Book 11, At All Costs: Honor Harrington

I have read the entire Honor Harrington series and was swept away by the first six or seven. However, they have tended to become longer and longer and to be filled with distracting subplots and scenes that contribute nothing to the development of the story. Furthermore, they seem to become less and less creative as the series goes on, and the main character becomes less and less sympathetic. This novel brings all these unfortunate tendencies to their greatest extreme.

Here is an example of the scinitllating dialogue you will find in this novel: "Do you believe all the articles of the Christian Faith, as contained in the Apostle's Creed?" "I do." ... "Will you obediently keep God's holy will and commandments...?" "I will, by God's help." (page 617). This dialogue is just an excerpt of a five page scene that reproduces, line for line, a baptism ceremony for Honor's son. Why the reader should be subjected to this, I don't know. It has nothing to do with the ongoing Haven-Manticore war, nor with the Mesan involvement in said war, nor with any part of the main storyline. I present this merely as one example; the book is chock full of lengthy scenes that contribute nothing to the story. As a matter of fact, at the beginning of chapter 15--page 190--when Mercedes Brigham says "Well, it's about time ... I was beginning to think we'd never get this fleet activated!", the reader is in full agreement, for that is how long it takes Weber to get to anything remotely resembling military action. Yes, the first 190 out of 852 pages--nearly a quarter of the book--contain no military action whatsoever except for a brief Havenite raid in the prologue. Instead, we are treated to such exciting scenes as Honor reading a story to the children in a nursery on Grayson; Honor discussing her feelings about pregnancy with her parents, with Hamish, with Emily--all of these conversations occupying tens of pages and having their own scenes or even chapters; the shady Mesans going about their plotting; and on, and on, and on until you wonder if there is going to be any action at all in the novel. The plotline involving Honor's pregnancy and motherhood is boring, irrelevant to the main story, and has way too many pages devoted to it.

To be quite blunt, this is not merely poor writing, it is poor editing. Someone needs to tell Weber to streamline his novels and make them exciting once again.

The second half of the book contains some of the vintage space battles that Weber is known for, and these are well done, written with good pacing, and showing that Weber has once again sat down to consider tactics and counter-tactics, putting himself in the minds of the various fighters in the war. It is made more exciting by the subplot involving a Mesan conspiracy; something that is surely setting up a future novel (there are hints of an upcoming Haven-Manticore alliance and foreshadowings of a war against the Solarian league). But quite frankly, this would have been a much better novel at 450 pages than at 850. If you are a big Honor fan, prepare to wade through hundreds of pages of boring stuff to get to the meat of this novel. If you are not an Honor fan, start from the beginning--On Basilisk Station. Unfortunately, by the time you get to this novel you will probably be hooked, and, like me, you will subject yourself to the extreme boredom of this novel just to find out what happens.

This is a bit far into the series so if you plan on starting, I would recommend one of the earlier novels. That said, this one is one of my favorites, and subjectively, has the most dynamic space engagement of the series. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Even for a fan of the Honor Harrington series, this is getting tired and uninteresting. Pretty much I agree with ALL the negative comments and think Duane's review did a particulary good job at listing many of the faults.

The only review I might disagree with is that you won't "get" this book if you haven't read the others. Perhaps you will miss some of the background depth but the real reason you should read the earlier books is that they are quite simply much better.

The one flaw that just drives me nuts is that this book does not stand alone AT ALL. It has a bunch of plot lines and instead of resolving most of them, leaving one or 2 dangling for the next novel in the money train, it resolves almost nothing. And what little it does, is so unsatisfactory, it's worse than trying to eat just one potato chip.

So the ponderous wordiness is a chore for at least the first 500 pages, then gets almost a little interesting for a couple hundred (hence the one star, for this part and the character development of the Havenites), then, the worst happens. Without putting any spoiler here, lets just say that the ending leaves you turning the page expecting more and instead makes you want to throw the book out the nearest window!

If you can stop your addiction to the Honor series before this book, it's probably time. If you really really must read this one, try waiting. Unless you really enjoy the torture of 800 pages with no resolution and almost no ending...

Yep, way past time to write a final chapter....

Well, Honor keeps chugging along and spends a great deal of time talking about it.... When the action arrives it does so with Mr. Weber's flair, but gets too involved with the "math" of the battles... Yes, we know the Manties have superior tech and the Republic has quantity but we really don't need to do the math of distances and number or missiles bearing down on the different forces. This book seemed to interested in the "details" and didn't put the effort into making his once dynamic characters clime off the pages.

This book was spectacular in its scope. The battles were unbelievable and the details were excellent. But Weber also made sure that the human element was part of the narrative. Well worth the cost!

David Weber had a great thing going...

Horatio Hornblower in space. If you have never read any CS Forester, stop and go get some.

Through many adventures and battles we have seen our heroine evolve. But now it has gone too far. The war, the background politics, the enemies and the adversity. All have been a great part of the series. Treecats and their powers have been fascinating. But Honor is now super goddess. There is no other like her. She shall never die, and anything good that can happen will happen to her.

We had books where this was not the case, but now we find that the superwoman can further enrich her own life without consequence or drama. And that is the heart of why this book has lost so many stars in my estimation. You know from page one Honor will survive.

You knew that Hornblower would live also. But that was a much more chancy thing, and certainly Hornblower did not become the greatest admiral of the fleet, nor the confident of the king, nor the lover of the king's chief minister (his later marriage to the sister of Wellington gave him little advantage while Honor's triangular entanglments makes her one of the most powerful members of the nobility in addition to the best naval officer in the universe.) Honor has been given too much Honor. With the concept of ProLong, she will be top of the Heap for a long time...

This series had been doing great. It even looked like we were going to see the identification of a true evil enemy to target our vitriol against, as the short stories developed and had worked into the main canon. Manpower can definitely be the focus for several books to come. But if you have to saddle this series with babies, crippled lovers whose emotions wring completly false only to further allow Honor her heroic ascendance, then why bother. Just do as the Romans, call Honor a God Emperor and be done...

So hopefully not too many spoilers in this review. But you should know that the battles are getting fewer, the politics less important, but Honor is everything. That is what I find fault with.

As for the battles we have come to expect a new twist from Weber on how he destroys the various fleets and again he has it this time. I must agree with another reviewer that at a certain point counting how many missiles are travelling at what velocity and cet defeated by so many counter missiles and defenses, each and every volley, is disconcerting. Certainly in the early Starfire books, if memory serves, these conflicts did not go on for so many pages or for so much nit-picking detail.

Decent Read. A little slow in pacing but I get the feeling he's finally got all the pieces in place for the reconciliation between Manticore and Haven so they can join forces against Mesa.

I look forward to the next Novel with great anticipation.

I have tried a number of times to complete this book. I have failed. Aside fron the excruciating and boring length, I was turned off by the relationship Honor put herself into. There was no reason for the author to do this. This 800 pages of bloat ended it for me.

Other reviewers provided the essential story elements, so I won't repeat them. As always, At All Costs provides Weber's wonderful mix of nail-biting action and well rounded characterization.

However, this story packs a forceful emotional punch. There is both joy and pain and you will feel as much for the "bad guys" as you do for Honor and her friends and family. In fact, by the end of the book, you may have a new definition of "bad guy" for this series.

I think this is one of the best books in the series. In fact, I went right out to Baen's website to see if the next Honor was already in the schedule - it's not darn it! Weber has many places to take the series and I can't wait to see what happens next. For me, that's the mark of a great series.

When's the next one David?

The scale of the carnage is incredible. The star kingdom of Manticore is on the ropes and reeling after the resumption of hostilities with Haven. Neither side wanted the war; they were driven into it by self serving and lying politicians. Now the war has been resumed and it is an ugly one. Even when it seems that peace might break out, vested interests fan the flames and send the peace process down to defeat. That costs even more lives on both sides.

In the climax, the two sides come against each other in a titanic clash, the largest in history, in which all depends on a single roll of the dice. Whichever side wins, the carnage continues to mount.

Weber does his usual splendid job of characterization and laying the groundwork. He is masterful at creating characters we love and respect, characters we can both despise and respect, characters we want to lose but want it to happen gracefully and characters we just want an Acme safe to fall on. Strangely enough, that even happens.

This is not Weber's work but he sets such a high standard that even a middle of the road book is very good indeed. That is what we have here.

I was lucky enough to begin this series late enough that I was able to read the first 10 in quick succession. Then I had to wait for this one to come out. It was worth the wait.

"At All Costs" has all the elements of a good Weber HH novel, but the sloppy writing drowns the entertainment.

This novel starts out slowly in order to build suspense. We're given a peek at the antagonists' evil (and not so evil) plots and shown how they have the upper hand. Meanwhile, Honor is shown in bucolic bliss (mostly) unaware of the mountain about to fall on her and the alliance.

Written tightly this would be a fine way to start a novel. Unfortunately, this consumes about 300 pages. An entire page (paperback) is devoted to why a particular room was chosen for a meeting. Treecat sign language is again described down to the joint movements. Did no one tell Weber that this was an idiotic device after "War of Honor"? Similar excesses of exposition litter the novel. You will not miss anything important if you simply skip half a page every time you detect one of Weber's self-indulgent excursions.

But half a page may not be enough!!! You must resample and possibly skip another half page to get past each of the useless expositions. Skipping pages requires an act of will for fear that you may miss something important, but trust me, in this book, you won't.

The middle two or three hundred pages are somewhat better, but the large chunks dealing with Honor's personal life are insipid and uninspiring. I do not object to Weber writing about Honor's personal life, nor to political maneuverings. I am not a space opera purist. I have enjoyed prose on those topics in the past (e.g. in "War of Honor"). There is simply no entertainment value in those topics in this novel. It's like Honor punched a ticket. Hmmm. okay, got approval, got married, high priest of superstitious nutters is pleased, got baby, check, check, check.

There's no conflict to be had in those topics at this point in the story. Oh, Weber tries to liven it up by endless discourse about public (dis)approval, but the fact is that Honor is wealthy, her friends are in total control of the Manty government, other friends have a lock on the Grayson government and the only human obstacle to her relationship with Hamish is practically lassoing Honor and tieing her to the bed for him--and Emily would too, if she had two good arms.

Her mother's help is nice, but Mrs. Harrington's flamboyant character has become trite. Okay, we get it. She doesn't follow convention. Cool. But it's not really interesting to show it to us again, unless it adds something to the plot development. Hurray, Emily had a baby. Babies are swell and fun to tickle. But reading about other folks tickling them is just dull.

Without conflict (in the broad sense) there is no entertainment. All of this material should have taken place off-stage and been mentioned only in passing. They may have been major events in Honor's life, but they were tiny tidbits in story terms. Yet those miniscule tidbits consumed an enormous share of this novel.

If Weber wanted it to be interesting, then he needed to add some conflict to them. For example, why is Honor so poised and able to fit into aristocratic society so easily, while her parents were presented to us as yeomen? The customs of the rich are generally not the customs of the middle-class. Yet, Honor has never tripped on this issue. Perhaps training in etiquette at Saganawi took care of that.

Also, *why* is she in love with Hamish, the old fart? Sure he's a great strategist and he's in the navy too (or was) but really, what's the attraction? I'm not convinced. If I was Honor's friend, I'd be speculating that she just has a case of coworker-romance. I.e. she worked with him so much she's mistaken collegiate cooperation for romantic intimacy. Or perhaps she is one of those strange (yet ubiquitous) women who is inevitably drawn to the most powerful man at hand.

I should mention that Clinkscale's funeral was touching. Also, assigning a guardsman to her son was very moving. These were great emotional moments. Unfortuantely, Weber also transcribes the entire funeral ceremony for us and then gives us half of a book of prayer when he transcribes five pages of christening ceremony into the novel.

The final 200 pages of the book are engaging and will keep you turning pages. Weber still writes interesting space combat motivated by strategic factors. And as you should have come to expect, the Manty's advantages are finally revealed near the end, and the odds are not quite as grim as the novel's introduction leads us to believe.

However, keeping Haven in the war causes the bones of the story to show a bit. Weber gives the Havenites a rationale for continuing the war which is barely believable. The rationale would be easily believable in the mouths of less intelligent characters, but the current leadership of Haven is too smart to lurch into war down the steps Weber paved for them. For that matter the Manty's rationale is a bit threadbare as well, given the facts at hand. However, it is more plausible than the Havenites' decisions because we have previously seen the Queen's implacable temper.

Weber has never been an excellent stylist. His strengths are in imaginative plots, interesting technology and believable, highly creative consequences drawn from that technology. On his good days he has the ability to draw engaging characters and carry them through a story decorated with his other strengths. This novel was not written on his good days.

Except near the end, his strengths are drowned in a sea of excess verbiage, explaining Weber's every rationale for the elements of the story. For example, the room-choice page mentioned above; I'm sure Weber carefully thought out what room would be used based on the elements of the story--but there was no need to explain that thought process to the audience!

Even a mediocre style editor could have vastly improved this book (and cut 300 pages). Heck, any college writing class which includes a mutual editing component could have shortened this book by 1/3, made it more readable, and vastly improved its entertainment value.

Did the reviewers who claimed that the whole novel was a page-turner read the same book as I did?

Long series of books usually draw readers in with interesting, well-written early novels. After that even a dud of a book can sell, because readers are so curious to know what happens next. This book is largely a dud, but if you must know how the Honor saga continues to unfold you'll still want to read this book. The only people who could possibly call this book well written and a stay-awake-all-night-page-turner are those who are beyond any rational desire to know what happens next in this on-going story.

Well, I have read every David Weber book, and I can say that this is my least favorite series. It is just too convoluted. The stories is kind of hard to believe. If you found out your side had fabricated and forced a war, then why would you launch an all out assault? The reasoning behind this attack is just too unbelievable. There were plenty of ways to prove to the Manticorian that you did not try to assassinate all of their people. So how come nothing was tried?

The book is well written, like all Weber books, but Weber's imagination is running low. The whole plot revolves around a misunderstanding: a leader that refuses to talk to another, so, there's a hecatomb. Pretty dumb, sounds more like the stories on CNN. It's the first book in this series where the main story happens because of sheer stupidity, and this cuts the fun. Less action than usual, but the heros are better defined. All in all, an acceptable Honor Harrington book.

