotonous drumroll that never goes anywhere.

Story becoming less personal

The story is moving from a novel about a person “Honor Harrington” to a complex political intrigue.
It seems that the author explored all the possibilities with Honor and is moving on.
The other big change is the lack of space battle scenes.
I can still recommend this book for fans of the “Honorverse”

Moved the story along

This book finally moved the story along quite a bit after all the set up in the last book.
I listened to all three parts in two days and most of the time could follow who was who.

Unlike others, enjoyed narration

What did you love best about A Rising Thunder?

This addition moves the epic in a necessary direction, becoming Sol-centered. However, the key drivers of the events, the guys behind Mesa/Manpower, etc, were given short shrft here. Maybe the next installment will give them more focus.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Evolving role of Beowulf

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

I think A. Johnson's performances are quite good. David Weber has clearly attempted to develop a female-centered story line, and Johnson's readings support this well. I find the use of accents helpful to keep character differentiation.

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

no

Any additional comments?

I believe that David Weber is a great writer of stories, especially when he gets in to the interactions of the rules of physics he sets up in this series and the tactics/strategy of space warfare. And I enjoy the political intrigue in his novels. That being said, like some other writers (Stephen King comes to mind) his work would benefit from more aggressive editing to decrease bloat, increase pace, and allow for more substance moving the stories along.