Honor Among Enemies (Honor Harrington Book 6)

If you like CS Forester's Horatio Hornblower, or Patrick O'Brien's "Master and Commander" series, you'll love David Weber's Honor Harrington series. He vividly portrays a strong and viscerally attractive female in the role of the protagonist and really makes the transition to a space opera in grand style. I love the series, and have read it four times, now. I especially like "Honor Among Enemies" and I truly believe the three part mini-series this book begins is his best work.

Early volumes of this series led me to believe that the underlying plot for the whole is the interstellar war between the Manties and the Peeps. Reading further, I concluded that it is the glorification of the super heroine, Honor Harrington, who is Superwoman, Barbie Doll, and G.I. Joe rolled into one. This 6th volume is a collection of stories that have only tenuous links to either theme. They could be stand-alone short stories rather than sub-plots. This book may be regarded as an anthology of the incredible exploits of Honor H. and sundry others. The key word is incredible.

Much of the content is no more than padding. Every aspect of every situation is analyzed in tedious detail. The intricacies of fictional technology might delight an engineering tyro. New characters, even minor ones, are introduced with bios and psychiatric profiles. The kitty cat has a love affair. Trivial explanations are often inserted in the midst of action scenes. One of the lengthier short stories reads like a rehash of Karate Kid 1 (kid is bullied, learns martial arts, kicks butt).

I won’t accuse the author of redundancy. I am reading the series back to back. The books were originally published with long time lapses between them. Readers who waited for them probably needed their memories refreshed. Still, from my perspective, a lot of material is redundant.

This is my third time through these books, and I was not looking forward to Honor's capture among enemies. I don't care that she makes it through, the emotional stress on the reader is hard to take. But then, that's the point. Can one maintain one's honor among her enemies? Harrington shows us the way, but I'm not sure us mortals can easily follow.

Honor Among Enemies (1996) is the sixth SF novel in the Honor Harrington series, following Flag in Exile. The initial volume in this sequence is On Basilisk Station.

In the previous volume, White Haven was watching the Peeps maneuver. They were more of them than usual and they seem more determined. White Haven had bad feelings about them.

White Haven told Goldstein to fire. The HMS Queen Caitlin released her broadside and dumped the missile pods she had been towing. Her consorts also fired their missiles.

Thirty-two hundred missiles headed toward the Peeps. Then the Peeps fired twelve hundred missiles back at him. It looked like the People's Republic had finally got their act together. Then a second Peep formation appeared.

Meanwhile, High Admiral Mathews had a idea and was taking it to the Protector. Wesley wanted to ask Honor to join the Grayson Navy. She knew more about running a Navy than anyone within the Grayson Navy.

All of the Grayson officers were used to commanding smaller ships. Moreover, none of them had experience in fleet operations. Even Wesley lacked experience with superdreadnaughts.

In this novel, Honor Harrington is a Captain (Senior Grade) in the Royal Manticoran Navy. She had commanded the HMS Nike, a battlecruiser and had been been one of the best Captains in the Royal Manticoran Navy. Yet she had been on the the beach, released at half pay. Now she is a Admiral in the Grayson Navy.

Hamish Alexander is the Earl of White Haven and an Admiral in the RMN. He is probably the most experienced admiral in the service.

Klaus Hauptman is the owner of a shipping cartel. This cartel has made him the richest individual in the Star Kingdom.

Benjamin Mathews IX is the Protector of Grayson. He is trying to change the attitude toward women within Grayson.

Wesley Mathews in the High Admiral of the Grayson Navy. He is introducing women into the Navy.

In this story, the shipping cartels have been loosing ships and personnel to pirates in Silesia. Recently, the losses have been much too high. Hauptman has been trying to make as appointment with Caparelli for some time, but Sir Thomas has been very busy with the war.

Finally, Caparelli meets with Hauptman. They discuss the problems in Silesia in blunt language. Caparelli agrees with him, but only promises to have his staff research the matter.

The staff suggest that the answer to the pirates problem is Q ships. The RMN has been studying such ships for some time. The Q ships look like freighters, but are armed with missiles and energy weapons. The first four Q ships are scheduled for release to the RMN soon and Caparelli moves up the priority of these ships.

When Hauptman learns of the Q ships, he mentions Honor's name to a friend. The friend has a conversation with the Opposition leaders. After they mention the name of Honor to Caparelli, she is asked to take the position of Commodore of the first four Q ships.

Naturally, she has to run the transfer by the Protector and Wesley. Both understand the advantages to her and themselves. They agree to release her to the RMN, but retain her connections with the Grayson Navy.

Honor willingly accepts the position. It gives her a new chance within the RMN. After her Q ship duties are done, the RMN is not going to release her again. They will just assign her other duties.

With the timing moved up, Honor has little time to do more that man the ships. Many of the personnel are strangers, yet some are known to Honor. The initial four Q ships look like a convention of some of her best friends.

This tale brings some barely trained personnel to these ships. Most of the enlisted are either newbies or the dregs. Honor plans on training her crews during the travel time to Silesia.

Some of the crew are worst that Honor expects. The next installment in this sequence is In Enemy Hands.

Highly recommended for Weber fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of on-the-job training, covert operations, and political intrigue. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

I love the series. However this book just sticks in my craw because the setup is just so out of character for Honor. Yes she's a Manty and that might have an urge to get back into uniform, though I couldn't see why. She's the second highest ranking Admiral in a fleet that just about a year ago had a massive engagement and took heavy losses. She was brought into that fleet because the powers that be needed her help to get them ready. After their first engagement the bails? C'mon. Seriously there should have been another book of getting Grayson up to speed. Or at least call out a few year's span of time where she did have a chance to train some replacements for the skill set she is taking with her as she abandons her adopted home.

And we asked to also forget all these people in her corner. Basically the power structure of Manticore, are okay with pulling her back as a cargo captain? Queen Elizabeth of Manticore had previously told the Admiralty to lump it when they tried to get Honor to not gank Pavel Young. Now she's going to let them pull a twice Star of Grayson recipient back to duty as a freight hauler? Diplomatic fallout anyone?

Besides those personal dynamics, where does it make military sense for the Manticoran Navy to pull a proven admiral off of their southern flank that she has defended successfully multiple times to make her a captain of a group of cobled together q-ships. It doesn't. At this point in the war as called out in the previous book, when one of Grayson's squadrons was pulled into the reinforcements of the Manty's, Grayson's Navy has integrated into the Alliance. If Manticore needs Harrington, all they need is to request her squadron make up a part of their deployment and then give her the flag position as they would with any other Admiral that warranted it.

Just overall annoying machinations to get Honor back in a Manticoran uniform.

Semi fast read, but the "PeeP" portions hang air. Note the C. S. Forrester homage in the text. Okay Q-Ships like converted Cruisers do NOT work, but let's give him the super big bang, so it makes a story. Flesh it out with 'cat' romance and newby integration and bad yegg meltdown and you have the whole smear. Pulling her out of this one alive is the spark that creates the next, "In Enemy Hands". Frankly, the megalomaniac 'pirate/privateer' enemy and her plan to get him off of the deadman switch was sheer hubris. Likewise the bad yeggs plotting! Still it was an interesting read, but it is fortunate that ships do NOT fall out of hyper, when you do NOT want them to. Kind of like a rowing pond in the middle of a typhoon if you ask me. When will anyone remember that the command and control section is supposed to be the most protected portion of the ship and yet when they let the air out survivors abound. The amount of control center destruction really precludes any survivors there, yet H made it again. The end scene where she gives the Peeps a cover story, would have a junior Peep G-man smiling with relish. That just would NOT work. Even though a mix bag of realism, an entertaining read. Now will H retire to her home planet or the estates on Grayson for motherhood? Thanks, Harry!

