Flag in Exile (Honor Harrington Book 5)

Excellent yarn in the line of the Hornblower saga but hundred of years in the future. Lots of space battles and a interesting heroine.
Howewer, long chapters are lost with long and boring "political" discussions. I like science fiction and Weber writes good one, but he deviates with "political science 1.o1" of future star kingdoms.

The Honor of the Queen is the 2nd book in the series and is one of the best in the whole series. The character of Honor Harrington is beautiful and strong. The story line is great and the depth of the supporting characters make this a great book.

Many aspects of the story end up being currently relevant. The terrorist actions of religious zealots and a government that can't sustain itself do to a populace that is dependent on the government for support.

I like this story the best of the 11 that I've read. This kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the story. I had to wait till it was republished with "additional material" so read third book and this one. You have to read in order one to the end for the most enjoyment.

David Weber builds a universe a credible caracters that interact and each has his/her personality which makes the book fun to read. He is a little long winded in his descriptions so I skipped a lot the second time I read the series.

Well written and well paced story line. Provides a lot of background for future books in the series. The scene where Honor has dinner with the Protector's family is one of my favorite in the entire series.

Read it for the second time. Enjoy the intrigue though it always disturbs me that in the early books the opposition (Haven) is painted so negatively and Manticore so innocent. Only later do we see a leveling occur. And no ones technology always just stays so much better. But all that being said, one of the best Sci-Fi series to come along in years.

Following the beloved On Basilisk Station by some two years, now Captain Harrington is thrust into yet another uncomfortable and untenable situation. It is by courage, loyalty and honor that she fights her way through to protect The Honor of the Queen.

If you are a fan of Military Space Opera, this is a series to get into. I think there are currently 12 or 13 books in the direct series with numerous side line novels. It all starts with "On Basilisk Station".

A wothy successor to 'Basilisk Station'. David Weber just gets better with time, and Honor Harrington is almost perfectly written as a nearly indistructible ship's captain. She shows only glimpses of the vulnerqbilities she hides from alm8st evryone. One of my favorites.

I have read this entire series like 16+ books at least three times now and this book is one of my favorites, it is well executed and it does an excellent job of preparing the ground for events that will happen in later books while still having a superb story-line of its own.

If you are a fan of Military Space Opera, this is a series to get into. I think there are currently 12 or 13 books in the direct series with numerous side line novels. It all starts with "On Basilisk Station".

A wothy successor to 'Basilisk Station'. David Weber just gets better with time, and Honor Harrington is almost perfectly written as a nearly indistructible ship's captain. She shows only glimpses of the vulnerqbilities she hides from alm8st evryone. One of my favorites.

I have read this entire series like 16+ books at least three times now and this book is one of my favorites, it is well executed and it does an excellent job of preparing the ground for events that will happen in later books while still having a superb story-line of its own.

I love the Honor Harrington series, and had intended to read them all. This book was somewhat of a disappointment. The author seemed many times to go on endlessly about different characters thought processes, especially on theological issues. I found myself repeatedly rapidly scanning down pages of material to skip forward to where the story line actually started moving again. I felt like I was reading a term paper written by a student who had a lack of material to work with, and thus had to ramble endlessly and repetitively to reach the required word count. I sincerely hope the next book in the series gets back to the excellent character development and interesting story lines that characterized the earlier volumes of the series, without the annoying filler.

This is the second in a long line of novels based on his character Honor Harrington. It is necessary that you read them in order or you will miss why things are happening. I have read everyone of these books at least twice and they never grow old.

Jim Phillips

Good Read, Considering no space battles. Think it ties in nicely with the series and an must read to keep on track. Unfortunately this book is currently not available electronically so I had to purchase the hard copy to keep on trak. Sometimes gets a little slow but overall a good read.

This is a book that you just can't seem to put down. It really sucks you in to the story. When you read it, then you look at what time it is, it could be an hour or so that you didn't realized had past by.

This is a book that you just can't seem to put down. It really sucks you in to the story. When you read it, then you look at what time it is, it could be an hour or so that you didn't realized had past by.

Flag in Exile is well written story that is a depature from the usual storys in the series. Weber does a good job of fleshing out the people in this one, and demonstrates some additional depth in Honor as well.

This book is a good read, but could have been much, much better with a decent editor. I deducted one star, a 20% deduction. That is approximately equal to the amount of useless dialog I skimmed. People who enjoy political intrigue may have found those intricately documented conversations worth reading, I did not.

