Thank goodness for not having an income and not paying for this book at list price. How do you turn a 200 page story into 730 pages of Blather? Ask David Weber. He is becoming the master of Blather.

So we know governments have meetings to discuss things. And that they engage in small talk. I hope you like that, since every bit of a meeting is discussed. Who attends, what they do, how they got the job, what their secret thoughts of, what their middle name is, when they pick their nose... That is the point, that these meetings are pointless to the story. They can be handled in a paragraph rather than in a 10 page chapter.

They are filled with unimportant tertiary characters, characters that the main characters will never interact with. They show things that have been told to you the reader three times. Then there are meetings that are written up many times, and because Weber changes the plot line, those meetings are now 100+ wasted pages that no longer are part of the story.

It is equal to be part of the peace talks with Japan prior to Dec 7 1941, when we weren't at war, but there was tension between the countries. So they set up fake talks to allay the fears of the Americans. Would you like to read the transcripts of all the meetings before Dec 7 1941 that dealt with the preparations for the meeting that was a hoax? Well read this book, it is the same thing.

There are 2 battles and if I have to hear another officer talk about whether the Manticorans are not as good as the Solarians, but they really are, I should go shoot Weber. He says it at least 20 times, with every character he mentions in the book.

But let me clarify the battles, one was in a previous book, and then the second is a big game of Chicken. It is basically the Cowboys and the Indians, and the Indians not believing the Remington can outshoot a bow and arrow, but when it takes the head of the chief, the fight goes out of this war party.

I said before that Honor was too powerful, too perfect, and when she is written, Weber holds to that. She is the Superwoman. But now we still have other things that make no sense. He tries to describe the Solarian government which could never exist in reality. He spends pages on all sorts of inconsequential details that are details. Cut. Cut. Cut. He is no longer paid by the word, why not give a story that does not have to take so much damn space.

Would I ever read this again. No. Why read it now? Because I and a few friends have been reading the series for a long time. We can talk about it. But if you have better things to do with your time. Do them. If needed we can summarize the entire tail in five minutes. For 732 pages, that is pretty lousy exchange for what the author put on paper. ( )

I used to love Weber's Honor Harrington books, and wait anxiously for the next book in the series. This is set in the same universe, but focuses (mostly) on different characters. It's sad to feel that the things that I loved so much in the earlier books (the interactions between characters, and their emotional journeys) are getting a little swept aside as the plot gets more and more drawn out and epic in scale. I trust that Weber knows where he's going with the overall story arc, and I'm eager to join him on that journey, but I'm not loving these as much as the earlier books. ( )

This is a space opera that's set in the same universe as the Honor Harrington books but doesn't feature her as a main character. It continues more or less where The Shadow of Saganami left off.

I enjoyed it, but it's not his best work. It has a plot jump in the middle, where it feels like the effort of moving all those starships around becomes too much and Weber skipped a couple of chapters. And the book doesn't really end -- it just stopped -- something that isn't usually true of Weber's work.

There's some explanation of these structural problems in the introduction, but it rings a little hollow. Keeping all the plot threads together, even in a multi-volume galaxy-spanning space opera, is one of the things we pay for, after all.

I wouldn't suggest for a moment that anybody who has been reading the Honor Harrington books not read this one. I'm sure you'll enjoy this one, and the next one. I've read them all, and I'm going to keep reading them.

If you HAVEN'T been reading all the Honor Harrington books, I hesitate to suggest that you start at the beginning, ten or more books ago, but this isn't the one to start with. ( )

Another great entry in the Honorverse saga, this volume sets the stage for the war between the newly-proclaimed Star Empire of Manticore and the Solarian League, instigated by the agents of the Mesan Alignment and Manpower, Inc. Would like to have spent more time with VADM Gold Peak and her crew(s) before all hell broke loose; that said, at its roughest, the story still meets the rigorous standard we've come to expect from Weber and his chosen collaborators. Strongly recommended. ( )

Just a note: It's clear from Weber's introduction to this book that he's aware of the various problems noted in reviews of his recent books--especially Honor's godlikeness and the tale's apparently uncontrollable sprawl, both of which I've complained about. Perhaps he'll get things under control. ( )