Honor Among Enemies by David Weber (Book 6 Honor Harrington series)

Having no power for 8 days seemed like the prime time to catch up on the Honor Series. Honor Among Enemies seemed like the turning point for me. The previous 5 my mind would go numb and white noise would start when all the exposition about tactics and armament would begin. I know they are important to the big plot of the series but I was in this for Honor. This book David Weber seems to have perfected whatever it is he's been trying to do all this time, because I am becoming more focused on what is happening in all the other stories that go on in here.

Honor Among Enemies has 40 pages (over 12K words) and two chapters before Honor even shows up. But instead of throwing it down in disgust I read the forty pages and was somewhat entertained. This time being about my third read with this book I have the advantage of having tried to pay attention to what goes on in the exposition. This book has about 8 strong stories within it dealing with various characters who eventually intersect with Honor somewhere along the way and it might be the first book to begin down the path of romance for Honor and Hamish, which is a long and rocky winding twisted road.

This is the first book that when in Honor's POV I actually noticed some character outside of the stiff rigid character she always has to portray. Most of how we see Honor from her own POV is the front she puts up to deal with the tension of the serious situations she is always confronted with. Sure we saw her break down a few times over the death of Paul, but even then we did not see the depth of her personality. Most of the time that depth comes from how others see here through their adoration, appreciation, and idolization of their commander. We also begin to see the growing plot pertaining to Nimitz and the other treecats as something more than just curious pets linked to their human.

As much as it sometimes pains to have to wade through all the politics and intrigue, the flavor for me now has turned toward what I always loved about Alexander Dumas writing. And we are even being introduced to some very interesting Peeps in this book, all preliminary steps toward moving into the next book In Enemy Hands.

I also begin in this and the next novel to be able to appreciate how David Weber manages to almost seamlessly move his POV in and out of multiple character's heads, with no apparent warning, as a scene shoots by . There are a few places where if when I wasn't quite wrapped into the story I had to stop and backtrack to make sure I was really in someone else head just a half page ago.

Overall this book is probably not that much different from the others and it's likely that I just have finally settled into how David Weber tells his story. I still lack the background in CS Forester's Horatio Hornblower series to make any comparisons though I have managed to do some homework in that area because I usually run afoul of someone in the camp who adore making comparisons.

I'm not sure that I'd be able to make many comparisons to the characters themselves other than at best Honor could only thinly be compared to Horatio. As to the battles its a tough decision since CS Forester put Horatio into few if any situation where he'd be in any historical battles, which makes it more difficult to determine if his battles were of any importance at all especially since he was often out of communication with England and not always up to date with the current diplomatic situations. Honor on the other hand does fight in areas that seem of less concern and yet all her battles become historically important in the stories. Also Honor doesn't have a dowdy husband at her home port that she cheats on.

Anyway this is great stuff for those who like their SFF with military-tactical-suspense and drama.

J.L. Dobias

I love the series. However this book just sticks in my craw because the setup is just so out of character for Honor. Yes she's a Manty and that might have an urge to get back into uniform, though I couldn't see why. She's the second highest ranking Admiral in a fleet that just about a year ago had a massive engagement and took heavy losses. She was brought into that fleet because the powers that be needed her help to get them ready. After their first engagement the bails? C'mon. Seriously there should have been another book of getting Grayson up to speed. Or at least call out a few year's span of time where she did have a chance to train some replacements for the skill set she is taking with her as she abandons her adopted home.

And we asked to also forget all these people in her corner. Basically the power structure of Manticore, are okay with pulling her back as a cargo captain? Queen Elizabeth of Manticore had previously told the Admiralty to lump it when they tried to get Honor to not gank Pavel Young. Now she's going to let them pull a twice Star of Grayson recipient back to duty as a freight hauler? Diplomatic fallout anyone?

Besides those personal dynamics, where does it make military sense for the Manticoran Navy to pull a proven admiral off of their southern flank that she has defended successfully multiple times to make her a captain of a group of cobled together q-ships. It doesn't. At this point in the war as called out in the previous book, when one of Grayson's squadrons was pulled into the reinforcements of the Manty's, Grayson's Navy has integrated into the Alliance. If Manticore needs Harrington, all they need is to request her squadron make up a part of their deployment and then give her the flag position as they would with any other Admiral that warranted it.

Just overall annoying machinations to get Honor back in a Manticoran uniform.

Semi fast read, but the "PeeP" portions hang air. Note the C. S. Forrester homage in the text. Okay Q-Ships like converted Cruisers do NOT work, but let's give him the super big bang, so it makes a story. Flesh it out with 'cat' romance and newby integration and bad yegg meltdown and you have the whole smear. Pulling her out of this one alive is the spark that creates the next, "In Enemy Hands". Frankly, the megalomaniac 'pirate/privateer' enemy and her plan to get him off of the deadman switch was sheer hubris. Likewise the bad yeggs plotting! Still it was an interesting read, but it is fortunate that ships do NOT fall out of hyper, when you do NOT want them to. Kind of like a rowing pond in the middle of a typhoon if you ask me. When will anyone remember that the command and control section is supposed to be the most protected portion of the ship and yet when they let the air out survivors abound. The amount of control center destruction really precludes any survivors there, yet H made it again. The end scene where she gives the Peeps a cover story, would have a junior Peep G-man smiling with relish. That just would NOT work. Even though a mix bag of realism, an entertaining read. Now will H retire to her home planet or the estates on Grayson for motherhood? Thanks, Harry!

Honor Among Enemies by David Weber (Book 6 Honor Harrington series)

Having no power for 8 days seemed like the prime time to catch up on the Honor Series. Honor Among Enemies seemed like the turning point for me. The previous 5 my mind would go numb and white noise would start when all the exposition about tactics and armament would begin. I know they are important to the big plot of the series but I was in this for Honor. This book David Weber seems to have perfected whatever it is he's been trying to do all this time, because I am becoming more focused on what is happening in all the other stories that go on in here.

Honor Among Enemies has 40 pages (over 12K words) and two chapters before Honor even shows up. But instead of throwing it down in disgust I read the forty pages and was somewhat entertained. This time being about my third read with this book I have the advantage of having tried to pay attention to what goes on in the exposition. This book has about 8 strong stories within it dealing with various characters who eventually intersect with Honor somewhere along the way and it might be the first book to begin down the path of romance for Honor and Hamish, which is a long and rocky winding twisted road.

This is the first book that when in Honor's POV I actually noticed some character outside of the stiff rigid character she always has to portray. Most of how we see Honor from her own POV is the front she puts up to deal with the tension of the serious situations she is always confronted with. Sure we saw her break down a few times over the death of Paul, but even then we did not see the depth of her personality. Most of the time that depth comes from how others see here through their adoration, appreciation, and idolization of their commander. We also begin to see the growing plot pertaining to Nimitz and the other treecats as something more than just curious pets linked to their human.

As much as it sometimes pains to have to wade through all the politics and intrigue, the flavor for me now has turned toward what I always loved about Alexander Dumas writing. And we are even being introduced to some very interesting Peeps in this book, all preliminary steps toward moving into the next book In Enemy Hands.

