Shadow of Freedom (Honor Harrington)

David Weber is one of the finest authors that I have had the pleasure of reading. The series featuring Honor area wonderful read. The cast of characters are fascinating and complete people you would like to meet. The villains are dastardly. The story line is captivating.

The Honorverse is the most interesting, exciting, kick-ass place to be. If you haven't read any of the books in this long running series you're missing out. Fantastic characters, technology, intrigue, and so much more.

This book is a true disapponintment for Honor Harrington fans. She does not even appear in it at all. I'm sorry I wasted the money for it and wish I could get a refund. David Weber seems as tho he just sits down and cranks these books out without even reading the finished product. Just an awful book.

Then this is yet another book you will enjoy reading. Beginning to end, I had to finish it in one sitting.
For those who are not well read in the Honor Harrington universe, the book will stand on it's own, but will likely leave you at times wondering at references that aren't clear (downright obscure at times). Mr. Weber does provide a great deal of background, but it is much more entertaining to have already read it in his earlier works.

The Honorverse continues to engage and delight me....even with Honor Harrington half a galaxy away from the action! Excellent story, great read, and truly enjoyable. I can't wait for the next stories.

Good Space Opera Good fast action. Lots of action and the story keeps moving. Can't wait to see what else happens to the them next. Does Honor fight the. Has the Alignment escaped? What next? Can't wait to see what happens next.

I had hoped this novel would be more about what was happening in the Manticore system and between Manticore and Haven.

Instead it's back to the Talbott Quadrant, which is also a great read. I just had wished it to be something else.

Excellent continuation of an outstanding space opera series--comparable to Patrick O'Brian or David Drake/Eric Flint's Belisarius series. Nice shift away from Honor Harrington herself to her friend Michelle Henke.

While Shadow of Freedom is a book in the Honorverse series it fills in details about what the Empire of Manticore is facing as it seeks to maintain freedom, liberty and opportunity for it citizens. There is an alternate entity (the Mesan Alignment) that is so egotistical and arrogant in their belief in their own superiority that they think they have the right to determine what the future of all mankind will be. The stage is already set, the showdown is coming.

I find it interesting that Mr. Weber has found himself working with a story line that has taken on a life far beyond what he expected when he started writing On Basilisk Station. I look forward to the next books in both the main Honor Harrington series and the Honorverse series which will eventually bring things to a conclusion. It will be interesting to see if freedom and liberty will triumph or be relegated to the ash heap of history by being overwhelmed by tyranny.

It is ironic that there are certain parallels in our own day with the clash of ideologies that is currently playing out in Washington D.C. Who will win that battle is also pending as I write this (Oct. 2013). I pray that liberty will win but it will be a long and hard fought battle especially when some of those who are supposed to be standing for liberty are doing anything but.

Yet another well written novel in David Weber's Honorverse, keep up the good work. Looking forward to the further developments in this series. I have read each of the previous novels in this series at least three times each. Each novel is still very enjoyable!!

Another wonderful tale from the Honor-verse! The last in the 'shadow' series lets you get to know Honor's best friend and more characters from her 'verse'. Great characters and a plot that will keep you guessing. Love this stuff!!!!

Many did not like that Honor Harrington is not in this book, but I love the stories of the Talbot sector and the characters that have been built outside of Honor. This makes for a more realistic and rich universe.

I loved it! My only problem is when will Book 15 come out. I have read all 14 of the Honor Harrington books in less then a year and now I'm working on some of the other series (like how she got her treecat) but I would like to see Manpower and Mesa get their comeuppance.

A continuation of the Honor Harrington series this is primarily a story of Michelle Henke vs the Terran Empire. She wins to date.This book is a stand alone novel but a prior knowlege of the Honorverse would be helpful.

When I started reading the book, I wasn't sure where it was going. Some of the parts of the story were confusing. By the time I got to the end, it was awesome!!! Everything tied together and I can't wait for the book!

If you've read the 13 prior books in the series, you're familiar with Weber' s style. Some books are better than others. This one is one of the better ones. I had no problem that Honor wasn't in it. Admiral Gold Peak is a main character and her exploits are her germane to the Honor verse. Those criticizing " no advance of the storyline " don't seem to care what is going on outside of the Empire, even though it will likely be important later.

Shadow of Freedom has its moments where you see the oppression of the Solarian Office of Frontier Security with your own eyes. It shows guerrilla warfare from both sides. The action is fast paced - when there is action. The problem with the book is simple - it needs more content. When I got to the end of the book, I was left unsatisfied. This is probably a good thing for the people who sell the books, but it definitely felt like there was a resolution that was missing, whether that was the death of 'Firebrand' or even a token appearance by Manticore's heroine Honor.

4/5 for good action, but -1 for the lack of fulfillment.

Great back story/sidebar to ongoing conflict with the Solarian League and forces playing all parties. I just Hope Mr. Weber has the next book ready to go, this one left you ready to start the next chapter of the series.

Great read, but was hoping to get the convergence with the original series and really am looking forward to the next (#15) book at 1,000 plus pages (please) to get Honor and everyone (including the Peeps) fighting the League and / or the Mesan Alliance.

while not Honor-centric it is a great read and a great stepping stone for what looks to be a multi-faceted story arc that brings together all of the characters that have very rich backgrounds but haven't so far been part of the main stream of things.

An accurate portrayal of behind-the-scene scul and dager games that usually go totheger with nation-building, influence expansion and general civilization development processes. All of that plus Honor and her friends. Got to love it.

The story of the solarian league's excesses and their effect on the people of outlying world's is skillfully woven among the threat of the mesan alignment's evil plans for humanity. Makes you wish the whole story was unwrapping in front of you now.

The battle between good and evil on a galactic scale is coming to fruition. When I first started reading the series back when, I didn't ever think I would ever enjoy it so much. And the spin-off potential is almost breathtaking. Bravo Mr. Webber!

What can I say? I'm a Weber addict. He can't pump out Honorverse novels fast enough for me. From political conniving and spy games to killer space battles. Great yarns. I want to emigrate to Manticore. God save the Queen!

This isn't an Honor Harrington novel, in spite of the cover.

This doesn't seem to be a David Weber book, in spite of the cover attribution.

This book is nothing more of a sidebar in the Harrington saga. I didn't think I was buying a sidebar; I thought I was following the story that has developed over the previous Harrington novels.

This is the last Weber book I buy before letting others take the leap first and write their reviews.

It's a pity. I've always anticipated the next episode in Harrington's life since I read the first book in the series 20 years ago.

I think there are no more than two or three novels needed for Weber to tie up the story lines neatly and leave Honor Harrington and the empire in honorable literary peace. If she were a real person, she'd be royally pissed at the way her name and image are being used to flog inferior products.

As a purchaser of this book, I am too.

I am glad that Weber is expanding other characters besides Honor Harrington. He has created another storyline giving previously minor characters such as Michelle Henke a starring role and created a new enemy in the Mesan Alignment. Another fast paced exciting read!

A fine example of Weber's space opera with intriguing characters, atypical plot twists and social commentary that expresses the messages without belaboring the point(s) being made in heavy handed and/or smug and self righteous dialogue. I would have preferred more detailed and involved combat sequences but regardless Shadow of Freedom is a very worthy addition to the Manticore story line.

This really expands Mike's role as a leader in her own right and not just a friend of Honor. She makes the type of decisions that Honor had to make that forged her following. I can't wait to see her confrontation with Mesa and the Mesa alignment.

David Weber again shows that Honor Harrington has team worthy of her command. This is classic Space Opera at its best. From a sneaky double dealing spy plot of a start to the final showdown and the fleeing varmits you just have to keep turning pages.

Honor doesn't even make an appearance in this novel! It really is an extension of the Saganami series as all of the "action" takes place in the Talbott quadrant. Overall this book was quite disappointing, it is story back fill only and doesn't really advance the overall story line until the last chapter.

It's hard to fathom that the man who wrote this, is the same man who wrote On Basilisk Station so many years ago, in many important ways these two books are almost complete opposites. On Basiliks Station was a tightly woven tale based around a single planet and really only looking over the shoulder of one main character. Shadow of Freedom jumps from planet to planet and focal character to focal character. Some of the characters don't really matter, while others could potentially be brought in to help explore new plot lines in the future.

Overall, as my review title indicates, this story is an improvement over Rising Thunder. It has all of the same flaws. It tries to cover too many plot lines and individual characters lives, it lacks a true focal plot line, and the level of dynasty epic politics involved really detract from the story overall.

This does expand on the other stories centered in the Talbott Sector of the Honorverse, with many of the character who appeared in previous books appearing again, but while the summary indicates that Michelle Henke is the main character, the truth is that the politics are the focus of hte plot. Numerous confrontatoins between the navy of Manticore and military units from the Solarian League take place during this book, but they have a very repetitive quality to them. It felt like David Weber didn't really have an opinion on most of the characters he was introducing, and since the vast majority are spear carriers, the lack of attention is only made more obvious as each confrontation occurs.

If you love the series and have read all the stories up to this point, this will be interesting, even while it fails to really add much to the overall plotline. If you were bored by Rising Thunder, stay far away from this book. It doesn't advance the pllot enough to justify the effort of reading the story.

Sadly, I think the fact that David Weber decided not to kill off Honor and to advance his planned plot nearly 30 years (since it was going to be Honor's kids fighting Mesa in his original outlines) has hurt the story. He didn't have the story infrastructure built up and too many of the characters end up either too big for the small scenes they are in, or being nothing more than faceless spear carriers who don't survive to see the end of their own plotlines let alone the main one.

The quality of the writing is excellent, but this story lacks a coherent direction of the plot and any kind of focus. I was hoping David Weber could turn around his writing and put together a story worth reading. This one wasn't quite good enough to meet my hopes.

As one of the biggest David Weber fans around, I was excited to discover a new novel in the Honorverse world from the master. And maybe a third of this book was as riveting, satisfying, and enjoyable as I had hoped. Alas, the rest of it was wasted space from my viewpoint. I skipped the other two thirds since I have zero interest in page after page of what the many bad guys are doing from their point of view or what tertiary characters are doing whom I don't know and likely will have little interest in. If On Basilik Station were like this book, I would have likely given up before I had gotten far into it since this book starts out with nothing but filler initially from my perspective. I feel qualified to offer this opinion as I have owned every book he has written in hard back, paperback, or both, in CD, audio, and or Kindle. Thus, if this trend which started in Mission of Honor, increased in Rising Thunder, and blossomed in his latest, continues, I will have no choice but to enjoy Honor's world in my imagination and skip any further books which would certainly be cheaper. I hope he and his publishers reconsider.

It took me two weeks to slog through this book. Half of it just isn't relevant, it's just a rehash of the last book. And OMG, I am so sick of everyone going on and on every single time they open their mouths like they are filibustering the senate. Then just when SOMETHING finally starts to happen... the book is over. I'm starting to think I might have to pretend Honor never made it out of that POW camp.

It seems like there are more and more authors falling into the "endless series" trap. They are so concerned with milking their cash cow, they don't realize they are killing it at the same time. I'm actually NOT looking forward to the next Honor book, because I'm afraid it's going to be another tome of filler. And talking, talking, talking. UGH.

Space opera isn't dead, praise be. We can still have grand military dramas, characters you love to love (and others you love to hate), brilliant strategems, and good guys victorious - with the fewest possible collateral casualties.