If you can buy the preposterous notion that grown people wear shoulder cats while engaged in the business of conducting serious affairs of state, this book may be for you. If you love the soporific effect of an overstuffed feather mattress, you may enjoy the excessive padding in this book. If you are inured to potentially lethal doses of cuteness, you may find the antics of the pussy cats amusing. If you are already bored nigh unto death and have time to waste, you may wish to read every word in this book. If none of the foregoing apply to you and you have already bought the book, speed read it, scan it, skip lightly through it. You should be able to glean the few scraps of what could be an interesting sci-fi novel buried within this mountain of verbose offal.

This is volume 11 of the series. It is much the same as the 10 preceding it. It is a hagiography of the title character who is a superwoman as well as a saint. It recounts not only her miraculous deeds but her innermost thoughts and emotions. And she is a bundle of emotions - tortured by self-doubt and remorse over events beyond her control, inhibited by having been almost raped in her youth, consumed by the consequences of her ménage à trois, and embarrassed by the veneration of billions of people on scores of planets. Monarchs seek her counsel in pursuit of their duties. They pile vast treasures at her feet, present her with their highest awards, and entrust her with great power over hordes of lesser beings. Societies change their mores and religious patriarchs alter bedrock tenets to accommodate her. But she is humble to the Nth degree. She is more improbable than a Greek deity. She is impossible. She is utterly ridiculous.

There are multitudes of minor characters in this series. The reader is apprised of their biographies and their personalities are analyzed. The author invents a cornucopia of technology and explains every detail of it leaving out only the parts numbers. He often does that between the opening clause of a sentence of dialogue and its conclusion. The information does not necessarily conform to the subject of the sentence. A short ride in an elevator may consume several paragraphs of print. He often loses track of the story he is writing and starts another. In this volume he goes far afield to bring in a third major group of players. They appear to be a coven of scientific witches. It seems he is trying to spin off a new series or has run out of ideas as to how to proceed with this one.

I question the mental acuity of readers who have rated this book at 4 stars. That amounts to five under the the store format but the first one is the price of admission to the forum. It is an the store gratuity. Only four stars are left to the discretion of the reviewer. I give this book one of my four. That one is for, uuh, uum, penmanship - all the letters on my e-reader are well formed.

The narrative in Honor Harrington books come off as slightly heavy-handed, and some of the same jokes are recycled (i.e., commentaries on a person's ability to differentiate between their head and their posterior). That being said, I love them all, and this one ended in such emotion that it stayed with me for days. I REALLY hope Weber either finished this up before he retires or finds a suitable author to carry it on.

A worthy addition to the honorverse. If you are fan of Honor Harrington get this book.

I'm not going to throw any spoilers out but in it David is starting to set up for the next book in the mainline series in which he will weave in threads together from the Crown of Slaves & Saganami books.

Be warned though that quite more than one major character will die. Also we find out who the true enemy is.

If you've made it this far in the series, you know that the last few books have had increasingly tedious internal dialogues and political inanities. Well, that's over with! It's all action all the time again, with battles throughout the book, not just at the end. The non-space storylines are there but quite brief and to the point. Weber got back on track with this book. Fans will love it.

I have enjoyed this series since "On Basilisk Station". It's a fine space opera that is a fun change from some of the other subjects I like to read about. I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a long series set in insterstellar space.

A great book overall. Lots of fleet battles to satisfy the military sci-fi fans. Touching ending. The Fleet battle mechanics are impressive. Would be nice if they made a game based on this universe. Probally wouldnt happen with the limited interest base though. Game devepment being so expensive these days. I like the way the epic is headed though. It looks like there is about to be some refreshing changes to the main story. Keep em coming mr Weber!

I have read all of the honor harrington books to date and some grabed you from the begininng and others you just had to keep wading thru the story but you knew it would be worth it in the end. This book however is the best so far. A great story line with interesting twists and all I can say to David Weber is write FASTER!

As a long time reader of Science Fiction literature, a theme that occurs over and over appears to be present in this latest space opera episode from David Weber. When I look at the events occuring in the present, the Iraq war and the incompetence of the current U.S. administration, I see echoes of this in "At All Costs". I would like to see authors stretching their own beliefs about government to include something other than advanced societies with feudal systems of authoritarian governance. For examples that at least question the idea of follower/leader see Ursula K Le Guin.

A true Honor story, and fairly fast 4 read, but weakly presented with too many sidebar issues, many of which were NOT played out. The sidebar reading of a favorite story of the author was inane. My main issue was it is a glossed over battle scenario with too much given to both sides and ultimately FTL communications and if I read it right almost FTL missile fire. Ship Actions can and are quite exciting, but this book only does splatter detail on individual units and gorges itself in the horror of mass destruction warfare while claiming that NO planet strikes are allowed. How the H anyone could believe that destroyed hardware around planets did NOT plummet down and destroy most of the attacked planets is beyond me. The constant 'Lost' missile scenario assures one that some had to devastate the inhabited planets. The battle loss totals for a final battle that would have been very unlikely just hashed the ending up. The most painful theme was thousands of missiles fired, and yet I rapidly could NOT fathom the source of materials for the literally millions of missiles discharged. Any battles of such magnitude would have snuffed all life from the embattled planets. NOT a YA product, nor a thinking person. Yet for all my lack of belief in the scenario they have found that the 'Independence' survived a nuclear test fairly well, so I assume that maybe there was something left after such an apocalyptic battle. Maybe a read for others, Maybe NOT. Thanks, Harry!

The Manties have their yards distributed around many systems to assemble newer bigger ships, and Peeps have Bolthole. Shannon Foraker is beginning to reverse engineer Mantie Electronic Warfare equipment, missiles, pods, drones and Light Attack Craft. Sometimes brave men are forced to close with the enemy in virtual suicide charges (the LACs). Rarely does a defender place minefields, or come up with pseudo submarines; something short range and stealthy. But otherwise, these battles duplicate the multiple theaters, increasing numbers and ferocity of WW II ship engagements.
A winner-take-all battle in AAC is predictable. Has anyone else wondered how the combatants are funded? Isn't a negotiated peace cheaper? Certainly, a provocateur might poison one diplomacy channel, but there must be neutral star systems (like Switzerland) who would transfer messages by other means. Louise Pritchart, leader of the People's Republic denies making an assassination attempt on HH. As she relates to Honor's friend, Mike, now an injured POW:

' "... Nonetheless, if you get the opportunity, I wish you'd tell her that for me. You may not believe this, Admiral, but I didn't really want this war, either. Oh," Pritchart went on quickly as Henke began to open her mouth, "I'll freely admit I fired the first shot. And I'll also admit that given what I knew then, I'd do the same thing again. That's not the same thing as wanting to do it, and I deeply regret all the men and women who have been killed or, like yourself, wounded. I can't undo that. But I would like to think it's possible for us to find an end to the fighting short of one of us killing everyone on the other side."
"So would I," Henke said levelly. "Unfortunately, whatever happened to our diplomatic correspondence, you did fire the first shot. Elizabeth isn't the only Manticoran or Grayson--or Andermani--who's going to find that difficult to forget or overlook."
"And are you one of them, Admiral?"
"Yes, Madam President, I am," Henke said quietly.
"I see. And I appreciate your honesty. Still, it does rather underscore the nature of our quandary, doesn't it?"
"I suppose it does." ' (That is Chapter 42) Shortly after, Mike Henke is sent on an important mission.

The last of Honor Harrington books I actually read, or tried to read. Regrettably the lack of focus of War of Honor evolved into an even worse near split-personality in this book, leaving it far far inferior to early books of the series. Add in that Weber, for all his brilliance in nearly every other type of writing, has no business at all trying to write even a grade school romance, let alone to appallingly complicated version this book attempts(and utterly fails) to achieve. That said problems ultimately result in Honor herself being almost unrecognizable personality and morality wise from earlier books, simply puts firm nails into the coffin for this series, and I strongly recommend stopping your series progression at Ashes of Victory to prevent the bitter taste from ruining the whole series for you.

That the combat is well written is no surprise. The plot as usual is very good with some nice suspense and twists

as well as humor. Weber came up with an interesting solution to Honor's relationship with the Alexanders. There are a couple interesting surprises though and the usual outstanding haracterizations.

There are also a few bobbles I find it hard to believe that someone on the Manty side did not come to the same conclusion that Pritchard et al did about who is doing the assignations. After all the basic question of "who benefits"? is always valid and points more to Mesa than to the PR. There are a few ditorial bobbles an acceleration of 40,000g is hard to take (pun ntended). And I don't think that worl is a word, there is also one paragraph that occurs twice.

The final battle is pretty horrendous but a logical consequence of bring large fleets of pod layers together. I wonder where Weber is going with the series? Can the PR and Manties get Mesa without involving the Solies? Could they along with the PR, the Andies and Ehorwinese take the Solies?

Overall a very good read highly recommended.

Tricked by genetic supermen into restarting the war against Manticore, Haven's leaders struggle with evidence that they, not Manticore, were the aggressors. With Admiral Honor Harrington launching attacks against them and with new Manticore technology coming quickly on line, Haven sees three options--surrender, victory, or a negotiated settlement. Although a negotiated settlement sticks in their craws with apparent victory in their grasps, Haven's leaders reach out to Haven. But the genetic supermen of Mesa have their own plans--and peace between Haven and Manticore, the two powers most antithetical to Mesa's interests, is something they'll move mountains to avoid. One thing they can count on, Queen Elizabeth of Manticore will definitely believe the worst anyone can believe of Haven.

Honor Harrington is busy managing her relationship with Hamish Whitehaven and his wife Emily, a relationship made more complicated when Honor becomes unexpectedly pregnant. Still, she is a soldier, and makes time to manage attacks on Haven systems. Her nearly infalible judgment, coupled with new superweapons that arrive just in the nick of time, mean that Honor's battles result in either victory without cost to her forces, or at worst, Pyric victories for Haven. Still, Haven holds an edge in numbers and has been doing its best to cope with Manticore's technological advances. And after the idiocy of Haven's previous governments, its current leaders both value competence and honor.

(Warning--spoiler)

Virtually every book in the Honor Harrington series takes a similar pattern. At home, Honor is hounded by newsmen seeking gossip and rumors about her private life. Meanwhile, Haven holds a huge advantage in numbers. Even tactical brilliance by Honor seems able only to delay the inevitable victory by Haven's forces. However, at the last minute a new and unexpected superweapon, one only Honor has, changes the calculus of war and the result is an 'unanticipated' victory by Honor and Manticore. AT ALL COSTS certainly follows this formula to a 'T,' with the bonus of adding Havenite advances that threaten to reverse the scenerio. If you don't like the formula, don't read the book--it's that simple.

Within the constraints of the formula, AT ALL COSTS is a superior story. Throughout the series, Haven has become more and more admirable. While they were simply the 'evil empire' in the early stories, attempting expansion as a sop for the welfare-engorged citizens, they have become increasingly sympathetic. I'm certain I'm not alone in rooting for their victory--in fact, I suspect that author David Weber is getting a bit tired of Manticore victories against Haven and is setting the scene for an alliance between the two powers to confront the massive Solar League, or at least the part of the League co-opted by Mesa.

AT ALL COSTS is a war book. Huge fleets of starships, holding hundreds of thousands of sailors, battle and kill. Weber gives us the calculations, the accelerations, the throw weights of the different systems, the percentage of missiles that carry harmless electronic warfare systems, the different defensive systems adopted by Haven and Manticore. If you (like me) find this kind of analysis interesting, you'll definitely want to check out AT ALL COSTS. It's certainly a superior entry in the Honor Harrington series.

As an added bonus, the hardcover edition includes a CD containing eBook versions of the earlier books in the series. It certainly brings down the cost per book to affordable levels.

Overall, a quick read that is hard to put down. However, as in previous books, the author at times seems (to me anyway) to be writing for the sole purpose of increasing the word count of the book. Examples: I enjoy the playful banter between characters, but he sometimes takes it so far as it makes me gag. Also, entire pages dedicated to describing the hand positions of each letter in a sentence of sign language - really! :-(

Overall, the plot and the story is exciting and engaging and really well written. The book would be plenty long without the unnecessary garbage, however.

The 11th volume in this long series is quite successful overall. It is almost as long as the prior "War of Honor", but doesn't feel so padded. As usual there's plenty of action, culminating in the largest space battle ever fought in this timeline. Weber is generally successful in moving Honor from a task force commander to an admiral commanding an entire fleet, and protraying the new challenges that involves.

As the story opens, Haven has a definite military edge over Manticore for the first time, due to the successful offensive in "War of Honor". Manticore is building frantically to recover it's strength, but Haven is also building on a huge scale and has enough quantitative edge to offset Manticore's superior technology, as well as far more capable leadership than in earlier volumes. That forces the Manties onto the defensive, while waiting for new ships and possible technological advances to return them to the initiative.

But the series is evolving as Weber developes the Havenite side further, and for the first time since the war started, the Haven leaders aren't the villains. Haven's new leadership is desperate for peace and has discovered what nobody on Manticore has yet guessed, that another party is manipulating both sides and pushing the war forward. (The Havenites don't know who that is, but the reader does.)

This novel is closely connected to "Crown of Slaves" and, to a lesser degree, "Shadow of Saganami". For the longtime reader who has been through the full series, I would recommend reading both of those before this one. So much use is made of the earlier novels that I suspect this book will prove unreadable for those who have never read any of the series to date.

The worst weakness is that Weber goes back to his habit in some earlier books of lavishing technical details and detailed math on the reader to a level that almost suggests OCD. "Nike and Hector were still 20,589,000 kilometers from Vespasian, but their velocity was down to a mere, 5,265 KPS as they continued to decelerate at a steady 5.31KS2....They would both be down to 2079 KPS and less than 400,000 kilometers from their planned zero-zero point - or about 18,400,000 kilometers from Vespasien." (p 365) And for all the elaboration of Weber's technical analysis, it doesn't seem convincing. He talks endlessly about the maximum effective ranges of the missiles that are the primary weapons of space warfare in this universe, but why should missiles in space have a maximum effective range at all? Particularly when, as Weber specifies for the weapons in this book, they reach a maximum verlocity of about 0.8 c and have onboard AIs for targeting.

