Audiobook Review: A Call to Insurrection by David Weber, Timothy Zahn & Thomas Pope

A Call to Insurrection
Author: David Weber, Timothy Zahn, & Thomas Pope
Narrator: Eric Michael Summerer
Series: Manticore Ascendant (Book 4)
Publication: Baen Books; 1st edition (February 1, 2022); Audible Studios (December 6, 2022)
Length: 480 p.; 14 hours and 11 minutes

Description: Book four in the nationally best-selling Manticore Ascendant series, set in the world of David Weber’s multiple New York Times best-selling Honorverse series.

Yesterday, the Star Kingdom of Manticore was a small, unimportant interstellar backwater. A quiet little star nation, only recently recovered from the devastating blow of the Plague Years. More affluent than some, perhaps, but with little to attract trade or interstellar commerce, it had little need for a navy...and even less interest in paying for one.

But Manticore has now become a target. The Star Kingdom isn't certain who is attacking it, or why, or what its mysterious foe can possibly want, but Queen Elizabeth I knows she has to find out. And she knows that whatever some of her subjects think, Manticore does need a navy. And it needs allies, friends like the dynamic Republic of Haven and the Andermani Empire. It needs their trade...and to learn from their more experienced and powerful navies.

It is the job of officers like Travis Long and his wife, Lisa, to acquire that experience. Of utterly inexperienced diplomats like Travis's brother Gavin, Earl Winterfall, to build those alliances.

They have been sent to the powerful Andermani Empire to do just that, for the Imperial Navy is one of the most potent and experienced fleets in the galaxy. But the Andermani have problems of their own. Their Emperor's death is the trigger for insurrection, and now that powerful and experienced navy is locked in civil war

The Manticoran visitors find themselves squarely in the path of the storm, and before Travis, Lisa, and Gavin can accomplish anything else, they first have to survive.

My Thoughts: This is the fourth book in the Manticore Ascendant series. It takes place in the early years on Manticore when they have just come through the plague years and are trying to build relationships with their interstellar neighbors. They have also attracted an enemy who has made numerous attempts to destabilize and conquer Manticore.

Travis Long and his new wife Lisa have been sent to the Andermani Empire at the request of Emperor Gustav. Travis is hoping to absorb some of the Andermni's military knowledge to bring home to Manticore's fledgling Navy. 

Also on the trip is Travis's brother Gavin who is Earl Winterfall and a new member of Manticore's government. Though inexperienced, he has been sent to try to forge trade agreements with the Andermani.

Left at home is Chomps who has run afoul of Navy Intelligence and has been sent to the countryside until things cool down. However, he quickly gets involved in solving the murder of the local duke and all of his family. He thinks the determination that it was an accident caused by a drunken duke is very suspicious. 

Travis and Gavin also soon find out that their trips are much more complicated than they had thought. Emperor Gustav has died and things in the Andermani Empire are a little unsettled as the new 23-year-old emperor is trying to consolidate his position. Gavin stumbles upon conspirators who have a different candidate in mind for emperor.

And Travis and Lisa find themselves about a fleet sent to put down an insurrection as the would-be emperor has joined forces with a world that wants out of Andermani control. There are lots of space battles in this section of the story.

And weaving through all the different plot threads are the machinations of a shadow corporation whose aim is to conquer Manticore without sending in a fleet this time since it didn't work at all well when they last tried it. 

I enjoyed this story very much. I like the characters and find the world building very entertaining. Eric Michael Summerer did an excellent job with the different voices and accents.

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

 

Friday Memes: A Call to Insurrection by David Weber

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

Hereditary President Trudy McIntyre had never been what Lucretia Tomlinson would have called a handsome woman. But there were pictures from two decades earlier that had captured a smoldering fire, a defiance, and a sense of righteousness that had more than made up for the lack of physical beauty.

Friday 56:

"Absolutely not," Elizabeth said. "We start by downplaying the urgency. Dr. Tolochko's analysis indicates that the shift has been gradual, and was only noticeable over decades of readings. No rush, no worry, no drama."

This week I am spotlighting A Call to Insurrection by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope. I got the Kindle copy a year ago, but it got lost among all the TBRs. When the Audible book was released December 6, I bought it and realized that I had never read and reviewed the print copy. Oops!

Here's the description from Amazon:

Book four in the nationally best-selling Manticore Ascendant series, set in the world of David Weber’s multiple New York Times best-selling Honorverse series.

Yesterday, the Star Kingdom of Manticore was a small, unimportant interstellar backwater. A quiet little star nation, only recently recovered from the devastating blow of the Plague Years. More affluent than some, perhaps, but with little to attract trade or interstellar commerce, it had little need for a navy . . . and even less interest in paying for one.

But Manticore has now become a target. The Star Kingdom isn't certain who is attacking it, or why, or what its mysterious foe can possibly want, but Queen Elizabeth I knows she has to find out. And she knows that whatever some of her subjects think, Manticore does need a navy. And it needs allies, friends like the dynamic Republic of Haven and the Andermani Empire. It needs their trade . . . and to learn from their more experienced and powerful navies.

It is the job of officers like Travis Long and his wife, Lisa, to acquire that experience. Of utterly inexperienced diplomats like Travis's brother Gavin, Earl Winterfall, to build those alliances.

They have been sent to the powerful Andermani Empire to do just that, for the Imperial Navy is one of the most potent and experienced fleets in the galaxy. But the Andermani have problems of their own. Their Emperor's death is the trigger for insurrection, and now that powerful and experienced navy is locked in civil war.

The Manticoran visitors find themselves squarely in the path of the storm, and before Travis, Lisa, and Gavin can accomplish anything else, they first have to survive.

Friday Memes: A New Clan by David Weber and Jane Lindskold

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

"Have either of you seen Mack or Zack this morning?" Lady Danette Schardt-Cordova, Baroness Schardt-Cordova, asked, poking her head into the farmhouse breakfast nook.

Friday 56:

"Looks like you signed on for Extreme Violence: the official Stephanie Harrington Treecat Recruitment Method. I recommend near-suffocation, myself. Much less painful, with the bonus that it leaves fewer scars."