I also begin in this and the next novel to be able to appreciate how David Weber manages to almost seamlessly move his POV in and out of multiple character's heads, with no apparent warning, as a scene shoots by . There are a few places where if when I wasn't quite wrapped into the story I had to stop and backtrack to make sure I was really in someone else head just a half page ago.

Overall this book is probably not that much different from the others and it's likely that I just have finally settled into how David Weber tells his story. I still lack the background in CS Forester's Horatio Hornblower series to make any comparisons though I have managed to do some homework in that area because I usually run afoul of someone in the camp who adore making comparisons.

I'm not sure that I'd be able to make many comparisons to the characters themselves other than at best Honor could only thinly be compared to Horatio. As to the battles its a tough decision since CS Forester put Horatio into few if any situation where he'd be in any historical battles, which makes it more difficult to determine if his battles were of any importance at all especially since he was often out of communication with England and not always up to date with the current diplomatic situations. Honor on the other hand does fight in areas that seem of less concern and yet all her battles become historically important in the stories. Also Honor doesn't have a dowdy husband at her home port that she cheats on.

Anyway this is great stuff for those who like their SFF with military-tactical-suspense and drama.

J.L. Dobias

The war fronts are running hot. There are few enough new ships for Manticore to protect vital assets and make up for losses; nothing is available to deter the lone wolf raiders who prey on merchant shipping, Manticore's lifeblood. While new yards are built, some substitute must be found. What?

' "But if we can't free up the escorts we need," the First Lord began, "then how--"
He paused suddenly, eyes narrowing. White Haven cocked his head, but Caparelli ignored him and tapped a query into his terminal. He studied the data on his display for several seconds, then tugged at an ear lobe.
"Q-ships," he said, almost to himself. "By God, maybe that's the answer."
"Q-ships?" White Haven repeated. Caparelli didn't seem to hear for a moment, then he shook himself.
"What if we were to send some of the Trojans to Silesia?" he asked, and it was White Haven's turn to frown in thought.

Project Trojan Horse had been Sonja Hemphill's idea, and that, the earl admitted, tended to prejudice him against it. He and Hemphill were old and bitter philosophical foes, and he distrusted her material-based strategic doctrine. But Trojan Horse hadn't involved any major diversion from the fighting, and it had offered enough possible benefits even if it failed in its main purpose to win his grudging support. ' Already in Chapter one, Honor is assigned to take a lumbering, armed freighter among the sharks. Will they devour her or vice-versa?

I, too, think her character is too lucky to be real. She and her officers are always on top of the tactical situation, always accurate at gunnery, maneuvering imaginatively- what if, once, the enemy should gain the upper hand? Otherwise, this is another ripping good adventure while meeting new people.

A magnificent novel, but why oh why do so many sci-fi wargame designers seem obsessed with Q-Ships?

I'll forgive Dave Weber this once, partly because this book does at least make clear that the damn things are death traps, but mostly because it's such a cracking read. In fact this is my personal favourite of the current 17 books in the Honorverse.

"Honor among Enemies" is the sixth book in a wonderful space opera series set some three thousand years in the future and featuring David Weber's best fictional heroine, "Honor Harrington."

These books are best read in sequence and I strongly recommend that you start with "On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington)" which is the first one.

The Honor Harrington stories are full of parallels with the time of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In particular, the Royal Manticoran Navy in which the heroine is an officer is clearly based on the Royal Navy at the time of Nelson.

The technology of space travel and naval warfare in the first ten or so Honor Harrington stories has been written so as to impose tactical and strategic constraints on space navy officers similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago. In this book however, and unlike the rest of the early books in the series, Honor Harrington's ships are based on one of the most crack-brained concepts from the World War One era - and considering how many badly designed ships fought in that war, that's saying something!

This book continues the pattern of thinly veiled (and amusing) hints in the stories that they are to some extent a tribute to C.S. Forester. The main heroine of the books, Honor Harrington, appears to owe more than just her initials to C.S. Forester's character "Horatio Hornblower." Indeed, at one point in this book one of the other characters actually gives Honor one of Forester's books to read.

In this sixth book in the series, there is no sign of an end to the all-out war between Honor's home nation, "The Star Kingdom of Manticore," together with allies like Grayson in whose navy Honor has been serving, against the People's Republic of Haven or "Peeps." As the demands of the front line grow ever greater, Manticore has been forced to pull ships away from anti-piracy duties in other parts of the galaxy such as the Silesian Confederation. Space pirates have been taking full advantage of this and merchant losses have started to mount up alarmingly.

A number of influential politicians and business people on Manticore who don't like Honor Harrington very much, but who recognise that whatever else they have against her, she is a first rate fighting commander, see an opportunity to use one problem to solve another. They let the Admiralty know that they will withdraw their opposition to Honor going back on active service in the Manticoran navy if they give her a squadron and send her to get rid of the pirates. There are no proper warships available, so all she can have is Q-ships. Whether Honor takes out the pirates, or they get rid of her, Honor's domestic opponents come out ahead.

A word on Q-ships. This was a heroic, but not terribly successful tactic used during the First World War to hunt U-boats and commerce raiders as a feeble alternative to the convoy system. The idea was to take a merchant ship, fit her with lots of carefully concealed weapons, fill the hold with material much lighter than water so she won't sink quickly when torpedoed, and sail her unescorted along a trade route looking like a big, fat, vulnerable target.

If a U-boat fired a torpedo at a Q-ship, the tactic was to try to deliberately ensure the torpedo hit, send off a "panic party" who pretend to abandon ship, and then the rest of the crew would wait for the submarine to surface to finish the supposedly abandoned ship with gunfire. Sometimes the U-boat would think it could use its gun to deal with the easy target without wasting a torpedo, which was even better for the Q-ship. Either way, when a surfaced submarine came close, the Q-ship's concealed guns would suddenly open fire and hopefully sink the enemy.

Some very brave men served on Q-ships during WW1, and they earned between them no fewer than EIGHT Victoria Crosses. (That's the highest award for bravery open to a member of the British armed forces: this is roughly equivalent to eight sailors from one squadron earning the Congressional Medal of Valour.) But this bravery was much less effective than defeating the germans at sea than the convoy system was. Naval historian Deborah Lake quotes a detailed study of Kriegsmarine and RN records from which it was estimated that Q-ships sank a maximun of eleven U-boats and contributed to the destruction of two more, but at the price of 44 Q-ships lost. You can see why Honor's worst enemies would like the idea of giving her command of a squadron of them!

Perhaps the one wasted opportunity in this book: maybe it could have been dedicated to the brave men who risked their lives in Q-ships to keep the sea lanes open?

For anyone who wants to read more about the history of Q-Ships I can recommend Lake's book "Smoke and Mirrors: Q-Ships against the U-Boats in the First World War."

As usual, Honor's opponents, and a lot of other people, have badly underestimated her. And the weapon systems which "Horrible Hemphill" and her ordinance experts have given Honor to try out include some rather better ideas than the ones that made her job so difficult "on Basilisk Station." In fact some of these systems will have critically important implications for the future course of the war and hence for the rest of the series.

Very complex book: Honor has to deal with opponents back home, one or two nasty pieces of work on her own ship, a Manticoran merchant family who start out as deadly enemies, pirates, corrupt Silesian governors, and the Peeps.