Weber goes into equal and even more unnecessary detail in describing the sign language developed for treecat-human communication.

Still, this sort of stuff is classic Weber and if, like me, you've read the full series, you're accustomed by now to these little quirks. The strong story here is easily sufficient to make up for Weber's little tics.

The novel does seem to bringing the series measurably closer to completion. The reviewer below who said that we're being prepared for a Manty-Haven alliance against the Sol Confederacy is almost certainly right; I'll go a little further and predict that to help create it, Honor will, in the next volume, refuse a direct order from Elizabeth to destroy Haven targets, probably the home system.

Honor Harrington is back - and Haven is in trouble.

David Weber neatly ties The Shadow of Saganami into the main series with this book. One of the biggest problems when you have a series of books that has lasted this long is that you end up with lots of characters. While the main character focus has, of course, been Honor Harrington all the way from her snotty cruise to being a Fleet Admiral, there are so MANY additional characters that are more than just passing names.

Allistair McKeon, Scotty Tremaine, Horace Harkness, Mike Henke, Elizabeth Winton, Hamish Alexander, Allison Harrington - these are just a few of the vital members of Honor' crew and family that over the last several years we've grown to know from the series. Eloise Pritchart, Javier Giscard, Thomas Theisman, Shannon Foraker, Victor Cachat - the personalities of the Haven enemy has also been fleshed out. Seeing how these people act and why has become as much a part of the series - and is much more fulfilling - than simply saying, "Gee, I think Haven may attack us." "Darn, Haven attacked us, I wonder why."

It is hard, at times, to wade through the numbers in the book. But in space combat - especially in this book - we're dealing with combat at a level that no one the Honorverse has EVER seen before. Remember back about book 2 or 3, when there was talk about how most combats really were just posturing - because neither side really wanted to destroy the other? Or when 20 or 30 ships was a HUGE fleet?

Now we're dealing with, quite literally, 50 plus years later from the start of things. There HAVE been technical advances. There are more things to keep track of.

And yes, there are the destruction of entire fleets in this book - along with the deaths of many characters that you've grown to know over the course of this series.

(Potential spoiler - because I'm not David Weber and I don't know WHAT the next book is going to contain.)

Let's just state that, when the truth actually becomes known, I suspect that the Solarian League could find itself at war with not just Manticore, but potentially an alliance between Manticore AND Haven. It's not nice to force two star governments to go to war over the Chertwell Convention so that slavers can profit. And I'm certain that the results are going to be even uglier in terms of loss than ANYTHING we've seen to date.

I've been a fan of David Weber's for many years and I've been growing increasingly disappointed with his Honor Harrington series. Weber developed a very real-feeling universe for his character to live in but over the last several books he appears more interested in talking about the universe than in developing the characters, plot, or story. In SHADOW OF SAGANAMI, Weber got back closer to his roots, but AT ALL COSTS feels too much like a wandering text and not enough like a story. His characters move around like pieces on a board and don't have the same emotional impact they once did.

For example, part of this book is supposed to be a love story--a love between Harrington and White Haven. I don't feel it like I did Honor and Paul's story. I don't feel the dramatic impact of a main character's death, because that character barely had two lines in the whole novel. If it were a TV series, I'd assume the actor had wanted out of his contract.

No, David Weber is still a good writer, but he has to get back to basics with this series. Cut down on the breadth and go for the depth, Mr. Weber; you can make it work again.

The vision of humanity spreading across the galaxy, colonizing planets and traveling between the stars, has long been a staple of science fiction. Of the thousands of stories that have been told, from Asmiov to Star Trek and beyond, the variations seem limitless, and cover some of the most profound questions on what is possible for our future.

David Weber's "Honor Harrington" universe is in many regards familiar, with nation states run by monarchies, republics, religious patriarchies, or rich oligarchs, battling for dominance - with the difference that the action is not on Earth, but among the stars. The superdreadnoughts and carriers are immense, their offensive weapons devastating, their battle maneuvers reminiscent of the great sea battles on this planet in previous centuries, but tailored to the celestial environment.

Weber assaults us with numbers, particularly on ship and missile capabilities: missile assaults and counter-missile responses are described in loving detail. Weber's characters are always conscious of the limitations of their weapons and the capabilities of their enemies, they scope things out with stealth surveilance, they plan trajectories through star systems with care, and any surprises can bring crushing defeat.

These have been the characteristics of the thrilling battle scenes in the Honor Harrington books from the start, and "At All Costs" does not disappoint in this regard, with Honor commanding the offensive 8th fleet in a stunning series of conflicts against their old enemies, Haven, culminating in a climactic defense of Honor's home star system of Manticore.

Given that this is the 11th book in the series chronicling Honor's rise through the Manticoran navy, it's not surprising the pace is sometimes slow. Weber wallows in politics and the machinations of the oligarchic slave-traders associated with the older and larger Solarian League. A diplomatic solution to the Haven conflict seems close, in which Honor could play a critical role, but is thwarted by mysterious assassinations. Direct conflict with the Solarians seems inevitable in the next book in the series.

Honor's personal life is also developed here, as in many of the previous books; this time she finally has a baby and settles down for marriage, a rather unusual one, and not quite in the right order. Weber does an interesting job of introducing these personal plot elements, but he clearly isn't as comfortable with them as with the big space battle scenes. Dialogue can seem far from natural, though one has to accept the vastly different environments of home life, politics, and space warfare that lead to the range of conversational styles Weber attempts to portray. Sometimes he seems to set things up, implying a political impact of Honor's baby and marriage for instance, but not fully following through; perhaps some of that will be left to the next book too.

As space opera, "At All Costs" is quite satisfying; the additional CD containing all the earlier books in the series and more makes it that much more worthwhile - a good choice for any science fiction fan.

As resumed hostilities between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven call Admiral Honor Harrington back to combat duty, she gets the surprise of her life thusfar. The "foolproof" birth control methods of the far future can still fail, given enough opportunity for human error (not hers). She's pregnant by her lover, Hamish Alexander - Earl White Haven, who is very much married to Emily. Who, since she (Emily, that is!) must spend the rest of her days in a life support chair, has given her husband's relationship with Honor her blessing. Will it be too much even for Emily, though, if Honor gives White Haven an heir?

That's one of the plots playing out in this absorbing, multi-layered latest novel in a deservedly popular military science fiction series. The struggles of various political and military factions on both sides, Manticore and the People's Republic, provide the other major storyline. Unlike the preceding book, this one has plenty of action - something I miss sorely when it's not there, since too much politics makes me yawn - and plenty of Honor, too.

For me, at least, thoroughly enjoyable. I didn't even mind when I read the last page, and then realized that one intriguing and vitally important plot thread had been left hanging. After all, I'll definitely be reading the next book!

I am a David Weber fan and have been reading the Honor Harrington series since the first book appeared. In general the series has been great: exciting and fast paced.

Until this book I have always been disappointed to arrive at the end of the book -- I wanted more. Unfortunately, that was not true with 'At All Costs.' The book seems to be at least two hundred pages too long. At over 800 pages, the book frequently goes into details that add little, if anything, to the primary story threads. I actually found myself skimming or skipping parts of the book -- something I have never done in reading any other Weber book.

Don't get the wrong idea. I am still entranced by the Honor Harrington saga and will continue to read about her exploits. Weber continues to be among the topmost SF writers, including past as well as present writers. (I've been reading SF for over 50 years; so I've read quite a few SF books.)

As this is book 11 of the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, this review will not dwell on the back story leading up to At All Costs - read the first 10 books to get an idea of the politics and machinations that this series has taken on.

At All Costs picks up where War of Honor left off - with Manticore reeling from the counter-blow by Haven that kills the ceasefire and brings the perpetual war between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven back in full force.

War of Honor might have been the end of this series as we knew (and loved) it with its focus on political intrigue and the ever-so-infuriating politics that Manticore had descended into. But luckily, Haven's surprise attack undid most of that fairly boring line of thought and brought White Haven and Honor, etc. back in charge of the Kingdom's future.

So, I was excited to see where all of this led with the long-awaited At All Costs. At first, I was afraid that this book would follow the same track as the previous as the first 100 pages or so were more political intrigue and insider machinations that left me wondering what Weber was smoking. But, then it all starts to make sense (mostly, as much of the intrigue follows from Crown of Slaves, an off-shoot book that isn't necessary to read this book, but it would have made it easier to figure out what was going on in some instances) after that first 100 pages and the action really gets going.

And going it does get...At All Costs returns the Honor Harrington series to what Weber does best - naval battles in the vacuum of space. And At All Costs is a series of space battles, with all of the characters - on both sides - that you have come to know an love.

Without giving away the ending of this installment, it is important to address the future of this series. Essentially, the action and weaponry accelerate at a breakneck pace to some extent in this book, and when it was all said and done, I had one singular feeling that I can only equate to what the military commanders around the First World War must have thought as they watched their 19th century gentlemanly battlefield tacts disintegrate in the face of machine guns and tanks.

One last note: Weber's other off-shoot book in this series, Shadow of Saganami, takes place in parallel with this book. It is not necessary to read it first, but it might also shed some light on some of the side stories going on here.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Let me start with a digression. David Weber and John Ringo collaberated on a four-part series beginning with "March Upcountry" and continuing on for three sequels about a ne'er-do-well prince and his Marine bodyguards who were marooned on a distant planet and had to fight their way, first to the planet's only spaceport and then back to Earth. At one point, one of the Marines reflects on the fact that the group seems to be trapped in an interminable moment of slaughter, and that is the way I felt about that series around the middle of the third book (it took the protagonists three of the four books just to get to the spaceport and the series' denoument--a wildly improbable one--was crammed into the final volume). That is also my reaction to "At All Costs"--this series threatens to drag on and on through ever murkier and wilder plot twists and exemplars of villany and, to be frank, unreality; there is too much slaughter and too many Moriarity-type bad guys. The acute characterizations are still there, and the Harrington universe is as convincingly detailed as usual, but there are also passages of nothing but filler or loving computations of megatonnage thrown. In my opinion this series needs to be brought to a quick and merciful end; with high honors certainly (no pun intended) but to an end.

David Weber has always written good books. However the Honor Harrington Series is getting a little long in the tooth. Always in the right place at the right time and just so happens to have an enemy defeating tatic/weapon at her disposal.
This doesn't make it a bad book just predictable.

At All Costs is quite a bit better than the previous couple of Honor books, but sadly it is nowhere near as good as The Shadow Of Saganami. There is an excellent 500 page space opera hidden in this 850 page novel, but to find it you once more have to read through pages and pages of drek where everyone around Honor keeps telling her how wonderful she is, while she keeps saying "Aw shucks, I guess you do really like me!".

Except for one isolated scene, we do not have to sit through closed room meetings were the Manticore opposition complains about how they would have gotten away with all their nefarious plans except for Honor. (In fact, it seems there is no more Manticore opposition.) But that is replaced by closed room meetings where the Mesa slavers complain about how they would have gotten away with all their nefarious plans except for the Manticore Navy. And oh yes, for some reason they are personally upset with Honor herself (I guess due to actions in Silesia).

Just like the previous War Of Honor, most of the plot consists of a series of misunderstandings between Haven and Manticore. Neither side wants war, but they are in one. When Haven makes a sincere effort to end the war, Mesa secretly punches enough of Elizabeth's buttons to get her in a rage, unwilling to negotiate.

Of course the single Allied figure who is wise and smart enough to realize the problem is Honor, but she is also too dutiful to oppose Elizabeth.

We also finally have the resolution of the Honor/WhiteHaven love triangle, with the solution that has been obvious from the start.

On the other hand, the battle scenes were pretty good, as the Manties and the Havenites kept one-upping each other tactically. The move and countermove chess game was the best part of the book, and was continued all the way to the end. I could do with less of the breathless, italicized, "SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND attack missles" stylistic overkill, but I guess it *is* a space opera, after all. However, the battles where entire fleets of SDs are destroyed are not as emotional or as tense as the small-scale cruiser-on-cruiser conflicts of books gone bye.

It seems clear that Weber is trying to set up a war between the outer star nations and the Sollies, or at least some of them led by the Mesans. Hopefully this will feature less Honor and more of Weber's other characters.

Step 1: Read the previous ten books in the Honor Harrington series, the four short story anthologies and the two ancilliary books, "Crown of Swords" and "Shadow of Saganami".

Done? Okay, now you're ready for "At All Costs"

Weber's Honorverse is a sweeping, increasingly complex military science fiction series. Weber exhibits his usual skill at balancing military action and tactics, political machinations and character development and interaction, making this a lot more than just straight up military SF.

With time the series has acquired more moral ambiguity. The Republic of Haven are no longer the 'bad guys', and the Manticorans are no longer innocent victims of unprovoked invasion. We see more of the individual weakness and predjudices of fundamentally good people, and how those weaknesses can affect their judgement.

At the same time, we lose some of the appeal of the earliest books. The concentration on a single ship and its crew fighting against overwhelming odds, that we saw in "On Basilisk Station" or "The Honor of the Queen" is largely missing, although the recently published "Shadow of Saganami" returns to that model. Don't get me wrong, this in an excellent book, it's just a very different book that the earlier ones in the series, with the action occuring at a higher political and military level.

As always, Weber demonstrates his willingness to kill major characters, and it's painful to watch the death of well liked characters you've followed through a series of this length. He also manages to outdo any of his previous death tolls by an order of magnitude - no mean feat.

This book and the previous volume, "War of Honor" are rather like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You see fundamentally decent people who want the best for their citizens, pulled inexorably into disastrous consequences, step by logical step. It can be painful to watch, but makes for a fantastic read.

The deadly war between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven has heated up after a short lived cease fire with the Havenites firing the first shots in the new hostilities because of a belief that their enemies altered key documents. However, Haven President Eloise Pritchart has since learned that a member of her inner circle altered the documents to reignite the war. Though she believes her side can win, the cost is high so she seeks peace. Eloise is willing to meet with the Manticore ruler Queen Elizabeth to broker an agreement.