This week I am spotlighting A New Clan by David Weber and Jane Lindskold. This is the fourth book in a prequel series to the Honor Harrington series. It is also written for young adults. Here is the description from Amazon:

There’s the new treecat adoptee who needs to be kept from becoming a risk to the carefully guarded secret of just how smart the arboreal inhabitants of Sphinx really are.

There’s the overeager journalist whose campaign to protect the treecats from exploitation as the newest, coolest pet on any planet could threaten the very creatures he seeks to defend.

And there’s the mysterious rash of weird accidents that are plaguing Sphinx’s younger inhabitants—including some of those nearest and dearest to Stephanie.

In trying to get enough proof to get the understaffed authorities of her pioneer planet to act, Stephanie will be called upon to attempt things she never imaged doing—including going undercover into the wilds of the late-night club scene, a realm where her faithful treecat guardian, Lionheart, cannot follow. . . .

Audiobook: Uncompromising Honor by David Weber

Uncompromising Honor
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington Book 14
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (Oct. 2, 2018)
Length: 30 hours and 27 minutes

Description: HONOR'S FINISHING WHAT SHE STARTED

The Solarian League's navy counts its superdreadnoughts by the thousands. Not even its own government knows how enormous its economy truly is. And for hundreds of years, the League has borne the banner of human civilization, been the ideal to which humanity aspires in its diaspora across the galaxy.

But the bureaucrats known as the "Mandarins," who rule today's League, are not the men and women who founded it so long ago. They are corrupt, venal, accountable to no one . . . and they've decided the upstart Star Kingdom of Manticore must be destroyed.

Honor Harrington has worn the Star Kingdom's uniform for half a century and served her monarch and her people well. In the course of those years, the woman the newsies call the Salamander has grown from a tactically brilliant but politically naïve junior officer to supreme fleet command and a seat on the highest military and political councils of the Grand Alliance.

Very few people know war the way Honor Harrington does. Very few have lost as many men and women, as many friends, as much family, as she has. Yet despite that, hers has been a voice of caution. She knows the Mandarins and the Solarian League Navy are growing increasingly desperate as the truth of their technological inferiority sinks home, but she also knows the sheer size of the League. And she knows how its citizens will react if the Grand Alliance takes the war to the League, attacks its star systems, destroys its infrastructure . . . kills its civilians. Today's victory, bought on those terms, can only guarantee a future war of revenge against a resurgent Solarian League and its navy.

Honor knows the Grand Alliance must find a victory that doesn't require incursions deep into Solarian space, doesn't leave a legacy of bottomless hatred, and the strategy she supports has been working.

The League is sliding towards inglorious defeat as it steadily loses ground in the Protectorates and the Verge. As its central government teeters towards bankruptcy and even some of its core systems opt to secede in the face of the Mandarins' corruption. As the Solarian Navy finally realizes it cannot face an Alliance battle fleet and win.

But the Mandarins have embraced a desperate new strategy, and in pursuit of that strategy, the SLN has committed atrocities such as the galaxy has not known in a thousand years. The League have violated its own Eridani Edict against mass civilian casualties, violated the Deneb Accords prohibition on war crimes.

And they have finally killed too many of the people Honor Harrington loves.

Hers is the voice of caution and compromise no longer, and the galaxy is about to see something it has never imagined

The Salamander is coming for the Solarian League, and Hell is coming in her wake.

My Thoughts: This concluding volume of the Honor Harrington series was over 30 hours long and brought a number of the plot threads that were left dangling in other books to some sort of resolution. 

Admiral Henke has brought the war to Mesa which has forced the Mesan Alignment's hand in some ways. They won't be able to get all of their core supporters off the planet and so they choose to set off a number of nuclear explosions to murder those they can't take and destroy all evidence of their plans. Albert Detweiler and his wife are among those who die. He and his wife choose to suicide after he presses the button to set off all the other explosions. The timing makes it look like the explosions were done by Henke's fleet which would make it an Eridani Violation - needlessly killing civilians. And Mesan Alignment sleeper agent and famous newsy Audrey O'Hanrahan is on the scene to "prove" that the Manties were responsible for the atrocities. 

The news plays right into the hands of the Mandarins who are secretly running the Solarian League and who are facing desperate times - bankruptcy and losing star systems. They decide that they need to commit atrocities of their own if they want any chance to hang on to their own power and sent the Solarian Navy out to destroy the infrastructures of planets they think are disloyal. And if millions of people die, it certainly isn't their fault. They wouldn't need to take such steps if it wasn't for those Manties. The only problem with that strategy is that the Solarian League Navy isn't in the same class as navies of Manticore and its allies. The losses are tremendous both to the League and to the forces sent out by the Manties but the Solarian League isn't winning in any encounter.

Meanwhile in old Chicago, a small number of people in the various intelligence agencies have decided that the Manties idea of a secret organization who is intent on destabilizing things is real and they set out to prove it. 

But the Mesan Alignment wants revenge on the Manties and secretly provides new weapons to the League which will change the balance of power. They first deploy those weapons against Beowulf while there is a conference going on with the movers and shakers of the whole Alliance in attendance. The losses, including a number of the people who are key in the Alliance, are horrendous. But the way the attack was launched screams Mesan Alignmnt to those in the know. 

Honor decides to take the attack to Old Terra itself because she and her colleagues see no other way to end the violence and bloodshed. And Honor has losses of her own to make up for. Hamish and her Uncle Jacques were among the delegation lost on Beowulf.

This was a great conclusion to a fascinating series. Of course, there are multiple loose ends that didn't get tied off. Weber says that it is time for Honor to go into an honorable retirement but he does leave the door open to revisit the Honorverse with other starring characters. I hope he does. 

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

Book Review: Changer of Worlds by David Weber

Changer of Worlds
Author: David Weber & Eric Flint
Series: Honor Harrington Anthologies Book 3
Publication: Baen Books; 1st edition (December 4, 2013)

Description: Lady Dame Honor Harrington—starship captain, admiral, Steadholder, and Duchess—has spent decades defending the Star Kingdom of Manticore against all comers. Along the way, she has become the legend known as "the Salamander" from her habit of always being where the fire is hottest . . . and also a national bestseller (Ashes of Victory: #7, The Wall Street Journal).

