Mission of Honor (Honor Harrington)

I loved the boldness of her arrival in Haven and the forthright way she dealt with the bureacrates. Her ability to read the opponents aids her in the negotiations. For once it was good to read one of Webers novels and not having thousands of people being killed. Others will enjoy this new aspect of Honor's chosen field.

I like David Weber. He writes huge door stoppers of a book and this one is no different. I won't go into the plot; if you haven't read any of the Honor Harrington books,then don't start with this one. And if you have, you don;t need the plot from me!
Mr. Weber is great with plots. He writes space opera on the grand scale and if you like that sort of thing (and I do) then he's your man.
But oh, the verbiage. He's weak on characterization and likes to have his characters sit around and recap...and recap...and recap again. He also loves royalty and titles and has his characters use them a lot.
But these sins are rather minor and he can put a complex and exciting story together like nobodies business! Buy and enjoy.

Hard to follow sometimes. Many characters introduced solely to advance or explain the political climate. It's sometimes hard to tell which side those characters are on. Still, needs to be read if you are following the series.

Hard to follow sometimes. Many characters introduced solely to advance or explain the political climate. It's sometimes hard to tell which side those characters are on. Still, needs to be read if you are following the series.

because Allyson Johnson does an incredibly poor job of reading this story. She's terrible at the phony accents, can't pronounce Man-ti-kór-an ("man-ték-or-en" just sounds so wrong after all the years of Madelyn Buzzard), makes Honor sound like a pre-teenager and simply makes a most excellent story b-o-r-i-n-g and distracting. Just can't accept her interpretation or again, accents, of Elizabeth's over-the-top British drawl nor Tourville's uneducated sounding French.

Never made it half-way thru the first section of Audible's audiobook. Guess I'll just have to READ it (yet) again since listening to Ms Johnson simply ruins the most excellent story Mr Weber has created.

I give the BOOK, five stars, but this 'reading' doesn't do the story justice. Dammit, it's man-ti-KOR-en.

The audiobook edition is just bad and I regret having paid for it.

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edited: still hate her pronunciation, but a disclaimer from Himself (Weber in case u did not get it) states that he originally approved Ms Johnson's work and isn't sure how he missed man-TEEK-or-an. sigh.

If you are looking for an escalation of the combat from previous books, you may be disappointed. However, that's not to say that this novel is boring. In fact, far from it. Weber still manages to hold the threads of a myriad of plot lines together. All in all, a very entertaining book.

As other reviewers have noted, this book suffers from too many characters and overly dense plotting. It could have been better edited. That said, it's still a good story, one that Weber has hinted at over his last few Harrington books. The next book will be the crucial one. Will Weber try to get all the details into the book, slowing the action and weighing it down, or will he return to the faster plots of his earlier works? Mr. Weber, here's the crucial test: I have gone back several times to reread the earlier works in the Harrington series, but when I go back to the later ones I only read the action segments. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think so......

Basically a whole book of Honor doing her best impersonation of Danarys in Mereen, sitting around and waiting for other plot points to resolve. Except the plot points are in another book. 6-chapter long "battles" that really don't need it, chapter after chapter of political maneuvering that slogs only slightly less than the romantic fillers of the last two books, and a plot twist that is all but shouted from the rooftops in the first chapter.

I've been an Honor Harrington fan since the first printing of "On Basilisk Station". One of the biggest changes as Honor's life evolves away from direct command and into directing systems, her ability to influence others or dare them to live up to her standard still remains. This latest chapter, surely not to be the end, keeps you on edge, waiting for the next almost-but-not-quite fiasco to occur.

Both Haven and The Star Empire are playing their final cards - spoiler heres. As in previous battles around Basilisk, someone makes a collossal mistake and gets trapped between a rock and a very hard place. People die. And again, instead of simply destroying the enemy, the victor takes the choice to the lost star nation. But while all this is going on, the situation encountered in the Talbott Sector has started to generate an evilness and life of its own, that has the Star Kingdon fighting on two fronts in an undeclared war with the Sollies Battle Fleet. Mike shines as a new Fleet Admiral and doesn't make any mistakes. But the biggest question everyone has is "why is the Solarian League even trying to go down this path , when they know they're going to get royally (no pun intended) screwed, even if they have numbers the Manticorans don't. Who would want Haven and Manticore fighting, Solarian League fighting Manticore? The villians don't raise their heads very far in this one - in fact, they've never actually been met in any of the previous engagements. Thier first engagement is completely devastating - readers will not possibly be ready to absorb the immensity of the problem that the warring star nations will be shortly coping with.

Read on - this is one of the books, you'll not want to put down - you KNOW something bad is going to happen and you can feel it in the tension drifting in the pages. It will be hard to put the book down. And even though you could say that ManPower is the driving force behind all the assassinations and issues, they're not the people behind the problem. Those evil minions have been steering the conflict in the Verge to their needs for centuries and they're not concerned WHO does what to whom!

I'm now going to read Torch of Freedom - but I'm thinking I've probably alerady messed it up, story-line wise. But what ever comes next after Mission of Honor, whatever the next chapter is with Honor in the Home Fleet, its sure to be the start of the end - because all the key characters are ANGRY , and i see alliances forged where previously no possibility existed.

OK, other reviews have spilled the beans. But finally Weber has ended the war between Haven and Manticore and brought in a new enemy. We've seen this coming for ages (and the last few books in the Honorverse have made it clear that the new enemy would be Mesa), but he finally got around to doing it. I hope that Weber spends a little more quality time with the series so we don't have to wait so long between novels. /K

I have always enjoyed David Weber's Honor Harrington Series. I will continue reading them as he writes them. I have paper backs as well as hardcovers. I keep them all so I can read them again at a later date. I have been pleased with Amamzon.com and their customer satisfaction. Thank you

OK, other reviews have spilled the beans. But finally Weber has ended the war between Haven and Manticore and brought in a new enemy. We've seen this coming for ages (and the last few books in the Honorverse have made it clear that the new enemy would be Mesa), but he finally got around to doing it. I hope that Weber spends a little more quality time with the series so we don't have to wait so long between novels. /K

I have always enjoyed David Weber's Honor Harrington Series. I will continue reading them as he writes them. I have paper backs as well as hardcovers. I keep them all so I can read them again at a later date. I have been pleased with Amamzon.com and their customer satisfaction. Thank you

It's been quite a while since I have read this book, and now the store requests that I review it.

What more can I say other than if you enjoyed Honor Harrington novels prior to this book, odds are you will continue to enjoy them, this book included?

Plot development is adequate. Characters in the previous books are developed, so the extension into this story of the space opera continues as an evolution on technology and linear plot extension. A well written book.

Nothing was accomplished in this book. It seemes more like the first half of a book, the other half to come later, in the next book, which will cost me the price of another book. He's never done this before and I was disappointed.

I very much enjoyed this book and am glad that I bought the hardback so that I could read it now. Of course, I will have to buy the rest of the series and related books in hardback, won't I? Rather than wait two years, that is. This book is one big emotional roller coaster ride. There are horrible things happening and really good things happening in it, all the way through. I feel that the ending is very, very good and hopeful.

I can understand the complaints of not enough combat, but it looks like the series is in its end game, for however many novels it will take, and the end needs to be developed in order to be satisfying.

I've been hooked on every Honor Harrington novel (and spinoffs) since "On Basilisk Station" and his latest effort here won't disappoint EXCEPT...it was a bit too short with the obvious cliffhanger at the end.

I was expecting over 800 pages based on the initial book specifications but the actual length is about 584 pages instead. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because of this.

This lead me to believe that David Weber later decided to split this book into 2 smaller novels instead of one massive one like War of Honor.

Even though there isn't a lot of action here as in previous Harrington novels, this book really does set the stage for one of the biggest confrontations in the known Honor universe.

WOW!

Spoiler*****

Honor is still very much alive at the end of this book :-) Hopefully putting at ease for those wondering what will happen to her.

Mission of Honor takes place after the events of At All Costs, Storm From the Shadows, and Torch of Freedom. It's the mainline Honor Harrington book after At All Costs, and it delivers. (SPOILER ALERT) At the end of At All Costs, The Battle of Manticore was won by Honor's 8th Fleet, and for all intents and purposes, the war with Haven is over. The question now becomes, how do Manticore and Haven end it- especially with a war looming betwen Manticore and the Solarian League? I think the book does a really good job of showing just how out-of-date the Sollies are, but how desperate the Manticorans are to avoid such a war.

What happens next is probably Weber's best attempt to bring in a 9/11 type event to the Honorverse. Sure, we've seen terror attacks in the Talbott Cluster, and some of the Manticore/Haven battles were epic in scale and casualties. But what happens in Mission of Honor is a complete shift away from what the Honorverse is used to- and it brings about reprecussions- for Mesa, Manticore, Grayson, Old Earth, Haven, and beyond- that will completely redesign the Honorverse.

And through it all, we get the great narration of Honor, Pritchart, and Hamish. What was a great suprise, was to see just HOW much of a leader Queen Elizabeth II really is.

The book ends on both a bombshell and a cliffhanger, and it's the Honor book I've been waiting for. It's got great narration and we're finally learning about what the "Mesan Alignment" is all about. This isn't a case of watching your heroes win the day; it's a case of heroes learning that sometimes, getting back up after a fall is just as hard as the fall in and of itself. But, that's why we read the books! Heartily recommended.

The book needs five stars because (a) it's an essential part of a must-read series, (b) it briefly has Hago Shavarshyan with a pithy analysis of his stupid boss (the book has many similar analyses, but that's the only one that really worked, for me), and (c) it has a very satisfying finale... though it's really a cliff-hanger for the next book.

Sadly, the book should have no more than two stars because Honor Harrington is barely in it. She doesn't accomplish a damn thing, and that's not what we pay her for. I suspect she'll make up for it next book; I certainly hope so. But that's too late to add anything to THIS book. Her character virtually disappeared, after the famous sword and pistol duels.

Worse, the book deserves no more than one star because the writing is SO tediously long-winded. Thousands of sentences are repeated in different words, often on the same page, sometimes by different speakers on different planets. There are around 2000 blatant examples of deadhead words and phrases: variants on "frankly", "to be honest", "if I were to be honest", "for that matter", "actually", "the next best thing to", et cetera. The word "honest" is probably used 500 times, and only ONE of them passed muster in terms of meaning what the word is supposed to mean (or anything), when a speaker seemed to genuinely put himself in the shoes of someone with whom he disagreed, and said that, "to be honest", in that man's position he might think the same thing. The other 499 occurrences were nothing but some "paid by the word" syndrome at work. If most of the book HAS to consist of people sitting around talking (and must it?), can't they, for the poor reader's sake, avoid rambling interminably?

All that verbiage leaves no room to say anything about Honor's children, even to make clear (in my mind, at least) how many they are or whether they survive. It leaves no room for any number of important things. There's no mention of Honor's prostheses or Nimitz' brain damage. There are just a couple of tiny hints that ANYTHING would change if all the genders were switched at random, or if everyone were a eunuch. Is space opera supposed to be asexual?

There are possibly a hundred simple editing errors: missing or repeated words and such. In a book this long, it isn't surprising.

