As a stand-alone book, The Short Victorious War is not very impressive. Interesting sights are not seen. New places are not shown. The action mostly centers around the unremarkable Hancock Station. This is however an exposition book, depicting the coup in the Republic of Haven, a budding romance, and the cowardice of an old enemy. Really, The Short Victorious War is more of a two-part novel. This should not be read independently of Field of Dishonor, in fact if you read Field of Dishonor already and not this, there is NO point in reading this book. Put together however, The Short Victorious War is a good first-part to the best two-part story in Honor Harrington. ( )

http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/08/sh... ( )

Captain of the battlecruiser HMS _Nike_ ( )

This is the fourth Honor Harrington book that I have read. Think "female Horatio Hornblower in space" and you pretty much know all there is to know about the series. I must confess that I enjoyed the first three Honor books that I read more than I really expected. Not so with The Short Victorious War. I'm not sure if it's because the book really isn't as good, or because if just didn't have anything to add to the what I had already read in the other books. It certainly felt like there was a bit less action, a bit less story, and a bit too much silly, unconvincing romantic interlude. Of course, in the end Honor defies the odds to defeat the vastly superior enemy force through tactical brilliance and plain old good luck (I thought about calling this yes for spoilers, but it's really more the definition of the series). ( )

Sample Chapters: http://webscriptions.net/chapters/074...