But it's a big universe, and Honor's actions affect a lot of lives, not all of them human. And their actions affect her—a lesson "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington" learns years before rising to command rank when a desperate battle against "pirates" who aren't quite what they seem begins her brilliant career.

Closer to home, in "Changer of Worlds," a secret that the alien treecats have kept from their human friends for hundreds of years is about to come out . . . and completely change the relationship between the two species forever.

Meanwhile, Eric Flint weighs in with "From the Highlands." Honor can't be everywhere, so when the People's Republic of Haven tries to stage a political assassination on Earth, Anton Zilwicki—husband of one of the Star Kingdom's most revered military martyrs, and father of a young woman who is clearly a chip off the old block—steps into the breach . . . and takes the opportunity to settle some old scores along the way.

And finally, Esther McQueen and Oscar Saint-Just square off for their final confrontation in Noveau Paris in "Nightfall."

My Thoughts: Ever since I started reading the Honorverse novels, I had been feeling that there were stories that had to be told. There were many references to incidents in characters' backstories that weren't told in the novels. 

I was particularly intrigued by Helen Ziwicki's past and the incident that happened in Old Chicago when she was a young teen. I finally found that story in this anthology. "From the Highlands" by Eric Flint finally filled in the missing details about that adventure. I liked it very much and I especially liked seeing a very young and inexperienced Victor Cachat. This incident also begins Berry Zilwicki's story which is told in much more detail in other books. 

This anthology also contains the story that begins Honor Harrington's military career when she goes on her snotty cruise to hunt pirates in Silesia. She encounters bad officers who are out to get her and excellent officers who set her feet on the correct path. The story was filled with adventure and excitement.

"Changer of Words" was told almost completely from the treecat's point of view and talks about their decision to let the two-legs know all about their abilities and potentials. I liked the references back to the story told in A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP.

The final story was my least favorite since it is set on Haven and has a lot to do with political maneuvering among the Peeps.

These stories were wonderful at filling in some background that I had been curious about. I don't think they would stand alone particularly well unless they worked as teasers to get readers into the whole Honor Harrington series. But this devoted fan loved knowing more about some beloved characters. 

Favorite Quote:

Lieutenant Santino had the watch, and he sat in the command chair at the center of the bridge looking for all the world like a competent naval officer. His forearms rested squarely upon the command chairs arm rests. His squared shoulders rested firmly against the chair's upright back, his manly profile was evident as he held his head erect, and there was an almost terrifying lack of intelligence in his eyes.

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

Friday Memes: Changer of Worlds by David Weber

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

"That looks like your snotty, Senior Chief."

Friday 56: 

In fact, the tradition of sending snotties to do the scut work was one of the Navy's long-standing traditions, part of the semi-hazing which was part and parcel of initiating midshipmen into the tribal wisdom, and Honor didn't really mind it particularly. For the most part, at least.

This week I am spotlighting one of the anthologies in David Weber's Honorverse. I chose Changer of Worlds which is the third anthology. Here is the description from Amazon:

Lady Dame Honor Harrington—starship captain, admiral, Steadholder, and Duchess—has spent decades defending the Star Kingdom of Manticore against all comers. Along the way, she has become the legend known as "the Salamander" from her habit of always being where the fire is hottest . . . and also a national bestseller (Ashes of Victory: #7, The Wall Street Journal).

But it's a big universe, and Honor's actions affect a lot of lives, not all of them human. And their actions affect her—a lesson "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington" learns years before rising to command rank when a desperate battle against "pirates" who aren't quite what they seem begins her brilliant career.

Closer to home, in "Changer of Worlds," a secret that the alien treecats have kept from their human friends for hundreds of years is about to come out . . . and completely change the relationship between the two species forever.

Meanwhile, Eric Flint weighs in with "From the Highlands." Honor can't be everywhere, so when the People's Republic of Haven tries to stage a political assassination on Earth, Anton Zilwicki—husband of one of the Star Kingdom's most revered military martyrs, and father of a young woman who is clearly a chip off the old block—steps into the breach . . . and takes the opportunity to settle some old scores along the way.

And finally, Esther McQueen and Oscar Saint-Just square off for their final confrontation in Noveau Paris in "Nightfall."

Audiobook: A Rising Thunder by David Weber

A Rising Thunder
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington Book 13
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (March 6, 2012)
Length: 17 hours and 56 minutes

Description: Peril and strife strike on a double front for Honor Harrington and company. After a brutal attack on the Manticoran home system, Honor Harrington has rooted out a plan 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 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 ancient and corrupt Earth-based Solarian League inevitably takes 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!

My Thoughts: This episode stresses the growing conflict between the Solarian League and Manticore and its allies. It also tells more about the goals and plans of the Mesan Alliance and the various smaller schemes that are leading toward their master plan.

After the Mesan Alliance's sneak attack on the Manticoran home world, the Solarian League decides this will be a great time for them to attack the Manticoran home world. After all, they are sure that even though Manticore might have better technology, they were hurt enough that the playing field is leveled. 

Unfortunately for the Solarian League, information brought back from Mesa by Victor Cachat and Anton Zilwicki is compelling enough to prove the existence of the Mesan Alliance and convinces Haven and Manticore to finally end the long war that was subtly encouraged by that same Mesan Alliance. Their new treaty provides for mutaal military assistance and spells doom for any Solarian League fleet that might appear.

The Solarian commander comes to believe in this superiority and is willing to surrender but the Mesans have allowed for that by infecting his tactical officer with one of their assassin nanobots. This results in almost the total destruction of the invading fleet which the behind-the-scenes actual rulers of the Solarian League are desperate to spin as a positive for them.

But cracks are forming in the Solarian League which is also a Mesan Alliance plan. With Manticore stifling trade through their control of many of the wormhole junctions and bridges, the League is in growing financial trouble. And some of it member star systems are also thinking about withdrawing from the League led by Manticore's long-time ally Beowulf. 