Queen Elizabeth knows that her side is on the brink of defeat. She assigns her only victorious military officer Admiral Honor Harrington to lead the Eighth Fleet. Honor is pregnant so must tend to her unborn yet still return to the front where her side desperately needs her unusual but successful strategic leadership. She has the fetus removed to mature in the safety of a tube, but worries that her enemies might use her child as a pawn against her. Still duty calls.

The latest Honor Harrington tale has the twist that the heroine (at least to the Manticore side - the devil to the Havenites) is pregnant, but has a war to fight. Placing the fetus into a tube reminded this reader of the song In the year 2525. The story line is action-packed yet character driven, which is typical of David Weber's tales. Fans of military science fiction in which full societies are involved will want to read this entire series though each book including the fabulous AT ALL COSTS can stand alone in spite of references to previous events (from both sides of the conflict).

Harriet Klausner

After the heady political theme of Book 10, the return to frequent battle scenarios was a welcome gift from At All Costs. Weber again does a masterful job of showing the multiple layers of battle, the multiple layers of personality, and ultimately the multiple layers of his writing skills.

Frankly, I loved it.

Unlike a lot of readers of the series, I came at this book cold. To the best of my knowledge I had not read anything by David Weber before this. I have since remediated that situation, and have some of the side series to complete yet, but I can honestly say, don't start with this book.

The only book I would say this even more of would be the seventh book in the series. If you have trouble reading that, you are not alone.

That said, this is a very well written book, that is reasonably readable to the novice, and continues the practice of bringing toghether storylines from the side series.

It also has elements you will not find in any of the other books, except by partial reference. It has been mentioned early on that there is an active SCA community within the Honorverse. (There may even be more than just a mention in some of the side series I haven't gotten to.) One of the side effects of this is the inclusion of materials we today might consider contemporary, yet has some of the same power in the Honorverse as for example Dante's 'Inferno' does to us. I happen to think that it is carried off well.

Having now read the previous 10 books in the series, I can see some of the complaints that have been listed by other reviewers. I still think this book does provide enough starting points for offshoots, developments into the other series, and ongoing developments towards some of the projected storylines that have been mentioned, that it deserves the 4 out of 5 I give it.

Although I did enjoy this book, it is not up to the usual standards I've come to expect from Mr. Weber.

My main criticism is the very large amount of print devoted to the Hamish Alexander - Emily Alexander - Honor Harrington "love" triangle. Way too much information and minutia getting around to a solution my three year old grandson could have seen coming from about the third chapter. Also, no satisfactory explanation as to why this "solution" avoided the public embarassment that has been such an issue for the last three or four books in this series.

Otherwise, a good read, which sets up any number of sequels or offshoots in the "Honorverse". I predict that the next installment will more specifically deal with Manpower, etc.

It seems that Weber decided to stop playing around with these Honor Harrington books. Most of the other books in the series have weighed more towards politics or military action, and even in the more 'action-oriented' ones the narrative usually worked towards a primary climatic battle. While this one does work its way towards a climatic battle, the journey along the way is quite literally filled with engagement after engagement.

In the book there are also several less than minor changes which come about in Honor's life as the narrative progresses. If you have, in any way, enjoyed the previous 10 Harrington novels, this one is definitely for you. Though it might stand decently on it's own, it definitely is a culmination of the other novels.

Obviously, I greatly enjoyed this book. I would say, though, that while most anyone could pick up this book and enjoy it, those who have read through the rest of the series first will get much greater enjoyment from this than those who have not (so read the others first!).

Allow me to start with, I really enjoy Weber's work. I read this book curing my commute, while reading a different Weber book at home, and have read and enjoyed most of his work. This book though, not so much.

Have you ever heard the phrase "jumping the shark"? Well, there are several sharks here. As the cover shows, yes, Honor has a baby. There's tons of drama around it, paparazzi and the like as well as political issues. There's family drama. There's even much time wasted while she reads a children's book to the kids. All in all this book really feels like either someone else wrote it for him, or he is just truly bored with this series.

When we DO get to space for a battle, it feels rushed and ends abruptly, so we can get back to more soap opera or family drama.

I've read all the previous Honor books, hadn't in a while, and don't think I will for a while either. David, love your work but we're reading Honor for well written military fiction, not motherly love and family drama.

At All Costs (2005) is the eleventh novel in the Honor Harrington series, following War of Honor. In the previous volume, Manticore was having major difficulties, much of which was either ignored or unnoticed by the High Ridge government. The Andermandis were trying to annex the Confederacy of Silesia. The allies were very disaffected; Erewhon even signed a defense treaty with Haven and shared alliance technology with them. The North Hollow Files were destroyed and Georgia Young vanished from the system.

Diplomatic notes to and from Haven were altered by the Havenite Secretary of State, completely undermining the peace talks; eventually the Havenites resumed hostilities. After news of the disastrous defeats at Grendelsbane and elsewhere, High Ridge tried to form a coalition government, but the Queen refused to confirm his leadership. High Ridge was forced to resign and William Alexander became Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, Honor had been sent to Silesia as Station Commander at Sidemore. She was responsible for pirate suppression and anti-slaver operations . . . and slated as the scapegoat for any Andermandi takeover of the Confederacy. When the Havenites resumed hostilities, Honor's command was a major target, but she convinced the Andermandi to stand aside and then repulsed the Havenite strike with the aid of Grayson forces. Her victory was the only good news following the Havenite Operation Thunderbolt.

In this novel, Manticore is extremely short of naval assets after destruction of the Grendelsbane shipyards and ONI keeps increasing their estimate of Havenite capabilities. Honor is designated as the commander of the currently nonexistant Eighth Fleet and the Admiralty is trying to provide vessels for her. While the Eighth Fleet will be getting the newest ships, the newest weapons and the best people, very little is available at this time.

Honor has started preliminary discussions with Admiralty House on the best use of her fleet and has gotten her selections for the command team. Gradually the ships and crews are accumulating at Trevor's Star. Moreover, an audacious strategy is being developed for their use.

Honor has settled into a comfortable relationship with Hamish Alexander and his wife Emily. But an unfortunate glitch caused everyone to overlook the expiration of her ten year contraceptive implant and she becomes pregnant. When she has the fetus entubed at the Briarwood Reproduction Center, word leaks out to the scandal sheets. So Emily asks Honor to marry Hamish and herself.

Kevin Usher, head of the Haven Federal Investigative Agency, has developed an unholy idea that Secretary of State Arnold Giancola altered the diplomatic notes between Manticore and Haven. He asks Senior Inspector Abrioux to check covertly on the possibility. When Abrioux confirms his suspicions, Usher extends the investigation with intent to gather proper evidence.

The Manpower Incorporated board decides to continue operations in the Talbott Cluster and against the monarchy at Congo. They discuss the success of the new nanotech, particularly in the Hofschulte affair. The question is raised whether this nanotech might be used for other assassinations.

This novel takes the current Manticore-Haven hostilities to a decisive conclusion. Some rulers would think that a Pyrrhic victory is better than total defeat, but how do the commoners feel about the countless deaths? How many sailors can any star nation afford to lose?

The novel portrays the conflict within Honor as a Queen's officer and as a human being. She tries to convince Elizabeth, from her own personal acquaintance with Havenites in high office, that the Republic of Haven differs greatly from all previous incarnations of the star nation. Yet the Queen hates all "peeps" without regard to the people or form of their government. Elizabeth just stops discussing the subject with Honor.

Only Hamish agrees with her and tries to intercede for her without avail. But she continues to believe that the war is the result of foolishness on both sides. Despite her convictions, Honor still obeys orders from the Crown and Admiralty to kill Havenite ships and sailors. Where possible, she spares the personnel while she destroys the ships.

Highly recommended for Weber fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of naval action and political maneuvers from the viewpoint of a strong and passionate woman.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Clearly, this series has obtained a life of its own. Weber deserves credit for sheer persistence, a definite talent for keeping multiple plot lines going, and the discipline to pump out adequate prose in industrial quantities. This is not particularly good writing nor particularly original. The numerous fans of this series are judging these books by criteria that have only a modest relationship to their actual merit. The problem Weber faces is to keep going with bigger and better wars to sate his fans' taste for this type of space opera. This book is characterized by a hokey romantic subplot, an extremely contrived main plot line, and a deus ex machina salvation at the end by use of unbelievably superior technology. Even by the standards of the genre, this is a bit hard to swallow. This is all in the service of trying to top his last book's mammoth battles. Intelligent readers will recognize quickly that Weber has a very clear idea of where this is all going in an effort to produce increasingly grandiose spectacles.

First thing that struck me as I opened my Christmas present was the cover, so very diffrent from the rest of the books in the series. Also, someone got it wrong, Treecats have only 4 digets on their true hands not 5 as the cover shows. This is brought up several times again in the previous book and this one. I can't wait for the next book to come out and hope the two nations relise they are being tricked by a third party and get togather and kick some one elses a-- and not each others as I have gotten to like the charaters on both sides.

I also recommend you read Mr. Weber's series on Prince Roger, it is a bit rougher then the Honor Harrington series, but very good reading.

To think over 2 million people lost in one battle lasting just over 4 hours. Make one think of how fragle man kind is.

If you have not read the entire series you are missing some great writing. If you like the Horatio Hornblower or anything else by C.S. Lewis, you will like this one. This book was the first time that someone actually used strong cuss words in it and I was a bit surprised by it even if it did fit the story line.

"At All Costs" details the next year in Honor Harrington's life. If you're a fan of Honor, you'll need this book, but I suggest you wait for it in paperback (I got it for Xmas). From my point of view, "At All Costs" continues the fading interest Mr. Weber has shown in Honor that started back before "Ashes of Victory".

Make no mistake, at over 800 pages, "At All Costs" is typical Weber; David never uses a phrase when a paragraph will do. There are new weapons, bigger battles and a variety of crises in the lives of the characters, but most of this seems to be more going through the motions rather than advancing the characters or the story. In the grand scheme of things, the overall plot doesn't advance very much.

The time period covered in the book overlaps the period covered in "The Shadow of Saganami" and the events in the Cluster (and the inability to know what is happening there) impact the actions in "Costs". This is particularly relevant since Manticore and the Republic of Haven have resumed their shooting war. I approve when differents events in the same universe are appropriately tied together.

Still, there are several things that I find annoying:

1. The smartest people seem unable to think well enough to find some of the most obvious solutions to their problems or at least reasonable alternatives and paths to pursue. I don't like it when a plot turns on people becoming selectively dumb.

2. David's system of naval engagement becomes even less believable than it has been. I'm willing to willfully suspend disbelief, but you gotta meet me halfway.

3. Everything's getting a little too cutesy-cliquey around Honor. Things are starting to sound more like Mary Sue Fan Fiction than a professionally plotted and written novel.

There are some things that I like. One in particular is the closer look we get at the Havenite government, their concerns and how they deal with some of the tough issues. David is actually able to make us sympathize somewhat with Prichert and Theisman.

I do like a hero and so I keep coming back to Honor. I just wish Mr. Weber would treat her with the care and effort she deserves and less like a meal ticket. I was once told by Barry Malzberg that to be a real story, the events of the story needed to cause the characters to change in some nontrivial way. Otherwise, it was just a travelogue. This is more a travelogue.

I have to agree with the other reviewer. This is a great book. Fans of the series should love the amount of action. Personally, I always like it when the action is heavy in a book - and the space battles, and the discussion about their implications - in this book are great! Truthfully, Weber does such an incredible job examining each side in the latest installment of the Havenite/Manticore War that I found myself rooting for the Peeps in the major battle. What more can I say - whole systems devastated and entire fleets, hundreds of capital ships, blown away makes for a fast-paced, entertaining read.

This is by far one of the longer Honor Harrington series. It is also one of the best written and most heart-touching.

Manticore is on the ropes, the damage done by the previous prime minister and his party has truly been brought to fruition. In the desperate struggle to rebuild militarily, hold the front politically and to keep the Havenites in check, once again our favorite characters are in the for front of this fight.

Weber, weaves a compelling tale, adding new pieces of information that begin to show possible outcomes or out comes the reader had not tough of before. In the course of this story a number of our favorite characters will say their adieu's and depart stage right. Yet in the midst of battle there are some tender moments which are yet another peek into Honor's life and that of her family...

I am sure this book will play a pivotal role in the story yet to be told so be sure not to miss it! Its definitely a 5 star read and its is a page turner to be sure!!

I think the best thing I can say about the "Honorverse" and David Weber's Honor Harrington books is that I have read all 11 books of the main series so far, and it has kept me entertained and always reaching for the next one. Weber mixes the military / tactical side of starship command (focusing on velocities and missile ranges and space combat tactics) with the personal challenges faced by a young officer as she ascends through the ranks. Weber adds great depth to his main character (perhaps sometimes at the expense of other characters) and I appreciate the exploration of interesting ethical themes and dilemmas inherent in the command of a starship capable of decimating entire planets. While I did find the books a bit too focused on the specifics of space combat for my tastes, I was able to get through the lengthy details and enjoy the action scenes, of which there are many.

In fact, At All Costs specifically had more focus on action, conducted on a grander scale, than the previous books in the series. As Weber's main character rose through the ranks, she was put in charge of larger and larger fleets with more and more critical missions. Throughout, the war with an opposing interstellar republic has gained intensity. All of that culminates in this book, leading to massive fleet battles that fans of the series will find engrossing.

One thing that bothered me about the book was the nagging sense that the entire conflict should and would have been avoided by this point. The permutations in logic that the Havenite leaders (who by now are finally good and intelligent people) must undergo to justify a massive attack just didn't hold water for me. So, while the final battle scene was exciting, it also left me asking "why?"

I would recommend the book to those who have read the previous installments; this book is better than most in the series and most in the genre. I would not recommend it to anyone unfamiliar with his earlier works or with an aversion to tactical or "military" science fiction. I'd probably rate it 3.5 stars if I could.

I have begun Weber's 10th novel in the Honor Harrington series. His books are difficult to put down. However, I have become more disenchanted as the stories progress.
Different needs and tastes will attract different readers. This reader has loved the military and battle events and accordingly is finding the character development and political events somewhat trivial, extraneous or irrelevant.
To use the author's words in one of his stories, they are becoming too long-winded.
Te outcome for me, I am afraid to say, is that I am now skipping huge chunks of print.
Fortunately, At All Costs has restored my interest; with a better balance between action, characters, and the long-winded political blah blah blah.
Excellent stuff. Can't wait for the sequel.