Good writer cept for when the author finds a bone to gnaw at, can be pretty boring having to pass over these areas that really have no relevance to the plot, oh, and the techno babble about the drives and battles was quite useless as there was no basis for the page after page that I had to turn, but the book was good otherwise.

I prefer stories with less military detail. There was too much, so I couldn't finish the book. If you want a story with more human involvement and an easy-to-comprehend universe, skip this one - especially if you use a Kindle. Trying to flip back to find what you THINK you need is frustrating.

loved the book the only problem was a lttle to much tacno babble main i have no clue what how the ship ran but other than that loved the way the book flowed warning warning do not read past this post some of the folks ya get to like in the book died i understand about death in war just a warning

The copy of this book that I received has internal damage
to the spine. I am afraid it will not last past very many
perusals before it disintegrates, unfortunately.
Sincerely yours, Tony Racki

This second installment of “Hornblower in Space” features Honor Harrington accompanying a diplomatic delegation and a trade mission to a distant world. The importance of this world rose when it became obvious that Haven is preparing for war, and the shortest route between Haven and Manticore is via Endicott system and its Grayson World. Hence the diplomatic and trade mission. Of course, Haven is just as aware of the importance of the system and they decide to support a competing world in the same area. The lead Manticoran representative is an old, and beloved, professor of Honor’s from her Naval Academy days.

As it turns out though, Grayson is a very old fashioned society and equal rights for women has not yet happened in that world. This begs the questions of whether Manicore made a mistake in sending her there given that the whole concept of women in the military – let along in such high positions – is impossible for them to accept. Of course, this leads to all kinds of sexual situations for both Honor and her other female crewmembers. However, there is something else going on as well. Haven’s choice in the system is an even more backwards, and more fanatical offshoot of the same religious system. In their system, women are chattel whose only role is to breed and serve the men. They are wrapped in cloth coverings from head to toe and cannot have any part of their bodies seen in public. They cannot go anywhere without their male protectors, and so on. Haven supplies them with two powerful warships but excises all females from their crews so as not to offend them.

Inevitably, warfare erupts. The bulk of the story is all about this space warfare and the action sequences are thrilling. At times the military technological goobledygook gets out of hand, but overall it’s just a fun book to read. With losses occurring on both sides, there was never any doubt that Honor would prevail in the end. While going through all of this, I finally learned at least a part of the function of the Treecat that Honor carries almost everywhere with her as he gets to play a major role in part of the plot.

If I have anything to complain about it’s the complete turnaround in attitude towards women that this book implies happens over the course of a couple of weeks. It is simply not credible at all that a society that disdains to believe that women are people for almost millennia, change their collective minds by seeing what a few women sailors do over the course of a few weeks. Sorry, but that was just too far-fetched and stretched credibility too far. Nonetheless, I did not think this was a sufficiently big boo boo to reduce my rating of five stars. I am looking forward to reading the next installment in this series.

By and large I have enjoyed reading the Honor Harrington series (well, listening to it via audiobook, to be more accurate). While I prefer the shorter Man of War series for its tense action and portrayal of military life, the Harrington series has plenty of intrigue, action, and drama of its own, as well as cuddly (yet deadly) treecats. The Republic of Haven is also a terrifying and increasingly timely depiction of an out of control welfare state unwilling to change even in the face of its own unsustainability. I will admit, however, that there are times when I want to defenestrate Honor Harrington for her non-stop pity parties. Good grief, this woman blames herself when the sun sets and she didn't do anything to stop it.

This book is a prime example of the high points of this series, and yet, there is a glaring flaw within that nearly torpedoed the entire book for me. A near miss of the fusion plant, if you will. I can't go into much detail, but basically, we the readers have been led to believe Honor Harrington is a brilliant, one-of-a-kind officer whose like may never be seen again, yet within this book she makes such an outrageous mistake, one that even an amateur should have been able to avoid, that it absolutely disrupted suspension of disbelief, and instead of being absorbed into the plot, I was consumed with aggravation at the author for manufacturing it for drama reasons. See the spoiler section below.

There is also a scene within the book that lays bare the horrors of war. Even with the amazing technologies of the future, the adage "War never changes" applies here. This particular scene was very hard to get through.

I greatly enjoyed Allyson Johnson's work in narrating this book and I'm very impressed by her range, though her aristocratic accents veer a bit too much towards being comical.