This was an engaging episode in this long-running series. 

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

Audiobook: Mission of Honor by David Weber

Mission of Honor
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington Book 12
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (June 22, 2010)
Length: 24 hours and 13 minutes

Description: The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington's entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she's achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.

She's prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor's worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.

But Manticore's enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won't be going alone.

My Thoughts: This episode has Honor on a diplomatic mission to Haven to try to forge a peace treaty with the Republic of Haven. She goes to Haven and brings the whole Eighth Fleet along with her to emphasize that Manticore is willing to use the fleet to destroy Haven if something better for both parties can't be worked out. President Pritchart is very much in favor of peace but she has to convince her legislature to go along with it and some of them can't see anything beyond their immediate desires.

While she is gone, the Mesan Alliance conducts a sneak attack on the Manticore home system which takes out much of the orbital infrastructure and drops pieces of it on the planet of Sphinx. One of the pieces wipes out a treecat clan and another hits a city where most of Honor's relatives live. There were huge civilian losses even beyond the kingdom's infrastructure and no one knows who did it or even how the attack was accomplished. 

The Solarian League looks at the attack on Manticore as an opportunity to hit them while they are gone. They can't believe that Manticore really has military technology that is so much better than the Leagues. And with the Mesan Alliance pushing in the background, the Solarian arrogance thinks that defeating Manticore will be easy. 

This one has a lot of information about the Mesan Alignment and what they want to accomplish. It also spends a lot of time with the mandarins who really run the Solarian League. It was fascinating to watch all the various plot threads begin to come together. And to see how thoroughly the Mesan Alliance has manipulated things to bring about their desired future. 

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

Book and Audio Review: A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber

A Beautiful Friendship
Author: David Weber

Narrator: Khristine Hvam
Series: Honor Harrington - Star Kingdom Book 1
Publication: Baen Books; 1st Edition (December 4, 2013); Audible Studios (Oct. 4, 2011)

Description: Stephanie Harrington absolutely hates being confined inside her family's compound on the pioneer planet of Sphinx, a frontier wilderness world populated by dangerous native animals that could easily tear a human to bits and pieces. Yet Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries—and the biggest discovery of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species.

Treecats are creatures that resemble a cross between a bobcat and a lemur (but with six legs and much more deadly claws). Not only are they fully sentient, they are also telepathic, and able to bond with certain gifted humans such as the genetically-enhanced Stephanie. But Stephanie's find, and her first-of-its-kind bond with a treecat, brings on a new torrent of danger. An assortment of highly placed enemies with galactic-sized wealth at stake is determined to make sure that the planet of Sphinx remains entirely in human hands—even if this means the extermination of another thinking species.

My Thoughts: This story introduces the Honor Harrington series to young adults by telling the story of Stephanie Harrington who had emigrated to Sphinx with her parents at age eleven. She is a bright only-child who has a burning desire to learn more about her new planet. Her mother gives her a mystery to solve: something is stealing celery from fields and green houses. 

Stephanie is intrigued and comes up with a plan to catch and photograph the celery thief even though she has no idea why anyone would bother to steal a plant she only eats if her parents insist. Imagine her surprise when she discovers a small creature with a net full of celery. The net makes Stephanie believe that she has discovered a new sentient species - only the twelfth such species discovered since humans left Old Earth millennia ago. 

She's young but even she knows that another sentient species on the world could cause all sorts of problems. Luckily, she has the support of her parents and some others to help her decide what to do about her new furry companion. 

This story is also told from the viewpoint of Climbs Quickly - the celery thief - and we see his puzzlement about these beings who are mind blind but clearly can communicate among themselves. He is even more interested in those humans when he forms an emotional bond with Stephanie that lets him communicate with her a little bit. He can sense her emotions but not her thoughts and he isn't sure what she can sense from him.

The pair have adventures together including an encounter with the elephant-sized hexapuma who is a very dangerous predator and with poachers who are determined to capture some treecats both as exotic pets and to experiment on if it proves true that they are telepathic.

I enjoyed this story very much and especially enjoyed Khristine Hvam's narration. She is really good at creating distinct voices for the many characters. 

Favorite Quote:

"How many twelve-year-olds do you know who're going to go after a flipping hexapuma with nothing but an eighteen-centimeter vibro blade? You think somebody willing to do that, with an arm broken in two places and a leg she could barely stand on, to protect a treecat who might already have been dead for all she knew, won't do whatever it takes to protect that treecat now?

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

Friday Memes: A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

"I mean it, Stephanie!" Richard Harrington said. "I don't want you wandering off into those woods again without me or your mom along. Is that clear?"

"Oh, Daaaddy--!" Stephanie began, only to close her mouth sharply when her father folded his arms.

Friday 56: 

Seconds ticked past, and then he shook himself mentally. Showing himself to a two-leg was the one thing he'd been most firmly instructed not to do, and he cringed inwardly at how Broken Tooth would react to this. He knew he could claim distraction on the basis of the storm and his first experience with cluster stalk, but that wouldn't change his failure into success, and he stared down at the two-leg while his mind began to work once more.

This week I am spotlighting a book that I first read some years ago. A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber introduces the Honor Harrington science fiction series to young adults by telling the story of 12-year-old Stephanie Harrington who was the first human to bond with the treecats on the planet Sphinx. Here is the description from Amazon:

Stephanie Harrington absolutely hates being confined inside her family's compound on the pioneer planet of Sphinx, a frontier wilderness world populated by dangerous native animals that could easily tear a human to bits and pieces. Yet Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries—and the biggest discovery of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species.

Treecats are creatures that resemble a cross between a bobcat and a lemur (but with six legs and much more deadly claws). Not only are they fully sentient, they are also telepathic, and able to bond with certain gifted humans such as the genetically-enhanced Stephanie. But Stephanie's find, and her first-of-its-kind bond with a treecat, brings on a new torrent of danger. An assortment of highly placed enemies with galactic-sized wealth at stake is determined to make sure that the planet of Sphinx remains entirely in human hands—even if this means the extermination of another thinking species.