Neil Hilford
New Zealand

The war is not finished. The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven, the Peeps, are once more in confrontation to settle the territorial aspects for good. The Lady Captain Honor Harrington begins her return to the front to command the legendary Eighth Fleet and the Alliance's primary offensive forces. Star Kingdom and its Allies are badly outnumbered by the Republic's new fleet. Eighth Fleet's job is to prevent Peeps from crushing the Alliance before the Allies can regain their strategic balance. There is just this one thing. Honor Harrington learns that she is pregnant.

The story of Lady Honor Harrington, Stead holder of Grayson, continues in normal progression. In parallel to the military action she is participating, she is diagnosed to be pregnant. There is no question about terminating the pregnancy. In political sense this brings turbulence for her Duchess status in Grayson where her heir would be labelled bastard. The group marriage arrangement with his superior Hamish and her wife Emily Alexander is developing into a political stir; or more like a dire political crisis. Not to mention Emily's tragic injury and disabilities to provide an offspring. We learn to see how Honor Harrington copes with tumultuous changes in her personal and public life.

Two (2) stars. Written in 2005, this is book 11 in Weber's long running Honorverse series started in 1992 at book On Basilisk Station. After 3 years since the previous book the hard cover is a hefty 800+ page brick that includes dashing romanticism, stunning realistic fleet battles and a remarkable level of characterization. The figure of Lady Honor Harrington is explored more into developments in her personal life and family. Unfortunately this makes the plot meanders more and is not that tightly written as before. The largest and most critical battle presented at the end, the sheer amount of tonnage destroyed, turns into anticlimax and wearing due to all the physics details already done on several occasions. The series will be remembered for its one of the kind space battles and memorable Lady Captain but the thrill is not any more sparkling. More focused plot, tighter writing, and lots of pages removed, the developments would have been more flowing; like canoing on a uncharted river. Overall a little placid and unsatisfying read.

I agree with the other reviewers. This is one of the best of the series.... All the stuff that hooked you in the first place--the great space combat (albeit now at the level of fleets rather than ships), the soap opera, the Napoleonic Wars in space, etc., are there. It's also one of the most tragic, as he brings home with a crash the fact that enemies aren't always "evil" and "good" and how events can really take on a logic of their own separate from the actors. Both Manticore and Haven have slipped into essentially a berzerker rage towards each other and it's darn hard to figure out how they're going to break out of it. He's clearly taking the series in a new direction and hints have been dropped about what it is, but I think it's best to let you find out on your own....

Weber's writing has definitely improved and a few of the semi-annoying mannerisms (e.g., characters saying "Um." all the time) are gone. The writing is crisp and clean and I hardly "felt" the around 900 pages of length. The presence of a glossary and character guide in the back of the book was also helpful.

One thing I will say, however (though I suspect it doesn't really need much saying given that this book is #11 in a series): Events in Shadow of Saganami and At All Costs are linked in time and in general Costs would have some spoilers for Shadow. Best read Shadow first if you haven't already.

That line above seems to be David Weber's writing philosophy. Weber has always been a too-wordy author, but I enjoyed his novels because he managed to keep things focused enough that the wordiness didnt become overwhelming. Well he's finally lost me. We've got a novel of over 800 pages that should at most be only 500.

It starts out fine with the attack by the Havenite fleet on the Manty shipyard. But then we run right smack into a brick wall with the chapter about the genetic slave-traders talking about how they want to destroy Honor. Weber uses an entire chapter to explain two simple points, war between Haven and Manticore is good for the slave traders, and Honor messed with their business and they want to kill her for it. It doesnt get any better after that.

The book reads more like a college textbook than a sci-fi novel. The characters dont talk, they monologue on and on and on about every single point. And how about Honor makes an actual mistake once? Where she makes a decision about something that turns out to be wrong? And how about we get an enemy that can actually think like intelligent people for once? This is it for me, no more Weber books.

Another installment of the Honor Harrington series, and fans will need no more recommendation than that.

After the heavy blows struck by the Republic of Haven in "War of Honor", peace has become definite possibility, there is the prospect of a summit between the respective Heads of State, and even the "Salamander" may even be able to contemplate some form of family life. As may be guessed, however, this is not to be, as there are those in the Galaxy with considerable interest in seeing Haven and Manticore battling one another. This time, all does not bode well for the Star Kingdom: Operation Bolthole has borne fruit for the Republic, the technology gap has narrowed leaving weight of numbers to have its day: if diplomacy fails then at last a decisive blow is in the offing...

Weber will never win style points from the self-styled literary elite, but he tells a good tale: he has the happy knack for keeping the pages turning, and expertly ratchets up the tension as Manticore faces its darkest hour, its very survival in doubt.

An excellent read.

I hope the HH series doesn't end with this book. It's no fit way for a largely great series and character to die. I can read and re-read the first three books with wonderment and total joy but as the series goes on it begins a "Roman Empire" slide into self-indulgence that ends with this disappointing dénouement. Weber must be bored by now, or simply burned out. Perhaps, as some others have speculated, the editorial side of the author/publisher relationship was asleep at the switch. In any case, I'll probably buy another installment... if there is one... hoping the fire will return to Weber's writing.

This one is pretty much Weber's standard fare- a few space battles, lots of discussion of politics and the economics in a spacefaring nation, some slightly over-the-top drama. There are some Honor's-family-related scenes and moments that are moving, but the rest of it is just "meh". Some of the book seems to be phoned in, just a teeny bit. I'm concerned about my guy Weber-- maybe he needs to take a vacation from the series, come back in a year or two with some fresh ideas about where to take the series in the future. I mean that in a nice way.

I found this to be an excellent book in this series. I don't recommend reading this or any of the Honor Harrington series out of order, you would miss a great deal of the background and appreciation of the various personalities at play. The book will stand on it's own well, but there's just too much history.

I reserved the 5th star because it didn't blow my socks off for originality, but then, a sequel can't really do that.

If you're a fan of the series, read it. You won't be disappointed even if you're not.

If you have not read any of David Weber's other books about Honor Harrington: this is number 11 in a series of space opera novels set two or three thousand years in the future.

Despite the futuristic setting, however, there are strong parallels with Nelson's navy. The assumed technology in the stories imposes constraints on space navy officers in the stories which are remarkably similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago, and the galactic situation in the novels contains some strong similarities to the strategic and political situation in European history at the time of the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

This appears to be quite deliberate: and a number of thinly veiled (and often quite amusing) hints in the books indicate that they are to some extent a tribute to C.S. Forester, while the main heroine of the books, Honor Harrington, appears to owe more than a little to C.S. Forester's character "Horatio Hornblower."

If you have not read any of these books and are interested in doing so, do not start with this book. These stories work better if read in sequence, and I suggest you start with the first book, which is "On Basilisk station."

Rather like "Star Trek" the Honor Harrington series is starting to develop a number of spin-off storylines. You can characterise the novels set in this Universe (sometimes nicknamed the "Honorverse") into three groups, although they share a common history which links together in a reasonably consistent manner.

At the time of writing there is the main sequence of 11 novels which follow the career of Honor Harrington herself and also give an overall view of the wars between her home nation, "The Star Kingdon of Manticore" and its enemies. The full list of titles in the main Honor Harrington sequence is:

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

There are currently four collections in the "Worlds of Honor" series of short stories by Weber and several co-authors set in the same universe, and featuring a range of characters, some from the main series of books, others new.

Some of these are espionage stories, and Weber has produced a book called "Crown of Slaves" co-written with Eric Flint, which brings together several of the most prominent spies from the novels and short stories in a novel of intrigue and revolution.

Another book, "The Shadow of Saganami" kicks off a "next generation" sequence featuring some younger officers in the Grayson and Manticoran navies such as Helen Zilwicki and Abigail Hearns. The events of "The Shadow of Saganami" take place at approximately the same time as those of "At all costs". If you are planning to read both books I would strongly recommend that you read "The Shadow of Saganami" before you tackle "At all costs" for two reasons. First, although the action of these two books takes place roughly concurrently, "The Shadow of Saganami" finishes first and the results of the last battle in that book are reported back to Honor Harrington a short time before the end of "At all costs." So to some extent it gives away the ending of "The Shadow of Saganami" if you read this book first. And secondly, there are a number of references in "At all costs" to events in the Talbott Cluster which will mean a great deal more to readers who have already read "The Shadow of Saganami."

"At all costs" continues the story of the devastating war which flared back into life in "War of Honor." It also continues the story of Honor Harrington's personal life and gives her, for the first time, the opportunity to develop a maternal side.

Both the beginning of chapter one, and the end of the final chapter, number 69, (yes, it's a massive book,) are set in nurseries. The story starts and ends with Honor reading the book "David and the Phoenix" to her little sister and brother, plus various other children. (This is a real book, by Edward Ormondroyd, and Weber includes an afterword explaining something of what it means to him: in his own book it clearly means a great deal to Honor.) The cover illustration shows one of these scenes, from the end of the book.

The title "At all costs" is only too appropriate as both sides rack up the most enormous casualty lists. Several important characters in the series die, or are killed in battle, in this book, including more than one who go all the way back to "On Basilisk Station".

Now that Honor is a very senior admiral she has had to learn and apply appropriate political skills, and there is a lot of political intrigue and manouvering in the book, However, but this should not disturb those readers who complained about too much politics and not enough fighting in some of the recent novels in the series. There is a very great deal of fighting in this one.

The character development, as ever for David Weber, is very well done, and makes you care about the people in the book. He includes references to the strengths of some of his evil characters and the weaknesses of his heroes and heroines so that the people in the book are usually believable and most of their actions and motives plausible.

Most of the battle scenes are very well done, and Weber is fighting manfully against his greatest weakness - the tendancy to write and think too much like a wargamer. However, that tendancy is still present and is the one significant flaw in the book.

The wargamer mentality has two unfortunate effects. Firstly, Weber spends a little bit too much time and effort on the orders of battle of the massive fleets which he creates. And the reader has to plow through them regardless of whether you are really interested in the detail because Weber is quite capable of informing the reader of the death of a major character by recording that a particular ship or station has blown up with all hands.

Second and more important, Weber still gives his characters too much of the wargamer's willingness to treat warships up to and including capital ships as expendable to a far greater extent than has ever been exhibited by real world commanders. The captains and admirals commanding real ships crewed by thousands of human beings and representing vast resources usually cannot, do not, and should not regard them as expendable to the same degree that wargamers moving counters on a board or images on a computer screen can. In all the three-hundred year history of ships of the line and battleships, I can only think of a single instance of a real admiral giving a squadron of real capital ships the sort of suicidal order which is almost routinely given to squadrons and to entire fleets in this book.

But the above criticism should not be overstated. Weber does make some attempt to justify the circumstances in which his characters order suicide attacks which sacrifice hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of lives, and to recognise that the people making those decisions would not do so lightly (especially as their own lives would be among those thrown away.) He also gives several admirals the moral courage to order their ships abandoned or surrendered rather than waste thousands of lives for nothing.

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 = Revolutionary France
Rob S. Pierre = Robespierre
Former Haven legislaturist regime = the Bourbon monarchy and aristocrats

Star Kingdom of Manticore = Great Britain
Gryphon = Scotland
Prime Minister Alan Summervale = Pitt the Younger
Hamish Alexander, Earl White Haven = Admiral Edward Pellew
Honor Harrington = Horatio Hornblower
Alistair McKeon = William Bush
Crown loyalists and Centrists = Tory supporters of Pitt
Conservative Association = hardline High Tories
New Kiev Liberals = Whig Oligarchists
Cathy Montaigne Liberals = Whig Radicals
The extreme right & extreme left coalition which held power after Alan Summervale's death = the government of "all the talents" which took over for a while after Pitt the Younger died.

Grayson = Portugal
Anderman Empire = Kingdom of Prussia
Silesia = Poland
Solarian republic = United States of America

Overall, "At all costs" is one of the best books of the series. If you enjoyed the previous episodes in the story, you will almost certainly enjoy this one.

This could have been the best of all the Honor books- it's difficult to explain without spoiling, so don't read it if you dont even want hints as to plot:

the ending leads up to a really important battle in what could have been a stupendous cliff-hanger, and left the reader desperate to know the fate of the star kingdom. Unfortunately, the final battle is extremely dry- there is very little attention to the human aspect of the inhabitants of the planets below, and millions of people died, yet i felt very little for them.

Rather than the standard-plot storyline we have seen in the last five or six books, this one could have really challenged the fans- imagine Havenite forces hanging over Manticore, and Queen Elizabeth and her ministers fleeing the Star Kingdom to safety for example...

Instead, rather than a real cliff-hanger, with the reader unsure of what is going to happen, Weber takes the safe option and has Honor saving the day at the last minute, against ridiculously overwhelming odds.

I have to be honest, i loved the first few books but i shan't run to buy the next one, as i can already predict exactly the same characters, with the same cringeworthy dialogue and 'humourous' comments. the battle will be even bigger than the last one but there will be little human involvement and lots of people will die. boohoo. at the end of the day, they'll all be havenite...

i'll buy it because i want to know what happens, but, as the title of this review says- IT COULD HAVE BEEN FANTASTIC!!

I just finished my copy and couldn't be more pleased. It's a great story from a great storyteller.

Without giving away the plot, I can say that it ties into the "Crown of Slaves" and "Shadow of Saganami" books. It also gives us some teasers for what are must have sequels for both those titles. I can hardly wait for more!

Just one spoiler in that it's a boy.

I just want to expand my comments to include my observations of the CD Rom contained in the Hardcover edition. If this is your first exposure to the Honor Harrington series then you don't need to wait and purchase the entire series. If you can stand to read the eBook versions (HTML, Word .rtf, MS Reader .lit, Palm .prc, or Rocket Book .rb formats for each novel are included) on the CD you have access to a library of excellent SF and Fantasy.

The CD contains all 10 previous Honor Harrington novels, all four anthologies, and the first novels from the Saganami Island and Honor Universe series. But, (as they say in the commercials) that's not all! You also get the first three novels on the Bahzell fantasy series, 1633 with Eric Flint, the four Starfire novels with Steve White, the four Empire of Man novels with John Ringo, and more.