The writer of "The Apocalypse Troll" will forever deserve an extra star for ANYTHING he writes. Yet it's hard to believe this is the same writer. Is it?

So... in the afterglow of the last chapter, the best I can manage is three stars. Okay, three and a half, but that's not an option.

But keep 'em coming, David!

Been reading David Weber since On Basilisk Station and for the most part was highly pleased by the story-telling and plots of Weber's Honor Harrington Universe. But the last few books the story has gotten buried in inane detail and back story recaps, inner mental self-anguishing thoughts of even the minor characters....that plot-twists and any drama has become a yawn.

Finally got the hardcopy, though I had read the e-copy Baen sells a few months ago. The first 200-300 pages are a chore. I thought Torch of Freedom was bad, but this is much worse. The plot moves ever so slowly (Harrington's negotiation dialogues with Haven are scattered throughout).... So many pages wasted on boarding and capturing the defeated ships - why? A few paragraphs would have sufficed to cover the problem due to the sheer number of prisoners...

As expected the book in a cliff-hanger. and because of all the "background" thoughts you can almost see the next plotline-story.... The upcoming bad guy is another military idiot and stooge for M.... He will be given a chance to surrender, but will choose not to or if he does choose to act rationally and surrender - someone or something takes control of him and still get his fleet trashed....

Mr. Weber ask for an editor and please listen to him, your books are excellent when focused on a few characters and the immediate action. Leave some drama, some "oh" "ah" for the reader to find and enjoy.

I am a big fan of David Weber, no one writes space opera like he does. This is the latest dolement of the Honorverse story from David, and it was worth the wait. I am extremly pleased with the way everything is turning out. and am also looking forward to the next installment with anticipation. Keep up the fantastic work David, thank you.

For me this book was worth waiting for and like most of Weber's books it slowly pulls the reader into the drama taking place. The last book "Torch of freedom" was too me a waste of reading only because of the large amount of dead conversations and endless number of people that you had to keep in mind. "Mission of Honor" kept on track even with the large amount of dead conversations, I happen to favor the Peeps and so it was sad and frustrating to see them so defenseless against that overbearing queen of the star empire! I didn't mind watching the Sollies get their butts kicked because they allowed themselves to believe in the hype of being so superior, when all along they had become weak, they remind me of the United States before Pearl harbor but like a sleeping dragon I do believe that the league will awaken at some point and woe to anyone that is in their path because now they have someone to focus on, to vent their frustration on and clean house of the dead beats who ran the league! Seeing the vaunted Star Empire brought low was a welcomed sight, watching Whitehaven and the queen and all the earls and dukes tense with real fear was wonderful lol!
I gave this book four stars because of all the extra verbage and banter in Mantacore's navy, but in general I really enjoyed the book and I hope the next book will be even better

This book is what J. Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame calls a "Wham Episode," in which the plot not only advances but also takes a stunning new turn in which the significance of previous events suddenly changes. What was foreground becomes just a sideshow. I cannot say much for fear of creating spoilers, but this volume is HIGHLY recommended to Honorverse fans.

And now I've gotta wait for the NEXT book! David, please hurry up and write it...

I have always loved the Honor Harrington series - and not just because of the treecats - and have read them all. Weber's attention to detail, his carefully woven themes, and the quality and depth of his characters have been a constant joy to me. "Mission of Honor" ranks right up there with the best. I await the next in the series with great anticipation.

The book was fantastic! I like all the politics that David Weber includes in all his books. Understanding what finally leads to decisive action is what, to me, makes a book exciting to read and David Weber is an expert explaining why force has to be finally applied. This is good Science Fiction. Honor Harrington is just a normal like you and me. The weapons used are not fantasy weapons but nothing more than advanced technology. I am looking forward to February when Manticore and Haven are now allies going after a common enemy like Manpower. This is a good example of Nazi Germany where Manpower consider themselves the super human race and everyone else must bow to their superiority. Well Nazi Germany fell and so will Manpower. Manpower will be finally be met with an angry Honor Harringtion along with angry Havenites that now know the truth. Manpower is doomed.

This book is great and opens up the series for some serious expansion. All though I do think that Mr Weber went a little overboard on the truth behing the true villians. I mean they sound like a super powerful/parnoid version of Nazi Germany who don't just want to conquer one world, but all of them. I do like the fact that the league is so stupid but what can you expect from an organization which had never faced a true threat, but still some of the non corrupt or treasonous members of the league gov't should be at least a little serious about whats going to happen when they fight Manticore and its allies. All well memeber the league and Manitcore will pull a collective rabbit out of there hats and save the day.

I have read the entire Honor Harrington series. This one did not disappoint. David Weber have made Honor Harrington a larger than life hero and the world around her exciting and deep. I can't wait for the next book.

Even as the plot becomes more complex and the situation for the Star Empire of Manticore becomes apparently more desperate, this series is starting to lose steam. The Honor Harrington story arc would have better profited if "Mission of Honor" had been combined with "Storm from the Shadows"--the latter book, while tying together the various threads of the three "Manticore-centered" plotlines (the war with Haven, the expansion into the Talbott Cluster, and the creation of Torch) really did nothing more than set up the narrative of "Mission." I liked that it tied the three threads together into a single narrative, but felt that the story itself was weak--it certainly didn't deserve its own stand-alone book. That conviction was reinforced in "Mission" when the "battle' between Solarian Admiral Crandall's TF 496 and Manticore's Tenth Fleet at Spindle proved to be little more than a bigger, louder reprise of the Battle of New Tuscany in "Storm from the Shadows."

More frustrating, though, is that Weber spends three fifths of the book indulging in the sort of political and military pettifogging that so badly weighed down "War of Honor" and "At All Costs." It's a far cry from the days of "On Basilisk Station" or "The Short Victorious War," where the protagonists hammered out a plan of action, then afterward discussed the outcome and its consequences. There is a new verbosity here, where the characters sit around discussing politico-military options and actions, along with their consequences and alternatives, ad nauseum. I was strongly reminded of the later novels of Tom Clancy in this regard, where he would endlessly detail the military and political reasons motivating whatever actions the protagonists were contemplating taking, then describe the military and political reasons motivating the actions being taken, then describe the military and political reasons for the actions taken. (You get the idea.) And it's not as if these reasons are in any way complex or profound--they are straightforward military and astro-political motives and decisions, with none of the accompanying philosophical or spiritual issues and questions that similar military and geo-political motives and decisions could raise in the Safehold series, where such examinations are often quite thought-provoking. Another Clancy-esque tendency that is becoming more apparent is the increasingly layered and complex plots--it's getting difficult to keep all the players in their correct places and remember their physical locations, as that more often than not has a bearing on their actions and reactions.

I'm also concerned that this new verbosity could turn the remainder of the Honor Harrington series into Weber's equivalent of Isaac Asimov's later body of work, where he attempted to tie all of his novels and series together (the Robot novels and short stories, the Foundation novels, "The Currents of Space, "The End of Eternity," etc.), with the result that in those novels, nothing really happened: the characters sat around and talked, and talked, and talked, and talked....

The character of Honor Harrington in no longer the central pillar of the storyline: she has been reduced to just one of many players in an ensemble cast, which is unfortunate, as there is no one to whom the reader can attach himself or herself. You only care about the characters because you come into the novel already having decided from previous books whom you like or dislike--no one in this story is compelling in and of himself because of what they do in THIS book. Again, this is sad, because the "Honorverse" has been populated by so many memorable characters--likeable or despicable--on both sides of the Manticore/Haven conflict.

Ultimately, I'm glad that I waited for the paperback edition, as I would have been decidedly unhappy to pay the cost of a hardcover copy for a book this disappointing. I fear I'll be willing to wait for the softcover edition of "A Rolling Thunder" as well. After a remarkable run of good books (some admittedly better than others) in the Honor Harrington series, the last two entries have proven that the bloom is finally off this rose.

Honor's life story is addicting. She faces such danger, such challenges- but no individual can cope with that non-stop. So Weber gives her recovery time, or meetings with staff- but we want to skip past those and get back to the action.
Like the appearance of the Solarian League; now, they have arrogant attitudes. No better than thugs, they challenge a Mantie formation in the Talbott Cluster with predictable results. Except this wasn't Honor's 8th Fleet; she still faces the Peep threat. So we learn a new set of characters; some Sollie, some Mantie. The Solarians are governed by a committee of bureaucrats, waving the club of a sadly outdated Navy. Costly, but inefficient club- and once the restive colonies discover that, the League will lose them.
Meanwhile, in a meeting room back on Haven, a mole in their State Dept has been unmasked; the 8th Fleet and HH has arrived-- to parley:

' The Secretary of Technology, like Tony Nesbitt at Commerce, had been one of the late, distinctly unlamented Arnold Giancola's supporters. Like Giancola's other allies within the cabinet, her horror appeared to have been completely genuine when Pritchart revealed the near certainty that Giancola, as the previous Secretary of State, was the one who'd actually manipulated the diplomatic correspondence which had led the Republic to resume military operations. The president had no doubt their reactions had been genuine, but that didn't change the fact that Barloi and Nesbitt remained the two cabinet secretaries who continued to nourish the greatest suspicion--not to mention resentment and hatred--where the Star Empire of Manticore was concerned.
Despite which, as far as Pritchart could tell, Barloi's response was more a throwaway remark, sparring for time, than anything resembling the notion that Haven should reject the opportunity.
"'Dramatic' is one way to put it, all right," Stan Gregory, the Secretary of Urban Affairs agreed wryly.
He was one of the secretaries who'd been out of the city last night. In fact, he'd been on the opposite side of the planet, and he'd been up and traveling for the better part of three hours to make this early morning meeting. Which didn't keep him from looking brighter-eyed and much more chipper than Pritchart herself felt at the moment.
"Dropping in on you literally in the middle of the night was a pretty flamboyant statement in its own right, Madam President," he continued. "The only question in my mind is whether it was all lights and mirrors, or whether Admiral Alexander-Harrington simply wanted to make sure she had your attention."
"Personally, I think it was a case of . . . gratuitous flamboyance, let's say." Rachel Hanriot's tone could have dehumidified an ocean, despite the fact that the Treasury Secretary was one of Pritchart's staunchest allies. "I'm not saying she's not here in a legitimate effort to negotiate, understand. But the entire way she's made her appearance--unannounced, no preliminary diplomacy at all, backed up by her entire fleet, arriving on the literal stroke of midnight in an un-armed civilian yacht and requesting planetary clearance . . . ." ' Early in the book, chapter 10 out of 50.
Manticore looks like it won the war; what terms will they offer the Peeps?

Reading the first two thirds of this book is a boring chore. It's all recap and exposition that could have been done MUCH better with a 30 page "Previously In The Honorverse" overview. I really can't think of ANYTHING before the Battle at Spindle that was not covered in previous books.

Obviously, writers can create a successful novel that re-presents a previous plot but from a different point of view. Unfortunately, this is at least the fourth Honorverse novel with an overlapping time-line, and the same characters. Things are not just moving ahead slowly, they are crawling. And to fill in the pages there is padding where minor characters do unimportant things. In one scene, we follow a team of marines through a captured ship, from the airlock to the bridge. Nothing happens. They don't even encounter any casualties. Why was this in the book?