Otherwise, for a great story about the good guys coming from behind to stand up to the most vile and despicable cretins in the galaxy, you won't go wrong with this book. Just brace yourself for some rough spots.

SPOILER SECTION:

Warning, technobabble ahead!

Okay, and that mistake? Not immediately raising sidewalls and point defenses for every ship in her task force once Honor Harrington encountered the Masadan LAC's upon returning to Grayson. Give me a break! How is this logical? Let me break it down:

1) The system was in a potential warzone.
2) She could not identify the LAC's.
3) They were not responding to hails.

And her only reaction to this conundrum is to go, "Hmmmm"? Come on! And no, it's not enough to say she couldn't have expected them to be there because LAC's don't have FTL capability. So what? The three items I mentioned by themselves are more than enough to justify purely defensive precautions, and besides, she could have easily reasoned they were transported into the system somehow (which they were) or that local LAC's were hijacked, but she didn't. And as I said, it's especially glaring because Honor Harrington is supposed to be too smart to make this mistake.

The only thing that saved the story is the fact that the LAC's only inflicted minor damage and were almost instantly destroyed once they were exposed as hostile. But... guh! I really hate it when writers intentionally have their characters screw up for no good reason.

I’ve been told for years that I need to read Honor Harrington. Back when I first received these recommendations, I picked up On Basilisk Station and... didn’t really care for it. The dialogue was cheesy, the characters a little too over the top and the action was a little too sparse to draw me in. So despite the fact that I’d purchased a few of the other books, I tabled the series for the time being and told myself I’d give it another go later. Well, later was several years. It had been so long that I hardly remembered what happened, so I read Basilisk again. This time I knew what to expect so I prepared myself. I found it more stomachable and was able to accept the campiness. But still... I just wasn’t hooked. Fast forward another few years and I decide I want to read some military science fiction. Looking on my shelf I see the Honor Harrington books and sigh... I decide to give them one last chance. This time, wisely, I go for book two. My memory isn’t THAT bad. Well, now I’m hooked.

The Honor Harrington books are essentially a sci-fi tribute to the Napoleonic Wars. Substitute England with Manticore and the Republic of Haven with France. Honor of the Queen deals with Royal Manticore Navy sending an envoy to the planet Grayson to secure an alliance that would be beneficial in the upcoming war against Haven. Grayson doesn’t have much to offer, but their star system’s strategic location makes it valuable both to the RMN and Haven alike. Unfortunately Haven also comes with baggage, as they’re an incredibly antiquated religious society that don’t give any rights whatsoever to their women. Of course, this makes things interesting for Honor Harrington, the most badass woman in the universe. Also. their neighboring world Masada is even more backwards than them and has lots of nukes pointed at Grayson, ready to settle a centuries long vendetta.

I’ll first get the bad out of the way and say that Honor of the Queen didn’t exactly fix the problems I initially had with book one. However, the book itself was enjoyable enough that I was able to overlook them. The characters, the dialogue, it’s still just as campy (well maybe not as much, since there’s nobody calling Honor a demon due to her prowess in combat), but since I went in expecting it, I didn’t mind. In fact, I kind of enjoy it. Sure, all the praising Honor receives from her comrades gets a little tiresome. And all the circle jer... pats on the back everyone gives each other when they’ve done a good job also... well also gets tiresome. But like I said, I look past it.

The one thing that did make me want to toss this book across the room on several occasions was how many damn times I had to hear that the Graysons are uncomfortable with women in uniform. By the time the book was through its halfway point I wanted to yell, “okay, I get it!” It was like being reminded by Robert Jordan a thousand times that you can never trust an Aes Sedai. By the time the book was nearly over, I was ready for the Masadan missiles to come so I didn’t have to hear any more blathering about the subject. However, since this subject is a plot objective for Honor and the Graysons to overcome, I tolerated it until its resolution.