Weber also moves the quality of his treatment of people in the opposing navy into another gear: the development of characters on the Peep side goes beyond being just evil or honorable enemy figures to the point where some of them effectively become a second group of heroes. Meanwhile some of Honor's internal opponents also show that they are capable of more than being cartoonishly evil bad guys.

This was the book which persuaded me to raise my view of David Weber from thinking him an entertaining author to being, at his best, a first rate one.

A note on how this book fits into the series as a whole:

At the time of updating this review in 2011 there are sixteen full length novels and five short story collections in the "Honorverse" as the fictional galaxy in which these stories are set is sometimes known. The main series which tells the story of Honor Harrington herself currently runs to eleven novels; in order these are

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonour
Flag in Exile
Honor among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
At All Costs
Mission of Honor

The five collections of short stories set in the same universe, not all of which feature Honor Harrington herself, are

More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Worlds of Honor III: Changer of Worlds
Worlds of Honor IV: The Service of the Sword
In Fire Forged: Worlds of Honor V

There are four spin-off novels in two groups of two, in which Honor Harrington herself is only a minor character. At one stage the Honorverse books appeared to be branching into three different tracks, although the most recent main series book, "Mission of Honor" pulled all the threads together again. There are two novels focussing on spying and the battle agains slavery, which are "Crown of Slaves" and "Torch of honr" (both co-written with Eric Flint) which feature a number of characters first introduced in earlier Honor Harrington novels or "Honorverse" short story collections. And there are two books which focus on an area of space known as the Talbott Quadrant and Manticore's worsening relationship with earth. These are "The Shadow of Saganami" which is a kind of "next generation" novel featuring a number of younger officers in the navies of Manticore and her ally Grayson, and "Storm from the Shadows" in which Honor's friend Michelle Henke is the main character.

For amusement, if you want to try to look for the parallels to nations and individuals from the French revolutionary period and the Hornblower books, one possible translation would be:

People's Republic of Haven = France
Star Kingdom of Manticore = Great Britain
Gryphon = Scotland
Grayson = Portugal

Prime Minister Alan Summervale = Pitt the Younger
Hamish Alexander, later Earl White Haven = Admiral Edward Pellew
Honor Harrington = Horatio Hornblower
Alistair McKeon = William Bush

Crown loyalists and Centrists = Tory supporters of Pitt
Conservative Association = isolationist/hardline High Tories
New Kiev Liberals = Whig Oligarchists
Progressives and traditional liberals = Whig radicals

Legislaturist former rulers of Haven = Bourbon monarchy and French nobles
Rob S. Pierre = Robespierre
Haven's Committee of Public Safety = French Revolutionary Committee of Public Safety
Haven's SS = Nazi SS/Soviet KGB
Manpower/genetic slavers = the slave trade (in early books like this one. Later in the series they become much more important and much more dangerous.)

Solarian republic = United States of America
Anderman Empire = Kingdom of Prussia
Silesia = either Poland, or non-Prussian Germany

(I've always taken "The Silesian Confederation" to be Poland because European Silesia is now part of Poland, and was the first part of central Europe which Frederick the Great grabbed on the track from turning Prussia into the German Empire, followed by large parts of Poland. Also because late 18th century Poland was a chaotic mess which ended up by being carved up between neighbouring powers. However, you can also think of Silesia as being all the squabbling principalities of pre-unification Germany and that parallel also works.)

Wall of Battle = Line of Battle
Ship of the Wall = Ship of the Line
Battleship = "4th rate" sailing warship (in each case too small to form part of the main force in a fleet action, but powerful enough to defeat anything else smaller than a ship of the line/wall.)
Battlecruiser = frigate (5th rate)
Cruisers and destroyers = 6th rate and smaller warships

Q-Ship = Merchant ship with concealed weapons used by regular navy as a trap for commerce raiders.
Armed Merchant Cruiser = General term for a large merchant ship fitted with weapons and used by the regular navy as a substitute for a purpose built warship.

This is a three and a half star book, rounded up to four. It's over 500 pages, and a trend I've noticed as Honor Harrington continues is that Weber is really writing two novel at once, one about Honor Harrington, and one about another main character (which might be an event) in the same universe. The big difference this time is that I actually liked Saganami Academy Cadets Lewis and Wanderman, and I enjoyed reading 200 pages of coming-into-their-own adventures on Honor's ship.

In this offering, Honor is re-instated in the Royal Navy, and sent with a squadron of Q-ships (essentially armed merchant freighters) to clean up piracy which is hurting the military budget. Her homeside opponents figure she is understaffed with substandard equipment and this will solve one a problem for them (herself or piracy). Her space opponents are a system of sadistic pirates and a Havenite Admiral who is orchestrating economic warfare. Of the series so far, this has the most space battles, and taps into the 'my-corner-of-the-universe' spirit of a ship's captain. Honor reminded me James T. Kirk in this book, in a good, daredevil way.

The problem? Weber makes no effort at brevity. Expect xerox exposition. Approximately 30 pages of various impeller drive history and operations are copy-pasta from earlier Honorverse novels. It also means a good editor could chop 100+ pages from the book, and no one got after Weber to show rather than tell. This is especially apparently with how the ending is wrapped up. Despite these flaws, I liked the book. It's the type of space opera I do enjoy, just as good (to me) as Heinlein, Scalzi, or Stirling, thought the writing quality is generally lower.

I promised myself that Honor Among Enemies would be my last David Weber for a while, but I've already started In Enemy Hands. Ah well.

This particular entry is pretty tame so far as the Honor Harrington Mythos is concerned. In order to get back into the good graces of the Manticoran military and political complex, Honor is given the task of ridding the Silesian Confederacy area of the pirates menacing their merchant and freight liners. Her task force consists of four converted and heavily armed merchant freighters to ask as lures, while Klaus Hauptman and Reginald Houseman both expect her to fail. Rich and powerful adversaries notwithstanding, the idea that sacrificing thousands of people simply to dispose of Honor is clearly abhorrent even to Hauptman, yet at least he stands to gain something if she succeeds.

And while the pirates and even Haven make things difficult, and while there are the usual politics I've come to expect in the Harrington books, nothing really leapt out at me as surprising. The real groundbreaking elements here come from a Havenite captain who risked his commission to rescue a Manticoran freighter from pirates, and contributed significantly to Honors own efforts to eradicate them. I believe the point here is that Haven isn't all bad, and that there are enough opposing factions in Haven's own structure that their true downfall will come from within.

This appears supported from the prologue of In Enemy Hands, so I'll consider this another transition novel. The situation required honor to undergo some kind of testing, and while not entirely idle, Haven couldn't come on too strongly either in Harrington's weakened standing. This book is a minor skirmish in the grand scheme, but sets things up nicely for other implications and machinations to roll over the characters I've come to enjoy following.

There is a minor subplot that involves a character being transformed from a relatively skittish techie to a fighting machine at the intervention of a few marines due to an especially subversive bully brought in by the mad scramble for personnel to crew Honor's new ships. This resolved well, but I think David took the easy way out at the end, making it essentially impossible for these characters to cause trouble later in the series, so I wonder about the point of it all. It's obvious Ginger Lewis and Aubrey Wanderman are going to be recurring characters, but the complete destruction of their enemies was a little heavy-handed, permanent, and unnecessary.

But that's hardly a reason for worry. It's been a good series so far, and it has kept me reading.

