Storm from the Shadows

I'm a longtime Honor Harrington fan and even a fan of her sub-series', so it pains me to give one of her books a rating that is below a four. Normally I give Honor books five stars. But the reviewers are right about this book. Weber ruined it with talking, talking, talking. Holy crap, I know he's wordy and I actually normally don't mind, unlike many people. I know that politics play a big role in this series and it's important to lay the groundwork and see how things transpire. I actually like it. I like the intrigue. But crap, this was just meeting after meeting, meetings to hold meetings, chapter after chapter of meetings. Geez, that's practically all the damn book was! Virtually everyone knows Weber is the best military sci fi writer show more out there and can write a battle scene like no other. That's really why everyone reads his books. He *should* know that, asshole! So, how many battles were there in this book? One could say one. One might even say two, though they'd be wrong. In one scene, a Solarian fleet fires on three Manticorian ships, destroying them unprovoked, but even then, we don't really see it. So that doesn't count. And in the "battle," Manticore destroys exactly ONE Solarian ship. Wow! Exciting. Remember when Haven and Manticore used to fight those gigantic battles? Remember the Battle of Manticore? When some 2,000,000 people died? Seems a thing of the distant past. Maybe Weber has forgotten how to write battle scenes. It'd be a pity. Cause then I'd stop reading him. This is a near-1200 page book of fucking meetings, dialogue, monologue, plotting, spying, conjecture, crap, crap, and more crap with people from every star system, kingdom, and corporation (Mesa) pondering what every other entity in the universe has been, is, and will be doing and it's damned annoying as hell. In fact, it's a waste of time because as Weber writes in his author's preface, which I've never seen him do, some 300 pages or so are simply cut and pastes from other Honor books. We've already read this stuff. He's just trying to "give us a different point of view." By cutting and pasting? Seriously? How exactly? This is the first Honor book I've been truly disappointed in, I believe. There have been a couple that haven't been as good as the others, but this is the first that is truly sub-par, a lazy, pathetic effort on the author's part and here's hoping this is the only such effort on his part. Here's hoping he returns to his previous standard of excellence in future Honor works. Cause this is a great series and one he needs to keep writing for the tens of millions of fans out there that love this character and series. Two stars. Not recommended. show less

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. show more 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. show less

There are a _lot_ of assumptions made in this book, by all sides. 'In that case, they would have to...' over and over - by Sollies, Manties, and Mesa. As readers, we know more about it - by the end of the book I was getting seriously annoyed at the Manties for their assumptions on timing. Also intentions - though the destroyer didn't know about the puppetwork on New Tuscany. And like that. The story is neither started nor finished in this book - it starts with a major overlap with Shadow of Saganami and whatever book has Michelle's being left behind, and it ends with two proposals and two planned ship movements, which will be very exciting in the next book (or two, or...). There's also one major loose end that's mentioned but not show more directly seen - Zilwicki and Cachat haven't surfaced yet. Still, this book has its own share of excitement - poor Chatterjee, Byng, the setup with the spiders - and how do they think they're going to establish themselves with an Epsilon Eridani violation in their immediate past? Mesa's weird. And that's a setup that I'd forgotten to mention - another gonna-happen for the next book. The Honorverse is getting as intertwined as 163x - but unlike that series, it had a straightline of events long enough to draw me in. I do need to reread at least the previous couple books - AAC, SoS and the Torch one - before the next book comes out (and I have a good memory for the written word, I don't usually need to do that). Still, for this richness of event it's worth it. show less

This one was something of a close call on the rating. On the one hand, it was better done than it's immediate predecessor in series; i wasn't seeing the sort of plot goofs that predecessor showed, and I liked some of the changes in focus and style. On the other hand, it was a bit difficult in that it felt too repetitive. Yes, he states in the forenote that some things are covered again from the perspectives of different characters, but several times I felt that this were dragging in excessive detail, since I already knew the framework.
I may also be having a bit of difficulty now with the series itself, because having read numerous books in the series, I'm seeing certain plot element overused, and that is how so many characters go into show more long dialogues (internal & external) to justify or explain either themselves or some actions or events, and it is just SOO obviously just self-delusion. Those sort of situations happen, but it seems to me that it's getting used too often.
Overall a better than average read, but not quite up to what I'd rate as excellent. show less

This episode has a lot of overlap with AT ALL COSTS. It reprises the battle that has Michelle Henke captured. It expands on her conversation with President Pritchart that leads to a proposed peace conference. It also talks about the various assassinations that derail that conference.

This episode provides the viewpoint of the Mesan Alliance - a secret organization with galactic ambitions. Manpower, Inc., Manticore's long-time enemy, is just one branch of the Mesan Alliance.

Most of the action takes place in the Talbot Quadrant where Henke has been sent in command of a military force to help protect the Quadrant. The Mesan Alliance is continuing to foment situations which will lead to Manticore fighting a war on two fronts - against Haven show more and against the Solarian League. The Solarian League is immense and they can't believe that any neobarb could pose any threat to it. Unfortunately, they are quite mistaken. Their supposed superiority has led them to skimp on both renovation and refit and the research to keep improving their military hardware that Manticore and Haven had to so since they have been at war for a number of years.

When the Sollies sent a particularly arrogant admiral in the person of Admiral Bing to the quadrant, an incident that would likely lead to war is almost inevitable. And Manpower's agents are right there stoking the fires.

This was another entertaining and exciting episode in this space opera. show less

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 apparent immortality and the tale's apparently uncontrollable sprawl, both of which I've complained about. Perhaps he'll get things under control.

New review on June 2010 reread:

I've downgraded my rating slightly. This is the weakest book in the series. Roughly 250 of the first 400 pages of this book are a rehash of the backstory, and are really quite tiresome. Moreover, the characters in the new Mesan Alignment story line are weakly drawn. And it's quite common in this novel for a character's attention to wander in mid-conversation so Weber can fill in the backstory; three pages show more later we snap back to the current reality. All of this makes for rather heavy reading.

Finally we get to the new story, and things improve. Like most Weber stories, the characters and situations are well-realized, and it's clear that (in Weber's mind) we're into the new mainline for the Manticore stories. I really like this stuff, but the high tax at the beginning is quite off-putting.

And a curiosity: One of the main-but-short-lived characters in this story is Admiral Josef Byng of the Solarian Navy, on assignment to the Office of Frontier Security. (Byng, by the way, is portrayed far more sympathetically than any of the Mesans, even though he's the book's clearest villain.) It's really unlikely that Weber doesn't know that an Admiral Byng played an important role in the history of the real Royal Navy, so it's oddly annoying that he'd use such a distracting name.

This review is also available on a dabbler's journal. show less

If you're not into the Honor Harrington universe, don't bother. But if you are, you will have to read this. It's a massive tome, following on from the Saganami series co-written with Eric Flint. The central character is now Mike Henke, which is quite a relief after everything Weber's done to poor Honor.

There's far too much exposition, and I do wish some brave editor would stop Weber writing ten pages of spaceship armament specs every few chapters. But, you know, it's grand space opera! The plucky little kingdom of Manticore stands against the oppressors and the evil slave traders! Space battles! Kick-arse female lead characters! Yay!