Audiobook: At All Costs by David Weber

At All Costs
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington Book 11
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (Dec. 15, 2009)
Length: 32 hours and 33 minutes

Description: What price victory?

The war with the Republic of Haven has resumed . . . disastrously for the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Admiral Lady Dame Honor Harrington, Steadholder and Duchess Harrington, the single victorious Allied commander of the opening phase of the new war, has been recalled from the Sidemore System to command Eighth Fleet. Everyone knows Eighth Fleet is the Alliance's primary offensive command, which makes it the natural assignment for the woman the media calls ''the Salamander.'' But what most of the public DOESN'T know is that not only are the Star Kingdom and its Allies badly outnumbered by the Republic's new fleet, but that the odds are going to get steadily worse. Eighth Fleet's job is to somehow prevent those odds from crushing the Alliance before the Star Kingdom can regain its strategic balance. It's a job which won't be done cheaply. Honor Harrington must meet her formidable responsibilities with inferior forces even as she copes with tumultuous changes in her personal and public life. The alternative to victory is total defeat, yet this time the COST of victory will be agonizingly high.

My Thoughts: In this episode, Manticore is at a serious disadvantage. Haven has had a number of military victories which have destroyed much of the industrial infrastructure that was building units for the Manticoran Navy. The Manticorans have always had fewer people than Haven but they made up that disadvantage by having much better military hardware. Now the odds are even more in Haven's favor.

But Haven isn't really interested in pursuing military victory. Their new government only went to war in the hopes of forcing the Manticorans to the peace table. This is even more important now that they have learned that their former Secretary of War manipulated the messages passing back and forth between Haven and Manticore in order to keep the pressure on and for his own political advantage. But they don't have proof - just really strong suspicions.

Haven has proposed a meeting between President Pritchard of Haven and Queen Elizabeth of Manticore to discuss a possible peace treaty. After much convincing, Elizabeth has agreed to meet on neutral territory - the newly organized planet of Torch which was founded by ex-genetic slaves and is now ruled by Queen Berry who is the daughter of Anton Zilwicki.

However, there is a mysterious organization who doesn't want a better relationship between Haven and Manticore. They have developed some nanotech that turn people into unwilling assassins. They have used it on Earth to kill the Manticoran Ambassador and they have used an assassin to try to kill Queen Berry but she was saved at the cost of the lives of her bodyguards. They have also tried to assassinate Honor Harrington by using their nanotech on her young flag lieutenant. They have also tried to make it look like Haven was responsible for all the assassinations and assassination attempts and Queen Elizabeth is more than willing to blame Haven.

So Manticore withdraws from the peace process and goes back to war against Haven. Because of their disadvantages, Honor is given control of the eighth fleet and tasked with making raids on Havenite planets with the goal of damaging their industrial infrastructure. They also have the advantage of two new weapons which level the playing field some. But the new weapons aren't in large enough supply for anything more than the eighth fleet. 

Haven needs some military victories in order to force Manticore back to the peace table and come up with an audacious plan to bring the war to Manticore's home system. 

While all this war stuff is going on, lots is also happening in Honor's personal life. Through a medical error, she finds herself pregnant which really couldn't come at a worse time. Her political enemies on Manticore and Grayson are eager to use this unmarried pregnancy to do her harm. Luckily, she still has powerful friends and family who are determined to manage things for her. Thus, this is the book where Honor marries both Hamish and Emily Alexander and becomes the mother of a son. 

This was a great story with lots of things happening. At over 30 hours of listening there was time for a lot of detail both about Honor's personal life and about the politics between Haven and Manticore. 

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

Audiobook: War of Honor by David Weber

War of Honor
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington, Book 10
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (Dec. 15, 2009)
Length: 35 hours and 58 minutes

Description: NO ONE WANTED ANOTHER WAR

Thomas Theisman didn't. After risking his life and a fresh round of civil war to overthrow the Committee of Public Safety's reign of terror and restore the Republic of Haven's ancient Constitution, an interstellar war was the last thing he wanted.

Baron High Ridge didn't. The Prime Minister of Manticore was perfectly happy with the war he had. No one was shooting anyone else at the moment, and as long as he could spin out negotiations on the formal treaty of peace, his government could continue to milk all those ''hostilities only'' tax measures for their own partisan projects.

His Imperial Majesty Gustav didn't. Now that the fighting between the Star Kingdom and the Havenites had ended, the Andermani Emperor had his own plans for Silesia, and he was confident he could achieve them without a war of his own.

Protector Benjamin didn't. His people had made too deep a commitment to the Manticoran Alliance, in blood as well as treasure, for him to want to risk seeing it all thrown away.

And Honor Harrington certainly didn't. The ''Salamander'' had seen the inside of too many furnaces already, knew too much about how much war cost.

Unfortunately, what they wanted didn't matter....

My Thoughts: This massive episode in the Honor Harrington series was filled with all sorts of political maneuvering.

In Manticore, High Ridge's government is too busy with their pork barrel projects and fear of needing to call a general election to put any effort into actually forging a peace treaty with Haven. High Ridge's government is a loose group of politicians who have very little in common except their desire to have power and push their own projects. The admiralty is in the hands of a politician masquerading as an admiral who is more interested in pushing his own agenda and covering his butt to actually do anything. He is proud of the way he is gutting the navy and putting all the good officers on the beach.

In Haven, President Pritchart is trying to form a democracy but she is being undermined by her Secretary of State who has his own agenda. He wants her job and he wants power and he is willing to do anything including "adjusting" the messages that go back and forth in the peace process to slant them in ways that make him look good and Pritchart look bad.

While Manticore's navy is contracting and deteriorating Haven is busy building new ships and developing new techniques under the supervision of Admiral Foraker. They have managed to keep their new developments secret which is helping to build the High Ridge government's sense of false security.