Honor Harrington, the finest and most daring Lady admiral in the Royal Manticoran Navy, had been forcibly retired for political reasons. But the the situation in the nearby Silesian Confederacy is getting terrible with space pirates dogging and destroying merchant freighters. The war requires money and the ability to sustain interstellar commerce is critical. Now the shipping cartels have been losing vessels and cargo. His political enemy, Klaus Hauptman (cartel head), maneuver to get Navy to call Honor back in the the hope she will be killed in action. Honor and her companion Nimitz (telepathic treecat) accept the offer. Several merchant ships refitted with massive armament, but no armour are given to Honor's command. This squadron of so called Q-ships, having young and sometimes uncooperative crew with troublemakers, is commissioned to battle pirates where Navy can't be present.

Harrington is brought back from exile and the book sets her up for further adventures. The minimal politics set up the scene at the beginning and the rest of the book is full of heavy battle scenes full of military technical details. The development of the young crew to cope with ever-mounting responsibilities is well characterized; especially the build up conflict with the troublemakers.

Four (4) stars. Written in 1996 this is 6th book in the military space opera about the intrepid larger-than-life captain of the Royal Manticoran Navy. There are several plot lines, twists which tie the enemies, Peeps, to play critical role to level out the pirates. This not straight black and white bad vs. good fight. Harrington is surprisingly more at the back to give his crew and other subplots more coverage. This makes the book feel balanced as it gives chance to develop characters and set up up the circumstances. The book will pump up heartbeat of those of hard core military fans but has also an edge for readers that enjoy good character building. An action packed read.

My first Honour Harrington novel and what a ride! I have discovered a new favourite author and a guaranteed good read. I now intend to return to the early Honour Harrington novels to catch up. In the mean time, I am currently the reading: "In Enemy Hands" the next in sequence after "Honour Among Enemies". There is a lot of this about at the moment: Elizabeth Moon's Serrano Legacy and David Feintuch's Seafort saga -- military SF following the careers of Navy officers through their exploits. It is a credit to Weber that I was able to start at effectively volume 6 with no apparent disadvantage. This kind of story can go on for years while fans and readers stay interested. When I was a teenager I use to read Alexander Kent's Bolitho novels (18 century historical British Navy) following the career of a young officer from midshipman to Admiral. After 20 plus books, Kent is still going strong and I can see Weber going a lot further with Honour Harrington also.
At first, Weber's aristocratic flavour of the Manticorian Navy reminded me of Niven's & Pournell's "The Mote in God's Eye" and for a moment I thought I was in for a StarTrek treatment of near-perfect career officers, but the "bad-apple" sub-plot of the crew, put pay to that. Action is handled well as is his "realistic" U-boat long-range flavour of the space combat. I don't yet know if I have completely grasped Weber's pseudo-science yet, but it is beginning to sink in. Psychology is handled in detail (a couple of pages "thinking" between spoken words) but not laboriously. In short: good stuff.

It is with trepidation that I pick up successive Harrington novels, wondering how it can possibly get any better and becoming more fearful of completing the series before this prolific author completes the next sequel. Honor Among Enemies is a strategic and tactical success as it sets the stage for escalation in both Honor's unique professional career and provides intriguing character development on myriad levels - the amorous 'cats, the underestimated Andermani, the Peep dynamic between captain and political commissar, Manticorean commercial moguls, and various heroes who don't need Captain's regalia to reach out to the readers' hearts and minds.
Whether a sci-fi guru, a political intrigue afficionado, or a military buff, Weber delivers. Staging the novel in a galactic backwater, far from the frontlines, is deceptive as Honors reveals yet again that Clausewitz's maxims about war still bear truth. Political intrigue and commercial verities enmesh Honor in extracurricular learning curves, quite distinct from her naval training regime at Saganami. These grey areas reveal new dimensions of the 'enemy' and of 'duty' to one's nation. Most importantly, the human element of Honor (and her 'cat) and their interactions with aspiring privates, nefarious pirates, and competent foes reveals the depth of Weber's analysis into the human condition.
Values remain core despite the awesome technologies and the geopolitics of the distant future. The battle scenes are fantastic but it is the communication and personal development between so many well-woven characters that makes this book impossible to put down. I pass on these books to my father when I'm finished and he passes it on to my brother. I don't know what we shall do when we've caught up to the current book in the series. We're totally hooked and we know it!

Honor Harrington returns. Drawn out of a comfortable retirement by request from her former nation, she takes on a pirate-chasing task, as well as a big drop in rank. But, it meets her sense of duty and, well, honor, so she goes ahead.

Goes ahead not knowing that she's being set up by political enemies on a mission where she can't win and they can't lose. Weber builds up the tension, adding stresses within her command, ambiguous interactions with allied nations, an altercation with the enemy in an undeclared war, and more. Weber puts a startling number of plot lines in play and, even of their eventual resolution seems intevitable, pulls the reader from page to page.

It's space opera at its modern best. If you like swashbuckling and space combat on grand scale, this is a must. Like her male counterpart, Miles Vorkosigan, she keeps me coming back for more.

-- wiredweird

This is the sixth book in the Honor Harrington series, and at over 500 pages, it's one of the longest. In some ways, this works for the book, and in some ways against it, but more on that later. This is not the best in the series (in fact, I think this will be my last Harrington book for a while), but it's certainly not the worst. Spoilers follow.

As with the other novels in the series, the plot is compelling and interesting, pulling various aspects of Weber's created universe together and keeping the reader engrossed in the story. In Honor Among Enemies, we're introduced to a new conflict: merchant ships are going missing in the Silesian Confederation. Klaus Hauptman is unhappy about this and suggests that the admirality do something about it. So, Honor Harrington is sent to fix the problem with a small squadron of new Q-Ships designed to look like merchant ships but carrying the fire power of a military ship.

Along the way, we are introduced to the Andermani Empire (an entity that will probably play a large role in future books) as well as a large group of new characters (both good and bad). Honor apprehends a few pirate vessels before, inevitably, running into some Peeps. The Peeps are stationed in Silesian space for their own reasons, none of which are good. The final showdown in the book between Honor and the Peoples' Republic has an unexpected ending, something which was very much appreciated.

As I said before, the plot is very good. It's interesting, it encompasses many characters and places, and it gives different characters a chance to shine. However, it sometimes feels like a filler book. Ultimately, it doesn't seem like anything that takes place in this novel will have a huge impact on events in future books. Regardless, the story itself is genuinely enjoyable.

The first problem that needs to be tackled is the main character, Honor Harrington herself. I've mentioned in other reviews that Honor is becoming more of a caricature than an actual character. This trend, unfortunately, continues here. It is clear that Weber simply likes his main character too much to give her any real flaws. Early in the boook, Klaus Hauptman and Reginald Houseman (on a side note, reading dialogue between characters with such similar last names can be very confusing), both of whom consider Honor to be a personal enemy, discuss how good she is at her job. It felt forced, more like it was there simply to praise Honor than to serve any real purpose. Also, we learn early in the book that Honor is one of the few people to have seen Treecat society, as well as being one of the few children to be adopted. The admirality loves her, her enemies either worship her or fear her, and her crew (aside from the ones that are obviously "bad guys") continually gushes about her. It becomes tiresome to the point that the main character is ruining the book as a whole. We also have yet to see any real flaws from her aside from her dislike for coffee, her mild lacking in mathematical skills (which have yet to play any role), and the intense regret (to the point of melodrama) she feels when her people die. Otherwise, she accels at everything she tries. She has simply stopped being a relatable character.

