Uncompromising Honor

I read the ARC - it's to be released in October 2018. Wow. Fascinating twists in characters (nice to see Firebrand again - and very funny what happens to him). The war increases yet again (my lord the Mandarins are dumb...and the Mesans are playing them beautifully) - and then that gets a twist too, in a way I utterly did not expect. Either half of it. Do not piss off Honor. Though she was incredibly lucky, yet again (not in battle so much as in other fields). Serious long-term changes, for...I think every single (named) player, at every level from individuals to multi-planet nations. It doesn't tie up _all_ the threads, but darn near - or at least gathers them up into bundles, from which new threads will lead. Straight-line timeline, show more pretty close - a little overlap, but not the annoying jumping back and forth. A lot of typos, which will presumably be cleaned up before it's actually released - more than I've seen in previous ARCs, though. Love it. A deliberately vague review - I think this has fewer spoilers than the back cover copy, but conveys my reaction pretty well. show less

Uncompromising Honor has this tagline: "The Salamander is coming for the Solarian League, and Hell is coming in her wake." First, if you haven't read the other books in the Honor Harrington world, don't read any further. Go read the first book in the series. Now. Seriously.

I love political intrigue, conspiracies, and military planning in my science fiction. I like getting to know the characters in the books, and for me, it makes sense that people who live as long as they do in this universe make a lot of friends over the years. Therefore, I'm not upset by the myriad of characters that are scattered through the books. There were space battles that kept me reading long after my bedtime; When I put the book down, I couldn't sleep because I show more needed to know what happened next!

I will issue a tissue warning (really "warnings"). I definitely needed some.

This series has grown so much over the nearly three decades since it started. I love the richness of the universe, the high ideals the lead characters aspire to, and the memorable characters who inhabit the worlds. This series is a "must-read," in my opinion, for anyone who likes military and political science fiction. show less

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more 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. show less

The book takes the plot forward and closes out large parts of the plot. The problem is that it tries to make each situation come alive in 50 pages. Then does it again and again. Introducing characters one knows will have minimal impact on the overall story. In many ways it felt like many short novels strung together to a long book. Due to that I often found myself skimming while reading. Entire sections showed a scene that has no impact on the book and one could easily tell that while reading it.

I liked the book but would likely have liked it more if they cut out 200 pages from it and made it a more focused story, Especially the last third had impact and was interesting.

Weber, David. Uncompromising Honor. Honor Harrington No. 14. Baen, 2018.
In an afterword, David Weber tells us that he sees Uncompromising Honor as the conclusion to the Honor Harrington series, if not the spinoffs of the Honorverse. The book is certainly a full meal that will satisfy most longtime readers of the series. The space battles are bigger than ever. The politics are as complex as anything George R. R. Martin ever imagined. The Star Kingdom of Manticore is now a fully fledged empire, whose alliance is putting the squeeze on the Solarian League economy. The League reacts with Machiavellian ruthlessness. Honor, now an admiral, can’t let them get away with that. Game on. Four stars.

Perhaps, the penultimate book in this excellent series. If we develop prolong, David Weber should be an early recipient. Much planetary mayhem as the Detwiller Plan is enacted by long-hidden moles of the Mesan Alignment. The Solarian Mandarins are delighted until The Dutchess and the Allied Grand Fleet translate into their home system. Will Honor finally be able to retire to raise her family? Not likely as long as the Alignment and the Detwillers still exist.