Once we get to the execution of operation "Oyster Bay", an event that was first explicitly mentioned three novels ago, this book finally picks up its pace, and becomes worth reading. We finally get big revelations about the "Real Enemy" behind the war(s) of the series, and even a surprise resolution or two.

If you pick up this book, do yourself a favor and skip right to chapter Twenty-Two, (page 286 in the hardcover) you won't be missing anything.

This is number twelve of the Honor series. Honor Harrington plays a bit part in the continuing saga of Manticore. Haven and Manticore, Mesa and the Solarian League are all back. As a side bar I heard from another Weber fan than he too was frustrated to discover that Hell's Gate and Hell Hath No Fury have not planned follow up. It reinforce the fact that I know I was not the only one disappointed when there was no follow up (and none planned) for Hell’s Gate and Hell Hath No Fury.

There was some deep background filled in with this book. I would not consider this a good stand alone book. If you are not a fan of the series, I suspect you would be thoroughly confused reading this book. It is possible that Weber has always been this wordy. I found myself powering through some chapters as the details became tedious. I am still a fan and still enjoy the Manticore saga but the bloom may be off the rose. With that said, I ordered the next volume, Rising Thunder, this afternoon.

The Republic of Haven and the Star Empire of Manticore may have met in battle for the last time. With Haven soundly defeated, Manticore's Queen Elizabeth sends Admiral Honor Alexander-Harrington - her friend as well as one of her most distinguished military commanders - to negotiate with that star nation's government, instead of crushing what remains into total submission. Manticore's recent confrontation with the Solarian League has ended in humiliating defeat for the League, something its leaders cannot accept because the "Sollies" still see themselves as the most powerful force in the Human-settled galaxy. The future for Manticore looks bright, indeed. Until a mysterious enemy strikes without warning, using means that even the technologically advanced Star Empire cannot comprehend. At which point Honor finds herself devastated by losses both personal and professional, and ready to do whatever it takes to not only save what remains of home and family - but also to avenge the horrifying damage to her world, and the deaths of far too many of the people she loves.

I found it difficult to stay with long stretches of this book, because those stretches consisted of endless talk. Most of it about politics, and most of it carried on by minor characters in whom I never did develop an interest. However, whenever the story switched to a major character's viewpoint my interest returned with a vengeance. Weber's writing often made me smile, because his wit is very much in evidence throughout this tale. I came away at the book's end with mixed feelings. I wish I hadn't been obliged to wade through so much downright boredom in order to get at the parts that came alive.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 science fiction EPPIE winner "Regs"

Eleventh in the Honor Harrington military science fiction series.

My Take
Be sure you've taken your blood pressure meds...ya gonna need `em as you read through one heart-jumping situation after another! There is just so much happening on so many fronts in Mission of Honor and I was so terrified at what would happen I couldn't decide if I should tear through the book or set it aside every few chapters to stave off the bad news.

Betrayals and idiots abound...hey, it's a patronage military system in the Solarian Navy, politicians are everywhere, and megalomaniac Nazi-types are currently running supreme. They've been scamming the systems for decades if not centuries and slowly, oh, so, slowly, those being conned are...oh, so, slowly...figuring it out.

There are great triumphs and great tragedies, yet, with this glimmer of light coming through and the integrity of Honor Harrington shining, there seems to be hope. I just love this series...actually, everything by David Weber has been fabulous. But I particularly enjoy the HH series as Weber is so incredibly detailed in both his descriptions of the ships, the battles, the weaponry, AND he creates the most incredible characters and worlds.

Weber snatches bits from the French Revolution to create the People's Republic of Haven, our Earth is now the Solarian League which feels like such a natural result, but its democratic principles and the nature of man have created a corrupt society that needs to evolve, the current Star Empire of Manticore is (I like to think!) what the United States was intended to be in its early shining glory, while Manpower/Mesa/the Mesan Alliance is generations of genetically created super-humans who believe they are the "master race" and very definitely flexing its hidden muscles with devastating consequences but things may not be going all their way for very much longer...

While this particular story is supposedly about Honor with her diplomatic mission to Haven, the honors were shared fairly equally with Mike and her battles with the Sollies.

I had wondered (when I read this installment back in 2010) if this was Weber's way of easing Honor out of the picture...and I'm thrilled to say it's not.

I've caught it up again to prepare for A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington, #12) and found details I had missed in that earlier reading. Wooh, I am so ready to find out what happens next...Elizabeth has finally met with Eloise. An SLN fleet of 300 ships of the wall are threatening...and the Manties are pissed!!

I just can't emphasize the incredible detail Weber has put into this series. Absolutely amazing!

The Cover
The cover is oh, so Baen with its brilliant colors and cartoony spaceships attacking the planet encircling a saluting Honor.

Yep, it's definitely a Mission of Honor as Admiral Alexander-Harrington flies off to Haven to negotiate an end to the war between the People's Republic and Manticore.

Honor Harrington (now Alexander-Harringtion) carries forth the grand tradition of space opera, and parades it boldly through the entire mass of this lengthy novel. Larger-than-life good guys face sniveling (or brutally stupid, or slinkingly evil) bad guys. Space battles burn across silent skies, destroying material wealth comparable to a world's worth in just minutes. Complex political subterfuges play dangerous games of brinksmanship, where the players can't see how the brink moves under them. It's everything you'd hope for in space opera in general and expect in an HH novel in particular ...

... except for an actual, complete story. This fast paced drama runs full bore toward the back cover, and rams face first into it. At least two major and very threatening military actions loom, each with dire potential that could be resolved in many ways. They just got HH mad, and you know what that means. Then: nothing. End of book. I mean, I appreciate a sly bit of sequal-bait as much as the next guy, and even the occasional cliff-hanger. In this case, though, it looks like the full story was simply torn in half and a back cover pasted on, right at the point where you'll pay the most to see the next volume. (Come to think of it, "Mission vol. 1" would have been a more honest title.)

Five stars for the usual exciting story, what there is of it. Lots of points off for not delivering a whole plot. Yay. Grr.

-- wiredweird

I am on page 217 of this book 832 page book, and I am finished with it. I switched from reading to skimming about 50 pages back, hoping it would get better, but it didn't. So far, the book has been little more than long boring meetings with intensely boring dialog. The writing is attrocious. Any competent journalism student could rewrite this down to about 100 pages without losing anything. Anyone who knows anything about writing will immediately spot useless words, useless sentences, useless paragraphs, and even useless chapters. For example, Chapter 7 could be compressed into a single sentence: " 'Don't make me kill any more, Madame President. Please.' " (This is the last sentence of Chapter 7) The rest of the chapter is just boring garbage. Even this sentence is childish.

Another example of just plain bad writing: (Page 215, second full paragraph, sentence 2) "She supposed it was remotely possible something resembling sanity had actually reared its ugly head by now, and she just hadn't heard about it yet."
If I were Weber's high-school English teacher I would make the following corrections: "She supposed" is useless, eliminate it. "remotely possible" and "possible" mean the same thing. Use "possible" instead. "something resembling sanity" and "sanity" mean the same thing. Use "sanity" instead. "actually" is useless, eliminate it. "reared its ugly head" is a worn out cliche. You get a D- for using it. Use "occurred" instead. "yet" is useless. Eliminate it. The result is a better sentence. Not a good sentence, but a better sentence.

The problem with all the useless verbage is that it's like listening to a dentist's drill while you're reading. The meaningful words occur between buzzes of mindless babble. Even if the story were interesting, it would be almost unreadable. I find it astonishing that a writer with Weber's experience could produce prose of this quality.

Even as the plot becomes more complex and the situation for the Star Empire of Manticore becomes apparently more desperate, this series is starting to lose steam. The Honor Harrington story arc would have better profited if "Mission of Honor" had been combined with "Storm from the Shadows"--the latter book, while tying together the various threads of the three "Manticore-centered" plotlines (the war with Haven, the expansion into the Talbott Cluster, and the creation of Torch) really did nothing more than set up the narrative of "Mission." I liked that it tied the three threads together into a single narrative, but felt that the story itself was weak--it certainly didn't deserve its own stand-alone book. That conviction was reinforced in "Mission" when the "battle' between Solarian Admiral Crandall's TF 496 and Manticore's Tenth Fleet at Spindle proved to be little more than a bigger, louder reprise of the Battle of New Tuscany in "Storm from the Shadows."

More frustrating, though, is that Weber spends three fifths of the book indulging in the sort of political and military pettifogging that so badly weighed down "War of Honor" and "At All Costs." It's a far cry from the days of "On Basilisk Station" or "The Short Victorious War," where the protagonists hammered out a plan of action, then afterward discussed the outcome and its consequences. There is a new verbosity here, where the characters sit around discussing politico-military options and actions, along with their consequences and alternatives, ad nauseum. I was strongly reminded of the later novels of Tom Clancy in this regard, where he would endlessly detail the military and political reasons motivating whatever actions the protagonists were contemplating taking, then describe the military and political reasons motivating the actions being taken, then describe the military and political reasons for the actions taken. (You get the idea.) And it's not as if these reasons are in any way complex or profound--they are straightforward military and astro-political motives and decisions, with none of the accompanying philosophical or spiritual issues and questions that similar military and geo-political motives and decisions could raise in the Safehold series, where such examinations are often quite thought-provoking. Another Clancy-esque tendency that is becoming more apparent is the increasingly layered and complex plots--it's getting difficult to keep all the players in their correct places and remember their physical locations, as that more often than not has a bearing on their actions and reactions.

I'm also concerned that this new verbosity could turn the remainder of the Honor Harrington series into Weber's equivalent of Isaac Asimov's later body of work, where he attempted to tie all of his novels and series together (the Robot novels and short stories, the Foundation novels, "The Currents of Space, "The End of Eternity," etc.), with the result that in those novels, nothing really happened: the characters sat around and talked, and talked, and talked, and talked....

The character of Honor Harrington in no longer the central pillar of the storyline: she has been reduced to just one of many players in an ensemble cast, which is unfortunate, as there is no one to whom the reader can attach himself or herself. You only care about the characters because you come into the novel already having decided from previous books whom you like or dislike--no one in this story is compelling in and of himself because of what they do in THIS book. Again, this is sad, because the "Honorverse" has been populated by so many memorable characters--likeable or despicable--on both sides of the Manticore/Haven conflict.

Ultimately, I'm glad that I waited for the paperback edition, as I would have been decidedly unhappy to pay the cost of a hardcover copy for a book this disappointing. I fear I'll be willing to wait for the softcover edition of "A Rolling Thunder" as well. After a remarkable run of good books (some admittedly better than others) in the Honor Harrington series, the last two entries have proven that the bloom is finally off this rose.

