The Honor of the Queen

Honor Harrington, Book 2

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

It's hard to give peace a chance when the other side regards conquest as the only option and a sneak attack as the best means to that end. That's why the Kingdom of Manticore needs allies against the Republic of Haven, and the planet Grayson is strategically situated to make a very good ally indeed. But Her Majesty’s Foreign Office overlooked a “minor cultural difference” when they chose Honor Harrington to carry the flag: women on the planet of Grayson are without rank or rights and Honor’s mere presence is an intolerable affront to every male on the planet.

At first Honor doesn’t take it personally. But, in time, such treatment becomes taxing and she makes plans to withdraw until Grayson’s fratricidal sister planet attacks without warning. Now, Honor must stay and prevail, not just for her honor, but for her sovereign’s, for the honor of the Queen.

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.

Listen to another Honor Harrington adventure.

©2002 David Weber (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Following in the best tradition of C.S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian and Robert A Heinlein! These hugely entertaining and clever adventures are the very epitome of space opera." ( Publishers Weekly)

predictable hero story, but still a wonderfulstory

Predictable but very well written story. enjoyed it greatly And look forward to the next story in the series.

exceptional!

This book does everything a book is supposed to do. Loved this book!! You feel the emotions,root for the good characters and desperately want the bad guys handed their foot. it's great!

Slightly improved narration over first book

Excellent story as with the first book. Narration sounds more natural to me (the narrator was getting noticeably better through the first book). Maybe I'm more used to the context/viewpoint switches now than in the first, but it was easier to keep track of who was talking and what was going on where.

Narration has improved - slightly

This is another of David Weber's books that cannot be put down, with action aplenty and a believable universe.

I am disappointed that the narrator has continued on after the first book, but she seems a little more comfortable here. Fewer obvious mispronunciations, but the author continues to make demands that the narrator cannot meet. "Curtly", "flatly" and similar adverbs seem to have no impact on the narrators efforts.

Regarless, the story stands out and is well worth a listen - or indeed a read.

the story continues

once again we find Honor thrown into a fight she shouldn't win. but she has shown that both her ship and it's crew can battle and come out on top.

reader still can't pronounce MAN-TI-COR-an

It's not man-TICK-eran. and her simulation of a mans voice, with an accent is bad.

Great story, but narrator messes it up!

Where does The Honor of the Queen rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Narrator makes this darn near the bottum of all thr audio books I have ever listen to, and that's hundreds.

What other book might you compare The Honor of the Queen to and why?

Horacio hornblower

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Allyson Johnson?

Barabara rosenblatt she does not read in nearmonotones and more importantly she can pronounce names correctly! Allyson can't or won't pronounce manticorean correctly.she can pronounce manticore correctly. The way she pronounces manticorean she might as well be saying manhole.

Any additional comments?

This is. My favorite Honor book, its reaally too bad the narrator is AHFUL. I can deal with near monotone reading, I can handle the minor differences in the sound of her mens voices and females (she does far better than I could with that). But what really upsets me and takes away a lot of my enjoyment with it iswhat can only be a deliberete mispronouncement of names! Here's. The BIG onr she can pronounce manticore correctlywhich is the name of the main star kingdom in which the story is set. But she can't pronounce it when you add an

Story is pretty decent, but need to get past the reader.

There are a couple specific things about the reader I don't like. First, she's not so much monotone, but stilted throughout. Second, she seems to pick random accent amalgams for every other character and it's just distracting. It's usually somewhere between Russian stereotype and French stereotype.

The story though is solid. My only complaint there is that, while I do like politics in my sci fi, the board room scenes drag on and on...

A great story

David Weber is at the top of his game. The only thing that bugged me was the narrator seemed to throw in accents for no apparent reason. The voices were off. Other than that I highly recommend this audiobook.

Phewww.....

Nothing short of brilliant. Twists, turns and shear thrill in this one! At some times I almost ignored work to finish a chapter....holy crap. Better yet, I found myself waking up early to enjoy a few chapters before work! If the first book drew you in like it did me, then buckle up....