On a more positive note, regarding characters, it was great to see some familiar faces (specifically Harkness, Tremaine, and a few others) as well as be introduced to some new characters (Aubrey Wanderman and Ginger Lewis, for example). While Honor comes off as a bit flat, the minor characters are really quite dynamic. Weber really excells at making the reader care about these characters and their eventual fate. Wanderman's conflict with his crewmates and its eventual resolution was one of the more interesting parts of the book, as was watching Ginger earn respect as she climbed through the ranks. These new characters (as well as the old ones) are more intriguing than the main character.

It was also nice to see that not all of the Peeps were portrayed as mindless, evil villains. Caslet and his crew held one of the most interesting plotlines in the book. Weber sometimes has the tendency to make his villains a little too evil, but that was not the case with this novel. The Peep characters were very believable; they believed in doing their duty and, even if they didn't agree with all of the changes going on in the Republic, supported their nation.

The pirates are another story entirely. Weber seems to be fond of using rape and sex as a symbol of evil. The Masadans did it, the Peeps have done it, and now the pirates are doing it. I would find this believable if the Royal Manticoran Navy wasn't portrayed as being so clean. I personally find it hard to believe that they don't also commit such moral atrocities, that it's only the bad guys that do such things. The pirate characters were all portrayed as mindless, evil thugs. Yes, we're not supposed to relate to them, but it's hard to find such stereotypical characters believable.

Stepping away from the characters, this book is huge. At over 500 pages, it's one of the longest yet. While this gives more time to the interesting minor characters and subplots, a lot of space is wasted by exposition and history of this or that piece of technology. Some explanations of the technology and weapons is appreciated and sometimes needed, but an editor should have gone in and removed 100 or so pages. It's great that Weber has put so much thought into the "Honorverse" but it bogs down the story when he spends so much time explaining it.

As usual, the space battles were gripping. They are well strategized and easy to envision. Personally, I like that Weber brings the number of deaths and amount of damage in these battles to attention. It makes the action seem that much more real.

All in all, Honor Among Enemies wasn't a bad book. The minor characters were good, the plot was interesting, and it was an enjoyable read as a whole. However, the lack of flaws and constant praise of Honor become incredibly tiresome, as did the constant exposition of Weber's universe. The book was interesting, but perhaps too long for what was actually accomplished. A solid three stars.

Although David Weber is not yet the caliber of CS Forester's Horatio Hornblower series, Weber creates in Honor Among Enemies a riveting story with unexpected twists and turns that lend several meanings to the book's title. This book makes good reading whether you've read any of the previous series or not, but it makes much better reading if you have at least read Honor of the Queen, which lays much of the groundwork that leads up to this story.
The plot suffers from a few relatively minor problems, chiefly that much ado is made of there being 4 ships, with Honor in command of the "squadron", but the story refers solely to one (Harrington's) with only a single short chapter relating one incident with one of the other ships. I kept waiting for the other three ships to appear but they never did. One of the most interesting subplots gets resolved a little too easily I thought, and perhaps too soon -- there was a lot of paper left and I wondered what story elements remained unfinished.
All in all a fun book to read, especially if you like underdogs coming out on top.

The Honor Harrington series is good space opera. This effort is somewhat below par in the series but still a good read. The main problem with the series is with Honor herself. She is simply too good, too perfect.

This series has been compared to the Miles Vorkosogian series of Bujold's. The comparision is understandable in that they both are militarty SF. But consider the differences in character. Miles is a dwarf, a man of no physical prowess who can only suceed by changing the rules of the game. Honor, by contrast, excells at everything. She is physically imposing and beautiful. She excells at the game no matter what the rules. One of your reviewers said she has become a demi-goddess. Very accurate. Her relations with others has deterioated to one in which they become her audience, her worshipers.

For me, this series can only advance when Honor looses a bit of her godhood. Let someone else outthink her in a battle, let her make a dumb mistake, let someone kick her butt in a fair fight. Otherwise, I am just getting bored.

All of the Honor Harrington books have been outstanding, but
David Weber has once again reached into his bag of stories and
and given us the best Honor book yet. Unlike so many series
writers where the character stays the same, Honor grows and is
enriched by her experiences. Here, we see an older and wiser
Honor who has been bloodied but unbowed by the system. As she
continues to grow, David Weber leaves us saying "What a remark
able woman!"and leaving us breathless to see the next install-
ment of her legacy. Honor has great virtues, great insecuri-
ties, and an extraordinarily well developed sense of leader-
ship. She and Nimitz (her treecat) are so well developed that
they become living breathing persons in their own rights. If
only we could invite them to stop by for a drink and some
story swapping. I'd even lay in a supply of fresh celery for
Nimitz.
Skye M. Barnes, Capt. USAF Ret.

Really liked this and I had all of the Honorverse books until the store messed up my Kindles and I had to wipe their memories, now I only have a few of the books. I'm really disappointed in the store. I'd rather go buy them again from Baen, at least I can be sure they won't disappear from my collections

Deep space. A huge, lumbering merchant vessel is bound down to a world when it's jumped by pirates. Several megatons of freighter, carrying millions in cargo, is lost.
Needless to day, the great commerical houses and trading cartels of the Star Kingdom of Manticore are not best pleased with this situation. Unfortunately, the People's Republic of Haven is pressing heavily against the Royal Manticoran Navy, and there are no more ships to spare for escort duty. So Honor Harrington is recalled to active duty, and handed a 'squadron'. Her mission: take a bite out of the pirates affecting the trade routes into the Silesian Confederacy. No problem for a seasoned combat commander, right?
Wrong. Here's the problems: 1) the RMN can't spare regular warships, so it's taken some large freighters and fitted them out with weapons and military-grade sensors. Unfortunately, they don't have military spec acceleration or shielding, and won't stand up to much of a pounding. 2) Personnel shortages means Honor gets stuck with new, inexperienced personnel and the dregs of the fleet. 3) The pirates are getting organized...
One of the nice things about this novel is that we get to see something of a couple of 'lower-deckers' (like me), and how they deal with the threats, both from pirates and from some of the scumbags aboard their own ship.
For the record, this was the first Honor Harrington novel I'd read, and I was sufficiently impressed that I went and bought the other five (at the time) books in one fell swoop. For my money, David Weber is right up there with Heinlein, Sturgeon and Drake.

In a real change of pace for this long-running series of books, Honor Harrington is sent to a galactic backwater away from the action in retribution for her taking a principled stand against her political enemies. There, after drilling the spotty crew into shape, her rag-tag forces stumble upon a major invasion. Despite being seriously out-gunned, she uses clever tactics and a advantage in technology to prevail and stave off the invasion, but it costs her the ship and a good chunk of her crew.

Naw, I'm just kidding. That's not a change of pace. That's been the plot of every book in this series. And I must like it because I keep reading them. And, that said, this was my favorite book in the series thus far. The secondary characters and episodes of life onboard were much, much better than in previous volumes. For the first time, I'm actually hoping some of the characters appear in future books in the series. The author still gets sidetracked by long-winded explanations of fictional science, but those are easy enough to skip over. It would appear that if David Weber keeps writing the same book again and again, I'll keep reading it.