As for what I liked about the book: well, everything else. I’m a fan of political maneuvering, especially when there’s a payoff that involves things exploding, and we get plenty of that here. One would think that the politics would be the boring part but Weber is a genius at politics between factions and even within faction. No action from anybody comes without a consequence and I really enjoy that attention to detail. As for the action, the amount of it in Honor of the Queen makes up for the lack of in Basilisk. There’s ship combat galore and some pretty intense marine combat as well. The combat isn’t merely just functional, it’s highly meticulous and very entertaining. Weber has space battles down to an exact science with missile velocities and trajectories and counter missiles and impeller wedges and sidewalls. It gets to the point where I just read these details and think, “I don’t know for sure if this is correct but I’m not smart enough to figure it out anyway, so I’ll just trust that it’s right.” Also, one would think that all this detail would be boring, but I don’t think so. Rather than ships just shooting lasers each other, it gives you a real sense of the scale that these battles take place in as the ships are thousands of kilometers apart when they start bombarding each other with missiles. While we know Honor herself will survive these conflicts (since she’s the Horatio Hornblower/Jack Aubrey of this series) we can’t say the same for any of her friends as many will perish in fiery explosions or get sucked out into space.

So, now comes the part of the review where I say whether or not I recommend these books to people. I will say yes, but with reservations. Are you a fan of science fiction? Then you MIGHT like them. Are you a fan of naval combat, such as the Napoleonic era wars? Then you’re MORE likely to like them. Are you a fan of military or space opera science fiction and you enjoy all of the above? Then you’ll definitely like them. Don’t pick up the Honor Harrington books and expect truly believable characters or anti-heroes. This isn’t a series about rogues or pirates or aliens. It’s about politics, war and the navy, but in space. Having read almost four books in the series now, I can say that they’re just good fun. I will now likely be sucked in Wheel of Time Style and be reading these books for as long as David Weber keeps pumping them out. Long live the queen!

Being an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy, I’ve been a fan of this series since the first book. It’s not corporate owned from a movie or TV show. The author, David Weber has free reign to put his characters in situations that you couldn’t if he was writing for the Star Trek or Star Wars franchises.

The main character; Honor Harrington and her trusted tree cat, have a bond that’s unlike anything I’ve read in run of the mill corporate owned science fiction. In this entry, the church wants Honor Harrington to step down because they don’t believe a woman should be running a star ship or commanding a fleet.

The novel moved at a slow pace at first, however there were enough character moments and drama to keep me reading each chapter. When the religious fanatics started their campaign to bring down Honor toward the middle of the novel, that’s when the action started and didn’t let up until the end.

There are several explosions in this one. Fleets of ships, buildings, laser guns, all culminating with the enemy facing off against our hero in a deadly sword fight. And it doesn’t end there; Honor goes against an enemy armada in a battle that would rival anything in a good science fiction movie.
I came into reading this series very late. I didn’t think much of it at first when I saw the traditional naval uniforms on the cover. It might have sold me much earlier if the costumes were more futuristic. At first I thought it was an alternate history of earth. After reading the first novel, it won me over. I’ve purchased all the books in the series and can’t wait to read each one.

Flag in Exile (Honor Harrington book 5) by David Weber

This book is great, but I think I like the forth book better. This one we get to see another side of Honor. In a way, from her own point of view she starts to look a bit like a whiny woe is me everything I touch turns out bad. And with as many people who have died in the first four novels it's not all that hard to see why. It's a good thing that what David Weber excels at is giving the reader the other picture of Honor from the people around her. I have nothing to truly measure by but I often feel that David Weber creates military characters for both sides that are often overly honorable while they slaughter each other and I'm not sure that it is the way it is or the way many would like to believe it should be.

On half pay and in semi-retirement and shame Honor has moved to her Steadholder property Harrington on Grayson. As with the last book this book involves a lot of political intrigue on both sides of the war and some social upheaval on Grayson.It's difficult to tell sometimes if the Protector of Grayson , Benjamin Mayhew and High Admiral Wesley Mathews have Honor's best interests at heart. Sure they have enough to deal with trying to upend their own social order and religious beliefs, but they seem to have put themselves in a place where they are using Honor more than rewarding her. And though it seems we often see characters in black and white as regards Honor it is evident in this book that there are many who praise her while they hate her which seems more duplicitous and maybe greyish.

Once again I'll caution new readers do not expect a lot of space battles, start at the beginning of the series and work your way up and it will ween you into David Weber's style. We do get to see Hamish Alexander in action a bit and there is a lot of military posturing along with the politics, but the actual battle time is very short and near the end.

This story is almost written as a counterpoint to the events in the last book. Honor will have to go through a similar personal trial but the motive and method created in this book make it quite a bit different from last book.

There is almost too much time spent with the trials and tribulations of both sides political climate. Whole chapters devoted to essentially telling us that 'uneasy lies the head that wears the crown'. Both side seem to be mired in rotten politics and the inability to act decisively. The both seem to bungle along merrily heading into battles that will kill thousands.