Enjoy!

I have been a big fan of the series for eight years, and had begun to despair at the moribund state of Weber's storyline during the last two books. "Ashes of Honor" had hardly any Honor in it -- he might as well have left her out entirely. "War of Honor" was much better, but still felt like a vast historical epic with too little of its main character. Thankfully, Weber's sideline novels, including "Crown of Slaves" and the Saganami Island series, have allowed him to expand Honor's universe (the "Honorverse"), introducing a raft of characters and subplots while increasing the focus on Honor herself in the books that bear her name.

Indeed, Weber has brought the epic storyline full circle in this novel -- putting Honor at the leading edge of a revolution in tactics and technology -- to portray his biggest battle yet. The Battle for Manticore is so big that Weber can merely portray its scope; even ships' computers are unable to fully understand and display it. It is Weber's Somme, with equivalent casualties. It is the largest battle in any of Weber's universes since the final battle in "The Armageddon Inheritance" -- and it is far more compelling than even Dahak's suicide-run.

Fans of Weber's technology will be delighted to see that longtime subplot reach its best, and most surprising, achievement to date: a new weapon that had me slappng myself and saying aloud, "of course! Why didn't I see THAT coming?"

New readers of the Honorverse are advised to begin with "The Short Victorious War" and work their way up through these novels. Longtime followers of the series should also reread Weber's postscript to that novel, in which he explains that the Manticore-Havenite War is merely the first act in a far larger war that will affect "almost all of known space." Weber has sown the seeds of that larger war in his sideline novels, but they begin to sprout here. My own gut feeling is that the Manticore-Havenite War has maybe one more book left -- after which we will be reading about the Solly-Alliance War, brought on by Mesa and Manpower, Incorporated.

For the first time since "Echoes of Honor," I am excited by the direction of this series. The awesome scope of Weber's battles has finally begun to coalesce into something less distracting and more complimentary to Honor's own story.

*Spoiler Alert:* For those readers who have lost track of all the characters in Weber's series, this book ends with a 14-page dramatis personae. HOWEVER, I would guess that three-quarters of them are dead by the end of the text. Baen would be WELL ADVISED to issue an Honorpedia in the future; it would be a welcome addition to every fan's library, because even WE lose track of all the names and events.

Why?

I wouldn't ordinarily encourage a person by a hard cover. But with this hardcover comes a CD with apparently EVERY book that Weber has had published. I mean - if you have never read an Honor Harrington book - this is the one to buy. take out the CD and read the first 5 books and the short stories and then if you still have an interest in the series read the rest, then finnaly this book if you can still hang with the politics.

AMAZING amount of stuff on that CD - even the non - Honor Harrington books. WOW! thanks.

Maybe 4 stars if you are new to the series.

But I must agree with many other long term fans. Mr. Weber is dragging out the obvious in a manner that lacks the life it previously had. This book is really just filling in tedious forensic details for long term readers. Unfortuantely Mr. Weber expanded those details into a full-blown trivia novel. The FTL missile cluster and battles are the only key development. A short story for that development and a few well placed paragraphs in the next novel would have done just as well.

Part of the detail is to finish tying together alternate storylines in offshoot novels about the antislavery activists and such. Part of the detail is to further how Manticore and Haven, and the Andies will merge into a close knit alliance in the next novel. Perhaps Mr. Weber is also documenting details for expanding the storylines to characters on the Haven side -- especially if he is thinking of chartering other authors. But mostly this novel seems to merely confirm what has been the obvious directions for several novels.

Honor will be in command of all forces when the combined Manticore-Haven-Andie complex takes on ManPower Inc and by logical extension of interest the Solarian military's exterior groups. If Mr Weber doesn't want to lose loyal readers he will get on with this by the middle of the next novel at the latest.

There continues to be a less certain hint that at the end of the series on Honor Harrington will have take the Manticore throne. Weber keeps flirting with hazards and asssasination to take out the remaining 4 "obstacles" between Honor and the throne she doesn't want. But Mr. Weber need not pile on more details as to why Admiral Harrington will be "Honor" bound to accept. Quite a boost for sharacter not in line for the throne or a noble at all when she graduated the academy. I assume at that point Mr. Weber will be able to retire Honor as an interested and influential party and pick up with her protege's biological, adopted, godmother etc. Remaining a background detail, perhaps a hands on strategist, will be, I think, a satisfying conclusion for most people (not conquered, not killed by meaningless accident, or put out to pasture -- but logically no longer in the field).

Some fascinating development, especially in relationships and religion. When Weber makes you feel for tragedy for "the enemy", he's managing classic tragedy.

Some have said Honor Harrington is implausible at this point, but I simply see a deepening of the character. There is room for both spinoffs and side stories, and I noted how this connected with other series in the Honorverse. I can think of several approaches for sequels.

This overlong book contains three distinct threads. The military confrontation with Haven, brought about by stubornness and misunderstandings on both sides, is excellent. There is now a mystery story as well, about who exactly is manipulating events to keep the war going, which was very well done, and could, I thought, have been expanded. Last, and very much least, are the developments in Honor's personal life, which I find completely unbelieveable. I have been waiting for about 3 books now for Honor to do what sensible women do, and walk away from this. And, the fake-humourous dialogue between Honor and her clique should have been edited out.

As Honor has risen in rank, she has become less and less intersting as a character. As of right now, the strongest, most interesting and compelling character is Theisman on the enemy side. In making him somewhat tougher and more profane than in earlier appearances, Weber has only succeeded in giving the Havenite Secretary of War the edge which Honor so conspicuously lacks. This was a great series once, and could be again if Weber would find the courage to have Honor and the Manticoreans loose in the next installment, or have Honor develope a tragic flaw, or both.

I didn't have especailly high hopes for this book. I think there has been a gradual decline in the quality of HH books over the years, and this one brings it to a new low. Basically, it's waaaaaay too long. At 850 pages, it's a monster read, and a slow one. That's not always a bad thing - sometimes if you like the characters it's nice to just hang out with your friends for page after page. But not here. Why is it necessary to describe in detail the exact movements of a treecat using sign language? For several paragraphs? More than once? Why are we given pages of liturgy for religious services? I think I'd be in a very small minority when I confess that I quite like the 1662 Prayer Book, though I can't quite work out why it would be revived in the distant future when it's been out of use here for decades! Maybe it was easy to cut and paste, and got the word count up.

And then there's the space combat - a strength of the series, especially the first three or four. But there's the rub - there are only so many ways you can describe a spaceship blowing up. By the 11th book in the series I can't be the only person out there whose eyes are beginning to glaze over when we get to the battle sequences.

But the big problem - spoiler alert! - is the way in which Weber solves the love triangle we left the last book with. Honor loves Hamish. Emily loves Hamish. Hamish loves Honor and Emily. What to do? It turns out that there's an easy solution. After about 400 pages of agonising (not to mention most of the previous book) it seems that Honor can marry them both. A bit outre? Seemingly not - apparently such arrangements fall well within the accepted norms of Manticoran law and custom. (Although we've never had a whiff of this before.) But what really gets me is that the reason it didn't happen about halfway through the last book is that (get this), gosh, no-one thought of it. It seems that no-one ever told Mr Weber that if you shoot someone with a gun in Act V, the gun better have been hanging on the wall in Act I.

All-in-all, I can only say, please Mr Weber. It is time to bring the series to an end. Please do it soon.

Weber is back to old form with this book. He has left out some of the tedious passages of Honor's angst that were a drag in some of the recent HH novels. A lot of tension as the Peep war swings back and forth. Bigger than ever space battles. And hints of the possibility for a common enemy should Haven and Manticore ever reach a truce. Before this book I wondered whether I would keep up with the HH series. Now I'm hooked all over again.

/K

The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven are still in the bloodiest war ever known. In a previous novel, readers learned that the Havenites believed the Manties, during a cease-fire, altered documents. Therefore, the Havenites fired the first shot, ending the cease-fire without even bothering to notify the Manties. Now the Havenites have reason to believe that the Manties never altered anything. In fact, it appears that one of their own did the altering, hoping to cause the war to continue ... and succeeded.
Haven President Eloise Pritchart wants nothing more than for the war to end. She releases a POW, who happens to be close to Honor Harrington, with a message for Queen Elizabeth. Eloise wants to meet and discuss terms for peace. Elizabeth is given the choice of when and where. Eloise asks that Honor be included, as well as, the treecats.
Honor Harrington is still close to Hamish and Emily (of White Haven). As Honor begins her return to the front, she learns that she is pregnant. Though all know, in the back of their minds anyway, who the father is, no one dares state it aloud. Since being killed in battle is always a possibility, Honor has her unborn child removed from herself and placed in a tube to mature. (Totally safe.) Those on Manticore and Grayson, depending on how they feel about Honor, are either thrilled to learn about an heir or furious and wanting to use the child as a weapon against the mother.
***** First off let me state that I hope the author creates a whole new series about Torch, its teenaged queen, and its the storeian people. Such potential exists there. Queen Berry Zilwicki came across much better than Queen Amidala could ever hope to have done.
Honor Harrington is something of "a personal bogeyman" for the Havenites. As always, Honor's reputation for unusual strategies grows, with great reason. If a student is only as good as his or her teacher, then the author, David Weber, is down right scary! The planning, tactical details, and battle executions are unnerving to me. I totally believe Weber to be a genius in this regard.
As my husband or I read ANY book by Weber, we lose a lot of sleep. We no longer bother to inform the other of WHY we look so tired and exhausted. We simply look into the eyes of the other and say, with a voice of pure disgust, " Weber Evil." Those two words say it all. This series has my highest possible recommendation! *****
(...)

In this book the author gives us his usual rousing space battles with a better second villian in the genetic slavery folks than usual. But in his treatment of Honor's personal life he fails miserably to convince me that her emotional reactions to the personal events in this book are the ones of the same woman a few books back(not to be a spoiler, I will leave it there). I was in total disbelief at the treatment of some of the events. It was like a fairy romance, and I like romances but this one was way over the top, with not enough emotional inputs for you to understand why she, and other, love the way they do. I was aware that Weber was not being as 'self-honest' about the rigour of his work with Honor as he was in the beginning, when she was a tough cookie; now she has become an empathic marshmallow and I am no longer interested.

That is the last Honor Harrington book I will ever buy and I advise you to skip this one, unless of course you like shoot em up fairy romances, in which case, buy it.

I've followed the Harrington series since On Basilisk Station, and I have to say this is one of the best, if not the best, that Weber's written yet. It ties in nicely with the expanded universe Weber's building with Crown of Slaves and The Shadow of Saganami, as well as his Worlds of Honor.

The war has grown bigger than just Haven and Manticore, and for the first time we're given a hint of who's pulling the strings. Leaders on both sides want peace and an end to the conflict, but military necessity, emotion, and the legacy of decades of cold and hot war make tragedy inevitable, and lead to the Honorverse's answer to Armageddon, the biggest battle yet written in the series.

Honor has new challenges to face--an unexpected pregnancy, the potential public revelation of her relationship with White Haven, her dynastic responsibilties as Steadholder, the responsibility for maintaining the offensive against Haven. And she must endure loss among those close to her--expected and unexpected. I can only imagine where David Weber will take us next with this heroine, but it'll be an interesting trip.

This is a good solid book--the right balance of character development, politics, and action we've come to expect. This one was very, very hard to put down. I can't wait to see what happens next.

I've only recently started reading the Honor Harrington series and I have found them captivating. At All Costs is inspiring, exciting, occasionally infuriating (in the sense that you want to reach into the pages and shake some sense into a few of the characters), and absolutely heart wrenching. The author has done a marvelous job of developing all the characters, and of course most importantly Honor, throughout the series, so much so that you truly come to know them. I highly recommend the entire series.

Best Harrington Book to come out for a while, and definitely in the running for best ever in the series. There had been a little heaviness in the character development in the last few Harringtons. They are still great reads (Weber is the best SciFi author of our age), but not quite as likely to keep me up all night reading. Not so for this one. At All Costs has all the right stuff that made us love the series in the first place. Great action, great plot, and deeply moving from the beginning to the end.

Can't wait to see the next one.

Why am I a masochist? Because I just read another of David Weber's Honor Harrington books, "At all Costs"! On the back cover of this book (paper back) the "Booklist" calls it "fast paced". Snail races would probably be described as "lightening quick" by whoever the "Booklist" is. Weber uses 880 pages to write a 250 page book, but, as I have said in my other reviews, it is fortunate he has a excellent grasp of paragraph structure. One need only read the first sentence of each one to follow the story. Not only is much of the written material superfluous, a great deal of it is written in the childish manner as Robert Heinlein. I deliberately skipped 200 pages, read ahead 100 pages, and then went back and read the 200 pages I had read, and I had missed NOTHING!

In addition to Mr. Weber's superfluous verbosity, he has the heroine in an affair with and old man who is married to an extremely disabled woman! Does he think that we will approve of this? Is this the type of heroine we want to read about? I am not some bible thumping, narrow minded, prude, but there are such things as morals. Shame on you David Weber!

If you want to read the same story over and over again, read this book. If you want good science fiction, read Allen Dean Foster.

I've only recently started reading the Honor Harrington series and I have found them captivating. At All Costs is inspiring, exciting, occasionally infuriating (in the sense that you want to reach into the pages and shake some sense into a few of the characters), and absolutely heart wrenching. The author has done a marvelous job of developing all the characters, and of course most importantly Honor, throughout the series, so much so that you truly come to know them. I highly recommend the entire series.

Best Harrington Book to come out for a while, and definitely in the running for best ever in the series. There had been a little heaviness in the character development in the last few Harringtons. They are still great reads (Weber is the best SciFi author of our age), but not quite as likely to keep me up all night reading. Not so for this one. At All Costs has all the right stuff that made us love the series in the first place. Great action, great plot, and deeply moving from the beginning to the end.

Can't wait to see the next one.

Why am I a masochist? Because I just read another of David Weber's Honor Harrington books, "At all Costs"! On the back cover of this book (paper back) the "Booklist" calls it "fast paced". Snail races would probably be described as "lightening quick" by whoever the "Booklist" is. Weber uses 880 pages to write a 250 page book, but, as I have said in my other reviews, it is fortunate he has a excellent grasp of paragraph structure. One need only read the first sentence of each one to follow the story. Not only is much of the written material superfluous, a great deal of it is written in the childish manner as Robert Heinlein. I deliberately skipped 200 pages, read ahead 100 pages, and then went back and read the 200 pages I had read, and I had missed NOTHING!