That last kind of brings the up to date. Yes, war is hell, and most of the brimstone lands on the civilian non-combatants.Weber acknowledges that, to some extent. And, in a post-twentieth-century turn, his strongest characters are women as often as men, or more so. I've spent my whole career working for or with very competent women, and am happy to see them given their due - but, I admit, the pendulum can swing past where it ought. The genre isn't new, not by a long shot, but Weber brings it up to date, and adds lush detail about the gory tactical details. And, I have to admit, this bolsters the post Viet Nam belief that a warrior can maintain honor in a war with none. It might take some thought, but makes deep sense to me.

The next book I bought was a Doc Smith classic.I value them both, and for many of the same reasons. At the same time, this one updates a lot of what's aged so badly in Smith's pathbreaking works. Depth? No. Philosophy? No. Grand space opera? Yes, yes, yes.

-- wiredweird

This is NOT the 14th volume directly in the Honor Harrington series, regardless of how the store has it labeled. It is actually the 3rd volume of the Saganami Island series (one of the spin-off series set in the Honorverse) and was released in some formats in April, 2015. The previous volume (Number 13) directly in the Harrington sequence was "A Rising Thunder". What I believe to be the true 14th volume in the Harrington series (but I'm not sure) should be "Shadow of Victory" which isn't set for release until November 2016. I like to think that someone at the store just made a stupid mistake in their recent e-mail (and web page) which labeled this book as 14 in the Harrington series, as opposed to someone with crass mercenary intent purposefully misleading fans of this series into buying this book.

I finished A Rising Thunder and against my better judgement started Shadow of Freedom. Suddenly I'm channelling Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. The last four books where really not much happens seem to have slipped into a pocket universe where the same T-year is doomed to be repeated over and over and over....... The titles can be confusing enough so imagine my bemusement when I encountered a chapter I had read previously. Apparently there are others I have yet to reach. I guess I can skip the duplicate chapters. Then there are chapters of new characters (possibly they might be important when the action begins?) and just when you think you know the characters, they are all killed. I'll be skipping a lot if I manage to get through this at all. It's at least comforting to know that the characters in the books are also waiting for something to....

Manticore is at war with the Solar League. Fans will remember that a few volumes ago, Haven was updating its technology from the Solar League but apparently that technology never made it into the League's navy because Manticore has the League hopelessly outgunned. In fact, Manticore's only problem seems to be taking care of the millions of prisoners it's likely to capture if the League's navy is quick enough to surrender. Fortunately for Manticore, the League's officers aren't too smart, so generally Manticore is able to ethically kill the enemy rather than bother capturing them.

As Manticore expands into League space, it's aided by local resistance movements, movements conveniently set up by Manticore's enemy, Mesa. Which means that Manticore doesn't have to waste any of its own forces in pacifying local populations, nation-building, or any of the other inconvenient aspects of conquest. Meanwhile, Manticore is busy building an alliance with its old enemy, Haven.

Unlike many other David Weber readers, I'm ready to move beyond Honor Harrington. Sure, she's wonderful and all that, but she's also just a little too perfect. (For true Honor fans, don't worry, all of the characters in the book are Honor fans, too, constantly referring to how wonderful she is). Unfortunately, instead of building new characters, Weber has taken the technology and rant road. Manticore wins not because its characters develop winning strategies, but because it packs better missile weapons, weapons that can't even be detected by its enemies and weapons with enough range that it can destroy its enemies before they get off their first shot. On the rant side, I think I would have gotten Weber's point the first time he went on about how citizens were disarmed, supposedly for their own protection. Yeah, we get that you don't like the idea of taking assault rifles out of the hands of crazy people, Weber. But just once should do it, shouldn't it?

I like the idea of Manticore vs. Solar League. If the earlier books in the series were England vs. France in the Revolutionary period, this could be Germany vs. the Soviet Union in World War II. Perhaps we'll see that in the future... but Shadow of Freedom is pretty much setup. If I hadn't read this book, I feel pretty certain that I could pick up the next one without noticing I'd missed anything.

One more thing... am I the only one who noticed that Weber writes in huge blocks of text? What happened to dialogue (by which I mean people talking to each other rather than delivering multiparagraph lectures?). What happened to action, where things happen?

I made it through to the end so I'm giving this book two stars but I have to say that second one is a bit of a gift in honor (no pun intended) of the good work early in the Honor universe.

Reading this book was much like spending several hours setting up the board for a really complex game, then making a couple of moves before putting everything back in the box again. I went back and forth between 2-stars/3-stars several times. Much of this book annoyed me -- particularly David's new habit of pulling in word-for-word snippets from earlier books. I understand the desire for continuity, but if readers aren't following the various story lines, then pulling in excerpts from other books won't help much. If they *are* following the other lines, then there is no reason to pull in the excerpts and it is quite annoying to get these deja vu moments.

I like Weber's universes and complex story lines. However, more and more he seems to be spending large numbers of pages wandering around story sidelines that suddenly dead-end, and are never heard from again. At the same time, each book has started to advance the plot line in very tiny increments. I half expect the next book in the Honorverse to provide details on Manticoran space sanitation technology so that some time can be spent chronicling the characters' visits to the head. If this continues, someone better invent Prolong technology so that there's a chance of living until the series ends.

Fourteenth in the Honor Harrington military science fiction series.

Although, I do have to question why it's considered an Honor Harrington. It seems to fit better within the Talbott Honorverse instead.

My Take
Yup, it's a short one, LOL. This is a combination bridge and tidy-up as Weber provides us with a ton of worries, state-sanctioned terrorism, and a determined Mike, Admiral Gold Peak. She's the kind of person we need more of throughout every aspect of life. A person willing to do what's right whatever it may cost her.

Although, I am rather confused as to why Mike plans to take on the Mesan Alignment when the Manticoran Navy is so incredibly low on ammunition.

Don't try to make sense of the mess of planets and their rebels. It's just too many acronyms to try and keep track of. It's hard enough getting the hang of which planets the good versus bad guys belong to as there are too many with too many crazy names. The constant you will pick up on throughout is how incredibly corrupt the Office of Frontier Security and the Solarians are. It's just disgusting how they rape and pillage planet after planet. Unfortunately the Mesan Alignment almost makes them look good. How scary is that?

I do love the Manties' cockiness, especially since they have the technological advantage of the arrogant, yet corrupt, Sollies, who are always so shocked and surprised. It's rather funny listening in to the Sollies calling the Manties stupidly cocky and arrogant with the Manties saying the exact same thing about them. You can't help but cheer as the Manties take 'em out. It does make me wonder when the other shoe will drop! And, after Yawata Crossing, I am so hoping it doesn't!

The Story
The incident at Green Pines which the Mesans are claiming was a nuclear strike by Anton Zilwicki is still fresh as is the Solarian Navy's defeat at Talbott by Gold Peak. Even worse, the Yawata Strike---the Mesan's Oyster Bay plan---which totally destroyed Yawata Crossing and the Manticoran Empire's ability to manufacture ammunition is also fresh.

Very few yet know of Admiral Filareta's defeat in Manticore space (see A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington, #13)).

And Gold Peak is taking 'em to the mattresses.

The Characters
The Royal Manitcoran Navy
Vice Admiral (soon to be Admiral) Gloria Michelle Samantha Evelyn Henke, Countess Gold Peak, and commanding officer, Tenth Fleet, a.k.a., Mike, is one of Duchess Harrington's best friends, fourth in line to the throne, and Empress Elizabeth's cousin. And a very determined woman. Chris Billingsley is her chief of staff. Dicey is the huge Maine coon cat who haunts Mike's cabin. Master Sergeant Massimiliano "Miliano" Cognasso has a treecat, Alfredo, who helps out.

Captain Cindy Lecter, Michael Oversteegen, Vice Admiral Aploloniá Munming is the commander of Battle Squadron 16, and Rear Admiral Mickaël Ruddick are with Gold Peak.

Commodore Jacob Zavala is heading to Saltash due to irregularities with Manticoran merchant vessels. Lieutenant Commander George Auerbach is his chief of staff, Lieutenant Commander Alice Gabrowski is his operations officer, and Lieutenant Abhijat Wilson is the com officer. His squadron includes: HMS Kay with Commander Rochelle Goulard, Lieutenant Commander Jasmine Carver, and Lieutenant Samuel Turner; HMS Gaheris' with Lieutenant Commander Rützel; HMS Gawain with Captain Morgan; HMS Tristram has Captain Naomi Kaplan and Lieutenant Abigail Hearns is aboard with her bodyguard, Lieutenant Mateo Gutierrez.

Talbott Station
Is still reeling from the massive defeat dealt to the SLNS by Admiral Gold Peak's Tenth Fleet. Baroness Medusa governs. Gregor O'Shaughnessy.

Admiral Augustus Khumalo is aboard the HMS Hercules with Captain Loretta Shoupe as his chief of staff and Commander Ambrose Chandler is his staff intelligence officer. Lieutenant Gervais Winton Erwin Neville Archer, a.k.a., Gwen, is one of Helen's friends.

Ensign Helen Zilwicki is Sir Aivars Terekhov's flag lieutenant and the notorious Anton Zilwicki's daughter. He'll be heading to Mobius with Commander Tom Pope, Commander Stilt Lewis who is in charge of nailing down the brutal imagery, and Lieutenant Atalante Montella.

I do love what Aivars does to Yucel!

Tillerman
Vice Admiral Theodore Bennington commands the other half of Tenth Fleet.

The Pine Green escapees include:
Meanwhile, Anton Zilwicki, Yana Tretiakovna, and Victor Cachat are almost at the end of their escape from Pine Greens with Dr. Herlander Simões, a Mesan physicist with extremely valuable information. Jack McBryde was the Mesan security officer who got them out before he covered their escape quite explosively. Frank Gillich and June Mattes are both Beowulf Biological Survey Corps and extremely capable.

Montana
Stephen Westman raises incredibly good beef and he's already been played by Firebrand. So he's suspicious when Mr. Ankenbrandt shows up.

Planetary systems include:
Loomis
Frinkelo Osborne is an advisor (for the Office of Frontier Security (OFS)) to President Ailsa MacMinn. Secretary Senga MacQuarie runs Loomis System Unified Public Safety Force (UPS). Vice-President Tyler MacCrimmon is the real power. What's left of King Tavis' family are the MacRorys, specifically, Mánas. Nyatui Zagorski is the System Manager, and he'd expected a bigger role with bigger plums. He's clearcutting the prize planetary resource.

Lieutenant Commander Sharon Tanner is SLNS and irritated with UPS' overuse of KEW weapons. Missile Tech 1/c George Chasnikov is a brilliant tech who will never get promoted. Captain Francine Venelli and Commander Diadoro are Tanner's superiors under Dubroskaya.

The Loomis rebels include Erin MacFadzean who organized a legal political party that the powers-that-be decided to take out; Tammas MacPhee (Erin's hoping he died and was not taken prisoner, oh well); Tad Ogilvy; Innis MacLay is willing to lay down his life to take out as many Uppies as possible especially after they murdered his family; Megan MacLean was supposed to get off-planet with the cipher; Jamie Kirbishly; and, Tobias MacGill is the cell leader in Haimer.

Seraphim System
President Jacqueline McCready keeps General Tillman O'Sullivan and the Seraphim System Security Police well greased and more.

The OFS interstellars are Krestor Interstellar and Mendoza of Córdoba, and they have destroyed all the small businesses in Seraphim.