Honor's life story is addicting. She faces such danger, such challenges- but no individual can cope with that non-stop. So Weber gives her recovery time, or meetings with staff- but we want to skip past those and get back to the action.
Like the appearance of the Solarian League; now, they have arrogant attitudes. No better than thugs, they challenge a Mantie formation in the Talbott Cluster with predictable results. Except this wasn't Honor's 8th Fleet; she still faces the Peep threat. So we learn a new set of characters; some Sollie, some Mantie. The Solarians are governed by a committee of bureaucrats, waving the club of a sadly outdated Navy. Costly, but inefficient club- and once the restive colonies discover that, the League will lose them.
Meanwhile, in a meeting room back on Haven, a mole in their State Dept has been unmasked; the 8th Fleet and HH has arrived-- to parley:

' The Secretary of Technology, like Tony Nesbitt at Commerce, had been one of the late, distinctly unlamented Arnold Giancola's supporters. Like Giancola's other allies within the cabinet, her horror appeared to have been completely genuine when Pritchart revealed the near certainty that Giancola, as the previous Secretary of State, was the one who'd actually manipulated the diplomatic correspondence which had led the Republic to resume military operations. The president had no doubt their reactions had been genuine, but that didn't change the fact that Barloi and Nesbitt remained the two cabinet secretaries who continued to nourish the greatest suspicion--not to mention resentment and hatred--where the Star Empire of Manticore was concerned.
Despite which, as far as Pritchart could tell, Barloi's response was more a throwaway remark, sparring for time, than anything resembling the notion that Haven should reject the opportunity.
"'Dramatic' is one way to put it, all right," Stan Gregory, the Secretary of Urban Affairs agreed wryly.
He was one of the secretaries who'd been out of the city last night. In fact, he'd been on the opposite side of the planet, and he'd been up and traveling for the better part of three hours to make this early morning meeting. Which didn't keep him from looking brighter-eyed and much more chipper than Pritchart herself felt at the moment.
"Dropping in on you literally in the middle of the night was a pretty flamboyant statement in its own right, Madam President," he continued. "The only question in my mind is whether it was all lights and mirrors, or whether Admiral Alexander-Harrington simply wanted to make sure she had your attention."
"Personally, I think it was a case of . . . gratuitous flamboyance, let's say." Rachel Hanriot's tone could have dehumidified an ocean, despite the fact that the Treasury Secretary was one of Pritchart's staunchest allies. "I'm not saying she's not here in a legitimate effort to negotiate, understand. But the entire way she's made her appearance--unannounced, no preliminary diplomacy at all, backed up by her entire fleet, arriving on the literal stroke of midnight in an un-armed civilian yacht and requesting planetary clearance . . . ." ' Early in the book, chapter 10 out of 50.
Manticore looks like it won the war; what terms will they offer the Peeps?

Reading the first two thirds of this book is a boring chore. It's all recap and exposition that could have been done MUCH better with a 30 page "Previously In The Honorverse" overview. I really can't think of ANYTHING before the Battle at Spindle that was not covered in previous books.

Obviously, writers can create a successful novel that re-presents a previous plot but from a different point of view. Unfortunately, this is at least the fourth Honorverse novel with an overlapping time-line, and the same characters. Things are not just moving ahead slowly, they are crawling. And to fill in the pages there is padding where minor characters do unimportant things. In one scene, we follow a team of marines through a captured ship, from the airlock to the bridge. Nothing happens. They don't even encounter any casualties. Why was this in the book?

Once we get to the execution of operation "Oyster Bay", an event that was first explicitly mentioned three novels ago, this book finally picks up its pace, and becomes worth reading. We finally get big revelations about the "Real Enemy" behind the war(s) of the series, and even a surprise resolution or two.

If you pick up this book, do yourself a favor and skip right to chapter Twenty-Two, (page 286 in the hardcover) you won't be missing anything.

This is number twelve of the Honor series. Honor Harrington plays a bit part in the continuing saga of Manticore. Haven and Manticore, Mesa and the Solarian League are all back. As a side bar I heard from another Weber fan than he too was frustrated to discover that Hell's Gate and Hell Hath No Fury have not planned follow up. It reinforce the fact that I know I was not the only one disappointed when there was no follow up (and none planned) for Hell’s Gate and Hell Hath No Fury.

There was some deep background filled in with this book. I would not consider this a good stand alone book. If you are not a fan of the series, I suspect you would be thoroughly confused reading this book. It is possible that Weber has always been this wordy. I found myself powering through some chapters as the details became tedious. I am still a fan and still enjoy the Manticore saga but the bloom may be off the rose. With that said, I ordered the next volume, Rising Thunder, this afternoon.

The Republic of Haven and the Star Empire of Manticore may have met in battle for the last time. With Haven soundly defeated, Manticore's Queen Elizabeth sends Admiral Honor Alexander-Harrington - her friend as well as one of her most distinguished military commanders - to negotiate with that star nation's government, instead of crushing what remains into total submission. Manticore's recent confrontation with the Solarian League has ended in humiliating defeat for the League, something its leaders cannot accept because the "Sollies" still see themselves as the most powerful force in the Human-settled galaxy. The future for Manticore looks bright, indeed. Until a mysterious enemy strikes without warning, using means that even the technologically advanced Star Empire cannot comprehend. At which point Honor finds herself devastated by losses both personal and professional, and ready to do whatever it takes to not only save what remains of home and family - but also to avenge the horrifying damage to her world, and the deaths of far too many of the people she loves.

I found it difficult to stay with long stretches of this book, because those stretches consisted of endless talk. Most of it about politics, and most of it carried on by minor characters in whom I never did develop an interest. However, whenever the story switched to a major character's viewpoint my interest returned with a vengeance. Weber's writing often made me smile, because his wit is very much in evidence throughout this tale. I came away at the book's end with mixed feelings. I wish I hadn't been obliged to wade through so much downright boredom in order to get at the parts that came alive.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 science fiction EPPIE winner "Regs"

Eleventh in the Honor Harrington military science fiction series.

My Take
Be sure you've taken your blood pressure meds...ya gonna need `em as you read through one heart-jumping situation after another! There is just so much happening on so many fronts in Mission of Honor and I was so terrified at what would happen I couldn't decide if I should tear through the book or set it aside every few chapters to stave off the bad news.

Betrayals and idiots abound...hey, it's a patronage military system in the Solarian Navy, politicians are everywhere, and megalomaniac Nazi-types are currently running supreme. They've been scamming the systems for decades if not centuries and slowly, oh, so, slowly, those being conned are...oh, so, slowly...figuring it out.

There are great triumphs and great tragedies, yet, with this glimmer of light coming through and the integrity of Honor Harrington shining, there seems to be hope. I just love this series...actually, everything by David Weber has been fabulous. But I particularly enjoy the HH series as Weber is so incredibly detailed in both his descriptions of the ships, the battles, the weaponry, AND he creates the most incredible characters and worlds.

Weber snatches bits from the French Revolution to create the People's Republic of Haven, our Earth is now the Solarian League which feels like such a natural result, but its democratic principles and the nature of man have created a corrupt society that needs to evolve, the current Star Empire of Manticore is (I like to think!) what the United States was intended to be in its early shining glory, while Manpower/Mesa/the Mesan Alliance is generations of genetically created super-humans who believe they are the "master race" and very definitely flexing its hidden muscles with devastating consequences but things may not be going all their way for very much longer...

While this particular story is supposedly about Honor with her diplomatic mission to Haven, the honors were shared fairly equally with Mike and her battles with the Sollies.

I had wondered (when I read this installment back in 2010) if this was Weber's way of easing Honor out of the picture...and I'm thrilled to say it's not.

I've caught it up again to prepare for A Rising Thunder (Honor Harrington, #12) and found details I had missed in that earlier reading. Wooh, I am so ready to find out what happens next...Elizabeth has finally met with Eloise. An SLN fleet of 300 ships of the wall are threatening...and the Manties are pissed!!

I just can't emphasize the incredible detail Weber has put into this series. Absolutely amazing!

The Cover
The cover is oh, so Baen with its brilliant colors and cartoony spaceships attacking the planet encircling a saluting Honor.

Yep, it's definitely a Mission of Honor as Admiral Alexander-Harrington flies off to Haven to negotiate an end to the war between the People's Republic and Manticore.

Honor Harrington (now Alexander-Harringtion) carries forth the grand tradition of space opera, and parades it boldly through the entire mass of this lengthy novel. Larger-than-life good guys face sniveling (or brutally stupid, or slinkingly evil) bad guys. Space battles burn across silent skies, destroying material wealth comparable to a world's worth in just minutes. Complex political subterfuges play dangerous games of brinksmanship, where the players can't see how the brink moves under them. It's everything you'd hope for in space opera in general and expect in an HH novel in particular ...

... except for an actual, complete story. This fast paced drama runs full bore toward the back cover, and rams face first into it. At least two major and very threatening military actions loom, each with dire potential that could be resolved in many ways. They just got HH mad, and you know what that means. Then: nothing. End of book. I mean, I appreciate a sly bit of sequal-bait as much as the next guy, and even the occasional cliff-hanger. In this case, though, it looks like the full story was simply torn in half and a back cover pasted on, right at the point where you'll pay the most to see the next volume. (Come to think of it, "Mission vol. 1" would have been a more honest title.)

Five stars for the usual exciting story, what there is of it. Lots of points off for not delivering a whole plot. Yay. Grr.

-- wiredweird

I am on page 217 of this book 832 page book, and I am finished with it. I switched from reading to skimming about 50 pages back, hoping it would get better, but it didn't. So far, the book has been little more than long boring meetings with intensely boring dialog. The writing is attrocious. Any competent journalism student could rewrite this down to about 100 pages without losing anything. Anyone who knows anything about writing will immediately spot useless words, useless sentences, useless paragraphs, and even useless chapters. For example, Chapter 7 could be compressed into a single sentence: " 'Don't make me kill any more, Madame President. Please.' " (This is the last sentence of Chapter 7) The rest of the chapter is just boring garbage. Even this sentence is childish.

Another example of just plain bad writing: (Page 215, second full paragraph, sentence 2) "She supposed it was remotely possible something resembling sanity had actually reared its ugly head by now, and she just hadn't heard about it yet."
If I were Weber's high-school English teacher I would make the following corrections: "She supposed" is useless, eliminate it. "remotely possible" and "possible" mean the same thing. Use "possible" instead. "something resembling sanity" and "sanity" mean the same thing. Use "sanity" instead. "actually" is useless, eliminate it. "reared its ugly head" is a worn out cliche. You get a D- for using it. Use "occurred" instead. "yet" is useless. Eliminate it. The result is a better sentence. Not a good sentence, but a better sentence.

The problem with all the useless verbage is that it's like listening to a dentist's drill while you're reading. The meaningful words occur between buzzes of mindless babble. Even if the story were interesting, it would be almost unreadable. I find it astonishing that a writer with Weber's experience could produce prose of this quality.

I bought this book thinking it came just after War of Honor, but apparently there was another volume in between -- which explains why I didn't know what it was talking about half the time! What Battle of Manticore? etc. (The list of books in the series, in the front of the book, is in two columns; I thought the orders was down the left column and then down the right, but apparently it's L-R back and forth.) In addition to that problem, there is way too much background (and yet not enough to cover the book I missed) and not nearly enough action, which is what Weber does best. His few attempts to add a touch of humor are too little and too lame. The next time a tree-cat "bleaks" I'd like to slap it up-side the head! (He should take lessons from Lois McMaster Bujold!) I picked up a few volumes of the series from a used book store and was enjoying getting back into the series (Ashes of Victory was good!) after staying away for a few years, but now I'm not so sure I will bother to continue. Sigh. There are so few authors I can count on these days.