In addition to Mr. Weber's superfluous verbosity, he has the heroine in an affair with and old man who is married to an extremely disabled woman! Does he think that we will approve of this? Is this the type of heroine we want to read about? I am not some bible thumping, narrow minded, prude, but there are such things as morals. Shame on you David Weber!

If you want to read the same story over and over again, read this book. If you want good science fiction, read Allen Dean Foster.

It pains me to admit it, but despite my own longtime love of Honor Harrington books, I waited a long time on this one, and only read it because my local library had a copy. You see, I found "War of Honor", the previous installment, to be almost agonizingly boring. Honor never commanded a single vessel up until the very end when she just happened to have her Elysian Space Navy on maneuvers at the right place at the right time. Nearly the entire book was spent on such things as Honor's "battle" with the smear campaign involving her, Emily, and Hamish; the Saganami Island students she was befriending; and the new efforts to communicate with treecats through sign. "War of Honor" was probably the most boring military sci-fi book I have ever read. I pretty much decided when it was over that David Weber must have forgotten how to tell an exciting story, and if I ever bothered to read "At All Costs" it would only be if I could get it free and felt like I didn't have anything better to read.

So having gone into sufficient detail how much I hated "War of Honor", "At All Costs" was absolutely gripping fiction at its very best.

For the first time, both Haven and Manticore are led by honest politicians. The war, by rights, ought to be ended. Republic of Haven's President Eloise Pritchart learns early in the story that it was her own Secretary of State that had been the one to alter the diplomatic dispatches with Manticore, resulting in her decision to launch her surprise attack. Now she desperately wants to bring a diplomatic end to the war. Unfortunately, the mysterious organization "Manpower" introduced in "Shadow of Saganami" has other plans for the two Star Nations.

Honor Harrington has been newly installed as Eighth Fleet's commander - the primary offensive fleet for the Royal Manticoran Navy. Her job is to find a way to convince the Havenites to cover their rear areas and reduce their fleet strength available for offensive operations. Unfortunately, she faces an opponent with an almost two to one advantage in hulls that not even superior Manticoran technology is sufficient to offset. Not only that, but they enjoy an advantage in ongoing construction, meaning their superiority is only going to increase. Her job won't be an easy one.

Tom Theisman, the Havenite Secretary of War, wants the war to end just as badly as President Eloise Pritchart. His dilemma is that while he too knows about the way his Star Nation was manipulated into going into war, the war itself enjoys too much popularity at home. Congress won't allow their forces to simply surrender and bring the fighting to a close. And if Manpower is going to sabotage any chance for a peaceful settlement, then the only other option is to end the war through an all-out military victory. And while he prays it won't come to that, Tom Theisman knows he's got the strength to make it happen.

"At All Costs" is not a book to be read if you can only devote a few hours to it here and there. From nearly the first chapter, David Weber weaves his most masterful and exciting plot ever, and putting the book down, even for a minute, can be almost agonizing. I know some will find it frustrating, and particularly the end might be unsatisfying for some. But I will enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who likes military sci-fi. This is absolutely the best I've ever come across within that genre, and certainly the best book in this series.

One last thing... David Weber's recently released "Shadow of Saganami" takes place in parallel with "At All Costs", and provides additional background on the workings of Manpower. You may want to read that one first, even though it isn't technically an Honor Harrington book.

I'm an avid fan of the Honor Harrington series, and I was pretty disappointed with the latest outing. The book is well written, as usual, but it lacks the great, engrossing story line prevalent through the early Honor books. Reading this book was like watching a train wreck happen when you've known exactly how it was going to turn out for 800 pages.

A couple of books ago, the war and Honor's personnel life appeared to be well in hand and it seemed like it was time for the series to wrap up or strike out in a completely new direction. Instead, the plot for the resumption and continuation of war between Haven and Manticore is so complicated and unbelievable, that I found myself skimming large sections of the book to get to the space battles. In addition, Honor's personnel life is undergoing dramatic changes which are increasingly more difficult to comprehend.

My advice is to read the last 50 pages or so. You will get the classic fleet battle as only Weber can write it and you won't miss anything important in the other 700 or so pages. Other than Honor's personnel life, there really weren't that many new developments in the storyline. It seemed to run in circles.

I won't say much about the story, other than to say that I liked it, a lot. What I will talk about is the fact that in addition to being 852 pages long, they have reduced the font size to about half the size it was in the first book in the series. Which actually makes it rather longer than it appears. I don't mind the length of the story, personally I like long books and really didn't want the story to end because that leaves me in need of a new book...What I *DO* mind is the massive headache reading that tiny print for hours on end gave me!

I await the next installment of the Honor Harrington series with bated breath, as it were. However, they had better use a larger font or I may be forced to wait for the audiobook.

Why do i say that? This book is deeper, darker, and more gritty than any of the previous books. There are far more losses, more controversy, and a lot of shakeup in the status quo. While HH doesn't go over to the Darkside, she and the Star Kingdom do lose a lot of their innocence, and at the worst possible time.

Mesa is meddling, and just when peace threatens to brake out, Manpower is there to bring darkness to the dawn.

A must read, but very dark.

...all for the convenience of moving the plot in one direction (Translated: Author laziness).

Mr. Weber cannot get out of his comfort zone, and this book demonstrates that even more than the previous (which was almost as bad). Other than battles getting bigger and missile counts getting higher - NOTHING surprising happens in this book. And NOTHING Changes!

-At war with Haven at the beginning, at war with Haven at the end.
-Can't figure out the assassinations at the beginning, can't figure it out by the end.
-Practically everything present at the beginning, is the same at the end.

Its as if he's dragging the plots along to keep the series going - no new ideas in the pipeline. The new ones he does have (the whole Mesa conspiracy) he seems to not know how to bring to fruition, which leads me to my biggest gripe about the book - smart people acting stupid.

In an effort to fill the book with as many space battles as possible (especially the "climax") he makes his protagonists (there aren't any real antagonists anymore except for Mesa) forget logic and push things along in a one dimensional way - conflict.

/spoiler

Lets summarize: Haven is sure they forged the documents, and they freely admit they assassinating the King and others, and they understand why Manticore is pissed at them because the new round of assassinations sure looks like them, and Eloise keeps saying "Dear God, we did that?" and "Oh my, this is terrible", etc. etc.

So what does she do after the debacle at Torch? Well it isn't what any 46 chromosome non-psychopathic human would do if given the knowledge their government was responsible for a war no one wanted - Translated: Be damned with Theismann's objections, get in a pinnace, and head straight for Manticore and plead your case directly with the Queen.

Nooooope! Not what she does. Instead: Well, since they don't believe my letter to them, lets just throw 500 ships at their home-world and bomb them into destruction - because that will get them to the table....where we then can tell them "Oops, my bad! We started this thing by accident".

Truly pathetic Mr. Weber.

Glad I didn't buy this in hard cover!

Overall, this book is a tremendous page-turner. Like all of the Honor Harrington books, this catches your attention and holds it until the last moment. I carried this book with me so I could read during my free moments.

On an intellectual level, I see the pattern and recognize the formula that I've seen through the rest of the series. However, the book is compelling enough that I don't care in the slightest.

The only thing that keeps keeps this book from being 5 stars is the resolution. The battle at the end is, as others have said, titanic, with a body count that's so high it's hard to truly visualize. It fills something like 60 pages of strike and counterstrike, hope and despair, redemption... and once the battle is over, it ends too abruptly. I expected more than 3 (maybe 4) pages of wrap-up.

There were some good parts in this book,but I am becoming weary of Honor's personal life. A previous reviewer said that things are becoming too cutesy-cliquey around her and her friends, and I agree that there is just way too much "love" flowing through this book. I can understand Hamish and Honor having a torrid affair, but the resolution arrived at by Hamish's wife stretches the limits of credibility.

I am also growing weary of reading about meetings. The characters in this book spend an awful lot of time in meetings, and I feel as though 300 or so pages of this book consist of the minutes from those meetings. Dull, dry, and boring.

Here's hoping the next installment in this series has a plot, and a lot more action. Wait for the paperback version of this book.

Once upon a time, the Honor Harrington series was primarily about Honor Harrington and the personal challenges she must face as she rises through the ranks of the Manticoran Navy.

No longer.

Honor Harrington, now a Duchess and Steadholder, a favorite of the people of Manticore (and Grayson), a brilliant military tactician and strategist, and an invincible personal combatant no longer has challenges worthy of her or of an 800 page book- -at least none that David Weber can come up with.

Fortunately, this book is not about Honor Harrington, whose presence is absent in most of the book. Instead, it is about a horde of one-dimensional supporting characters, and especially about futuristic military technology. You will absolutely love this book if you want to learn (at last!) why treecat claws can penetrate the armor of a main battle tank or if you like to wade through pages of technical details pertaining to the latest and greatest Manticoran missile pod technology. Such readers will be pleased to find that David Weber has dispensed with non-essentials such as character development or an interesting villain.

I highly recommend this book for ardent readers of Starfleet Battles or Starfire game manuals- -and no one else.

Book 10 -- War of Honor -- frankly sucked. So I figured that the series had jumped the shark. Which should be expected for such a long-running series.

But Weber must have listened to his brother, because "At All Costs" is an excellent read. Yes, there's a little too much "home life." Also, as another reviewer pointed out, some of the plot is a little over-the-top. But come on! It's space opera! And most importantly, there's plenty of the good stuff that made the series so enjoyable from the beginning.

After all the good work David Weber has done with the earlier books in this series, I was somewhat disappointed with this installment. Harrington has been reduced from a virtuous, dilligent, commander with a genius for tactics, to a mediocre technician who succeeds mainly because she has better weapons, and because her opponents shouldn't be allowed out without a keeper! In this installment the technology gap between Manticore and Haven grows to farsical dimensions, the Peeps don't stand a chance! And the logical inconsistencies in the final, climatic battle are both obvious and glaring. Her success in this supposed climactic chapter owe less to her tactial abilities than it it does to the technical genius of a minor character, Sonya Hemphill. That and the vapid stupidity of her enemies. (Advice to Admiral Genevieve Chin. DUCK!) It doesn't make Honor Harrington look great when her opponents are obviously mentally deficient! It doesn't take a military genius to club baby seals! As I was reading it, I felt my incredulity growing. I mean, I could SEE it coming a mile off!
And the smarm is getting thick. Whole pages of dialogue have to be skipped to avoid gagging on the characters ostentatious celebration of their own wit. Allison Harrington is a prime example. Anyone who thinks they're that cute should be slapped. Hard!
I have enjoyed everything Weber has written to this point, and maybe that's the problem. With such an admirable log of work, I really expected better of him than this. Hopefully, in the next installment, this great writer will be able to regain his form.

I have ready all of the Honor Harrington series and I find this, the eleventh in the series, to be a better Honor Harrington novel in many respects. It seems there is less rambling for the sake of rambling than I remember in others.

I read it off and on in about a week and now I have to sit and wait for the next installment hoping Manpower finally gets caught and they and Mesa get what's coming to them.

Well done David Weber!

At All Costs (Honor Harrington Series)

I loved these books when they came out and i have read them all. Unfortunately the last two have been very disappointing.

The author has followed the logical progression of the character's successes but unfortunately the system wide battles that are now taking place lack emotive feelings. You can no longer identify with the character and her struggles.

In the early books, the early combat scenes were detailed and you were eagerly reading each page to see how the character would survive or overcome the treachery of the PEEPs; they are now difficult to understand and almost ramble.

I'd like to see a return to the early theme of the books.

It is time for Weber to end the Manticore/Haven war. I suggest that Cachet find the culprit (We know who it is) and put and end to war. Remember in a previous novel, the Queen's brother tells Honor she may have to defy the Queen. Weber has set the stage to end the conflict. I am ready for Weber to move Honor Harrington to Manticore's newest acquisitions and to develop other characters from "Crown of Slaves" and "The Shadow of Saganami."

Before beginning I should mention that I've read all of the previous Honor series and enjoyed them. But this one I'm going to have to down check. I'll try to explain. Why David Weber should need to prove his feminist credentials isn't known to me but I've enjoyed his strong female protagonist in the previous series. And that even even with the willing suspension of disbelief needed for "super" heroines. And I have been even willing to overlook the "cutesy" treecats - well I do like cats so maybe that wasn't so difficult. But in "At All Costs", the emphasis on use of feminine possessives over more appropriate plural gender neutral began to rag more than just a little, I'm referring to the use of "her" rather than "their". And the chapter on uncorking the child Honor shares with Hammish and Emily was a little over the top for a military space SciFi. And then the ending after the cataclysmic battle to end all space battles. Sorry, it just wasn't a clean or satisfying resolution. Yeah, I know that no one can stay on top all the time. Sorry Mr Weber but IMO this one just wasn't up to the same standard as the previous ones.

howdy y'all,

this is a _very_ good entry in the honorverse. as others have said, it's a /real/ improvement over the all-too-political previous book in the series. i highly recommend "at all costs".

now, where the HECK is the paperback version? [*grin*] it's been more than a year since the hardback came out and i want my _own_ copy! yes, a good friend who collects hardbacks loaned me his. now i want my own copy and can't afford to feed my habit with hardbacks when they cost 3 or 4 times what a paperback costs.

take care,

lee

For a serious sci-fi reader, this book is fantastic. I must point out that the ending of this novel left me totally empty. There was no resolution of any kind here. It seemed to take FOREVER for this novel to come out in paperback. I will not put myself through the wait for a sequel even if Weber writes one. I liked the Honorverse but it is now on the bottom of my reading food chain

Weber is always enjoyable, and the books in the Honor Harrington saga are my absolute favorite series, ALL categories! This one is perhaps the most emotionally satisfying book of the series, as Honor finally finds some personal happiness. There is action, too, of course, as Weber sets the stage for the future of the series, which will no doubt be VERY exciting and action filled. Can't wait for the next one!