This is also the book where Honor and Hamish Alexander become the victims of a smear campaign which says that they are lovers and are cheating on Hamish's wife. Now, Hamish and Honor are in love but both are too honorable to do anything to hurt Emily Alexander. And it takes a while before either is willing to admit what they feel to each other. However, the smear campaign does its bit to turn public opinion against them and distract them from things High Ridge and his cronies are doing. It is also one more straw that is wrecking Manticore's alliance with Grayson since the Graysons strongly dislike the way Honor is being treated.

As diplomacy fails, Haven gears up for war against the alliance. Honor is in Silesia where she is having problems with the Andermani who are getting more aggressive. Turns out that the scheming Secretary of State from Haven has been whispering in their ears about what they should be doing in Silesia. Luckily, Protector Benjamin has sent the Protector's Own to Silesia as backup for Honor's forces because a large Havenite force has plans there. Of course they also have plans at a number of the other frontier areas that Manticore had taken away from them during the war and they are much more successful there as the Manticorans are dealing with the admiralty's cost-saving measures and are under strength and under armed.

This wasn't really my favorite of the series because there was just so much political stuff. I think a couple of hundred pages of it could have been deleted. I am looking forward to what is going to happen next in the series though.

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

Audiobook: Ashes of Victory by David Weber

Ashes of Victory
Author: David Weber
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (Dec. 15, 2009)
Length: 25 hours and 45 minutes

Description: REPORTS OF MY DEATH HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED . . .

The People's Republic of Haven made a tiny mistake when it announced the execution of Honor Harrington. It seemed safe enough. After all, they knew she was already dead.

Unfortunately, they were wrong. Now Honor has escaped from the prison planet called Hell and returned to the Manticoran Alliance with a few friends. Almost half a million of them, to be precise . . . including some who know what really happened when the Committee of Public Safety seized power in the PRH.

Honor's return Schfrom the dead comes at a critical time, providing a huge, much-needed lift for the Allies' morale, for the war is rapidly entering a decisive phase. Both sides believe that victory lies within their grasp at last, but dangers no one could foresee await them both.

New weapons, new strategies, new tactics, spies, diplomacy, and assassination. ... All are coming into deadly focus, and Honor Harrington, the woman the newsies call ''the Salamander,'' once more finds herself at the heart of them all.

But this time, the furnace may be too furious for even a salamander to survive.

My Thoughts: This episode concerns itself with with happens after Honor returns from imprisonment along with 400,000 other former prisoners including a Peep Admiral who knows what really happened at the time of the Harris assassination and the role the current leaders on Haven played in it. This is a very bad public relations problem for the Peeps just when they are starting to amass some military victories under Admiral McQueen.

Meanwhile on Manticore, Honor is getting ready for all sorts of medical intervention to fix the nerves on her face, reinstall her artificial eyes and manage a new prosthetic left arm. Nimitz is also going to undergo repairs of his injuries but the loss of his telepathic connection with his mate and the other treecats isn't as easy to repair. However, Honor's mother has an idea based on an old Earth language called "sign language" which might give Nimitz a way to communicate again and will open a whole new way of interacting with all the treecats who have adopted humans. Honor is also tasked by the Admiralty to teach at Saganami Island and take over as Commandant of the Advanced Tactical School while she is on convalescent leave and is supposed to be resting.

On Grayson, Steadholder Mueller is continuing his campaign to undermine Benjamin's reforms and he has a new partner from the religious fanatics on Masada financed by the Peeps though Mueller doesn't know all those details. Mueller just sees them as subordinates funneling illegal funds to him in his campaign to undermine Benjamin's reforms. They have a bigger plan though: they plan to assassinate Benjamin and Queen Elizabeth of Manticore to throw the Alliance into chaos. Honor is able to save Benjamin and Queen Elizabeth but she is unable to save the Prime Ministers of either Star System. The lack of the Prime Minister on Manticore means that those who opposed his plans finally get a chance to form their own government and they are sure the Peeps are just misunderstood and really want peace with Manticore.

The Peeps need the chaos! Manticore and its allies are finally ready to debut their new weapons which will give them a strong tactical advantage and finally let them bring the war to its conclusion. And the leaders of the Peep government are ready to get rid of their successful military leader before she decides to overthrow them. Their policies have been working against them as a number of military leaders and the spies they set on them are finally coming to realize just how bad the Peep government is and a quiet revolution is growing.

While this episode still had quite a few space battles and descriptions of weapons, I felt like the focus on this one was more political. The government of the Peeps was imploding and the military was coming together to oppose all the government abuses. Honor becomes much more politically astute even though she really doesn't want to. I'm eager to see where the story goes next.

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

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.

Audiobook: Cauldron of Ghosts by David Weber and Eric Flint

Cauldron of Ghosts
Author: David Weber and Eric Flint
Series: Crown of Slaves - Honor Harrington Universe Book 3
Narrator: Peter Larkin
Publication: Audible Studios (April 8, 2014)
Length: 22 hours and 53 minutes

Description: The Mesan Alignment: a centuries-old cabal that seeks to impose its vision of a society dominated by genetic rank onto the human race. Now the conspiracy stands exposed by spies Anton Zilwicki and Victor Cachat—one an agent of Honor Harrington’s Star Kingdom of Manticore, the other a Havenite operative. The outing of the Alignment has turned the galaxy’s political framework topsy-turvy. Old coalitions have disintegrated. New alliances have been born.

For starters, the long and hard-fought war between the Republic of Haven and the Star Empire of Manticore is not only over, but these bitter enemies have formed a new pact. Their common foe: the Mesan Alignment itself.

But more information is needed to bring the Alignment out of the shadows. Now, defying the odds and relying on genetic wizardry themselves for a disguise, Zilwicki and Cachat return to Mesa—only to discover that even they have underestimated the Alignment’s ruthlessness and savagery.

Soon they are on the run in Mesa’s underworld, not only hunted by the Alignment but threatened by the exploding conflict on the planet between Mesa’s overlords and the brutalized slaves and descendants of slaves who have suffered under their rule for so long. But if Zilwicki and Cachat succeed in rooting out the ancient conspiracy, a great evil may be finally removed from the galaxy—and on a long-oppressed planet, freedom may finally dawn.