I've been a fan since On Basilisk Station, but I must confess my enthusiasm has been waning for the last several Honorverse books. Weber has given over to the extremely lazy plot device of Very Important People Discussing Very Important Events instead of showing us said Very Important Events. This book is billed as the latest Honor Harrington novel, but she features in less than a fifth of the book, if that, and she plays diplomat instead of a military commander for all of it. For a military adventure series this is inexcusable. There are two major action sequences in the book but it's far too little for a series like this. Weber knows how to write military adventure. His action sequences (when they're actually depicted) are fantastic and pulse pounding, and his characters are riveting during these events. Unfortunately Weber's ability to write about interpersonal relationships and romances come across as bad teen fan fiction, leaving me hungry to get back to the meat of the story: presumably the military aspects of his narrative.

This book, however, is nothing more than a recap of the events in other books discussed by characters. The focus meanders and seems disjointed. We are treated to innumerable scenes of endless conversation about action as opposed to seeing it. The series was at it's best when we weren't privy to the decision of the higher-ups, but saw all too well the effect on those having to execute those decisions, but the last several books (Talbot cluster, Torch, and Honor), spend far too much time in the boardrooms and offices than on the bridge of fighting vessels. This is unfortunate since, as I've stated before, Weber is so much better at writing military action than interpersonal scenes.

The readers are also cheated out of terrific and moving scenes that could have been, in favor of depicting a character's discussion about it rather than the scene itself. (SPOILER)For instance, when Manticore is subject to a Pearl-Harbor style attack killing millions, we don't find out that Honor Harrington herself loses dozens of family members and friends in the attacks until she is told by her husband after she arrives in system. How much more moving would this be if we saw more of the aftermath of such a devastating event? Survivors scrabbling through the ruins, dying in each others arms? Instead we are treated to...a discussion of loss statistics in the meeting chamber of higher-ups, which serves to de-humanize the entire event, and making Honor's horrible losses of family and friends nothing more than a footnote. The potential for a wrenching, memorable depiction of the event went out the window in order to portray...another scene of people talking about said event.

Another example of loss of focus is misplaced emphasis. (SPOILER) The battle at Spindle was exciting, don't get me wrong, but the suspense was weak since the reader is well aware of the technical superiority of Maniticore before the battle takes place. Inasmuch as the battle takes place over the course of twenty to thirty pages, though, nearly as much space is devoted to taking over the defeated ships and dealing with the massive amount of POWs resulting from Manticore's victory. What was the point? If it was to serve as the build to the reveal that the sollie Commander was shot in the back of the head before her flagship was taken over, resulting in a huge plot twist (Who shot her? Why?), it was a complete waste of time because nothing ever came of it- the murder (or suicide?) was only mentioned in summary during...you guessed it- another discussion after the fact. We don't even see the scene where her body is discovered on the bridge among her other officers. The execution or suicide of a fleet commander is a serious event, but in the Honorverse it's nothing more than footnote in an after-action report.

This series is beginning to seem like my old college-day discussion groups in Lit class- the ones when I didn't read the book before hand. I would listen to the discussion of scenes in the book I was supposed to read, but I had denied myself the actual text; I was getting it all second hand, and lessened as a student for it. In this series, recently, readers are getting the same raw deal, but it's the writer inflicting it on them, not themselves. There's no emotional connection to action that is discussed second hand, and that's what most of this book is: action experienced via discussion second-hand rather than actual depictions of the events.

I'll stick with it for now; as I said, I've been a fan for a while. Mr. Weber, however, needs to get his focus back to his strengths as a writer in order to retain my interest. I don't want to read a character's cliffs-notes version of what's going on- I want to see it happen.

While I've thoroughly enjoyed this book, just like most of the others in the series, I find it distracting when a male character suddenly turns into a female. There are several instances in this book (just like in some of his other books) where Mr. Weber seems to forget the sex of the character he's talking about. Often, it will be a description of a male character's actions and first he did this and then SHE did that, but in one instance, a male character was THINKING about himself and suddenly SHE wasn't too sure as to what was going on. I'd be a bit confused myself if I suddenly turned into a female in mid-thought!

Aside from that, if you blow past the tedious multi-page dialogues explaining trivial things in excruciating detail, the book is a pretty decent read.

I've been waiting for this book for a long time, waiting for the cliffhangers which went into motion in "Storm From the Shadows" to finally be resolved. The cliffhangers hung in suspension throughout "Torch of Freedom". Perhaps it's the length of the wait, but when the cliffhangers finally stop hanging, they're anti-climatic, as is this book, a book which has a very truncated feel to it. As someone else has mentioned, this book feels like it was cut in half, and not properly re-written for it's shorter length. This book needed to be either re-written and expanded, or streamlined and shortened. It's an awkward read.

"Mission of Honor" opens with Honor Alexander-Harrington heading to Haven in an effort to finally end the war with Haven by negotiating a peace treaty with Haven. Vice-Admiral Michelle Henke, Countess Gold Peak, is facing an onslaught by a force of 70 Solarian League superdreadnaughts, a threat the reader knows she'll be able to handle due to the enormous tech advantage Manticore currently possesses, but sets up the danger of Manticore possibly getting into a war. But the big threat, a threat no one on Manticore even knows exists, is coming from the Mesan Alignment, a secret attack on the Manticore and Grayson Home systems.

While "Torch of Freedom" finally exposed a great deal about the Mesan Alignment, "Mission of Honor" finally reveals the true nature of the enemy and their long range goals...and yet it's still not clear why a plot aimed at the Solarian League has manipulated Manticore and Haven to be at each other's throats for the last 70+ years. There are still mysteries to be revealed in this series about the new bad guys.

The Solarian attack on the Talbott Cluster ends as expected, but then wastes pages and pages about the problem of taking old-fashioned, heavily manned warships into custody by Manticore vessels which have been modernized to have much smaller crews. If this was foreshadowing for events later on in the series, it's poorly placed, a waste of space.

The attack on the Manticore system is the big event of the book, but it feels very anti-climatic. When compared to time wasted on the problems of prisoners, it really feels diminished. The result of the attack is devastating to Manticore and Grayson, and we lose more cast members. Honor loses family and friends in this attack, but, again, there's a truncated feel to all this. The Harrington clan suffers mightily in this attack, and Honor is again turned into the lethal avatar of vengeance. But there's a problem: While we can understand the heavy loss of family on Honor, the reader has no investment in most of her dead. The attack itself is dealt with all too briefly for the havoc it wrecks upon Manticore and Grayson. Consider: the attack on the Manticore system covers 34 pages; Weber spends 28 pages dealing with TAKING the surrender of the Solarian forces at Spindle. We never even see any of the attack on Grayson.

The conclusion of the book is, however, satisfying, and should come as no surprise, considering that it's been coming since the good guys got in charge on Haven, with Manpower/Mesa shifting to be the true bad guys. It took seven books to get to this point: "War of Honor", "At All Costs", "Mission of Honor" and the four Honorverse novels, but arrive we finally do.

"Mission of Honor" is a hard novel to rate, as it has flaws: It drags at times with unnecessary exposition, and speeds through crucial action sequences. I've said this about the Safehold novels: Weber needs better editors. As has been noted, Honor herself isn't nearly as involved in this novel as in past main-stem novels. No action for Honor. A recurring character is set up to be in the attack on Manticore, but her fate isn't revealed (Ginger Lewis).Yet the finale is indeed satisfying, the Solarian attack on Spindle is well-written, and though too short, the attack on the Manticore system is well written. Queen/Empress Elizabeth gets to shine, we get more details on the Solarians, and the curtain of secrecy over the Mesan Alignment is finally, mostly, lifted. Plus the conclusion of the book finally takes the series off in a long awaited direction. And I love Honor, despite her limited use in this novel. With some reservations, I over-generously give this 4 stars.

The recent books in this series have gotten very far away from the shoot-em-ups at the beginning. This is not a bad thing, but I will admit it is not for everyone. I am not even 100% sure it is for me. I admit to missing the epic space battles that made up so much of the early Honor Harrington books.

As a book, this one is good. A lot happens, though very little of the action involves space battles. Several sub-plots that have wandered through previous books finally come together. And there is A LOT of talk. At times, it feel like Weber is dragging out the story as much as possible so he can write more books. Perhaps that is what he is doing. But I will admit I am anxious to find out what happens next.

I have read all of the previous novels in the main line of the series, but in the five years since the release of "At All Costs" I have pretty much forgotten all of the details of the military hardware, the various engagements leading up to the action in this book, the political maneuvering, and the personalities involved. I spent most of the book, therefore, catching up with what I had read five years ago, plus what has happened in the side branches since then.

I would have enjoyed it much more if the book had contained a twenty-page summary of what had happened so far and then gone right into the main action. As it is, however, the books stretches things at a glacial pace with recap after recap until finally arriving at the shocking events that set the scene for the sequel (or should I say the real second half of this book), "A Rising Thunder" which is slated for 2012. By the time that rolls around, I probably will have forgotten just enough of what happened in this one to make reading that one another crash course in Honorverse 201.

I've followed Weber's Harrington books since Basilisk days, reading them sporadically. When Mission of Honor (Honor Harrington, Book 12) appeared in the library, I grabbed it and read it greedily. I found it good, but not great - long dialog and disconnected scenes as others noted. However, it inspired me to go back to the beginning with On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington) and read every book in order (yes, I bought every single one), including the "side" books like Torch of Freedom (Honor Harrington) and Storm From The Shadows (Disciples of Honor). I just now put down Mission of Honor, having read it again just a few months after the first time.

The fruits of my marathon labor were a much clearer connection of the story arcs in the series and a greater appreciation for Weber and the series as a whole. I realized that those long dialogs and descriptions of strategy and hardware are peppered throughout the series. The quick scene cuts are standard fare. Mission of Honor not only satisfies, but is very consistent with other books in the series. Weber's quality of writing is undiminished, though he must certainly be yearning to bring the story to a close, in spite of his obvious affection for the characters.

No, if you dare, do it all over from the beginning and you may agree that Mission of Honor is no run-up to a final novel which can be dismissed as mediocre, boring or tired. It may not be the very best Honor Harrington novel, but it's entertaining high adventure with great story twists and strong characters. Don't pick it apart, just enjoy it!

I love the "Honor" series but this one is a thin, good, story in a way too fat body. Weber is still good at telling a story, and especially, of course, at military SF. A lot of loose ends are neatly tied together, and the sequel is set up well. But too much of this reminds of something my brother said long ago, about "Moby Dick:" just ignore the stuff about the whale.

And, sadly, Weber's ticks have become especially irritating. If one more character "snorts," or "smiles a smile that really isn't a smile, I will "throw a hissy fit."

If you like the series, buy this one at the cheapest price, because it isn't worth it by the pound. And speed read it for the good parts.

I dithered over whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars, but eventually settled on 3 mostly because I got so bored during the looong description of the battle at Spindle that I started skipping entire paragraphs. I can hardly believe it myself, even as I'm typing it out. I skipped entire paragraphs of a David Weber Space Battle because it was boring? How can that be?

I liked the plot of this book. I even like the complicated mix of characters, politics, diplomacy, family, and military action that has become the Honor Harrington series. I don't mind one bit that Honor was not the focus of the entire or even the majority of the book because I have grown fond of the other characters of the Honorverse and actually like reading about them. And, I can't wait for the next book.

