Audiobook: Echoes of Honor by David Weber

Echoes of Honor
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington Book 8
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (Dec. 15, 2009)
Length: 27 hours and 15 minutes

Description: BACK FROM HELL

For eight bloody years, the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its allies have taken the war to the vastly more powerful People's Republic of Haven, and Commodore Honor Harrington has been in the forefront of that war.

But now Honor has fallen, captured by the Peep Navy, turned over to the forces of State Security ... and executed on the interstellar network's nightly news.

The Manticoran Alliance is stunned and infuriated by Honor's death and grimly resolved to avenge it. Yet their military is over-extended and the People's Republic is poised to take the offensive once more, this time with a new strategy, new weapons, a new command team, and a whole new determination to win. The war is about to enter a phase of unprecedented ferocity . . . and the Alliance is on the short end of the stick.

But even as powerful Peep fleets hurtle towards their objectives, neither they nor the Alliance are aware of events occurring on a distant, isolated, inescapable prison planet called Hell. For what no one knows, not even State Security, is that Honor Harrington is not dead. She and a handful of her people are trapped on Hell, and determined to disprove the Peep boast that no one can ever escape it. Honor Harrington is going home, and taking her people with her... even if she has to conquer Hell to do it.

My Thoughts: This episode divides into three separate threads. The first thread deals with Honor trying to engineer her escape from Hell along with almost 400,000 fellow prisoners. The second deals with the effects of Honor's death on Grayson and Manticore. The third thread deals with the Peeps getting a new, effective military leader in Esther McQueen and its new program of going on the offensive against the Manticoran Alliance.

On Hell, Honor is busy making plans for capturing enough tonnage to remove herself and all her fellow prisoners from the planet, convening courts martian for the many guards who used the prisoners as their personal toys, and retraining the prisoners whose military knowledge is decades out of date to crew the ships they manage to steal.

On Grayson and Manticore, there are state funerals and especially on Grayson a strong desire to get revenge on those who murdered their steadholder. Also the question of what to do with Honor's fortune and estate needs to be settled so that Benjamin's reforms aren't being derailed. We also see how Honor's parents and her closest friends are dealing with her loss.

On Haven, Esther McQueen is building herself a place on the Committee for Public Safety as she gets control of the Navy and makes it a more effective force. There is a lot of in-fighting because no one on the Committee can trust anyone else and everyone has their own political agenda. McQueen's plans to lead to Peep forces bringing substantial losses to Alliance forces and holding but they run into some problems when they try to regain planets that are testing grounds for new and effective weapons being developed in secret by Manticore and its allies.

I liked the way the various threads of this story were woven together. The pacing was fast even though the story was very long. My audiobook spanned more than 25 hours!

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.