Indiana Graham, a.k.a., Talisman, and his sister, Mackenzie, a.k.a., Magpie, are meeting a man they think is a Manticoran agent, Firebrand. In reality, he's Damian Harahap. Their father, Bruce Graham, is in a maximum security prison after he was forced off his land. Leonard Silvowitz, a.k.a., Saratoga, no longer operates his commercial farming operation, but he can hide containers of weapons.

Saltash
OFS takes 35% of the gross in licensing fees. Governor Damiá Dueñas gets some really stupid ideas and is stubborner'n dirt. It's mind blowing how quickly every single SLNS or planetary official scrambles to cover their ass and put everyone else's in a sling. Lieutenant Governor Cicely Tiilikainen is against his plans. Maxence Kodou is Dueñas' secretary.

Captain Valentine MacNaughtan is with the Saltash Space Service and he's in charge of Shona Station where the Manticoran merchant crews are being held. Commander Tad Rankeillor is his executive officer, Lieutenant Bridie MacWilliams, and Lieutenant Eardsidh MacGeechan, Bridie's second-in-command, make their own plans to survive what's coming.

Major John Pole is in command of the Solarian Gendarmerie intervention battalion OFS (a license for thugs and leg breakers to hurt people). Captain Kristofferson is considered expendable. One of the squads is commanded by Sergeant Clinton Abernathy.

Vice Admiral Oxana Dubroskaya is the SLNS CO in the area commanding Battlecruiser Squadron 491; her ship is SLNS Vanquisher. Captain Ham Seung commands the SLNS Inexorable. Captain Borden McGillicudy commands the SLNS Paladin. Captain Myau is in charge of the destroyers that are still intact.

Swallow System
President Rosa Shuman knocked off her husband Donnie when he got too greedy. General Felicia Karaxis commands the Swallow System Army and the security forces.

The OFS interstellar is the Tallulah Corporation headed up by Alton Parkman. Jerome Luther heads up the Nixon Foundation team investigating human rights abuses.

The Allenby clan is the thorn in their side with Floyd Allenby. Ever since they were stupid enough to kill Floyd's wife, Dr. Sandra Allenby. Sharon's brother, Vincent Frugoni, is a former first sergeant in the Solarian Marine Corps with 27 years of battle experience. Simon Allenby is Floyd's grandfather and still winning duels at 91. Jason MacGruder is Floyd's second cousin, and he may be a gloomy gus, but he's totally on Floyd's side. They think the Manties are going to support them, too.

Mobius
President Svein Lombroso likes to name things after himself. Angelika Xydis is the local OFS rep. General Olivia Yardley is the thuggish CO of the Presidential Guard; General Friedmann Mátyás commands the Mobius Secret Police. Colonel Tyler Braddock's careful position at the back doesn't do him much good.

The OFS interstellar is Trifecta Corporation with Georgina Guernicke in charge. Her second-in-command is Christianos Frolov with a seeming conflict.

Commander Tremont Watson is in command of the SLNS Oceanus with Lieutenant Branston Shang who is the comm officer and Lieutenant Commander Hiroshi Hammond is the tactical officer.

The rebels are Michael Breitbach, chairman of the Mobius Liberation Front; Kayleigh Blanchard is a senior lieutenant and Michael's heir apparent; Kazuyoshi Brewseter lost his entire family in the May Riots so he has nothing to lose; and, Yolanda Summers is the new messenger to the Manties from the MLF.

Meyers
Prime Minister Thomas Montivew officially rules for King Lawrence IX; Yeargin Kowalski is a local businessman and banker; Helen Sanderson will become the new head of the new Royal Police; and, Janice Hannover is forced into the attorney general position.

Commissioner Lorcan Verrochio is Xydis' superior and in charge of the Madras Sector. Brigadier Francisca Yucel is in charge of security. Vice Commissioner Junyan Hongbo only thought he was escaping.

The SLNS Edgehill is Commodore Francis Thurgood's flagship. Captain Sadako Merriman is a Frontier Fleet officer and a senior naval intelligence specialist as well as Thurgood's lover. Captain Hideoshi Wayne is Thurgood's chief of staff.

The OFS interstellars are Brindle Star, Ltd. of Hirochi with Saverio Palgani as manager and Newman & Sons with Theophilia Kasomoulis.

The Mesan Alignment
Albrecht Detweiler heads up this super secret organization of genetically manufactured people which has stayed secret for hundreds of years. Benjamin is his oldest son and informing him of Zilwicki and Cachat's escape and their prize.

The Solarians
The SLNS is the Solaris Navy, what we think of as Earth. They're major league bad guys, corrupt to the hilt. Although, the Mesan Alignment are the baddest of the bad.

Admiral Margaux Bordelon is the senior surviving officer and therefore in command of her fellow SLNS prisoners after their defeat at Talbott.

The Cover
There are more treecats on the cover than there are in the story! It's a collage of terror with worried people seated around a table display that shows a mock battle between spaceships while Admiral Gold Peak and Cossagno's treecat, Alfredo, looks over her shoulder.

The title summarizes the latest Mesan plot, for it's a Shadow of Freedom that's offered to a number of independent planets.

This book has a nice cover: Honor Harrington observing a holo of a battle...except that Honor makes not a single appearance in this book, not is there the slightest reference to such a scene in the novel.

That out of the way, this is an improvement in many ways over the last novel Weber wrote in this series. It is tighter, the action flows better, and it's just a better novel all around, lacking the the sloppiness that has shown up in some of Weber's more recent books. However, this book is...underwhelming, as it lacks any real reason to exist for 438 pages, only, finally, revealing a reason for existence on page 439, the last page (no, it's not 448 pages of print).

At 439 pages, this is a lightweight novel, made more so by yet again having Weber recycle chapters from previous books.

We move back again into the Talbot Quadrant, with Michelle Henke as our main heroine, with appearances by the usual supporting characters: Terekhov, Oversteegan, Abigail Hearns, and more. And when i say, "back" I mean that literally, as the story starts, timeline-wise just after word has arrived of the explosion of a nuke on Mesa, from the 2009 novel, "Torch of Freedom," finally drawing even with the current timeline by the end. But, as a result we have repeat chapters from "Torch of Freedom," "Mission of Honor" and "A Rising Thunder." The result is that at 439 pages, it's actually shorter when you factor in the recycled content. It feels more like a novella than a novel.

Despite these issues, Weber shows that he can still write rings around many other authors. I'm more attached and have better empathy for many of Weber's throw-away characters who exist for only a few pages from our first meeting until their death, than major characters who span entire series of other author's works (Yes, I'm looking at you Harry Turtledove...among others). Weber still has the touch when it comes to dialogue: "Why is it that people like you always think you're more ruthless than people like me?" There are a number of nice combat scenes in this book, although there's little in the way of a challenge for the main Manticore cast.

Despite the lack of drama and the lack of purpose for this latest entry in the Honorverse, it is technically a solid piece of work. Hopefully, we've now caught up and can look forward to the series, finally, moving forward at last.

Despite my only giving it three stars, I rather enjoyed the book. So, why only three stars?

First, something that may be considered a spoiler. The only place Honor Harrington appears in this book is when other characters refer to her, and those bits seem a bit forced. This is not an Honor Harrington book, despite her picture on the cover.

Next, much of this book feels like back story that the author had to edit out of the last two books. That would be interesting as part of a book of short stories. Actually, it would have made more sense as a book of short stories, as there really isn't a lot connecting the various parts of this book. But as far as the story arc goes, much of this book does nothing.

There is some new material here, and the last bit of the book does advance the story. It is worth reading if you enjoy the Honorverse stories, and I do.

But I was waiting for the second half of A Rising Thunder. I'm still waiting.

The subtitle of the book is "A New Honor Harrington Novel" and that is why I bought it, assuming it was the continuation from the most recent Honor Harringtion, A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington).

NOT TRUE at all. Yes this takes place in the HONORVERSE(as the the store title now indicates) but instead this is the 3rd book in the Saganami Island series. Since I had not read the first two, (The The Shadow of Saganami (The Saganami Island) and Storm from the Shadows (Disciples of Honor)) and I was stuck in a hospital waiting room with only this to read, it was very disappointing! In addition, this book contained whole chapters taken from books in the Honor Harrington series which was sort of disorienting as I kept thinking I must have read the book before and forgotten parts of it! Not to mention that I kept waiting for Honor to appear and she did not. This book has lots of short chapters with shifting locations and points of view, many quite interesting, but I find the format unsatisfying. Perhaps if I had read the earlier books in the series, it would make more sense to me. If you would like to read the Honorverse books in sequence, I recommend checking Wikipedia for Honorverse. Sigh.

The book as more or less the same pace of A Rising Thunder, which means that it follows numerous storylines which don't really matter, present at least two bold and condemned Resistance movements, a phalanx of brave and bold Manticoran officers, and corrupt and sneaky Solarian ones. Manticorans always win, Sollies always lose, sometimes fighting, sometimes not. Nothing else happens. Seriously: you can read A Rising Thunder, just assume "and things go on like this" and simply skip this book. Mesan charachters appear if I'm not mistaken in TWO whopping scenes and do absolutely nothing.
Not only it doesn't advance the main storyline, but it's actually a boring read: characters are hard to distingush from each other, and the same plot we already saw in ART is reapted over and over. Heroes come, bad guys get wiped out in seconds or surrender, everyone cheers.
I expected much much better from David Weber; I'm profoundly disgusted by this book, and I'll wait for reviews instead of outright buying the next one as soon as it comes out as I've always done.

I agree with most of the reviews i have read re this installment of Weber's series. This is not a continuation of where Weber left off the previous book, but a retelling along the same timeline from other character points of views. Most of these are minor characters which could have been omitted; i liked the parts with Henke in them but got too little of that and none of Honor Harrington.
It seems to me that us fans are being bled dry by having to wait months to get the next book in this series just to find out it's basically a re-hashing of the story. Maybe the publisher is to blame? But, this really needs to stop. Need to get some real continuation of story lines not just in this series but also in Weber's safehold series.
'Come on man".

I've read every book in this series. The problem with series in general is that once they are successful, neither the author nor the publisher ever wants the cash cow to stop. But like any story, a series needs to have an end! Otherwise each new book gets less and less interesting. And that is certainly true with this series. Each new novel is full of exposition, not action, and the actual story doesn't move forward very much. You could learn all you need to know about the action in this book in 40 pages rather than 400. The first 8 or so novels in the Honor Harrington series had lots of forward movement in the plot and kept the in-depth background info, if not to a minimum, at least at a reasonable level. This book, and the last few, are 80% uninteresting and unnecessary junk and only 20% meat. This is reminding me of what happened with W.E.B. Griffin's several series, the Alexander Kent Bolitho series, and the Eric Flint Ring of Fire series before I finally gave up on them. So how about this, Mr. Weber: write one more book (make it a long one if you have to), have the Manties kick the Sollies' butts and liberate half of the galaxy. Then, START ANOTHER SERIES.

I discovered this series recently and have read the main novels from "Basilisk" to "Shadow" over the last couple of weeks. There is no comparison to the two books. The first books in the series were contained story about a core of characters with a few outside characters thrown in to build the story of the books. Starting with "Mission of Honor" it seems that almost a third of the book turned into a long exposition on characters that really added almost nothing to the overall story.