My Thoughts: This episode concentrates on Zilwicki and Cachat's efforts on Mesa to discover more about the Mesan Alignment. A lot of time is spent learning about the culture of the planet which is divided into three groups: the full citizens, the seccies who are descendants of manumitted slaves, and the slaves. The concentration is on the seccies. 

The problem is that the Mesan Alignment needs to get its essential people off the planet without alerting anyone to their disappearance. The solution they decide to implement is to execute a number of terrorist attacks which they can blame on the Audubon Ballroom and Manticore. The result is that the law forces and army of the Mesan planet which are composed of full citizens blame the seccies who they claim are sheltering the terrorists for the attacks and decide to teach them a lesson.

What they don't know is that the seccies have been gathering armament for years because they feared just such an event. And now they have the assistance of Cachat and Thandi Palane to help them defeat the invaders. Zilwicki escapes to Manticore to try to get help before the seccies lose the war and he loses his friends Cachat and Palane now knowing that Admiral Henke also has plans to visit Mesa along with her fleet.

The story also follows the journey of Zachariah McBryde who is one of the people the Mesan Alignment is evacuating to their new stronghold. He seems to be starting to have some second thoughts about the goals of the Alignment but is still generally in agreement with the master plan.

There are a number of other subplots including the revolutions the Alignment is fomenting on Verge planets and in the Maya System. 

All in all, a long but interesting entry into the Honor Harrington series. 

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

Audiobook: In Enemy Hands by David Weber

In Enemy Hands
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington Book 7
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (May 8, 2009)
Length: 19 hours and 55 minutes

Description: The Road to Hell

Honor Harrington's career has its ups and its downs. She's survived ship-to-ship battles, assassins, political vendettas, and duels. She's been shot at, shot down, and just plain shot, had starships blown out from under her, and made personal enemies who will stop at nothing to ruin her, and somehow she's survived it all.

But this time she's really in trouble.

The People's Republic of Haven has finally found an admiral who can win battles, and Honor's orders take her straight into an ambush. Outnumbered, outgunned, and unable to run, she has just two options: see the people under her command die in a hopeless, futile battle... or surrender them-and herself-to the Peeps.

There can be only one choice, and at least the People's Navy promises to treat their prisoners honorably. But the Navy is overruled by the political authorities, and Honor finds herself bound for a prison planet aptly named "Hell"... and her scheduled execution.

Put into solitary confinement, separated from her officers and her treecat Nimitz, and subjected to systematic humiliation by her gaolers, Honor's future has become both bleak and short. Yet bad as things look, they're about to get worse ...for the Peeps.

My Thoughts: This is the episode when Honor is captured by the Peeps.  Unfortunately, she isn't being treated as a military officer as the old charges from Basilisk have been resurrected and she is condemned to die.

Cordelia Ransom, who is the Peep's propaganda expert, is along and looks at Honor's capture as a terrific opportunity to gain positive publicity for her regime. No matter what her Naval officers try to convince her to do, she is determined. She has come to believe that her own skewed version of reality is actually reality. The Naval officers know that what she intends will have bad consequences for the Peeps in the form of bad publicity and lack of the secret support the Peeps have been getting from the Solarian League which is the only thing that is allowing them to keep up with the Manticorans and their allies. These actions will also have a bad effect on the Peeps' own navy too as shown by the two major Peeps military people who get swept up in Ransom's plotting.

Meanwhile, Honor is being badly treated by her captors from State Security. She has had her prosthetics disconnected which leaves her looking like a stroke victim and having vision in only one eye. She has been separated from Nimitz who was also badly injured.

But her own people aren't going to give up despite being prisoners themselves. And Horace Harkness finally gets to shine as he professes his allegiance to the Peeps and then subverts their computer system and plans the daring escape but not before they reach the prison planet known as Hell.

This was an exciting episode. I'm very glad that the next one is queued up for my next listening experience.

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

Audiobook: Shadow of Victory by David Weber

Shadow of Victory
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington - Saganami Island Book 4
Narrator: Kevin T. Collins
Publication: Audible Studios (Dec. 6, 2016)
Length: 37 hours and 19 minutes

Description: The Mesan Alignment is revealed, and, for Honor Harrington and the Manticoran Star Kingdom, this means war!

Unintended Consequences

Sometimes things don’t work out exactly as planned.

The Mesan Alignment has a plan—one it’s been working on for centuries. A plan to remake the galaxy and genetically improve the human race—its way.

Until recently, things have gone pretty much as scheduled, but then the Alignment hit a minor bump in the road called the Star Empire of Manticore. So the Alignment engineered a war between the Solarian League, the biggest and most formidable interstellar power in human history. To help push things along, the Alignment launched a devastating sneak attack which destroyed the Royal Manticoran Navy’s industrial infrastructure.

And in order to undercut Manticore’s galaxy-wide reputation as a star nation of its word, it launched Operation Janus—a false-flag covert operation to encourage rebellions it knows will fail by promising Manticoran support. The twin purposes are to harden Solarian determination to destroy the Star Empire once and for all, and to devastate the Star Empire’s reputation with the rest of the galaxy.

But even the best laid plans can have unintended consequences, and one of those consequences in this case may just be a new dawn of freedom for oppressed star nations everywhere.

My Thoughts: I think this was the longest of the Honor Harrington books yet. It clocked in at 912 pages for the book and 37 hours and 19 minutes for the audiobook. 

The book goes back in time from the previous book and, among lots of other things, tells how Damien Harahap of the Solarian League Gendarmarie gets recruited to be a spy for the Mesan Alignment. It also talks about the beginnings of the revolutions he foments on a number of independent worlds which he says he is doing for Manticore. 

The book also spends a lot of time on Mesa as the plans go forward to remove the insiders of the Alignment to their new planet and disguise their disappearances in a number of nuclear explosions that can be conveniently blamed on Manticore and the Ballroom terrorists.

The book also spends time with the fleet in the Talbot center who find out about the revolutions they are supposed to be supporting and goes off to try to find the planets that are waiting for Manticoran support that Manticore doesn't know has been promised. I liked the way many of these revolutions were succeeding even before Manticore arrives. I also liked the way that Manticore and its new ally Haven are chasing Frontier Security off the planets they have conquered and also reducing the strength of the Solarian League Navy.