While Honor is feeling low we get to see how the men who protect her see her and their very loyalty speaks volumes about the person she really is. The men of Grayson have to struggle with this woman who is an example of everything they've been taught a woman shouldn't be, but to their credit the ones close to her can see her for what she is. Eventually they will wise up and give her the kick she needs to get going again. In some ways though they do tend to drag her down with over-protection.

Once Honor gets back into the routine of things it's back to her cool calculated killer self again, although she does occasionally laps into self doubt based on the faces of people she's lost in previous battles.

I can honestly say that if I didn't have all the other eyes looking at her and showing me the real Honor Harrington I'm not sure how much I would like the person she kept presenting herself as in this story.

David Weber is still doing a lot of world building and because in Grayson things are poised for change it does seem critical to find out what it is that is being changed. If a reader has made it this far in the series they are used to this, or should be. And he does it so elegantly sometimes that I felt like I shouldn't interrupt and tell him to get to the point.

Once again this is a good book for those who like Military Science Fiction with heavy description in strategy and power and the political posturing that goes on beneath the whole mess. It's also a pretty good study of Honor's character if you know where to look.

J.L. Dobias

David Weber delivers another rock solid adventure featuring a young starship captain Honor Harrington. Weber's writing style is simple and elegant and the descriptions of characters, space battles and political intrigues are excellent. Honor Harrington's character seems simple at first, but she is a young woman of complexity and complete honor even with regard to her enemies. Loyal to her friends and deadly to her rivals, she is a rising star in science fiction universe. This book, like the previous Honor Harrington novel "On Basilisk Station," is entertaining and makes the reader turn pages in anticipation of another exciting episode. To all science fiction fans I say this: read the book and enjoy a great adventure with a likable heroine and het intelligent friend an alien tree cat named Nimitz. Together they fight for their kingdom, their lives and their ideals!

David Crane Author of Price of Life and Die To Live Again

Rather slow read due to the author's detailing of nearly everything possible. Minus one point for the very little space action in the book. The end battle was droll in that suddenly only superdreadnoughts win battles, while battlecruisers are riffraff not capable of meeting the enemy forces. "Dominance and Crease" the author's terminology for sword combat on Grayson is really the heartsoul of the story, a newcomer who studies her duties and learns to meet it's requirements. Incidentally, try googling "fencing terms Dominance and Crease" and you should get a great takedown of the sword fight as posted on a Weber forum. The author really built his story around this fight and he drove it home with a vengeance. The negative is that I got tired of mass casualty reports. Still, you would think Honor would be able to 'bear up' better than she does under bad news. Do all women fall apart again, aand again, I think NOT, they actually are the core strength of the world. The "Author's Note" seems to refer to the Oklahoma City bombing of 95, yet it seems the author's message should warn us that it has happened time and again since. Still, the world trembles under the actions of ISIS, yet too many in every nation would take guns out of the hands of the law abiding. The travesty is that freedom is threatened continually, both by the external and by those in governance. Payne was right about the downfall of Democracy, yet as a republic we can NOT get out of Democracy's pitfalls. Thanks, Harry!

Weber does Space Opera well; the first chapter proves that. It pits nearly equal numbers of Mantacoran ships against a similar wall of Havenites. Their contest is a pugilistic exchange of missile salvoes. This is typical of the increasing savagery of naval campaigns, although it would never occur between grossly mismatched opponents.
But Captain Honor Harrington is recuperating (banished from Manticore) on Grayson, attending to steadholder projects. Considering the growing pains experienced by the Grayson Navy, an experienced ship Captain might be offered a commission to conduct training maneuvers against Manticoran units:
' The discovery of all that capability had inspired Honor, and her formation for the exercise had looked like a standard deployment, with her SDs in tight and her escorts covering its flanks while a squadron of battlecruisers screened its line of advance. Only the "battlecruisers" had actually been superdreadnoughts, using their EW [electronic warfare equipment] to mask the true power of their emissions, and the "superdreadnoughts" had actually been battlecruisers using their EW to augment their emissions. It should have been impossible for Henries to detect at anything over four million klicks, which should have let Honor flush her towed missile pods and get in the first, devastating broadsides from her SDs before his own ships of the wall even realized where the fire was coming from.