Shadow of Freedom has to be the worst in that regard. Honor Harrington is not in the book. So calling it a Honor Harrington novel is pretty much an out and out lie just for sales. I know I feel like I was robbed. Also, this technique of cutting and pasting 30 to 40 pages that were in the last book is also a cheat in my opinion. It happened once in "A Rising Thunder" and two times in "Shadow of Freedom". I guess its a way of allowing the reader to follow the timeline since in the last two books it goes from before Yatawa to after in the story quite a few times. Regardless I think its a cheap way to make filler.

In the end I will continue reading the series but I will not be buying the next book in the series until after I've read the reviews. I highly recommend that everyone should do the same.

I was initially confused when the book opens, as there wasn't a single character I recognized in sight. It took a little while to understand what is going on. This book is a direct sequel to Storm From The Shadows, which is an Honorverse novel. It is not part of the main Honor Harrington storyline. All that being said, once we get past the first section, the pace of the book speeds up and its quite easy to follow the plot of the book.

Written in the usual Weber format of each section from a different character's viewpoint, the book is quite entertaining and fills in some holes from the previous book, along with making subtle - and not so subtle - mentions of what is going on in A Rising Thunder and its (eventual) follow-up.

If you enjoy the Honorverse, with all its myriad characters, this book is for you. If you're looking just for Honor Harrington, however, you will be disappointed.

This is a setting the scene book. Not enough action, and not really enough character development - though you do get to see a little more of Michelle. As usual lately, it has too many descriptive passages about the weapons. I am beginning to think that he has ActionWords set up to toss in the passages about Mark 16's vs. 23's in every book. While some of the tech stuff is needed this is getting repetative. The analysis of enemy intentions and brainstorming of solutions was interesting and I would have liked more detail.

I do like that he uses one of the Torch books to advance the overall direction of the book.

Like a couple of other reviewers, I think this book was better than A Rising Thunder, but not by a whole lot. I think the scope should have been narrowed down to fewer people, but I understand why he had so many different view points in this book. However, this book does lack the more cozy feel of Basilisk Station, Honor of the Queen, or even Short Victorious War. I think that feeling is one of the most compelling parts of the early books, but those books, even SVW, were simpler and had a smaller 'window' into the greater universe than this book. I gave this book four stars because the longer sections that were written about several of the characters like Aivars Terekhov, Jacob Zavala, Abigail Hearns, etc. were extremely well written and in the style of the earlier HH books. I think that the books moving forward are going to be a lot better than the last couple, based on this.

I am a fan of David Weber and the Honor Harrington (and related "Honorverse") series. I did enjoy this book, but this is definitely not a "stand alone" book for someone new to the series. The cover indicates this is a "Harrington" novel...but she is only mentioned and does not appear in the book, so it is more properly an "Honorverse" book. It is still a fun read and I think an improvement over recent entries

I am one of many that complained about the recent "A Rising Thunder"(ART) being a bridge book without a lot of meaningful (emphasis) action. This book suffers some of the same, but to a lesser extent. The book is not a sequel to "A Rising Thunder", rather it takes place concurrently and is the parallel story of events in the Talbot Quadrant, with their reactions to events from ART and the development of local events.

One criticism I have is a "virtue" becoming a "vice". David Weber does an excellent job in character development and giving insight into a character's background and motivation (the virtue). However, this gets wearing when pages of exposition are given to introduce a new character (and their point of view) only to have them die in the long-awaited "action" paragraph (the vice).

Spoilers

The book primarily deals with the POV of Michelle Henke (Admiral and friend of Honor) and other characters introduced in earlier "Shadow of..." books. We do get some good action in the book (discovering that a Manty destroyer can blow a Solly battlecruiser to dust bunnies in a straight up fight). We get insight in how OFS and various commercial interests squeeze "protectorate" planets. We learn that Frontier Fleet officers, while still arrogant, are far smarter than their Battle Fleet counterparts. We see how ill prepared the Solly power structure in the Verge for an actual conflict with someone that can and will shoot back. It is also nice to see some "decent" Solarians in Frontier Fleet and the OFS...folks that hate the system but don't see an option but to play (so possibly hinting at some willing collaboration with the good guys).

The book explores plots that Mesa had set in motion to stir up trouble in the region even before discovery of the wormhole terminus in the region...and how massively Mesa has (once again) miscalculated on how their "victim" will respond. Much like ATS, the book ends with "major plot advancing exciting action" about to begin...so I found the end rather frustrating. If I had to do it again, I would wait until the NEXT books (sequels to ART and SOF)are out to reduce the frustrated anticipation.

As a brief summary, this book advances the story line only slightly and there is a LOT of wasted print.

I might give this book a better rating if it had actually been formatted as what it really was - a series of short stories only marginally linked to the Honorverse. As a "Worlds of Honor" book it might have been interesting. You would go into it knowing there would be new characters hardly related to the main story, background for and expansions of minor points, and no forward motion of the main plot. If you've read the last few books than you know what to expect here. Re-iteration after re-iteration. Some reviewers have nailed the best description of these books as 'director's cuts'. Actually it is almost worse than that. It reads almost as if David Weber, pressed for pages and uninterested in actually writing, is substituting old drafts for new material. The exact same scene from another perspective. "Shadow of Freedom" at least has a few less of the 'copy, paste' sections that "A Rising Thunder" did, but you still have the feeling you have read it all before. Amazingly I am someone who usually likes to re-read books. But I find that having multiple copies of the same chapter or five in two or more books is vastly confusing. Nor does it help to constantly be changing viewpoints so that things are happening in one part of the book that are 'months behind' the part you are currently reading. We get that news takes time to travel across lightyears. That's why reasonable authors restrict their books to a single area of space/time so that the readers aren't confused to find a character worrying about a potential problem that was resolved 5 and 6 chapters before. You find yourself trying to skip chapters to stay with the characters you are actually caught up with only to find out that Weber has squirreled away a critical passage in the middle of one of the un-related chapters. Attention Deficit doesn't BEGIN to cover this.

As if all of that isn't enough, Weber seems to be even more impressed with his own cleverness than usual. Between his 'superior tech' fixation and his apparently endless need to bore readers with the amazing stupidity of Manticore's current enemies, I can't begin to count the number of pages wasted. We've read descriptions of his 'new missles' so endlessly that I find myself skipping even these. In early Honor books he would give the essential tactical information needed to understand the story and additional information would appear in occasional appendices. Those who wanted more detail could have it without ruining the story for the rest of us. AND it would only be written ONCE, not over and over and over again. And on the political side of things, do we really have to read endless chapters of people doing OBVIOUSLY stupid things - and the SAME stupid things at that - over and over and over again? While I have no trouble believing that politicians and bureaucrats can blind themselves to voters' real interests, or convince themselves that they can manipulate them as much as they want, the reality is that people aren't quite THAT stupid. Even rich, pampered, lazy people will eventually get tired of being treated as subhuman and start demanding REAL answers.

And just in case you thought that long, wordy reiterations and unnecessary (and equally wordy) descriptions were all that could be wrong in this book, it gets worse. While some people may not have a problem with piling massacre after massacre after massacre, I find that the numbers are just getting to be too much. Especially when Weber insists on presenting new characters for the express purpose of killing them off and taking a few only favorites with them. The Battle of Manticore was bad enough with it's absurd proposition that it could essentially kill off all of two nations' navies and yet still turn around and move on to another war. The Yawata Strike, killing off yet more absurd numbers of people and leaving no real fallback position, was over the top. So then we have the war with Haven wrapped up in mere chapters all thanks to a pair of "loose cannon" spies bringing back a single little bit of information just in the nick of time? And putting Manticore back in ascendence? So now we have to go and start doing the same thing in another part of space in the near future? Planetary rebellions costing thousands upon thousands of lives over a wide volume of space with the already strained manpower of Manticore trying to save them just in time? The gratuitous blood shed involved in this is getting to be too much. Yes, wars are awful and people die. And yes, they are often even people you like. But if these kinds of percentages REALLY died in every battle, there wouldn't be enough population left to carry on the human race, much less the war. So let's stop pretending that you can recover an entire fleet in a measely year or so. Advance technology can help the odds a lot, but this is just too much.

I would have felt really cheated if I had paid good money for loads of meaningless trivia and little to no plot. As it was, I could skip pages of pointless discussions and read the few good bits in the time allotted. It's not a book I will ever read again, so the library is the perfect answer to my needs. I am very disappointed in Weber, he has fallen deep into the traps of indulging himself in filler and punching the clock to get another novel out.

I'm a fan of pretty much everything Weber has written, read the reviews of this book to this point and groaned. The last two Honorverse and safehold books have been slower than I like and was expecting the same here. I was pleasantly surprised. It was NOT the equal of At All Costs or some of the better earlier Honorverse books, but good none the less. Honor isn't in this book except through reference; this is a Talbot cluster arch and picks up where things left off last we there with Terikov (pardon spelling, I do the audio books), Goldpeak, Hearns, Zilwiki, Coumallo and the other charters that have been developed there. Weber continues to be excellent at taking a battle or specific conflict and drawing it out and expanding on it in a way that prolongs the enjoyment of that section of the book. There are too few of them, but still this continuation (spans just a few months I think) is a good addition to the series. I realized as I read (listened) to this installment the incredible depth and breadth of story and characters this series imprinted on my brain. Good stuff.

I've read the other reviews and good, it's not just me. I have loved this series and have all of them, in hardcover (due to my own impatience). I do hope the next one will tie up a lot. Not a rush-through, this has been way too good a work for that sort of dishonor. I worried when the other 17 new series started that the Honorverse would just be dropped entirely; think about how that would make us all feel (torches & pitchforks). We all need to do something new in our lives or the joy in doing it just leaves us.I am still amazed anyone can write so prodigiously and that well, after all this time; adjusting and re-positioning a universe for the finale is just going to take some space. That said, I just cannot read in "in sorrow but in whatever" once more in this lifetime. Or chapters I've already read several times in other books. Juggling that many series tends to become formulaic;and can lessen the quality of the best, or all of them. I've stopped reading authors (David Jordan) whose books didn't go anywhere. Not this time though. I'll be buying it, or them, as needed. Hey, I'll even volunteer to proofread, which these later ones seem to need more often now; if that would help improve our wait times. So, when is #15 due out?

36 Chapters and not one time was Honor Harrington s name even brought up. I am sorry but if I buy a book and the person who has their name in the title of the book is not even mentioned in the whole book. Why not buy a book with Knork Wainbusters name in the title? Gee maybe I missed it in the last book. Did Honor die? I got sucked in on this one for Ten bucks David Weber you owe me two free books for this.

dray

You did use Honor Harrington s name on location 1485. Sorry I missed that.

David Webber’s long series set in the far future continues with Shadow of Freedom (hard from Baen) in which the Manticore empire has to face the huge, corrupt Sollies. The Solarian empire has contempt for neo-barbaric worlds like Manticore, but they haven’t improved their technology in centuries. The decades long war between Manticore and Haven has given Manticore such an edge that they are practically invincible. This time there in involvement with one Solarian governor who has seized Manticor commercial ships, and a revolution that need Manticore help. Minor, but still fun. I’m still enjoying this eighteen-book series Review Published by the Philadelphia Weekly Press

The book fits as an add on to the main action storyline of the pending fight with the Sollies, and the secret fight with Manpower. It does not add anything to that main storyline.

About half the book concentrates on the various sides in a planetary revolt/suppression/corporate action/Frontier Fleet action. As a side novel, it would have been a very good book if Weber had made one of the rebels the protagonist, and then did brief looks at the other viewpoints.

That is not what happened, which led to a confused mess of characters, scenes, and the typical internal Weber thoughts and meetings.