There were some sections that also took place on Terra. One group of them were about the Mandarins who still can't quite believe that little Manticore could ever successfully face down the Solarian League. Another group has to do with lower level people from a variety of the intelligence services who are putting the pieces together that paint a picture of Mesan interference. The problem is that their bosss don't want to hear about it. 

I have just two more stories to read before my revisit to David Weber's universe is finished - at least for now. I can't wait to get started with the remaining books. 

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

Audiobook: Honor Among Enemies by David Weber

Honor Among Enemies
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington Book 6
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (April 15, 2009)
Length: 19 hours and 51 minutes

Description: KNOW THY ENEMY

For Captain Honor Harrington, it's sometimes hard to know who the enemy really is. Despite political foes, professional jealousies, and the scandal which drove her into exile, she's 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.

That would be hard enough, but some of the ''pirates'' aren't exactly what they seem . . . and neither are some of her ''friends,'' For Honor has been carefully chosen for her mission—by two implacable and powerful enemies.

The way they see it, either she stops the raiders or the raiders kill her . . . and either way, they win.

My Thoughts: This episode sees Honor rejoining the Manticoran Navy but with a nearly impossible assignment. Her job is to take some refitted merchantmen and head off to Silesia to stop the pirates that are harassing Maniticoran shipping. This assignment was dreamed up for her by Klaus Hauptman who has had it in for her since Basilisk. After all, his merchant ships are losing money and the Navy is supposed to protect them. If Honor fails, Hauptman wins in his subversive battle against Honor.

But all isn't as it seems in Silesia. Some of the pirates are actually Peeps in disguise whose goal is to prey on Maniticoran shipping both for the products they will get and in the hopes of drawing Manticoran forces away from more valuable targets.

The Manticorans also deal with a legitimate pirate who is running a group of ships and who has taken over a planet. His crews are busy raping and pillaging at his command and one of their victims is a ship owned by Hauptman and captained by someone close to him. That story weaves its way through the book and gives Hauptman his reason for being in the system for some of the major plot points of the story.

I enjoyed the variety of viewpoints in this one as we learn that not all Peeps are bad people. I also liked getting a look at some of the other people who are serving in the Manticoran Navy in the person of Aubrey Wanderman who is a new recruit in gravitics and who has some problems with a major bully on the ship.

I also liked meeting a new treecat named Samantha as her person is assigned to the crew on Honor's ship. I liked watching Nimitz and Samantha fall in love.

This was another excellent episode in a great series.

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

Audiobook: Shadow of Freedom by David Weber

Shadow of Freedom
Author: David Weber
Series: Honor Harrington - Saganami Island Book 3
Narrator: Allyson Johnson
Publication: Audible Studios (March 5, 2013)
Length: 16 hours and 38 minutes

Description: Wrong number? There are two sides to any quarrel . . . unless there are more. 

Queen Elizabeth of Manticore's first cousin and Honor Harrington's best friend, Michelle Henke, has just handed the ""invincible"" Solarian League Navy the most humiliating, one sided defeat in its entire almost thousand year history in defense of the people of the Star Empire's Talbott Quadrant. But the League is the most powerful star nation in the history of humanity. Its navy is going to be back—and this time with thousands of superdreadnoughts 

Yet she also knows scores of other star systems—some independent, some controlled by puppet regimes, and some simply conquered outright by the Solarian Office of Frontier Security—lie in the League's grip along its frontier with the Talbott Quadrant. As combat spreads from the initial confrontation,the entire frontier has begun to seethe with unrest, and Michelle sympathizes with the oppressed populations wanting only to be free of their hated masters. 

And that puts her in something of a quandary when a messenger from Mobius arrives, because someone's obviously gotten a wrong number. According to him, the Mobians' uprising has been carefully planned to coordinate with a powerful outside ally: the Star Empire of Manticore. Only Manticore—and Mike Henke—have never even heard of the Mobius Liberation Front. 

It's a set up . . . and Michelle knows who's behind it. The shadowy Mesan Alignment has launched a bold move to destroy Manticore's reputation as the champion of freedom. And when the RMN doesn't arrive, when the MLF is brutally and bloodily crushed, no independent star system will ever trust Manticore again. 

Mike Henke knows she has no orders from her government to assist any rebellions or liberation movements, that she has only so many ships, which can be in only so many places at a time . . . and that she can't possibly justify diverting any of her limited, outnumbered strength to missions of liberation the Star Empire never signed on for. She knows that . . . and she doesn't care. 

No one is going to send thousands of patriots to their deaths, trusting in Manticoran help that will never come. 

Not on Mike Henke's watch. 

My Thoughts: This was one of the shorter episodes in the lengthy Honor Harrington series. It stars Admiral Michelle Henke and takes place mainly in the Talbot Quadrant. The Solarian League is still making trouble and Manticore has less resources to defend its new territory since the sneak attack on the Manticore home system which destroyed so much of the kingdom's military infrastructure. 

The Mesan Alliance looks on that as an opportunity and they have agents in place who are determined to support revolutions on many of the planet under the authority of the Solarian Leagues' Office of Frontier Security. Of course, they say that they are helping out as representatives of Manticore which means that, when Manticore doesn't show up with military support and the revolutions are crushed, it is Manticore's reputation that will suffer.

When someone gets out of one of these systems and connects with Manticoran authorities at Montana, the whole promise of support comes as a major surprise to Admiral Henke and her fleet. That doesn't mean that she isn't going to help though. 

I liked learning more about the Mesan Alliance and the things that they have planned. I also look forward to finding out how the good guys are going to disrupt those plans, I hope. Not that the collapse of the Solarian League wouldn't be a good thing for that culture but it will certainly bring about huge changes on all the planets. 

I liked the parts of the story that took place on the planets under the thumbs of Frontier Security. I also liked the way the Manticorans helped those planets. What I didn't like was the cliffhanger ending. Of course, I do have the rest of the series and so didn't have a year or so to wait to find out what will happen next. 

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