However, all things in moderation. And all too many of the events of this book were described in excruciatingly painful, never-ending, minute, and unnecessary detail. Enough already!

For those who follow the Honor Harrington universe, this book is a necessary component. It explains some previous story arcs and opens a couple of new ones. Without writing massive spoiler information, all I can say is that it portrays the opening of the war between Manticore and the Terran League, and finishes up the loose ends in the war with Haven.

But the book itself was a difficult read and represents a massive editorial failure. I assume this is because Weber has become so successful that his editor is afraid of offending him, or he just doesn't listen. There are whole chapters and scenes that are completely pointless and irrelevant to the book itself. In many of the first chapters, I ended up reading the first and last paragraphs and skipping pages of useless dialog. What makes matters worse, is that all of this bulks up the book to the point where the main storyline itself is unfinished. The "ending" is completely predictable from early in the book, and it's merely setting the stage for events in the next book.

Finally I'm worried that Weber has run out of ideas for the series, and is simply cranking out text. Every single idea in the book is recycled from a previous volume. It's almost as if he selected chapters, changed a few names and details, then dropped them into the document. This is one reason that it's so easy to skip chapters, because if you read the other books, you've already read most of this one.

While I've enjoyed reading the Honorverse through the past few years, it might be time for Weber to wrap things up and concentrate on other projects. Readers will buy retreads for awhile, but eventually they will get wise and sales will drop off. I was fortunate that I borrowed this book from the library instead of buying it, since there's no reason to read it again.

This book is symptomatic of Weber's increasing sloppiness in jettisoning plot, characterization and setting for Roberts Rules of Order. It does get 2 stars, because readers only have to wait until page 250 or so before getting the first tiny bit of action, unlike some of his other series.

What does it take to get across the message that meetings are an inherently inferior way to tell a story? 98% of this book is in the form of meetings - defined as occasions where individuals get together and talk, but there is no external action. Now to be sure, on page 97 Weber gets wild and daring and has a meeting where all the participants ARE STANDING!

The few action scenes are perfunctory. Launch missiles, kill enemy. A major SLN admiral dies under mysterious circumstances, but instead of this being shown it is discussed in a meeting. Two major characters complete a perilous journey and have a major effect on the plot, but instead of being shown as a thread in the story, they appear out of the blue at one of the final meetings.

The handling of the Mesan Alignment Navy carrying out Operation Oyster Bay gives a glimpse of the way Weber used to write, but it is only a tantalizing echo of how this book should have been written.

Honor Harrington 12

Things are heating up between the Sollies and Manties, thanks to the interference of an interested third party. Knowing the dangers of fighting two wars at the same time, it is up to Honor to negotiate a peace treaty between Manticore and Haven.

The thing I really love, and hate, about Weber is how often he can make me care so very much for certain characters, only to be devastated when they die. This is true of more recently met ones as long time friends. Yes, it is realistic in war, but few writers can do that to me so thoroughly and so consistently enough as he can. This time particularly hit me hard enough to be glad that I was at home when I read of one particular death. We're given more insight into the Sollie mindset and how they have become to believe in their own PR. And we're beginning to see the plan behind Manpower's generational plans. But finally we get to see how Haven can deal with Manticore when the going becomes very tough. 5 out of 5!

Just lots of talking. Lots of it.

Basic storyline, the Sollies decide to go after the Manties because of what happened in the last book. Along the way they lose another battle fleet to the magic levels of Mantie missile tech.

The Evil slavers of Manpower invent a new drive which they use for sneak attacks on the Mantie shipyards, which for some reason are also the only missile factories.

This means the Sollies will have a huge bunch of third rate ships for the coming war, but the Manties will have no new ships and limited missile stocks.

Meanwhile, Honor is off to make peace with the Peeps, at gun point. They get about halfway to a deal after more talking and internal dialog than should ever be in any book.

The sneak attack takes a chapter worth of writing to set up and a few pages to carry out. Ditto with the Sollie/Mantie battle, only the battle takes a chapter. Many chapters of talking about both, but the actual setup is only about one each.

The ENTIRE rest of the book in nothing but conversations about conversations about what everyone is thinking and why.

I gave it three stars because at least Weber is getting the plot fired back up again. He is going to have to have some action in the next book.

Also interesting is that Weber fell so deeply in love with the Peep "Bolthole" secret base and shipyard system from the last few books, which the readers have never seen, that he destroyed every single bit of Mantie factory just to force Bolthole out into full use.

Weber's Honor books have kind of sucked of late. This one is a huge improvement It's not up to his earlier Honorverse books, but it's certainly a major step in that direction. There still isn't as much action as I'd like, and we still get lots and lots and lots of meeting and chat between various groups of people all over the galaxy. The difference is that in this book, those meetings are actually worth reading, and they actually do - mostly - serve a function in this book. Weber succeeds in creating a sense of tension in the book, but doesn't do enough to let it out. Aside from one scene, we don't get those "Yes!" moments we liked in the earlier books. There is, at least, some satisfaction here and there, in the progression of the story, though. I suspect, though, we're missing what I expected would be a final grand scene of military action. I might be wrong about this, but I believe someone cut that scene in order to put it in near the beginning of the next. Marketing I guess. Still, that's just my suspicious mind. As I said, overall, this is a big improvement over previous books, entertaining, and well worth reading. I gave it a 3, but it's more like a 3.5. If it'd had the scene I expected to get at the end it'd have been a 4

David Weber's Honorverse series has been going steadily downhill - ever since the decision to split it up into multiple 'tracks', the books have become more and more filled with 'recap'. 2/3rds of this book is recap and exposition.

This might be ok, if Weber was a passable character writer, but he's not. All his characters complete archetypes - though, given how much of a "Mary Sue" Honor is, you're probably not TOO worried about that. Most characters are either blitheringly stupid (and everyone keeps pointing out how dumb they are, in case you didn't realize), self-serving, and treacherous, or so competent, loyal, and good natured as to verge on sainthood. Even the Mesans, the big baddies of the series, only BARELY manage to break that mold, by splitting the middle - they are capable, loyal, intelligent, and evil.

But what gets to me is that EVERY character speaks in exactly the same fashion. They all snort. They all are completely incapable of picking a number - EVERY single time a character, even one who should be able to tell, states a number, it's "two or three times", "three to five people", "six or seven weeks". One character in the book manages a terrible, terrible western accent, and that's the most unique of the bunch.

Of course, if you're this far into the series, you're already familiar with that too.

No, what you usually read an Honor Harrington novel for is the space battles. And, frankly, they were worth it, at the begining of the series. Interesting tactics, near misses, surprising turns of events, they were a joy to read. No longer.

Now, the space battles are short. Completely lopsided affairs. Devoid of all tactical insight. Some of them are still described moderately well, which is where this review gets its second star from, but all in all, this book is a waste of time, and I'm completely let down by having followed the series so long

This author is really getting tiring.. It reads like he is stretching a good little story into a bad long-winded story.
Every time somebody sits he has to mention the chair and it is always a "comfortable chair", over and over and over.
And who would have guessed that all the future military leaders and heads of state would "snort" all the time?
Just tiring.

Almost everyone is complaining about the lack of battles and the abundance of meetings. These are true statements, but to call the book boring is a crock. The story is gripping and realistic, and the twists keep coming.

There are two space battles in this book and Honor is in none of them. One of the battles only explodes one
spaceship. That's it! Can you say boring? Did I mention boring?

This book is God awful. It is all about rehashing the last book and endless political speculation by
this politician and that politician in one star kingdom after another rehashing the same thing over and over
and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

No action, no adventure. Just dull plodding political speculation over and over and over.

David Weber used to create great Space Opera novels. This was a Space Dirge.

This book is a hard one to rate. I read it and found it enjoyable but I don't think it's up to Weber's other efforts - it's certainly not as good as "at all costs", where there's a whole lot of suspense. It's obvious what is going to happen when the Sollies attack the Manticorans, and just as obvious when the MAN attacks. That part is especially in need of editing - we get a whole bunch of exposition about people dying but we don't care about them so it just drags. I think it would have been better to treat it from Honor's perspective and have her find out about things rather than the tedious exposition.

The ending is a bit obvious but I think that's inherent in how Weber decided to take the narrative, and it does set the stage well for the next novel.

I have read all of the Honor Harrington series and the Honorverse books and I am a fan(atic). This book does a great job of moving the story line from the end of AT All Costs, adds new story lines that include the end of the Manticore/Haven war,information about the Solarian League and the Mesan Alignment, and the conflicts at the Talbert Junction. The last chapters exposes the Mesan involvment in all of the Manticore and Haven conflicts and sets up a new alliance between Manticore and Haven against the Solarian League and the Mesan Alignment. This cliff hanger should set up the next book as a return to the war action of the previous books in the series. I hope it is on the schedule for the next year as I am really looking forward to the next installment of the the Honor Harrington series.

That said, the action at the Talbert Junction was OK but seemed to be incomplete with many loose ends. Continuing characters were introduced but it was never clear if they survived the Mesan attack or not. However the main problem is the endless details about the technology which does not move the story forward. I would estimate that 1/3 of the novel was unnecessary details and really slows the whole story down.

The seemingly endless war (a dozen books worth) between the Star Empire of Manticore and the Republic of Haven is finally drawing to a conclusion. The Manties have all but won. However, the Empire leadership believes they must further cripple the enemy as they distrust the idea that the other side wants peace as they would not if the situation was reversed.

Admiral Honor Harrington is almost all alone amidst the top brass in her belief that the Republic wants to end the conflict. She leads a group to the Havenite system to negotiation the terms of peace. However, the peace in our times is devastated when a sneak attack on the Manticoran worlds occur while the Solarian League flexes its muscle at the same time as they distrust the apparent winner of the war especially when they claim the Manties have provoked them with vicious attacks.

Fans of military science fiction will be euphoric with the return of Harrington who struggles with political and military leaders and bureaucracies as too many of those chicken hawks in charge who never left the office cannot see passed their ambition to the horror of battle (think Cheney vs. Eisenhower). Fast-paced from start to finish, Honor works on a peace agreement when new conflations erupt. Once again David Weber provides a strong winner in one of the top sub-genre series as the aptly titled Mission of Honor takes readers on quite a spin.

Harriet Klausner

Hard to believe that David Weber can still produce books so compelling this long into the series. A gripping plot, well developed characters, and a solid grasp of realpolitick make this a gripping read. The author has made the villianous Republic of Haven more and more sympathetic with time to the point where you are cheering them on. The space battle scenes remain exciting, unpredictable and filled with a world of interesting technical issues. Honor remains a bit on the "too perfect" side but Weber manages to humanize her enough that this is a minor defect. Read the entire book in two sittings and eagerly anticipate the next one in the series.

Highly recommended; although start the series at the beginning if you are new to the Honor Harrington series.

READ IT!

If you are at all into the maturing of themes, plots and characters, this book really shows that off for Honor, Elizabeth, Michelle, Eloise and others, as well as for the many themes and sub-plots that have been going on.