This is not horrible, but it is confusing at times due to the viewpoint switches, and as a reader I couldn't find a character to really like or identify with. I would call this a dead middle of the rating system 2.5, which I rounded up to 3.

Quick side note on the missile plant loss plotline (which is a main story line driver, obviously meant to cement the Manties to the Haven Bolthole facility). If the Manties can manufacture sensor heads on a light cruiser on deployment given a week lead time, because of their fabrication technology (as described in detail in the very first book in the entire series), why can't they take a few superdreadnaughts out of service and make them interim missile plants while they build deep crust planet side plants?

Shadow of Freedom (2013) is the sixth SF novel in the Honorverse subseries, following Rising Thunder. The initial work in this subseries is Crown of Slaves.

In the previous volume, Manticore sent a new ambassador to the Solar League. He informed the Permanent Senior Undersecretary to the Foreign Minister that Manticore had issued a general recall of its merchant shipping in the League. He also mentioned that Manticore was closing all far termini of the Manticore Junction to Solar League traffic.

Meanwhile, Anton and Victor reached Nouveau Paris. Victor refused to identify Herlander to the escorts and security guards. Ninety minutes later, he finally presented Herlander to Eloise, Theisman, LePic, Trenis, and Lewis. The meeting was a revelation and shock to the Havenites. Then Eloise and Theisman came to Manticore to meet with Elizabeth and Honor.

Elsewhere, the Mayan leaders were discussing the political situation and preparing for a revolt against the League. Beowulf was visited by a Solar League admiral to inform them that the League would be using their wormhole to invade the Manticore system. Then the Beowulfans were made aware of the peace negotiations between Manticore and Haven.

In this novel, Honor Alexander-Harrington is a Manticoran Admiral, currently commanding Eighth Fleet. She is married to Hamis and Emily.

Michelle Henke is Countess Gold Peak and fifth in line for the throne of Manticore. Mike also commands the Manticoran Tenth Fleet.

Jacob Zavala is the Commodore of a Manticoran destroyer squadron. His squadron lacks a few ships.

Anton Zilwicki is a former Captain in the Manticoran Navy. He is the father of Helen and Berry. He is also the common law husband of Catherine Montaigne.

Helen Zilwicki is an Ensign in the Manticoran Navy. She is the daughter of Anton.

Victor Cachat is a special officer -- spy -- for the Republic of Haven. He has been working with Anton since the origins of Torch.

Herlander Simoes is a mathematical physicist on the Mesan Alignment drive research team. He has played a key role is developing a new type of interstellar drive.

Partisan is an agent provocateur for the Mesan Alignment. He is stirring up rebellions within the Verge.

Firebrand is an agent provocateur for the Mesan Alignment. He has stirred up a rebellions on Montana and is now working within the Verge.

Stephen Westman is a rancher on Montana. He had led a popular liberation movement against Manticore with the assistance of Firebrand. Yet he has become a supporter of Manticore after learning more about them.

In this story, the Talbott Quadrant starts getting word of events in the home system and elsewhere. The Yawata Strike has already affected reinforcements for the Tenth Fleet. The Green Pines incident is inexplicable and Helen is gently questioned about her father and Victor.

Meanwhile, Frontier Security ships launch KEWs at Loomis and drop an Intervention Battalion on the planet. Partisan had promised the rebels that Manticore will provide warships. The rebels hope that they will come soon.

In Seraphim, the resistance leaders meet a new contact. Firebrand promises more weapons. The resistance quickly hides the shipment in some caves.

Michelle receives word that the governor at Saltash has seized two Manticoran merchant ships and are holding the crew as prisoners. She sends Zavala and his destroyer squadron to check into the matter. The governor refuses to surrender the ships.

Michelle becomes aware of the agent provocateurs when a messenger from the Mobius System arrives on Montana and contacts Westman. Steve passes him on to Michelle. Mike decides to check his information.

Michelle is also considering an advance into the Verge systems. The Madras Sector has been particularly annoying. Then maybe she could continue on to Mesa.

This tale starts the offensive phase of the war. Though the Solar League doesn't consider their actions as grounds for a war -- or that Manticore would dare to declare war -- Mike is looking forward to proving them wrong.

The Tenth Fleet moves against Frontier Security on several fronts. The next installment in this sequence has not yet been announced on the store.

Highly recommended for Weber fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of naval combat, political intrigue, and arrogant bureaucrats. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

Shadow Of Freedom
David Weber
Baen, Mar 5 2013, $25.00
ISBN: 9781451638691

The Manticore's fleet defeated the invincible armada of the Solarian League that had encroached into the Star Empire's sector with plans with plans to seize the strategic wormholes. However, Tenth Fleet Commander Michelle Henke knows she and the rest of the military have no time to bash in the glory of a stunning victory, The Solarian Office of Frontier Security continues to cause havoc in the Talbott Quadrant especially along the frontier. While all types of warfare continue unabated, the threat to destroy Manticore and its allies remains stratospheric; as does the hostility with the Mesan Alignment. Manticore turns to former enemy People's Republic of Haven as hopefully an ally.

At the same time, the Mobius Liberation Front informs Manticore that they have begun the liberation rebellion to overthrow the brutal reign of President Lombroso, but need the help from the Star Empire as previously negotiated and promised. No one in Manticore authority ever heard of the MLF so the assumption is the diabolical clever Mesan Alignment is using subterfuge to destroy the bonds between the Star Empire and the smaller under fire independents at a time the fleet cannot divert resources away from the fight against the Solarian League.

This is an engaging Honorverse science fiction thriller with a Cecil B Demille cast distracting from the exciting outer space naval encounters and fascinating political machinations; Henke (not Harrington) loosely is the nearest individual to being the prime player. The storyline also provides a different perspective from events told in A Rising Thunder and Mission of Honor so that the audience knows several key outcomes. Still Shadow Of Freedom is well written and shows the logistical problems of fighting a multi-front war.

Harriet Klausner

It's an okay book, but there was little reason to split it off of A Rising Thunder. And there was little advancement in either A Rising Thunder or Shadow of Freedom that couldn't have gone into Mission of Honor. Weber is running into two problems with this series.

The first can be see in his latest series, Safehold, where he is six books in to a storyline that should have only taken a few books to tell, and he's only halfway in at that. His books are now drowning in details. The reader is given details and insight into just about everything, but at the cost of pace. Since it takes a year for the next book to come out, taking four or five books to simply give the introduction to the storyline just doesn't really work.

The second problem is that it is obvious the author is struggling to continue his storyline past the originally intended end-point. Harrington was supposed to die at the end of At All Costs, allowing the series to move on and jump to a new time-period with a new conflict. Instead, since Weber refused to kill her off and instead opted for continuing the storyline and taking away the time-jump, we are left with a storyline that struggles to really come up with anything special. How many times can it be pointed out in the book that the Sollies have no idea what they are in store for, or how badly outclassed they really are. Yet that is every battle with the Solarians so far. It's become formulaic. There is no strategy. No deep thought. Just "No one can stand-up to us! Wait...how many missiles?! *dead*". It was cute the first few times, after half-a-dozen major battles though it is incredibly worn out. But the author has no where else to go since without that time-jump there is no way to justify giving them anything else.

In the end, if you are a die-hard fan and must read everything then you'll probably read it anyways. If not, just wait for the next book, or even the book after that. They'll take a chapter or two to sum up all the details that happened in this book anyways, so you won't really miss anything.

This is a setting the scene book. Not enough action, and not really enough character development - though you do get to see a little more of Michelle. As usual lately, it has too many descriptive passages about the weapons. I am beginning to think that he has ActionWords set up to toss in the passages about Mark 16's vs. 23's in every book. While some of the tech stuff is needed this is getting repetative. The analysis of enemy intentions and brainstorming of solutions was interesting and I would have liked more detail.

I do like that he uses one of the Torch books to advance the overall direction of the book.

Like a couple of other reviewers, I think this book was better than A Rising Thunder, but not by a whole lot. I think the scope should have been narrowed down to fewer people, but I understand why he had so many different view points in this book. However, this book does lack the more cozy feel of Basilisk Station, Honor of the Queen, or even Short Victorious War. I think that feeling is one of the most compelling parts of the early books, but those books, even SVW, were simpler and had a smaller 'window' into the greater universe than this book. I gave this book four stars because the longer sections that were written about several of the characters like Aivars Terekhov, Jacob Zavala, Abigail Hearns, etc. were extremely well written and in the style of the earlier HH books. I think that the books moving forward are going to be a lot better than the last couple, based on this.

I am a fan of David Weber and the Honor Harrington (and related "Honorverse") series. I did enjoy this book, but this is definitely not a "stand alone" book for someone new to the series. The cover indicates this is a "Harrington" novel...but she is only mentioned and does not appear in the book, so it is more properly an "Honorverse" book. It is still a fun read and I think an improvement over recent entries

I am one of many that complained about the recent "A Rising Thunder"(ART) being a bridge book without a lot of meaningful (emphasis) action. This book suffers some of the same, but to a lesser extent. The book is not a sequel to "A Rising Thunder", rather it takes place concurrently and is the parallel story of events in the Talbot Quadrant, with their reactions to events from ART and the development of local events.

One criticism I have is a "virtue" becoming a "vice". David Weber does an excellent job in character development and giving insight into a character's background and motivation (the virtue). However, this gets wearing when pages of exposition are given to introduce a new character (and their point of view) only to have them die in the long-awaited "action" paragraph (the vice).

Spoilers

The book primarily deals with the POV of Michelle Henke (Admiral and friend of Honor) and other characters introduced in earlier "Shadow of..." books. We do get some good action in the book (discovering that a Manty destroyer can blow a Solly battlecruiser to dust bunnies in a straight up fight). We get insight in how OFS and various commercial interests squeeze "protectorate" planets. We learn that Frontier Fleet officers, while still arrogant, are far smarter than their Battle Fleet counterparts. We see how ill prepared the Solly power structure in the Verge for an actual conflict with someone that can and will shoot back. It is also nice to see some "decent" Solarians in Frontier Fleet and the OFS...folks that hate the system but don't see an option but to play (so possibly hinting at some willing collaboration with the good guys).

The book explores plots that Mesa had set in motion to stir up trouble in the region even before discovery of the wormhole terminus in the region...and how massively Mesa has (once again) miscalculated on how their "victim" will respond. Much like ATS, the book ends with "major plot advancing exciting action" about to begin...so I found the end rather frustrating. If I had to do it again, I would wait until the NEXT books (sequels to ART and SOF)are out to reduce the frustrated anticipation.

As a brief summary, this book advances the story line only slightly and there is a LOT of wasted print.

I might give this book a better rating if it had actually been formatted as what it really was - a series of short stories only marginally linked to the Honorverse. As a "Worlds of Honor" book it might have been interesting. You would go into it knowing there would be new characters hardly related to the main story, background for and expansions of minor points, and no forward motion of the main plot. If you've read the last few books than you know what to expect here. Re-iteration after re-iteration. Some reviewers have nailed the best description of these books as 'director's cuts'. Actually it is almost worse than that. It reads almost as if David Weber, pressed for pages and uninterested in actually writing, is substituting old drafts for new material. The exact same scene from another perspective. "Shadow of Freedom" at least has a few less of the 'copy, paste' sections that "A Rising Thunder" did, but you still have the feeling you have read it all before. Amazingly I am someone who usually likes to re-read books. But I find that having multiple copies of the same chapter or five in two or more books is vastly confusing. Nor does it help to constantly be changing viewpoints so that things are happening in one part of the book that are 'months behind' the part you are currently reading. We get that news takes time to travel across lightyears. That's why reasonable authors restrict their books to a single area of space/time so that the readers aren't confused to find a character worrying about a potential problem that was resolved 5 and 6 chapters before. You find yourself trying to skip chapters to stay with the characters you are actually caught up with only to find out that Weber has squirreled away a critical passage in the middle of one of the un-related chapters. Attention Deficit doesn't BEGIN to cover this.

