This might deserve 4 stars, but it's the 11th book in the series! I still loved it. Not sure how that can be, since I generally tire after a few. Weber has created something special here. This is a space opera, pure & simple, but highly engaging & updated. Our heroine, Honor Harrington, is in a personal pickle, as usual, yet in demand by the rulers of several empires to help fix their problems as well. Her honor, fierce fighting abilities & strategic grasp are needed by all concerned, in a logical manner. She's the best enemy the Havenites have (an honorable boogeyman) & beloved by the other two civilizations that claim her allegiance. She's the natural choice to hang the story around.It's kind of complicated & if you haven't read the rest of the series, I'd suggest not starting here. The previous books give a lot of history that is welcome. It dragged for me at times, but still wound up being an excellent tale overall. ( )

The only problem if that I have never understood a space battle except those described by Bujold and I don't think I ever will. Thankfully, that doesn't get in the way of Honorverse fun. ( )

There are a lot of aspects to this. People doing the right thing for the wrong reason, people doing the wrong thing for the right reason, people (Elizabeth!) holding on to grudges and distrust (not totally unreasonably, from her/their point of view) and ruining the best chance to make things right. The bloody Mesans actually managing to exert surreptitious control. A lot of disasters, and good people (on all sides) dying. I don't really like the 'David and the Phoenix' motif running through the book - I've read it, and it did not impress me nearly as much as it did Weber. I don't know, I don't really like this story. Too much politics, and when it does get to space battle it tends to be one overwhelming force battering another to death - only to be battered to death in its turn.... Very grim, even at the most cheerful parts, and there aren't a lot of those. It is a _good_ book, but it's not fun to read. I hope the branching out into different characters will lighten up the Honorverse - there were equally strong stories told without the unrelenting grimness of this one in the earlier books. ( )

I like this book. But it's reached the point where the main interest in the central Honor Harrington series is seeing how Weber can find a way to make all these story lines cohere. I'm very afraid he's lost it.

And the earlier reviewer is right: Harrington is become God, and that's not good for the story. My best hope is that we'll find salvation in the offshoots. ( )

David Weber had a great thing going...

Horatio Hornblower in space. If you have never read any CS Forester, stop and go get some.

Through many adventures and battles we have seen our heroine evolve. But now it has gone too far. The war, the background politics, the enemies and the adversity. All have been a great part of the series. Treecats and their powers have been fascinating. But Honor is now super goddess. There is no other like her. She shall never die, and anything good that can happen will happen to her.

We had books where this was not the case, but now we find that the superwoman can further enrich her own life without consequence or drama. And that is the heart of why this book has lost so many stars in my estimation. You know from page one Honor will survive.

You knew that Hornblower would live also. But that was a much more chancy thing, and certainly Hornblower did not become the greatest admiral of the fleet, nor the confident of the king, nor the lover of the king's chief minister (his later marriage to the sister of Wellington gave him little advantage while Honor's triangular entanglments makes her one of the most powerful members of the nobility in addition to the best naval officer in the universe.) Honor has been given too much Honor. With the concept of ProLong, she will be top of the Heap for a long time...

This series had been doing great. It even looked like we were going to see the identification of a true evil enemy to target our vitriol against, as the short stories developed and had worked into the main canon. Manpower can definitely be the focus for several books to come. But if you have to saddle this series with babies, crippled lovers whose emotions wring completly false only to further allow Honor her heroic ascendance, then why bother. Just do as the Romans, call Honor a God Emperor and be done...

So hopefully not too many spoilers in this review. But you should know that the battles are getting fewer, the politics less important, but Honor is everything. That is what I find fault with.

As for the battles we have come to expect a new twist from Weber on how he destroys the various fleets and again he has it this time. I must agree with another reviewer that at a certain point counting how many missiles are travelling at what velocity and cet defeated by so many counter missiles and defenses, each and every volley, is disconcerting. Certainly in the early Starfire books, if memory serves, these conflicts did not go on for so many pages or for so much nit-picking detail. ( )