I'm as fond as the next space-opera buff of wonderfully crafted battles. But, I'm also a fan of lengthy book series where the author has the chance to develop and fully mature everything they've filled previous books with. And, David Weber is a master of having many such themes and plots and of continuing to expose and develop them.

For me, this book does exactly that. And, if you like that too, then as I started this review off with, READ IT!

This book and its ending left me wanting MORE, SOON. And, I know SOON isn't going to happen, sadly.

The clue is in the front cover. *Some* big space stations and *some* planet is going to get a pounding.

DW understands navy history, and transforms that understanding into an exciting space naval story set in a far future. DW imagines a 3D solar system war and weapons with logic and thought. You won't be wondering what or how something works in a DW book. DW also knows how to write an intriguing story, and Honor Harrington is a favorite character.

This is book 12 for Honor Harrington, but the first one I have read, having enjoyed DW's other books. It feels like I joined the story at a key moment, new old bad guys on the ascendant, old bad good guys coming round. Good good guys still explained to me, but not in too much detail. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. I now look forward to the next book and finding out how this story will progress, and will probably catch up from book 1. ....

The publishers of this series included a CD at the back of my copy of this book, with all the series 1 to 11 as e-books. Very decent of them.

I still have about 100 pages to go on this but I had to stop and say, this is worth reading all the other books in the series.

In itself it's a really great read and the excitement just keeps building as you go. I actually stopped a couple of places and did some _really_ necessary stuff so that when I got to the next exciting place I wasn't forced to stop in the middle of the action.

What makes it even better is that I did read all the others and I know everybody's place in the Honorverse and the exact impact of certain incidents. Talk about suspense!

About the middle of the book a couple of characters pop up that I was really glad to see and that's as close to a spoiler as I'm going to get.

Read them all, no matter how long it takes, because they're all great. And then you'll see just how staggeringly great Mission of Honor is.

Great! Loved it! Keeps up with the space opera setting he created to begin with. Have read it twice and will read again. If you haven't read the side stories, you have to before you'll understand what's going on in this book. For those who downed this book; we as readers do NOT know why David wrote it the way he did! We need to all be patient and see what happens next. No, Honor was not the central focus in this one. So what? He has introduced a lot of good characters over the years. Who knows, maybe he's planning on removing her as a front character. In that unlikely event, we need to know more about everyone else in her world. Also, she may be the main character originally, but she cannot win all the battles on her own. After all, she's only one person and can only be in one place at a time. So stop bashing the book and David. Let's wait and see what he has planned for the Honerverse as a whole.
Again; loved it. I reccomend it highly.

I really liked this book. I have read all the previous books and you probably should too (lists here and there will tell you which ones to get -- all the Honor Harrington series, all the (4 so far? a 5th one coming next year?) "Worlds of Honor" collections, Shadow of Saganami, Crown of Thorns(?)), but I feel that with this one and with "Torch of Freedom", the series is reaching new heights.

I got most of the earlier books for free from baen's e-library (and you can too). This one, and Torch of Freedom, I had to pay for, ebooks for Kindle, but I felt they were definitely worth it!

So I won't give any spoilers -- just go away, read the earlier books, and then come back -- but I definitely think this was one of the best! and it makes me look forward to more.

I've enjoyed reading the entire series of novels from the first "On Basilisk Station" onwards because as fast-paced military sci-fi with strong future tech and political sub-plots, it is hard to beat. Although a bit less of a door stop than most of its predecessors, it does an excellent job of taking the reader through a critical series of developments involving Manticore, Haven and the concerning situation with the Solarian League.

Weber has the ability to create a rich variety of characters guaranteed to hook any lover of traditional "space opera", although there are some signs in this and other novels in the series of what I think has been hasty editing. For readers now deeply interested in the fate of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, this story shouldn't be missed for the insight given into what has brought about what almost amounts to a state of perpetual war.

I should declare a degree of bias, I suppose, in that I read all of David Weber's work as it comes out. This book for me is a very good read and a worthy addition to the Honor Harrington series. I'll certainly be buying the next one, too.

If you have not read the other books in this series, this is a good place to start as the plot starts to take a big change. The real bad guys are about to be found out and when they are, they better have a large rock to hide under because Honor and her buddies will be putting a smack down on them. She may come from a small empire as far as others are concerned, but their technology makes up for it

Great read, fun stuff. lots of things are impossible to us, but hey it is sci-fy after all.

READ IT!

If you are at all into the maturing of themes, plots and characters, this book really shows that off for Honor, Elizabeth, Michelle, Eloise and others, as well as for the many themes and sub-plots that have been going on.

I'm as fond as the next space-opera buff of wonderfully crafted battles. But, I'm also a fan of lengthy book series where the author has the chance to develop and fully mature everything they've filled previous books with. And, David Weber is a master of having many such themes and plots and of continuing to expose and develop them.

For me, this book does exactly that. And, if you like that too, then as I started this review off with, READ IT!

This book and its ending left me wanting MORE, SOON. And, I know SOON isn't going to happen, sadly.

The clue is in the front cover. *Some* big space stations and *some* planet is going to get a pounding.

DW understands navy history, and transforms that understanding into an exciting space naval story set in a far future. DW imagines a 3D solar system war and weapons with logic and thought. You won't be wondering what or how something works in a DW book. DW also knows how to write an intriguing story, and Honor Harrington is a favorite character.

This is book 12 for Honor Harrington, but the first one I have read, having enjoyed DW's other books. It feels like I joined the story at a key moment, new old bad guys on the ascendant, old bad good guys coming round. Good good guys still explained to me, but not in too much detail. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. I now look forward to the next book and finding out how this story will progress, and will probably catch up from book 1. ....

The publishers of this series included a CD at the back of my copy of this book, with all the series 1 to 11 as e-books. Very decent of them.

I still have about 100 pages to go on this but I had to stop and say, this is worth reading all the other books in the series.

In itself it's a really great read and the excitement just keeps building as you go. I actually stopped a couple of places and did some _really_ necessary stuff so that when I got to the next exciting place I wasn't forced to stop in the middle of the action.

What makes it even better is that I did read all the others and I know everybody's place in the Honorverse and the exact impact of certain incidents. Talk about suspense!

About the middle of the book a couple of characters pop up that I was really glad to see and that's as close to a spoiler as I'm going to get.

Read them all, no matter how long it takes, because they're all great. And then you'll see just how staggeringly great Mission of Honor is.

Great! Loved it! Keeps up with the space opera setting he created to begin with. Have read it twice and will read again. If you haven't read the side stories, you have to before you'll understand what's going on in this book. For those who downed this book; we as readers do NOT know why David wrote it the way he did! We need to all be patient and see what happens next. No, Honor was not the central focus in this one. So what? He has introduced a lot of good characters over the years. Who knows, maybe he's planning on removing her as a front character. In that unlikely event, we need to know more about everyone else in her world. Also, she may be the main character originally, but she cannot win all the battles on her own. After all, she's only one person and can only be in one place at a time. So stop bashing the book and David. Let's wait and see what he has planned for the Honerverse as a whole.
Again; loved it. I reccomend it highly.

I really liked this book. I have read all the previous books and you probably should too (lists here and there will tell you which ones to get -- all the Honor Harrington series, all the (4 so far? a 5th one coming next year?) "Worlds of Honor" collections, Shadow of Saganami, Crown of Thorns(?)), but I feel that with this one and with "Torch of Freedom", the series is reaching new heights.

I got most of the earlier books for free from baen's e-library (and you can too). This one, and Torch of Freedom, I had to pay for, ebooks for Kindle, but I felt they were definitely worth it!

So I won't give any spoilers -- just go away, read the earlier books, and then come back -- but I definitely think this was one of the best! and it makes me look forward to more.

I've enjoyed reading the entire series of novels from the first "On Basilisk Station" onwards because as fast-paced military sci-fi with strong future tech and political sub-plots, it is hard to beat. Although a bit less of a door stop than most of its predecessors, it does an excellent job of taking the reader through a critical series of developments involving Manticore, Haven and the concerning situation with the Solarian League.

Weber has the ability to create a rich variety of characters guaranteed to hook any lover of traditional "space opera", although there are some signs in this and other novels in the series of what I think has been hasty editing. For readers now deeply interested in the fate of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, this story shouldn't be missed for the insight given into what has brought about what almost amounts to a state of perpetual war.

I should declare a degree of bias, I suppose, in that I read all of David Weber's work as it comes out. This book for me is a very good read and a worthy addition to the Honor Harrington series. I'll certainly be buying the next one, too.

If you have not read the other books in this series, this is a good place to start as the plot starts to take a big change. The real bad guys are about to be found out and when they are, they better have a large rock to hide under because Honor and her buddies will be putting a smack down on them. She may come from a small empire as far as others are concerned, but their technology makes up for it

Great read, fun stuff. lots of things are impossible to us, but hey it is sci-fy after all.

As a big fan of the Honor Harrington series this newest book had me nervous. In the last few books War of Honor and At All Cost the quality was clearly going down hill. David Weber was seeming to struggle to balance all of the characters he was bringing in via extended universe, and his plot twist to keep the series alive after Ashes of Victory struck me just like an average epsoide of Lost, in other words completely and laughably, irrational.

While I wouldn't say that the plot is anymore believable this time around, David's newest entry is a step in the right direction. He manages to keep to story flowing, switching perspective before any of them wear out their welcome while managing to keep the switchs from feeling abrupt. While there is not a whole lot of action, David keeps you intersted in what is happening at that moment with his enjoyable cast all the while casting the first clouds of the storm to come. He also manages to keep the absurd new direction of the series from being too major of an obstruction by giving it to you in small doses mixed in with what is familiar to those with expirence with this overall great series.

So when all is said its good to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Now hopefully the light isn't a train coming to smash my further enjoyment of David Weber's Honorverse.

This really started to bring together what I kind of figured was going to happen. This book is not as good as other books in the series, but far superior to the previous 2 or 3 in the series. I was starting to get very tired of the repetition of plot lines in the previous books. This book brings back the magic of the multiple plot lines that he had in his earlier books in the honorverse series without repeating the same story lines over and over again.

If you like extreme character development and unnecessary twists that end up going nowhere, you'll probably like this book. It's the closest thing to watching a daytime soap I've seen in written format. And for a book advertised as being an 'Honor' book it didn't measure up. 'Honor' chapters made up barely a third of the book, if that much. I was vastly disappointed.

Weber's Honorverse is fascinating and I can understand providing background for people who want it. I think Weber has just taken it to extremes and lost his focus. It started back with 'In Enemy Hands' where he laid the groundwork for having multiple storylines that overlap in time and not much else. Not that I object to having those other storylines. I love both Zilwicki and Cachet, who have all the same fun of directness and capability that first drew me to Honor yet are not really much like her or each other in any other way. And the stories coming out of the Talbot Cluster (excuse me, Quadrant) are equally fascinating. But Weber's efforts to mix them all together have become almost torture. Those books are unnecessarily lengthy and far less entertaining than the original Honorverse tales as a result. He seems to have gotten too impressed with his own character development and background to be able to actually tell the story. And where the technical stuff used to be a nice little bit of substance to add depth, it's become so overwhelming as to lose impact. We get it. Manticore R&D is great. They're revolutionizing how war is fought. Wonderful. Get over it already. Stop being impressed with your own cleverness and get back to what is DONE with the technology. Or at the very least stop introducing an endless string of revolutionary improvements just in time to save the day. Credibility can only be stretched so far.