Unfortunately, Sir Alfred's wiliness had taken most of the punch out of her surprise, and that was her own fault. She'd deliberately come in on a completely predictable course to help him see what she wanted him to. But that had also given him the opportunity to deploy recon drones from beyond the range at which her own sensors could detect their drives. He'd accelerated them up to speed, then shut down their impellers and let them coast straight down her nice, predictable line of approach to such close range that no EW could fool them, and the RDs' lack of power, coupled with their built-in stealth features, had caused her people to miss them even when one physically penetrated her formation.

"That's how he did it," she repeated to Bagwell. "Sneaky devil, isn't he?" ' (p. 230-1)
?? Has the master of deception lost her touch??
This volume is first to reveal the growing empathic bond between Honor and Nimitz, who can sense the mental state of nearby humans.

Nothing interesting happens until chapter nine... 100 pages of slowness.

This book exaggerates the problems and heart of the Honor Harrington series. Like On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington), the last three chapters (about 50 pages total) have an awesome space battle. It's from chapter 30 onward, and it's the best part of the novel. Like The Honor of the Queen (Honor Harrington #2) the setting takes place in the Yeltsin system, and the first 375 pages contain hateful misogyny involving the Grayson variant of Catholic religion. It's 'let's hate girls' straight from the trashbin of Honor book two. Like The Short Victorious War (Honor Harrington #3) fifty pages superficially cover the political situation in the People's Republic, following a totalitarian coup, and ultimately add little to the book except inflating the page count. Like Field of Dishonor (Honor Harrington #4) a tragedy puts Honor Harrington offline for about five chapters, and the angst was annoying and overwritten.

I hated fifteen chapters, disliked seven, thought six were 'Ok', liked four, and loved the one where Clausewitz was mentioned. Using a chapter-based average, that means I rate the book at 2 stars. While I did enjoy small parts of the 442 page novel, my overall impression was a good editor should have disciplined the book to 300 pages and cut the irrelevancies and purple prose. I read Weber for space opera military battles, not for political science, definitely NOT for religious dogma, and not for tragic mysteries. This book had very little space opera (only about 1/6 of the content), which is why I didn't like the whole.

If book six shares the long passages of irrelevant 'told' exposition and (minor) character introspection, that may be it for me with this series. I simply didn't enjoy wading through so much junk to hit the highlights.

Alright, now that you've read 'On Basilisk Station', this picks up sometime later. Honor Harrington is an experienced, confident Captain, listening to Admiral Courvosier, who has an assignment. Their enemy, the powerful People's Republic of Haven, fuels its' economy by taking over star systems and plundering their wealth. Intelligence from Yeltsin's Star system thinks Haven wants them next. That isn't the only friction; locally, two religious groups fell out long ago, and the moderates exiled the reactionary wing to a different planet named Masada. That did not stop periodic wars. Now, Manticore is sending a Naval/ Diplomatic mission to this paradise. He is speaking:
'... "It's a hell of a mess, Honor, and I'm afraid our own motives aren't as pure as the driven snow. We need a forward base in that area (planet Grayson). Even more importantly, we need to keep Haven from securing one that close to us. Those factors are going to be as obvious to the locals as they are to us, so we're bound to get involved in the local conflict, in a peacekeeping role at the very least. If I were the Grayson government, that would certainly be the point I'd insist on, because the basic credo of Masadan theology is that someday they will return to Grayson in triumph and cast down the heirs of the ungodly who exiled their forefathers from their rightful home....'
Even Grayson, the moderate planet, denies women the right to vote, own land, or inherit. So feudal.
'..."And that, Honor, is why you need to know exactly what's going on, diplomatically speaking, on this little jaunt. You're going to be very, very visible, and the fact that the Kingdom is sending a woman to command the military side of the mission, well-"
"I see, Sir," she said softly. "I see, indeed." (p. 18-19)
This will demand someone serve as a shield to Grayson.

Of the five Honor Harrington books I've read so far, this is the only one that had me skipping pages. Weber moves away from what made the series so enjoyable -- the military angle -- and the result is a book that's 80 percent politics, with only a smattering of the fleet-dueling, ship-maneuvering fun.

Worse, there are seemingly endless passages of characters' introspection. Yes, it rounds them out to see their thought processes, but after 10 or 12 paragraphs that serve as either overdone exposition or needless history lesson, it's a bit tiresome.

