Amazon.com (ISBN 0671319779, Mass Market Paperback)

"Why in Christ's name can the woman never bring a ship back intact?" muses Hamish Alexander at the triumphant return of Honor Harrington in Ashes of Victory, the apparent resurrection of a woman he'd seen executed by the Peeps some two years earlier. Yep, she's back: minus a left arm and an eye, minus a few inches of hair, and more than a little banged up in the process, the indestructible, ever-resilient Honor is back from the dead--and she's got some 400,000 liberated POWs from Hades in tow for good measure.

Picking up where Echoes of Honor left off, the ecstatic reunion that begins Ashes proves short-lived as Honor once again lives up to her nickname of "The Salamander," always ending up where the fire's hottest. In the longest book of this naval space-opera series, David Weber plunges his beloved heroine (now an admiral!) into a thick tangle of political plots, as she takes on a more mature, behind-the-scenes role than in previous books. But don't fret: there's still some good action as HH prevents an assassination attempt and Manticore and its allies test-drive their new weaponry. And quite a few characters get what's coming to them too, including a few who drop like picked-off Peeps. All in all, yet another worthy installment in the series--check out On Basilisk Station first if you're new to HH. --Paul Hughes