'Mission' is a short book which should have been held back until an actual plot was ready for it. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I'm sick of books that can't stand alone even a little bit. If you haven't read practically every other offering in the Honorverse, you'll spend most of your time trying to figure out who people are and what the heck they are talking about. And what's the point of spending hundreds of pages of switching perspectives if you don't actually include anything about the events the people are talking about in the first place? I lost count of the references to events from 'Torch of Freedom' and 'Storm from the Shadows' which were never explained. Fortunately I bought the hardcover which includes another 'Free Library' disc containing both of those novels since my small town book store didn't carry them. But that doesn't change the level of frustration of buying an 'Honor' book in which she is often only a minor character. And reading a few hundred pages of set up that doesn't actually GET anywhere didn't make me feel much better. Whether Weber was in a hurry to make a deadline or just wanted to leave us all hanging, I don't think he lived up to his past work. This is the worst Honor book yet. Maybe he's just trying to disgust fans enough that we WANT him to kill off Honor????

If so, he'd better work on his approach. Because it's carrying over into his other books. 'Torch' and 'Storm' are almost as bad in their wanderings all over the map and lack of cohesiveness. However much I may like his characters and want to know what's happening to them, it's not enough to wade through an endless procession of side tracks. I don't watch soap operas because they waste too much time and I don't see any reason to waste even more time by reading a scifi version of one.

What I believe most reviewers have missed is this book ties up a lot of ends setting the stage for the next book - A Rising Thunder! Yes there is no real action with Honor, few epic battles, lots of conversations explaining what is going on, new character development, and other boring stuff - but without this book most Honor fans would be left wondering as David develops this series further.

My problem in the series overall is the inability of some main line characters to get it - to apply common sense - which seems to mirror reality but become oviously short sighted and silly in the novels considering the experience, backgrounds and overall capability of these leaders. Yes I am being mystice because I do not want to reveal any plot twists or the ending. But, David has done a superior job in presenting the issue of blindness in the face of all common sense and facts throughout the series from the first book to this one and I trust beyond.

Long winded? Yes, but necessary to the overall story line.

This is the book I was waiting for (FYI - I bought and read it the day it came out but I am just getting around to reviewing it now). Many Honor fans have waited this book for it finally advances the entire story line to the next stage - beyond Haven... to the real threat to the galaxy! It opens new vistas for future development that we have not seen since the beginning. I have often wondered if David thought all this out decades ago, it seemed to me back around Honor of the Queen that something more was afoot! Now we have the pieces of the puzzle and can predict at least the next 2 or 3 novels from it. For die hard Honor fans (and I married a tall redhead because she so reminded me of Honor) we have much to look forward to.

I have read all of the Honorverse books and have enjoyed seeing the characters grow and develop. This began to change as "Honor" fell in love with and married a man who was already married to a disabled woman. This would be "honorable" in what way?
I had high hopes that this book would return to the space based warfare that Weber does so well. However, I was almost at page 300 before any missiles were launched. Prior to that I learned about diplomacy in exhaustive and plodding detail. In my opinion, David Weber is writing as if he's already been paid and the check has been cashed and spent.

Tedious to read. Without giving away any plot details, there is about 1 page of "action" for every 100 pages of book. The rest is political maneauvering and speculation by multiple members of each of 4-5 groups involved as to what is going on.

If it had been edited down to 1/4 of its length, it would have been merely slow-moving. However, having followed the previous books, it is interesting to see the plot line move (inch) forward.

[SPOILER WARNING] David Weber is 58 and shows no fear of dying before he finishes his epic space opera series, now in its umpteenth iteration. This might be book #12 by straight line reckoning, but there are now several 'side quest'-style books following the adventures of other characters in other parts of the galaxy.

Honor Harrington is a nexus of unique traits: a descendant of genetically modified space colonists, her amazing martial arts skill is only matched by her telempathic bond with a six-legged treecat and her preternatural shooting and ability to survive the fiery missile-duels of the Honorverse.

To date, Honor Harrington has won duels to the death with both sword and pistol as well as spaceships. If this is sounding like C.S. Forrester or Horatio Hornblower in space with a female lead, then you've just about got the idea -- except that Weber's character inhabits a 'sea' the size of the galaxy, full of hundreds of people we have met along the way. Despite Weber's predilection for killing characters (his universe can be uncommonly lethal), or perhaps because of it, the book ends with a cast of characters many pages long.

For we are no longer reading about a war between the Star Kingdom (now Star Empire) of Manticore and the Republic of Haven (formerly the People's Republic of Haven). The conflict which consumed ten books (as well as annexes, as I said) turns out to be the story Weber told us so he could tell us this one.

The Sollies (as mankind's largest political organization is known) are even more ossified and pathetic than the Havenites of the early books, convinced they can destroy Manticore (and Honor) through sheer numbers and willpower the way infantry companies charged machine guns in 1914. The Manticorans take a body-blow from the Mesan Alignment, which turns out to be a nefarious scheme to achieve total galactic domination by manipulating everyone else into fighting each other (think SPECTER from James Bond, only with spaceships).

Weber is to be praised for doing away with most of the material that makes a non-fanboy's eyes glaze; he has winnowed himself down to pages and paragraphs explaining the intricacies of his imaginary sciences rather than whole chapters. His characters spend an awful lot of time in this book discussing the implications of things and making facial expressions. Honor herself is once again denied the chance to stand on a battle-bridge. The entire episode ends on a cliffhanger.

In short, Honor addicts must read this book to know how the war that the series was supposed to be all about gets started. It is a dose of Honor-crack. There are umpteen books left to go that will almost certainly involve enemies new and old doing what they do best while Honor vaporizes enemy starships. If you like being addicted to a writer's serial obsession, start with On Basilisk Station and work your way up to this. You've only got about 6,000 pages before you can crack this one. What's stopping you?

I should be fair: these books are great if you don't expect too much. Decently entertaining almost all the way through, fun bad guys, and cleverly plotted, they are entertaining pulp. I own all of them. But the Honor series is also long, dense, and now difficult to follow because the scope of Weber's imagination is so big. He should really consider drawing it all to a close before he turns 65.

If you are looking for an escalation of the combat from previous books, you may be disappointed. However, that's not to say that this novel is boring. In fact, far from it. Weber still manages to hold the threads of a myriad of plot lines together. All in all, a very entertaining book.

It has been a long time since Weber's last mainline Honor Harrington novel. There are no surprises, everything is telegraphed. Weber has introduced so many characters, and each one has to have his/her scene where he/she reflects on the events that have happened and the events to come. And of course, there is so much back story that has to be summarized that I would estimate 200 pages go to retelling previous material. Weber does set the stage for a 90 degree turn. Next book will have new allies and new villains, but this, as I have said, has been coming for at least the past 2 novels. I think he had better move the series along, because if he continues to drag things out, as much as we all love Honor, if nothing happens no one will care.

Mission of Honor (2010) is the twelfth SF novel in the Honor Harrington series, following At All Costs,Storm from the Shadows and Torch of Freedom. In the previous volumes, Honor destroyed the Havenite fleet attacking Manticore. Gold Peak took out Admiral Byng's flagship and accepted the surrender of the rest of the Solar League taskforce. Anton and Victor escaped from Mesa with Herlander.

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

Hamis Alexander-Harrington is Count White Haven and First Lord of the Admiralty for the Star Empire of Manticore. He is married to Emily and Honor.

Elizabeth Winton is Empress of the Star Empire of Manticore. Since the Republic of Haven assassinated her parents and tried to kill her, she has strong prejudices against Haven.

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

Eloise Pritchart is the President of the Republic of Haven. When Tom Theisman shot Oscar Saint-Just, Eloise brought back the Constitution of Haven.

Tom Theisman is the Secretary of War and the Chief of Naval Operations for Haven. His treecat name is Dreams of Peace.

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.

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

Albrecht Detweiler is head of the Mesan Alignment. He has plans for Manticore.

In this story, Mike learns that seventy-one League superdreadnoughts are coming to Spindle. The Talbott government decides on a strategy of irritation and delay. Mike has most of her fleet hide in hyperspace or behind electronic countermeasures.

Meanwhile, Honor takes Eighth Fleet to Nouveau Paris. Eloise is rudely awakened by Theisman after Honor's fleet arrives insystem. Honor tells Eloise that she will be coming to the planet to begin negotiations about ending the war. If necessary, Eighth Fleet will avenge her death.

The Mesan government issues a statement that implicates the Manticore government in the destruction within Green Pines. Elizabeth learns from Catherine that Anton and Victor were probably on Mesa. But those who know Anton do not believe the accusations in the Mesan statement.

The Mesan Alignment Navy is scouting Manticore and Grayson. They are using a new interstellar drive that is much less detectable than impeller wedges. Even MAN has problems sensing these ships.

Later, MAN executes Oyster Bay. They unload packs of enhanced range missiles and newly developed torpedoes within the Manticore A and B systems and within the Grayson system. The packs are traveling toward their targets at twenty percent of lightspeed, but they have a long way to go.

This tale provides a better understanding of the Mesan Alignment and their allies. It also gives Manticore -- and Haven -- a more complete look at these enemies. The Solar League still doesn't have a clue.

This story leaves Manticore with an incipient invasion of League ships. There obviously will be a sequel. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Weber fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of space navy combat, technological advances, and persevering humans. For anyone who is not familiar with these series, the initial volume is On Basilisk Station.

-Arthur W. Jordin

When I read mission of honor all I could ask my self was huh?? The last few books in this series have just been bad. The plot is all wacked out with the new behind the scenes villain controlling everything to gain world domination, all so the big war would stop with as little effort as possible. Now everyone can be friends. yup. Hay Lets go fight this new new evil guy together! Lots of stupid people doing lots of stupid things for most of the book. Reason for book, Peeps and manticore are now allies and they gonna go kick some bad guy butt... in the last chapter of this freeken book.. 500 pages of words for this................. Lets put 10 chapters of filler describing how the evil bad guy is gonna plan on a plan to do evil bad guy plans to plan to plan and plan, did i mention that he is gonna plan? How about everyone else? they godda plan to plan for the plan too! WHEN THE SAME PLANS WERE DESCRIBED IN EXCRUCIATING (1 : causing great pain or anguish: agonizing <the nation's most excruciating dilemma 2 : very intense : extreme<excruciating pain> -- ex·cru·ci·at·ing·ly \-''-ti'-l'\ adverb) DETAIL IN THE PREVIOUS TWO 500 PAGE BOOKS, YUP.

P.S. All the ships and factories and stuff are recked again for like the third time so the next book is gonna have a huge plan to plan for the rebuild of the plans for more planed ships plans for like 10 chapters. yup. yup.

(what was the point of the last book again? $23.99, oOooooo man I am a sucker)

We find Honor dropping in on the Republic of Haven, not for pounding the cheap out of them, but for getting a peace treaty.

We learn how stupid the Solarium system really is. We learn the who, where and what has been manipulating many of the Star Empires for many centuries.

I found in the read of this book, that somehow I've missed some in-between books, so I'm going back to find those.

This is becoming my favorite space series.