As if all of that isn't enough, Weber seems to be even more impressed with his own cleverness than usual. Between his 'superior tech' fixation and his apparently endless need to bore readers with the amazing stupidity of Manticore's current enemies, I can't begin to count the number of pages wasted. We've read descriptions of his 'new missles' so endlessly that I find myself skipping even these. In early Honor books he would give the essential tactical information needed to understand the story and additional information would appear in occasional appendices. Those who wanted more detail could have it without ruining the story for the rest of us. AND it would only be written ONCE, not over and over and over again. And on the political side of things, do we really have to read endless chapters of people doing OBVIOUSLY stupid things - and the SAME stupid things at that - over and over and over again? While I have no trouble believing that politicians and bureaucrats can blind themselves to voters' real interests, or convince themselves that they can manipulate them as much as they want, the reality is that people aren't quite THAT stupid. Even rich, pampered, lazy people will eventually get tired of being treated as subhuman and start demanding REAL answers.

And just in case you thought that long, wordy reiterations and unnecessary (and equally wordy) descriptions were all that could be wrong in this book, it gets worse. While some people may not have a problem with piling massacre after massacre after massacre, I find that the numbers are just getting to be too much. Especially when Weber insists on presenting new characters for the express purpose of killing them off and taking a few only favorites with them. The Battle of Manticore was bad enough with it's absurd proposition that it could essentially kill off all of two nations' navies and yet still turn around and move on to another war. The Yawata Strike, killing off yet more absurd numbers of people and leaving no real fallback position, was over the top. So then we have the war with Haven wrapped up in mere chapters all thanks to a pair of "loose cannon" spies bringing back a single little bit of information just in the nick of time? And putting Manticore back in ascendence? So now we have to go and start doing the same thing in another part of space in the near future? Planetary rebellions costing thousands upon thousands of lives over a wide volume of space with the already strained manpower of Manticore trying to save them just in time? The gratuitous blood shed involved in this is getting to be too much. Yes, wars are awful and people die. And yes, they are often even people you like. But if these kinds of percentages REALLY died in every battle, there wouldn't be enough population left to carry on the human race, much less the war. So let's stop pretending that you can recover an entire fleet in a measely year or so. Advance technology can help the odds a lot, but this is just too much.

I would have felt really cheated if I had paid good money for loads of meaningless trivia and little to no plot. As it was, I could skip pages of pointless discussions and read the few good bits in the time allotted. It's not a book I will ever read again, so the library is the perfect answer to my needs. I am very disappointed in Weber, he has fallen deep into the traps of indulging himself in filler and punching the clock to get another novel out.

I'm a fan of pretty much everything Weber has written, read the reviews of this book to this point and groaned. The last two Honorverse and safehold books have been slower than I like and was expecting the same here. I was pleasantly surprised. It was NOT the equal of At All Costs or some of the better earlier Honorverse books, but good none the less. Honor isn't in this book except through reference; this is a Talbot cluster arch and picks up where things left off last we there with Terikov (pardon spelling, I do the audio books), Goldpeak, Hearns, Zilwiki, Coumallo and the other charters that have been developed there. Weber continues to be excellent at taking a battle or specific conflict and drawing it out and expanding on it in a way that prolongs the enjoyment of that section of the book. There are too few of them, but still this continuation (spans just a few months I think) is a good addition to the series. I realized as I read (listened) to this installment the incredible depth and breadth of story and characters this series imprinted on my brain. Good stuff.

I've read the other reviews and good, it's not just me. I have loved this series and have all of them, in hardcover (due to my own impatience). I do hope the next one will tie up a lot. Not a rush-through, this has been way too good a work for that sort of dishonor. I worried when the other 17 new series started that the Honorverse would just be dropped entirely; think about how that would make us all feel (torches & pitchforks). We all need to do something new in our lives or the joy in doing it just leaves us.I am still amazed anyone can write so prodigiously and that well, after all this time; adjusting and re-positioning a universe for the finale is just going to take some space. That said, I just cannot read in "in sorrow but in whatever" once more in this lifetime. Or chapters I've already read several times in other books. Juggling that many series tends to become formulaic;and can lessen the quality of the best, or all of them. I've stopped reading authors (David Jordan) whose books didn't go anywhere. Not this time though. I'll be buying it, or them, as needed. Hey, I'll even volunteer to proofread, which these later ones seem to need more often now; if that would help improve our wait times. So, when is #15 due out?

36 Chapters and not one time was Honor Harrington s name even brought up. I am sorry but if I buy a book and the person who has their name in the title of the book is not even mentioned in the whole book. Why not buy a book with Knork Wainbusters name in the title? Gee maybe I missed it in the last book. Did Honor die? I got sucked in on this one for Ten bucks David Weber you owe me two free books for this.

dray

You did use Honor Harrington s name on location 1485. Sorry I missed that.

David Webber’s long series set in the far future continues with Shadow of Freedom (hard from Baen) in which the Manticore empire has to face the huge, corrupt Sollies. The Solarian empire has contempt for neo-barbaric worlds like Manticore, but they haven’t improved their technology in centuries. The decades long war between Manticore and Haven has given Manticore such an edge that they are practically invincible. This time there in involvement with one Solarian governor who has seized Manticor commercial ships, and a revolution that need Manticore help. Minor, but still fun. I’m still enjoying this eighteen-book series Review Published by the Philadelphia Weekly Press

The book fits as an add on to the main action storyline of the pending fight with the Sollies, and the secret fight with Manpower. It does not add anything to that main storyline.

About half the book concentrates on the various sides in a planetary revolt/suppression/corporate action/Frontier Fleet action. As a side novel, it would have been a very good book if Weber had made one of the rebels the protagonist, and then did brief looks at the other viewpoints.

That is not what happened, which led to a confused mess of characters, scenes, and the typical internal Weber thoughts and meetings.

This is not horrible, but it is confusing at times due to the viewpoint switches, and as a reader I couldn't find a character to really like or identify with. I would call this a dead middle of the rating system 2.5, which I rounded up to 3.

Quick side note on the missile plant loss plotline (which is a main story line driver, obviously meant to cement the Manties to the Haven Bolthole facility). If the Manties can manufacture sensor heads on a light cruiser on deployment given a week lead time, because of their fabrication technology (as described in detail in the very first book in the entire series), why can't they take a few superdreadnaughts out of service and make them interim missile plants while they build deep crust planet side plants?

Shadow of Freedom (2013) is the sixth SF novel in the Honorverse subseries, following Rising Thunder. The initial work in this subseries is Crown of Slaves.

In the previous volume, Manticore sent a new ambassador to the Solar League. He informed the Permanent Senior Undersecretary to the Foreign Minister that Manticore had issued a general recall of its merchant shipping in the League. He also mentioned that Manticore was closing all far termini of the Manticore Junction to Solar League traffic.

Meanwhile, Anton and Victor reached Nouveau Paris. Victor refused to identify Herlander to the escorts and security guards. Ninety minutes later, he finally presented Herlander to Eloise, Theisman, LePic, Trenis, and Lewis. The meeting was a revelation and shock to the Havenites. Then Eloise and Theisman came to Manticore to meet with Elizabeth and Honor.

Elsewhere, the Mayan leaders were discussing the political situation and preparing for a revolt against the League. Beowulf was visited by a Solar League admiral to inform them that the League would be using their wormhole to invade the Manticore system. Then the Beowulfans were made aware of the peace negotiations between Manticore and Haven.

In this novel, Honor Alexander-Harrington is a Manticoran Admiral, currently commanding Eighth Fleet. She is married to Hamis and Emily.

Michelle Henke is Countess Gold Peak and fifth in line for the throne of Manticore. Mike also commands the Manticoran Tenth Fleet.

Jacob Zavala is the Commodore of a Manticoran destroyer squadron. His squadron lacks a few ships.

Anton Zilwicki is a former Captain in the Manticoran Navy. He is the father of Helen and Berry. He is also the common law husband of Catherine Montaigne.

Helen Zilwicki is an Ensign in the Manticoran Navy. She is the daughter of Anton.

Victor Cachat is a special officer -- spy -- for the Republic of Haven. He has been working with Anton since the origins of Torch.

Herlander Simoes is a mathematical physicist on the Mesan Alignment drive research team. He has played a key role is developing a new type of interstellar drive.

Partisan is an agent provocateur for the Mesan Alignment. He is stirring up rebellions within the Verge.

Firebrand is an agent provocateur for the Mesan Alignment. He has stirred up a rebellions on Montana and is now working within the Verge.

Stephen Westman is a rancher on Montana. He had led a popular liberation movement against Manticore with the assistance of Firebrand. Yet he has become a supporter of Manticore after learning more about them.

In this story, the Talbott Quadrant starts getting word of events in the home system and elsewhere. The Yawata Strike has already affected reinforcements for the Tenth Fleet. The Green Pines incident is inexplicable and Helen is gently questioned about her father and Victor.

Meanwhile, Frontier Security ships launch KEWs at Loomis and drop an Intervention Battalion on the planet. Partisan had promised the rebels that Manticore will provide warships. The rebels hope that they will come soon.

In Seraphim, the resistance leaders meet a new contact. Firebrand promises more weapons. The resistance quickly hides the shipment in some caves.

Michelle receives word that the governor at Saltash has seized two Manticoran merchant ships and are holding the crew as prisoners. She sends Zavala and his destroyer squadron to check into the matter. The governor refuses to surrender the ships.

Michelle becomes aware of the agent provocateurs when a messenger from the Mobius System arrives on Montana and contacts Westman. Steve passes him on to Michelle. Mike decides to check his information.

Michelle is also considering an advance into the Verge systems. The Madras Sector has been particularly annoying. Then maybe she could continue on to Mesa.

This tale starts the offensive phase of the war. Though the Solar League doesn't consider their actions as grounds for a war -- or that Manticore would dare to declare war -- Mike is looking forward to proving them wrong.

The Tenth Fleet moves against Frontier Security on several fronts. The next installment in this sequence has not yet been announced on the store.

Highly recommended for Weber fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of naval combat, political intrigue, and arrogant bureaucrats. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

Shadow Of Freedom
David Weber
Baen, Mar 5 2013, $25.00
ISBN: 9781451638691

The Manticore's fleet defeated the invincible armada of the Solarian League that had encroached into the Star Empire's sector with plans with plans to seize the strategic wormholes. However, Tenth Fleet Commander Michelle Henke knows she and the rest of the military have no time to bash in the glory of a stunning victory, The Solarian Office of Frontier Security continues to cause havoc in the Talbott Quadrant especially along the frontier. While all types of warfare continue unabated, the threat to destroy Manticore and its allies remains stratospheric; as does the hostility with the Mesan Alignment. Manticore turns to former enemy People's Republic of Haven as hopefully an ally.