I have been reading this series since the first one came out. If you do not have the rest of the story the book is not that good. If you wnat nothing but action than you need to read a different story. Honor has a life just like everyone else in the world. I do agree it is hard to keep up with everything, but is your life simple or complicated. I have enjoyed all the books and cannot wit for the next. Keep up the great job.

Weber is amazing!! As many books as there are in this series, and he continues to find new twists to put into the story of our favorite heroes.

The plot moves quickly both on the military, political and home fronts. New ideas presented in all three fronts.

*****Spoilers*****

Very mediocre, overall, and I was disappointed with this latest addition. This probably wont be a very helpful review as my main problem with it has a lot to do with the problems I had with the last book or two in the series.

I never particularly liked White Haven - as a character, I find him fairly shallow - and don't sympathize with his cheating on his wife, though quite a lot of time was spent trying to make me 'feel his pain'. Whatever. The relationship developments were tremendously disappointing to me and I hated how Weber worked it all out between the three of them. *shudder*

The Honor Harrington that I loved so much in the first few books has become someone that makes me wonder. I barely recognize her at times and I mean that in a bad way.

Ah well. Let's just say that by the end I was hoping Haven would get off one good, lucky shot at the planet and accidentally take out White Haven's estates with durn near everyone in it. That would have cheered me up.

“At All Costs” **11

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

The mercy treatment seen in “Echoes of Honor” is taken to ridiculous extremes in “At All Costs”. The previous “the honor of the ally/ruler/country/nation/nation state/sovereign state” versus “the honor of the flag” examples from “Echoes of Honor” and “Ashes of Victory” have been forgotten and/or ignored.
-- Battle of Chantilly
-- Battle of Hera
-- Battle of Lovat
-- Raid on Alizon
-- Raid on Des Moines
-- Raid on Fordyce

Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington allows the orbital factories (manufacturing plant) to evacuate before she attacks. This symbolizes her high-handed and self-righteous morals. Officers who attack orbital factories (manufacturing plant) without allowing for an evacuation are obviously amoral/immoral people. In real life; factories (manufacturing plant) are attacked with the logistical, strategic, and tactical objective of causing the maximum amount of death and destruction.

In “Mission of Honor” this high-handed morality is used by Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington’s military allies.

During the Battle of Spindle (New Tuscany Incident, Second Battle of New Tuscany), the Royal Manticoran Navy destroys multiple Solarian League Navy ships with the first salvo. The second salvo is self-detonated to terrorize the survivors into surrendering. In comparison, during the Battle of Barnett, all of the Republic of Haven Navy ships are destroyed because they are combat capable.

After the Battle of Spindle (New Tuscany Incident, Second Battle of New Tuscany), the captured Solarian League Navy soldiers are classified as prisoners of war. Although, legally they are pirates and should be executed for piracy. Gloria Michelle Samantha Evelyn Henke, who is becoming an Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington clone; does not execute them because of a moral obligation, not because of political considerations.

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.

Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington lectures others about the need to maintain good relations with the Caliphate of Zanzibar. However, the Caliphate of Zanzibar has always been written as an unreliable and parasite ally; who complain the most, demand the most, question the most, and then return the least.

Manticoran Alliance
-- Andermani Empire (Anderman Empire)
-- Caliphate of Zanzibar
-- Casca System
-- Idaho System
-- Minette System
-- Poicters System
-- Princedom of Alizon
-- Protectorate of Grayson
-- Republic of Candor
-- Republic of Erewhon
-- Republic of Sidemore
-- Star Empire of Manticore (Star Kingdom of Manticore)
-- Yorik System

Howard Samson Jonathan Clinkscales is given a state funeral and/or military funeral even though, as the Regent of Harrington Steading, he lacked the rank and importance. The only reason he gets such a funeral is his connection to Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington and Benjamin Bernard Jason Mayhew. While it is believable that Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington’s close friends and the people who knew Clinkscales would attend; it is un-realistic that diplomats from the rest of the Manticore Alliance would attend. In real life; foreign diplomats do not attend funerals of foreign governors, mayors, or senators.

Thomas Caparelli tells Honor that Hamish Alexander-Harrington told him that Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington has superior tactical and strategic skills to Raphael Semmes (Confederate States of America) and William Frederick Halsey, Jr.

Elizabeth Adrienne Samantha Annette Winton fails to control her temper. Weber needs to write a storyline where Elizabeth Adrienne Samantha Annette Winton loses her temper too often and leads the Star Empire of Manticore (Star Kingdom of Manticore) to civil war while also dishonoring the House of Winton.

Elizabeth Adrienne Samantha Annette Winton orders Grayson style wedding rings, not Manticore style wedding rings, from Broughton and Stemwinder; for Emily Alexander-Harrington, Hamish Alexander-Harrington, and Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington.

Reverend Jeremiah Winslow Sullivan of the Church of Humanity Unchained and Archbishop of Manticore Robert Telmachi of the Second Reformation Roman Catholic Church state that there are no irreconcilable factors between the 2 religions. This is a ludicrous storyline; the reason for creating a new religious faction is the existence of irreconcilable factors.

After Timothy Meares attempts to assassinate Harrington and kills Simon Mattingly; Irving Mandel of the Office of Naval Intelligence (Criminal Investigation Division, Security Ministry, Special Intelligence Service) is sent as an investigator (detective, inspector, special agent). Harrington exceeds her authority and relieves Mandel because he disagrees with her empathic/telepathic treecat evidence. She then states that she will use her political power to override the chain of command. Irving Mandel’s assistant, Jean Simon, accepts control of the investigation and refuses to support Mandel. Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington is more accepting of Simon, because Jean Simon will eventually agree with Harrington. Harrington then provides a solution to Mesa’s (Mesa System, Mesa Terminus) assassination technology. The solution is to rely on the treecat’s ability to invade another person’s privacy. This solution is seen again in “A Rising Thunder” after Mesa’s (Mesa System, Mesa Terminus) nanotech weaponry causes more chaos.

Franz Illescue of the Briarwood Reproduction Center has a personal connection to the Harrington phyle-bloodline and gives Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington an emotional apology. Franz Illescue would have given anybody else an emotionless apology; and of course, he might not have shown any remorse at all. He is outraged when Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington’s medical privacy is violated. However, it is stated that he showed no similar outrage for previous privacy violations. He automatically values the opinions of the Harrington phyle-bloodline over everybody else. Franz Illescue naturally makes any exception for Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington.

Miranda LaFollet offers to have Micah LaFollet assault the Landing Tattler writer, Solomon Hayes. Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington humorously refuses, however she would have lectured a Manticorian about the need for restraint and justice.

When Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington is informed of the Battle of Manticore (Operation Beatrice), Thackston is nearly killed by her fanatical bodyguards; Spencer Hawke and Joshua Atkins. The only thing that saves Thackston from death is the loyalty that Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington has with her bodyguards. This illustrates how the Graysons have become one-dimensional stereotype/stock characters and how idiotic they are. They could have simply placed a bodyguard outside the room to announce Thackston’s arrival.

After Lester Tourville’s surrender at the Battle of Manticore (Operation Beatrice) Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington demands that they leave their computer files intact. Lester Tourville agrees after looking into Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington’s eyes. First, if the situation had been reversed then Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington would have destroyed the computer files and then claimed protection under the Deneb Accords (Geneva Conventions, Hague Conventions, Nuremberg Principles). Second, Lester Tourville secretly defied the Office of State Security (State Security Ground Forces, State Security Naval Forces) and never gave in to them. Therefore his weak behavior is an example of Weber assassinating Lester Tourville’s integrity.

The Battle of Nuncio avoids this problem of integrity assassination for 3 reasons. First, the People’s First Liberation Squadron (Liberation Force in Exile, People’s Navy in Exile) is a renegade/rogue military that is not protected by the Deneb Accords (Geneva Conventions, Hague Conventions, Nuremberg Principles). Second, the Havenite officers are members of the Office of State Security (State Security Ground Forces, State Security Naval Forces) and therefore morally bankrupt. Third, the commanding officer, Aivars Aleksovitch Terekhov, has not been written as morally superior and incapable of making a mistake.

After the Battle of Manticore (Operation Beatrice) Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington laments how everybody looks to her for leadership and ignores all the other heroes.

In “Mission of Honor”, Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington writes the strategy for the Solarian-Manticoran War (Mesan-Manticoran War). Harrington is sent to Haven to negotiate an end to the Second Havenite-Manticoran War, they do not send an ambassador and/or diplomatic team.

In “A Rising Thunder”, the designation of the Grand Alliance (Grand Fleet) is suggested by Eloise Pritchart. However, Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington is appointed the commanding officer. Harrington suggests the creation of the Mycroft system to Sonja Hemphill to upgrade the Moriarty system. On the advice of Harrington and Elizabeth Adrienne Samantha Annette Winton, the Andermani Empire (Anderman Empire) does not join the Grand Alliance (Grand Fleet), despite being members of the Manticoran Alliance.

Grand Alliance (Grand Fleet)
-- Protectorate of Grayson
-- Republic of Beowulf
-- Republic of Haven
-- Star Empire of Manticore (Star Kingdom of Manticore)

Manticoran Alliance
-- Andermani Empire (Anderman Empire)
-- Caliphate of Zanzibar
-- Casca System
-- Idaho System
-- Minette System
-- Poicters System
-- Princedom of Alizon
-- Protectorate of Grayson
-- Republic of Candor
-- Republic of Erewhon
-- Republic of Sidemore
-- Star Empire of Manticore (Star Kingdom of Manticore)
-- Yorik System

In “Storm from the Shadows” the Havenites go to absurd extremes concerning the Deneb Accords (Geneva Conventions, Hague Conventions, Nuremberg Principles) rules regarding a prisoner of war. Camp Charlie-Seven is located in the Vaillancourt Sea on the planet Haven. Not only does this location present a security problem in the event of an escape, but it makes interrogation impossible.

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.

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

The character of Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington’s mother, Allison Benton-Ramirez y Chou Harrington, is long overdue to make a mistake that results in exile and dishonor from all of society. She returns only after having completely changed her ways; she no longer teases everybody.

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

This was the first Honor Harrington novel I've read, and it will be the last one.
True, one shouldn't start reading a series with the last outing. But if one does so, the novel should spark a desire to read the other novels. This novel doesn't - and that is because of at least two crucial flaws in it's whole design.
Upon reading a novel, but especially an SciFi novel, the reader and the author embark on some kind of tacit agreement called "suspension of disbelief". That is, the reader accepts things that are impossible at the present time, such as FTL travel, artificial gravity and so on, or won't ever be possible. But this agreement carries only so far. As a reader, I keep asking myself questions like: Why is this or that feature necessary? How does it contribute to the (integrity of) the story? (I'm sure most readers ask themselves those questions even if most of them won't ask them explicitely.) And if I don't get reasonable answers to these questions, the feature in question is no longer covered by the suspension of disbelief.
Item: As a student of history and social sciences, I've never believed nor will I ever believe that "aristocratic" societies like those depicted in this novel will ever make it to the stars. For once, societies in which there are steadholders, yeomen, queens, kings, duchesses, barons and so on are basically land-owning societies. Historically speaking, they are pre-industrial, rural, agricultural by nature. By the same token, they are adverse to change, progress, and development: If your social status is defined by the fact that you do or don't own land (and what kind or size of land), and if you do, you don't exactly embrace development and progress because it means change and change tends to threaten your status. You want, you need, and you fight to maintain the status quo.
To travel to the stars, however, an industrially developed society is necessary, science, technology, and free enterprise with its creative and inventive power. That means that not land-owning or heritage defines a person but only his/her personal skills and abilities, his/her intelligence, his/her competence and preseverance. And if such a society has successfully made it to the stars, why should it revert to "the old ways"?
So, what it boils down to: "Star kingdoms" like Manticore, all this "Royal this and that", all this "Your Grace" business contributes nothing to the story as such but simply satisfies the author's fondness of (or obsession with) "the Old English ways". (By the way - this seems to attract many American SciFi authors. What leaves me as a European with the question: Why did you guys stage the American War of Independence in the first place?) And it is significant that the novel is set only in the upper classes, not in the "common" classes, the people in the streets who were at the wrong end of the injustice and inequality inherent of aristocratic societies.
Item: The cats. Oh, I know, actually they're "treecats" which is a completely different cup of tea altogether. Yeah, right. They're "telempathic". Yeah, right. They "adopt" people. Yeah, right. They're intelligent, thinking, talking sign language with "true hands" but otherwise behave like simple - cats. (By the way: Do they need cat litter?) Most of the cat-lovers among my friends keep telling me: "It's as if they're able to read your thoughts and emotions." "It's as if they adopt you and not the other way round." As one can see, there's no need for a "treecat" - your garden variety kitty will do just as nicely. And in what respect are they constituitive to the story? Exactly how would the story become improbable, even impossible, what would the story lack if there were no "treecats" in it? Even the most impressive scene, the assassination attempt on Honor Harrington, doesn't really need a treecat.
Again: The only thing that justifies the omnipresence of the treecats is the author's fondness of (or obesssion with) his (obviously) favorite pets. In that, the novel reminds me of some novels by Janice Cherryh in which there are characters depicted as man-sized cats. Same question there: Why?
Please don't get me wrong: I've absolutely nothing against intelligent alien species alongside humans in a SciFi novel - I mean, that's why it's SciFi after all - but if the author's imagination of an alien species doesn't exceed a pimped-up version of his own housecat sitting on the kitchen window sill, the story would have been better off without it.
Apart from that, I can second some of the issues mentioned in other negative reviews as well as positive reviews: The book is definitely too long; 500 pages would have done. The explorations in Honor Harrington's family life are way too detailed and become all the more boring as long as they drag on. On the other hand, the battle scenes are very interesting, as is the strategic thinking behind the - political and military - decisions made. But that alone won't cut it for me.

1000 or so pages of boring minutes on diplomatic meetings and a detailed account of how many wolkswagens happened to be parked at a particular building at any given time, to (finally) finish in what one could expect as the mother of all naval fights, only for the author to decide that he is going to do EXACTLY the same thing he's done in every other book in the series: Manticore, home of the heroe, wins. Give me a break. The defining moment in the battle is SO ludicrous, that is shaming even in a fantasy book. I want a refund on this one!