David Weber's Honour Harrington Series ecxels at delivering one thing above all... if you're willing, you can beat the tormentor. Sacrifice, honour, duty... there is love, and there is tremendous action (will she ever RTB with a command, let alone a ship intact? = ]) But I;ve said it before and I'll say it again; She Kicks ass and takes names. As a Navy corpsman heading into my third tour, having spent the majority of my time serving with the Marines, having fought in a war hich was well executed even tho' hampered by political mishandling, it cheers me tremendously to see someone, somewhere, getting the job done, thouroughly, even tho' even in David Weber's world, no good deed goes unpunished. Read it, and wish you lived in that world, where the government works, and the subjects are on the whole worth laying your life down for.

In HH6 (Honor Among Enemies) Honor's Critics Have decided to bring her back to fix a situation no else wants to do.(If she succeds they look good, if she fails they get rid of her) Given an untested Ship as well as an Untested crew. Honor must patrol a section of space overrun by pirates. Meanwhile the peeps are also in the area for their own reasons. The PRH(people's Republic of Haven) is having problems of their own. In the PRH a literal DO OR DIE Philosophy starting where the captain has to do his job(win) or Die. When a Honorable Peep Captain goes to the rescue of a commercial ship he finds a suprise in store and so does Honor. The Title you'll find refers to the relationship between the two captains. a good read but if you're not use to Weber by now you'll never be.

One of my very favourites of the whole Honor series, Honor Among Enemies really delved deep into the psyche of not only Honor but many of her fellow officers in the service of the Crown. A wonderful addition to the series.

I am a great fan of Honor Harrington, and must take issue with a.oppenheim's opinion that the science, technology, and military logic is contrived and unrealistic. On the contrary, I believe the technology and logic to be extremely well thought-out. Very few science fiction writers today are this careful with technology, and virtually NONE display such a wonderful mastery of how technology can influence naval tactics and operations. Mr. Weber clearly knows his naval military history, from Trafalgar to Jutland to Guadalcanal to the Falklands. The Harrington series closest to the early 20th Century dreadnought era in overall concept, but his mastery of how time and distance influence tactics indicates a perfect understanding of modern plane-and-missile naval combat. I'd lay odds that Weber has read everything from Keegan's "The Price of Admiralty" to USNI's "Fleet Tactics." I recommend reading the appendix to "A Short, Victorious War" (third in correlaries. The actions in that book are reminiscent of the battlecruiser action at Jutland in 1916, while in this volume Harrington's exploits seem vaguely related to German 1914 commerce raiders, such as the Emden, but with a healthy dose of WWII "Q ship" concepts as well.

- Arnold Hendrick

This is my first book in the "Honor" serise and I plan to continue reading them. In this book I was introduced to Captian Honor Harrintion(though I do have one question what is with the first name?) she basically can kick the [anotomy] of anyone she comes up agienst. This book has it all, great action, some romance and a species of telepathic "Tree cats".
Though it can sometimes get bogged down in bombast lanuage and its onw self importance it is a great read I recommend it.

The Honor Harrington series in general and "Honor Among Enemies" specifically are fantastic reads! I got caught up in the story and was swept fully into the fell of the battles and the issues of piracy, the fight against this malaise and EVIL in general.

This is my faveorite of the series, it introduced several new things to the series, as well as giving us a look at other parts of the ship than the bridge, and the CO's cabin. I don't want to spoil the book but there are a few people who switch teams. The best of the series.

I was very pleased with the way this book pulled the whole story together so that I was not left hanging. The way that Weber puts the characters at odds with each other and them almost makes the characters a family was unbelieveable.

Well, Weber is the master of space combat even if his approach is somewhat conventional. This book really shouldn't be as good as it is given the events it covers, but Weber as always rises to the occaision. It becomes obvious by the end of the book though that its mostly a vehicle to introduce some Havenite characters other than Theisman we can cheer for. It also begins to de-stupify the Havenite forces making them a bit more of a threat for the next couple books. Middle stories frequently struggle, but this one doesn't and is highly recommended.

David Weber's Harrington series is probably the most fun set of stories i have ever read. I have read all 9 titles (up to Ashes of Victory) and the 2 anthologies. All have provided at the very least 4 star entertainment, and usually better. But this book was above even those standards. There were many intertwined storylines, and the depth he gives the characters makes you actually care about them. Do yourself a favor and read all books in this series. And David Weber, please, PLEASE keep 'em coming.

This is a classic in the Harrington series. Much of it deals with the Naval forces on both sides and shows that not all Peeps are evil. There are some one-dimensional characters but overall this is a good read if you liked the other books.

Honor is brought back from her exile to lead anti piracy operatations in the Silisian Confederacy where the Royal Manticoran Navy had been forced to withdraw as the fighting against the Peeps hots up. What she did not realise was that her recall was engineered by her enemies who, having failed to destroy her politically intend for her to fail militarily. Unfortunately for them, the word failure is not in Honor's vocabulary. It's from this book that the series really transforms itself from space opera to a more character lead style of writing. Much appreciated!

I have been following this series ever since it came out. All I can say is WoW! I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning reading it because I couldn't put it down.
David Weber is doing a very nice job filling out the personality of Honor, and answering questions about her.

“Honor Among Enemies” **6

Stereotype / Stock character: Mary Sue: author character, author surrogate, self-insertion

Hamish Alexander-Harrington is reluctant to have Esther McQueen executed by the Committee of Public Safety for failure, while Thomas Caparelli recognizes that it is a military necessity for victory.

Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington has been assigned to patrol the Silesian Confederacy with Q-ships (armed merchantman) to control piracy that is threatening the Star Empire of Manticore’s (Star Kingdom of Manticore) supply lines. Of course, everybody wants to help her since she is Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington.

The Queen’s Bench states that Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington has been given diplomatic immunity because of her Grayson noble (nobility) title. Before the state dinner Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington remarks that her staff is willing to start their own war if anybody is impolite to her. This is ridiculous and high-handed, what would they have done; killed the offender?

The Graysons are written as one-dimensional stereotype/stock characters. Furthermore, the Graysons are allowed to ignore any law, tradition, and custom they choose. Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington’s bodyguards in particular are written as being above non-Grayson law.

Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington states that the only people who outrank her in the House of Lords supported her killing of Pavel Young. Weber should have instead written that those grand dukes and grand duchesses were the nobles (nobility) who demanded her exile from the Star Empire of Manticore (Star Kingdom of Manticore). It would have been more consistent with the events in “Field of Dishonor”.

Klaus Hauptman sees the error of his ways and naturally offers his complete support to Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington. He instantly loses his negative personality factors and automatically adheres to Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington’s moral standards. This unrealistic personality change is made more ludicrous in the spin-offs (spin outs). Such as Klaus Hauptman using the Hauptman Foundation (Hauptman Cartel) to support the Anti-Slavery League, Audubon Ballroom, and Royal Torch Navy (Kingdom of Torch (Congo, Elysium, Verdant Vista)). The warships are built at low cost, instead of the real life policy of requiring the customer to pay the high cost.

When Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington captures Warner Caslet she decides to treat him with respect and not conduct an interrogation despite the fact she is violating the spirit of her orders and failing to get needed espionage/intelligence. Weber states that Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington is going to treat Warner Caslet with respect. This implies that if another Manticorian officer had captured Warner Caslet then they would have conducted an “amoral/immoral” interrogation that in reality (World War 2) was part of an officer’s duty. She then invites him onto the bridge despite the fact that the Manticoran Articles of War would in real life consider this treason.