At the same time, the Mobius Liberation Front informs Manticore that they have begun the liberation rebellion to overthrow the brutal reign of President Lombroso, but need the help from the Star Empire as previously negotiated and promised. No one in Manticore authority ever heard of the MLF so the assumption is the diabolical clever Mesan Alignment is using subterfuge to destroy the bonds between the Star Empire and the smaller under fire independents at a time the fleet cannot divert resources away from the fight against the Solarian League.

This is an engaging Honorverse science fiction thriller with a Cecil B Demille cast distracting from the exciting outer space naval encounters and fascinating political machinations; Henke (not Harrington) loosely is the nearest individual to being the prime player. The storyline also provides a different perspective from events told in A Rising Thunder and Mission of Honor so that the audience knows several key outcomes. Still Shadow Of Freedom is well written and shows the logistical problems of fighting a multi-front war.

Harriet Klausner

It's an okay book, but there was little reason to split it off of A Rising Thunder. And there was little advancement in either A Rising Thunder or Shadow of Freedom that couldn't have gone into Mission of Honor. Weber is running into two problems with this series.

The first can be see in his latest series, Safehold, where he is six books in to a storyline that should have only taken a few books to tell, and he's only halfway in at that. His books are now drowning in details. The reader is given details and insight into just about everything, but at the cost of pace. Since it takes a year for the next book to come out, taking four or five books to simply give the introduction to the storyline just doesn't really work.

The second problem is that it is obvious the author is struggling to continue his storyline past the originally intended end-point. Harrington was supposed to die at the end of At All Costs, allowing the series to move on and jump to a new time-period with a new conflict. Instead, since Weber refused to kill her off and instead opted for continuing the storyline and taking away the time-jump, we are left with a storyline that struggles to really come up with anything special. How many times can it be pointed out in the book that the Sollies have no idea what they are in store for, or how badly outclassed they really are. Yet that is every battle with the Solarians so far. It's become formulaic. There is no strategy. No deep thought. Just "No one can stand-up to us! Wait...how many missiles?! *dead*". It was cute the first few times, after half-a-dozen major battles though it is incredibly worn out. But the author has no where else to go since without that time-jump there is no way to justify giving them anything else.

In the end, if you are a die-hard fan and must read everything then you'll probably read it anyways. If not, just wait for the next book, or even the book after that. They'll take a chapter or two to sum up all the details that happened in this book anyways, so you won't really miss anything.

In the opening chapter, OFS (Office of Frontier Security) ships from the Solarian League are mopping up a rebellion against a tyrant in an “independent” system. In another independent system, a secret agent is promising potential rebels modern weapons and Manticore intervention to protect them if OFS ships arrive to suppress their rebellion. Meanwhile, Manticore Admiral Henke has to defend the whole Spindle quadrant and its vital wormhole without knowing if or where the Solarian League will attack one of its star systems. Secret agents Zilwicki and Cachat are bringing back to Manticore and Haven a scientist who knows some details of the technologies that allowed an unknown power to cripple Manticore’s war industry without being detected. And that power, irritated by the military pact between Manticore and Haven are preparing two more nefarious schemes.

What will happen when someone shows up and asks Admiral Henke how long will it take the promised Manticore support to arrive now that their rebellion has started and OFS is on its way? Will she send the support Manticore never promised? Will she find a way to use her fleet to attack a Solarian League ally? Will the Solarian League finally realize someone has manipulated them into an expensive war with Manticore and Haven? Will the scientist help Manticore and Haven develop technologies to protect themselves from the hidden enemy? This is three way war and each party is lacking important intelligence. Even though Honor Harrington herself is not seen in this book, the tension is non-stop and I can’t wait for the next installment.

This is not an Honor Harrington book. Rather, it's a continuation of the Saganami Island spin-offs. I don't mind that a bit, personally, but it should be mentioned, seeing as someone had the rather unfortunate idea to put Honor on this incredibly generic cover. Pretty much since "War of Honor", the story has grown well beyond Honor herself, and that's just fine with me. I'm well and truly invested in this galaxy-spanning saga, and I don't mind that Weber chooses to jump around that galaxy (or at least the Talbott Quandrant and Madras Sector, in this case) in order to tell it. It just feels more realistic that if the entire human race of the 40th century is in the balance, the actions of more than just a few scrappy protagonists should help shape the outcome.

The basic story here is loosely centered on the actions of Firebrand, a Mesan agent previously introduced in Shadow of Saganami, as once again he assists fledgling rebellions out in the Verge. This time though, instead of turning them against Manticore, he's claiming to represent Manticore in helping them turn against their assorted OFS-backed tyrants. Except of course, that Manticore knows nothing about these movements and despite Firebrand's assurances, won't be stepping in to provide support when the excrement hits the impeller. Mesa's trying to convince the systems out in the protectorates that Manticore is the sort of ally who will let their friends twist in the wind once things go south.

Against that threat to Manticore's reputation, Mike Henke is forced to treat these rebellions as though they'd actually been instigated by Manticore after all, and finds herself drawn into an offensive against the OFS in order to meet it.

The overall tone of the book is surprisingly upbeat. The Manties have such a superior combat advantage over their adversaries that they've lost virtually all fear of the Sollies. Unlike the previous stories, there's not the slightest hesitation to engage the SLN, since war is well and truly upon them anyway, and the ease with which they clean their opponents' clocks throughout the book is reminiscent of White Haven commanding Operation Buttercup against the Peeps. For those who favor more tense action and remember fondly the days when the heroes regularly faced mortal peril and even main characters could find themselves suddenly written out of existence, they might find the Manties' complete ease in the face of battle a little annoying. Personally though, I figure they've earned a book like this. And considering how the book ends, I don't expect it to last much longer once this storyline picks back up.

I got sucked into this book and can't wait for the next. Not that I have much choice. The next book in the Honorverse saga, "Cauldron of Ghosts", isn't scheduled for publication until April 2014, and it's billed as a continuation of the Crown of Slaves series. Mike Henke, Aivars Terekhov, Helen Zilwicki and the rest of this series' principals may not even make an appearance. But what can I do? There's some things you just can't rush.

After a few hours of listening to the audiobook, it looks like I'm not going to finish this book. This series has been declining for a while, and these last 2 books have been dreadful. Too many characters, too much skulking around, too many silly subplots going nowhere, too little action. Socio-political minutiae for the entire universe just ain't that entertaining.

Tears in the rain...time for this series to expire with what little dignity it has left.

Honor Harrington never appears in this book! I know I could have known this going in, but I have avoided reading book descriptions ever since I got spoiled about an important event early on in the series.

Apparently the reason Honor isn't in this book is that it is actually the conclusion to "A Rising Thunder" but I still feel cheated.

The story progresses slightly and if you like Michelle Henke you may feel less disappointed than I do.

I couldn't bring myself to keep reading once I was a quarter through with barely a hint of plot. To that point if felt like two thirds introducing new characters with very little to make me care about them. The other third was rehashing events of previous books.

From other reviews it seems this book does little to advance the overall plot. I figure if the next book does advance the plot it will still rehash enough of this one that I won't be missing much.

Yes story is set in the HH Universe. There are an infinite # of books that can be set in that Universe. I'm not the slightest bit upset that it isn't focused on HH. I mean the poor woman can't leave the system without having an armada of super dreadnaughts in tow. HH has reached the point that she had been promoted to the point that most interesting stories are going to occur where she isn't rather than where she is and everybody needs to accept that.

The action focuses on what is happening in the Talbot Cluster but David throws in enough action from elsewhere to advance the overall story line which in some ways means the story isn't tight. I know some readers would have found the story to be more fun if he had left that out and just focused on M. H. and what she was contending with which was plenty. I still enjoyed it a lot. Himself also set the ground work he could use for a dozen or more different stories using at least as many different leads and I hope he does use some of them. They would make great stories.

I enjoyed and applaud and admire Mr. Weber's decision to expand the story's main POV characters beyond the proven formula of "Honor overcoming against the entire combined and sometimes colluding, sometimes competing for her head forces of the evil and/or venal and/or self-centered and/or greedy and/or weak-willed and/or just plain stupid corrupt blame-shifting parasitical bureaucrats, politicians, and military tyrants.

Perhaps the detractors of his strategy of interspersing the story with multiple POVs to show the well-drawn epic big picture, as well as the many independently-arising phenomena in the various groups of pro- and antagonists should consider that, between Rising Thunder and Shadows of Feedom it looks as if the stage is set for the many new threads introduced in the Talbott Sector to be merged with the thankfully not-quite-yet complete theme of the Star Empire's formation and its alliance with the former baddies of Haven.......I can see the potential for lots (I hope) of future tying together of the seeming loose-ends at this point, so I don't see the new characters as unnecessary at all.

Besides, much as I love Honor Harrington, I do see that, like many a saga, space-opera or PI series hero, there comes a point where she will become an overdeveloped caricature of herself with nowhere to go but down in her power to capture the reader's interest. Plus I imagine the author might get more than a little bored churning out the SSDD. Looking forward to the next book that is implied by the unfinished business in this one. I am a sucker for long stories that can be re-read over the years and still offer something new to take away, that I didn't see in prior readings, which is the case for me with all of the David Weber stories I have read so far.

Book number 18 of a 19+ book series plus a few more books. A book of the Honorverse in which Honor Harrington is only briefly mentioned, not starring in. The book is quite jumpy and introduces quite a few new characters who are not very important.

Even though quite a few things happen in this book, not much happens central to the Empire of Manticore story. Bypass if wished. One wonders if the Honorverse story is winding down with not many more interesting things to tell.

I actually rated this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

OK, if you're reading this you've read the plot description for the book. If you haven't, go do that now. I'll wait. OK, now that you've read it, Ignore it. That's not really what the book is about. Oh that is one of the stories covered in this book, but it's just a sideshow to everything else. Less than half of the book is about that plot. The actual plot description can be summed up in one sentence: "Here's what is happening in the Talbott Quadrant during the events portrayed in 'A Rising Thunder'". What we get is a choppy mishmash of story lines full of plot holes big enough to drive a superdreadnought through. Some of this we've seen before; this is the third book to describe the scene where Anton Zilwicki and Victor Cachet decide to take their news from Mesa straight to Haven. The new stuff bounces from one plot to another leaving the reader unsatisfied with them all.

I debated giving this two stars, but finally decided it's not quite that bad. It took me a while to decide what it was that made me not care for it and I finally concluded that there's just no dramatic tension. In the space battles the question isn't whether or not our heroes survive, or even if they'll win. It's just a question of how big will their margin of victory be. The Sollies are so outclassed it's sad. While that's fun for our characters it's not much to read. It's all good to know and it does give some context to the main story, but it barely advances that story at all. I can't get into all the plot holes without sharing spoilers, but there are a few points I can bring up. First and foremost, Michelle Henke has developed a bad case of superwoman syndrome where she thinks that she has to do it all. Case in point: she decides to personally interrogate a Sollie prisoner, overriding the suggestion that a trained interrogator would do a better job. Her reasoning is that she's the only one who can read the treecat sign language to tell if the prisoner is lying or not. Really? Really? To this point the treecat in question has signed "yes" (he's telling the truth) and "no" (he's lying). I'm pretty sure anyone with an IQ over 70 can at least figure those signs out without too much help. There's no reason for her to be the one questioning the prisoner, other than the fact that she wants to. And that's not the only suboptimal decision she makes. Of her two major decisions at the end of the book, the one related to the conflict with the Solarian League is fine but the other is very questionable. I suppose we'll see eventually whenever the next main line novel comes out.