The Manticorian espionage/intelligence services (Criminal Investigation Division, Office of Naval Intelligence, Security Ministry, Special Intelligence Service) are written as amoral/immoral people who view common decency and humane actions as obstructing the war effort. Tom Clancy has always maintained a balanced and real life view of spies.

Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington then releases the Havenite prisoners despite the fact they know the layout of Manticorian Q-ships (armed merchantman). She does this for humane reasons that are in violation of a soldier’s wartime duty. Furthermore, it is easy to imagine that she would have released a Havenite admiral even if that admiral was a leading tactician/strategist. She tells Caslet that she will order her officers to falsify their combat reports.

This example of lax prisoner treatment is the exact opposite to the realistic actions taken by the heroes in “Torch of Freedom”. The survivors of the People’s First Liberation Squadron (Liberation Force in Exile, People’s Navy in Exile) from the Second Battle of Congo (Battle of Torch) are exiled to an island on Torch (Congo, Elysium, Verdant Vista) because they have knowledge about the military technology of the Maya Sector Detachment.

During the evacuation of a damaged warship, Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington’s Grayson bodyguards bring some of her personal belongings. They do this despite the fact that Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington ordered that all personal belongings be left behind to minimize weight and space concerns onboard the rescue couriers (cutter, dispatch boat, pinnace, shuttle). Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington does not lecture or criticize her bodyguards despite the fact that they disobeyed orders and are guilty of insubordination.

Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington has been given too much respect and glory. She is Manticore’s only first rate hero/heroine. Hamish Alexander-Harrington and the other admirals/captains are written as: second rate, third rate, fourth rate, fifth rate, sixth rate (rating system of the Royal Navy); officers.

The use of “moral courage” has been overused.

The treecats have been given too many privileges and exceptions, however they are not held responsible for their actions. Eventually Weber will write that the treecat’s abilities of empathy and telepathy are used for loyalty tests of everybody. This type of loyalty test is already used by the royal guard of the Kingdom of Torch (Congo, Elysium, Verdant Vista), Lara’s Own Regiment. In the Honorverse, privacy is irrelevant and the concept of trust is obsolete. Weber has forgotten what happened in the United States of America:
-- Communist Control Act of 1954
-- Communist registration act
-- Executive Order 9835 (Loyalty Order)
-- First Red Scare
-- House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) (HUAC)
-- Joseph Raymond McCarthy
-- Loyalty Review Board
-- McCarran Internal Security Act (Internal Security Act, McCarran Act, Subversive Activities Control Act)
-- McCarthyism
-- Second Red Scare
-- States Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations
-- Subversive Activities Control Board

Weber needs to write that genetic engineering (biological engineering, biological systems engineering, biotechnology) is not evil. The ethics of genetic engineering (biological engineering, biological systems engineering, biotechnology) have always been written in good-and-evil terms. Genetic engineering (biological engineering, biological systems engineering, biotechnology) has always been written as evil regardless of use. “Andromeda” had a balanced view of genetic engineering (biological engineering, biological systems engineering, biotechnology).

Weber has written that technology is only evil if it is misused. He has never written about the evils of cybernetic (actroid, android, bionics, cyborg, gynoid, humanoid robot, robot, robotics) surgery. Cybernetics (actroid, android, bionics, cyborg, gynoid, humanoid robot, robot, robotics) have been written as being irrelevant to a person’s morality. Weber should write that cybernetics (actroid, android, bionics, cyborg, gynoid, humanoid robot, robot, robotics) are seen as dehumanizing and Sharpton is reviled for its heavy use of cybernetics (actroid, android, bionics, cyborg, gynoid, humanoid robot, robot, robotics). In the “Star Wars” universe, cyborgs were viewed with distrust and fear since they were part machine and had been dehumanized.

The Beowulf Life Sciences Code outlaws any serious genetic engineering (biological engineering, biological systems engineering, biotechnology), even for the colonization of heavy gravity (gravitation) planets. Even though the planets in San Martin (Trevor’s Star System) and the Star Empire of Manticore (Star Kingdom of Manticore) were colonized by modified colonists, it is now outlawed by known space. Modifying colonists for different environments is not the equivalent of the genetic slavery promoted by Mesa (Mesa System, Mesa Terminus).

Everything is written in “black-and-white” morality, there are no “shades of gray/grey” morality.

The things that Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington can do without failure:
-- alternative dispute resolution
-- appropriate dispute resolution
-- arbitration
-- bravery
-- character judgment
-- common decency
-- conciliation
-- courage
-- diplomacy
-- dispute resolution
-- duels (Dreyfus Protocol, Ellington Protocol)
-- emotional control
-- ethical behavior
-- external dispute resolution
-- facilitation
-- gliding (glider)
-- honor
-- integrity
-- leadership
-- logistics
-- marksman (designated marksman, scout sniper, sharpshooter (Scharfschütze), sniper)
-- martial arts (hybrid martial arts, mixed martial arts)
-- mediation
-- moral behavior
-- negotiation
-- non biased actions
-- politics
-- strategy
-- swordsmanship (Daishō, fencing)
-- tactics

Honor Harrington
-- HH1 -- On Basilisk Station
-- HH2 -- The Honor of the Queen
-- HH3 -- The Short Victorious War
-- HH4 -- Field of Dishonor
-- HH5 -- Flag in Exile
-- HH6 -- Honor Among Enemies
-- HH7 -- In Enemy Hands
-- HH8 -- Echoes of Honor
-- HH9 -- Ashes of Victory
-- HH10 -- War of Honor
-- HH11 -- At All Costs
-- HH12 -- Mission of Honor
-- HH13 -- A Rising Thunder
-- HH14 -- Shadow of Freedom
Anthologies
-- HHA1 -- More Than Honor
-- HHA2 -- Worlds of Honor
-- HHA3 -- Changer of Worlds
-- HHA4 -- The Service of the Sword
-- HHA5 -- In Fire Forged
-- HHA6 -- Beginnings
Crown of Slaves
-- CS0 -- From the Highlands (Changer of Worlds)
-- CS0 -- Fanatic (The Service of the Sword)
-- CS1 -- Crown of Slaves
-- CS2 -- Torch of Freedom
-- CS3 -- Cauldron of Ghosts
Saganami Island
-- SI1 -- The Shadow of Saganami
-- SI2 -- Storm from the Shadows
-- SI3 -- Shadow of Freedom
Star Kingdom
-- SK1 -- A Beautiful Friendship
-- SK2 -- Fire Season
-- SK3 -- Treecat Wars
Manticore Ascendant
-- MA1 -- A Call to Duty
-- MA2 -- A Call to Arms
-- MA3 -- A Call to Vengeance
Book Companion
-- HOS -- House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion
-- HOSH -- House of Shadows: The Honorverse Companion
-- HOL -- House of Lies: The Honorverse Companion
Jayne’s Intelligence Review
-- JIR1 -- Jayne’s Intelligence Review, Vol. 1 -- The Royal Manticoran Navy
-- JIR2 -- Jayne’s Intelligence Review, Vol. 2 -- The Havenite Republican Navy
-- JIR3 -- Jayne’s Intelligence Review, Vol. 3 -- The Silesian Confederate Navy
Ship Book
-- SB1 -- Ship Book 1: The Havenite Sector
-- SB2 -- Ship Book 2: The Silesian Confederacy
-- SB3 -- Ship Book 3: The Short Victorious War