Overall it's just an okay book. If you've read all the stories up to this point you'll get it. If you haven't I wouldn't recommend this as a starting point.

Most of the actual universe storyline of this book has already been covered in "A Rising Thunder" and
"Mission of Honor". There are also, a great deal of references to most of the other "Honorverse" novels.
If you remove the references to other books in the extended series, the "Honor Harrington" and "Honorverse"
books combined, you end up with two short stories of moderate interest. The characters continue to be well
written. However, there are so many appearing for such short periods, that the reader has no chance to form
any bond that wasn't transplanted from a previous book. The three books, "Mission of Honor", "A Rising Thunder",
and "Shadow of Freedom" are a great example of why most authors don't write multiple books with overlapping
timelines. Having the same events being told in a slightly different way two or three times is annoying enough.
The exact cut and past copying from one book to the next is horribly obvious and distracting. The worst however
is each book seems to have spoilers for one of the others. The muddled timelines mean that a number of the
outcomes for events taking place, have already been revealed in other books. This book makes it seem as if
the unfortunate twisted timeline is going to continue. There are multiple spoilers to what I have to assume
is the content of the next "Honor Harrington" novel. I can't recommend this book. The Honor Harrington Universe
may be collapsing in on itself.

I have been reading this series from the beginning. David Weber is great in developing his characters and the various political systems along with their differences. I highly recommend this but start from the beginning.

Enjoyed the book immensely. I enjoy the Honrverse will all its moving parts and disagree strongly with those who just want to follow Honor's plot line. Honor has just about done and become everything but become Queen - it's important and satisfying to follow Torch, Havens evolution, Abigail Hearns, Zilwicki and Cachat, Oversteegen, the tree cats movement off the home planet, and of course the Mesan Alignment. I think Eric Flints contributions to the series added significantly as well

Since "Shadow of Saganami" and the Torch books, Weber has gone to extra-wide scope in the Honorverse. There are so many interesting characters to cover, he has a hard time sticking to one before jumping to another. It's like a book of blended short stories. I'd almost rather see more Honorverse short story collections, really. Still, I did enjoy the book overall, especially in the parts featuring Helen Zilwicki and Abigail Hearns. They remind me of the early Honor Harrington endeavors.

David weber puts together a remarkable universe. Don't read this book alone. If you haven't read the Honor Harrington series go start with Basilisk Station. If you know the Honorverse already then you may want re-read Torch of Freedom again then the rest of the books between as it lays out what is happening here very well. Yes there are repeat chapterss that lock down the time line. That's okay to me. It's a good read and filler, enjoy!

Is it just me are all of his recent books sucking? I used to pre-purchase anything with his name on it but after out of the darkness, and this I'll be waiting for the reviews to get in.

David, either write or retire. This recent crap has to stop.

Some have complained this book isn't about Honor Harrington, and they're right; it's primarily about Mike Henke. Other than being mentioned a few times she is not in it at all. The truth of the matter for those who don't know is that A Rising Thunder and this book were actually written as one book, but it was too long so it was split into two books that occur at the same time period. And it was a great read that fills in a lot of holes from A Rising Thunder.

Well I have gotten hooked on the series, even though I didn't want to. This book begins to spin a much wider web of characters/planets/people into a single direction. It is moving beyond ...line in sand, in rides the cavalry, saves the day. It will be interesting to see where it all ends up. Beware, these are good books, that will pull you in, wanting to see where it's all going to end up.

Glad to have purchased this, I gulped it down in less than 48 hours. This book ties together several story lines (Manticore main line, the Torch line, and the war with the Sollies/Talbott Quadrent line, ) so you are getting bits and pieces of those stories, which lets you see where the other lines tie into this one. If you have read the others this can make the story slow a bit as the other story lines integrate. It also follows several main characters, Admiral Michelle Henke (the Queen's cousin), Ensign Helen Zilwicki and her father Anton. Sir Aivars Terekhov and Victor Cachat also appear, as well as various senior troublemakers from Mesa, and a whole laundry list of new planetary characters from multiple new planets

While there was barely a mention of our favorite Harrington, there was plenty of action and political intrigue, and a fair amount of technical jargon. I've always known there was going to be trouble with the Sollies, and now we have proof.

A very impressive read. Kept me up many a night as I couldn't wait to see what Admiral Goldpeak was going to do next.

I'm sorry to say that one of my favorite authors has produced a rambling and overly drawn out book in what was an outstanding series. I found myself skimming pages on several occasions to get through highly detailed conversations by new characters that simply were not needed to keep the story moving along. This book seemed to contain an excessive amount of filler without the sop of a nice surprise thrown in.

I am disappointed enough that I will wait until my local library has a copy of any new H. H. series book before I read it. I simply can't justify spending money until this series returns to its older, much more enjoyable ways.

Like most of David's books, this lengthy tome was fast paced and well written. His characters were deep and felt alive. The worlds he has written were well fleshed out and didn't have that feel of sameness as in other galaxy spanning sci-fi series.

A very good book in an exceptional series. Can't wait for the next one...

this new book is focused on the events of the Empire of Manticore and its confrontation with Mesa, a more adult story with a lot of politics, psychological analysis, multiple narrative planes, a new fascinating admiral. Great Space Opera and a deep hystorical romance, can`t wait to read next book !

Too many random and extended elements included within this installment. More EDITING was needed to keep the flow focused. Too many word choices and turn of phrase usage repeated. This book read as if someone phoned it in. If not worth the investment of writer's effort -- don't ask for consumer's investment.

David weber puts together a remarkable universe. Don't read this book alone. If you haven't read the Honor Harrington series go start with Basilisk Station. If you know the Honorverse already then you may want re-read Torch of Freedom again then the rest of the books between as it lays out what is happening here very well. Yes there are repeat chapterss that lock down the time line. That's okay to me. It's a good read and filler, enjoy!

Is it just me are all of his recent books sucking? I used to pre-purchase anything with his name on it but after out of the darkness, and this I'll be waiting for the reviews to get in.

David, either write or retire. This recent crap has to stop.

Some have complained this book isn't about Honor Harrington, and they're right; it's primarily about Mike Henke. Other than being mentioned a few times she is not in it at all. The truth of the matter for those who don't know is that A Rising Thunder and this book were actually written as one book, but it was too long so it was split into two books that occur at the same time period. And it was a great read that fills in a lot of holes from A Rising Thunder.

Well I have gotten hooked on the series, even though I didn't want to. This book begins to spin a much wider web of characters/planets/people into a single direction. It is moving beyond ...line in sand, in rides the cavalry, saves the day. It will be interesting to see where it all ends up. Beware, these are good books, that will pull you in, wanting to see where it's all going to end up.

Glad to have purchased this, I gulped it down in less than 48 hours. This book ties together several story lines (Manticore main line, the Torch line, and the war with the Sollies/Talbott Quadrent line, ) so you are getting bits and pieces of those stories, which lets you see where the other lines tie into this one. If you have read the others this can make the story slow a bit as the other story lines integrate. It also follows several main characters, Admiral Michelle Henke (the Queen's cousin), Ensign Helen Zilwicki and her father Anton. Sir Aivars Terekhov and Victor Cachat also appear, as well as various senior troublemakers from Mesa, and a whole laundry list of new planetary characters from multiple new planets

While there was barely a mention of our favorite Harrington, there was plenty of action and political intrigue, and a fair amount of technical jargon. I've always known there was going to be trouble with the Sollies, and now we have proof.

A very impressive read. Kept me up many a night as I couldn't wait to see what Admiral Goldpeak was going to do next.

I'm sorry to say that one of my favorite authors has produced a rambling and overly drawn out book in what was an outstanding series. I found myself skimming pages on several occasions to get through highly detailed conversations by new characters that simply were not needed to keep the story moving along. This book seemed to contain an excessive amount of filler without the sop of a nice surprise thrown in.

I am disappointed enough that I will wait until my local library has a copy of any new H. H. series book before I read it. I simply can't justify spending money until this series returns to its older, much more enjoyable ways.

Like most of David's books, this lengthy tome was fast paced and well written. His characters were deep and felt alive. The worlds he has written were well fleshed out and didn't have that feel of sameness as in other galaxy spanning sci-fi series.

A very good book in an exceptional series. Can't wait for the next one...

this new book is focused on the events of the Empire of Manticore and its confrontation with Mesa, a more adult story with a lot of politics, psychological analysis, multiple narrative planes, a new fascinating admiral. Great Space Opera and a deep hystorical romance, can`t wait to read next book !

Too many random and extended elements included within this installment. More EDITING was needed to keep the flow focused. Too many word choices and turn of phrase usage repeated. This book read as if someone phoned it in. If not worth the investment of writer's effort -- don't ask for consumer's investment.

I agree with others who have written reviews there is a lot in this book that is just copied from previous books, but some of that had to be done so that it could stand on its own. I do wish that he had updated us in the Honor side of the universe but guess we will just have to wait on that. "Mike" is a very well rounded character and I do enjoy reading about her thought process's. The character has matured into a an Admiral well suited to carry on in "Honor's Universe".

As some other reviews have said, this book focuses on the Talbott Quadrant & the naval forces there than on Honor Harrington. But the action is well paced and progresses the storyline, which in the last couple of books has been debatable. (Though I subscribe to the theory that setting up the plot is important too, though taking two or three books to do it is a bit much.)
I enjoyed this much more than I expected to based on the reviews available when I bought it. The main reason that I have it four stars and not five is because of references to events and conflicts in previous books that I didn't remember, and made me doubt where the events of this book fell into the timeline of the series.

David Weber has done it again. It will be hard waiting for the next one in this part of the series. In the mean time, I expect to re-read this multiple times to fully digest all of the plot lines - especially the various planetary rebellions sparked by the villian Firebrand.

First and foremost, this is NOT an Honor Harrington novel, it takes place in the Honorverse but pretty much revolves around Michele Henke. Honor never makes even a cameo in this novel. So from there this book is displaying a lack of accuracy (don't really want to say "shamefully lying") to induce fans to purchase this novel.

Secondly, Weber is going everywhere with this book, and the only meaningful action in this entire novel is Michele's final act...which basically leaves a cliffhanger which I assume the next book may or may not address, with Honor hopefully making an appearance.

It is almost appearing that Weber has caught the RR Martin disease and has lost his way. As a preceding reviewer has already stated it is hard to believe that the individual who wrote this also wrote Basilisk Station, Honor of the Queen, and Short Victorius War...perhaps he is giving his cat a chance to write some chapters which would explain the scattering of subplots.

Lastly, Weber is starting to get too fond of leaving cliffhangers. He did it in Rising Thunder and in this novel. He never left a real cliffhanger in his previous novels, and I don't count the end of In Enemy Hands a cliffhanger.

Hopefully, he just threw this bit of space junk out to satisfy a contract requirement, or to just get a free pizza from Papa Johns. Hopefully the next book gets back on course.

David Weber once again demonstrates the difficulties of command, and what a true Commanding officer when provoked can do. Life is never simple and military command is more complicated than can possibly be imagined by a civilian world.

I love Weber and have read all of the Honor Harrington books. I looked forward to this one and, once it arrived, snuggled down for a long, lovely read. But just as I was getting into the book, IT ENDED. Wa'zup folks?

I don't know what's on David Weber's mind these days, but writing compelling sci-fi with strong personal drama is not high on his list of priorities. Save your money; buy some other book. You'll know everything you will need to know about this book by reading plot summaries. Bring back Honor and get this story moving forward at a more reasonable pace.