Imagine something like this:

"Smith looked out the window at the fields below -- fields his father had inherited after the first civil war, which saw more than 80 percent of the farms in the region destroyed. His father, himself the child of a military man, had pledged never to let that happen again. And because his father was a Jonesian by birth, that promise also carried on to the younger Smith. Jonesians were known galaxy-wide for their unwavering resolve, a fact that had served Smith well. It helped, of course, that he had been trained at the Johnson Academy, known for instilling the virtues of both economic sense and military prowess in its students. But because those students often...."

You get the idea. Now imagine it going on and on for several pages. So much for "show them, don't tell them."

There are other issues with "Flag in Exile." Ironically, while such overzealous inner dialog gives supporting characters more depth, Honor Harrington is in danger of becoming a caricature. She's too perfect. Her officers are all incredible. Her staff is top of the line. Her crew is wonderful. Her plans always work. In earlier books we learned she's a perfect shot -- possibly one of the best there is. Her treecat, Nimitz, is the only one known to develop a two-way empathic link. In this book, [SPOILER WARNING!!!] despite less than a year's training, she's able to defeat one of the best sword fighters on the planet in a fraction of second while bruised, broken, and exhausted. [END SPOILER]

To say believability is stretched is an understatement.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first four books in the series, and will be starting the sixth soon. But if I find myself confronted with overly long exposition and a lead character who can do no wrong, that's it for Honor Harrington.

Summary: This book shares the story of Captain Honor Harrington of the Royal Manticoran Navy. She commands the newly commissioned HMS Fearless, which replaced the one she lost fighting at Basilisk Station. After the incident between the Havenites and the Royal Navy on Basilisk Station, tensions rose and a state of ‘cold war’ existed between the two nations. Once her ship was commissioned after the one she’d had shot out from under her, Honor is tasked with escorting a diplomatic envoy to the planet Grayson to negotiate for the ability to put a forward operating base in their territory. While there we see a clash of cultures between the more egalitarian Graysonites and the ‘modern’ Manticorians. Her mission ends up smack dab in the middle of hostilities between the Protectorate of Grayson and the Madasan religious state. If you want to know more, read the book!
Characters: The main character in this novel is Honor Harrington, a naval captain who is given command of the newly rebuilt HMS Fearless at the beginning of the novel. Like before, I found myself drawn to her, but this time she came across as a little too perfect to me. There were times where her perfection was annoying, but David Weber did a good job making her ‘perfection’ become a hindrance which is why I kept reading. Regardless, she was a well-developed character with enough depth to make her believable. She’s a no-nonsense kind of woman, who gets the job done and overcomes, no matter the cost. This annoys me, because you get the impression that Honor doesn’t really worry about the hundreds of lives lost in every battle. Unlike On Basilisk Station, Honor seems to sacrifice her troops needlessly in an all-out bid for victory.
Plot: I felt like the plot moved along at a steady pace, a bit slow in places but not enough to draw you out of the universe David Weber was creating. The author loves his descriptions of the science of space flight, but I skim over those in favor of the actual story. I don’t care how the space flight works, just that he has a reason that it does. However, there are those who love this about David’s work. Like his earlier novel, the plot was enough that I kept turning the pages for more. What more can we really ask for! This novel was heavier on the space combat, and the parts where we’ve combat on the ground it felt forced. This novel was easier to read than book one, but I still had issues with the changes in POV. It felt jarring and the shifts were hard to follow, though it wasn’t as bad as the previous novel. I read this novel as an eBook, and it was published as a trade paperback in 1993. Again, I’m guessing that the novel was simply poorly converted, and the indications of the swapping POVs weren’t carried over. Either way, it was an issue for me. The plotting was a four out of five stars for me.
World Building: I felt like the world building in this novel was solid, there was just enough to understand everything. The setting was cogently written, believable and fun to imagine yourself joining. Probably a bad idea, as lots of people die in these fights, but such are the dangers of SciFy fandom. Admittedly, I came into these novels after being seduced to the dark side by the TRMN Fan Club at RavenCon last year so I knew a lot about the universe going in. I think it would’ve still stood alone on the laurels of the world David Weber created, but felt the need for full disclosure. If you don’t remember, I loved the world building in book one. This book kicked it up a few octaves, which I loved. There were parts where I felt it was lacking, but as a lover of stories I recognized them as hooks to what I expect to happen in later novels. I would love to wax poetically here, but I’m striving to avoid spoilers. In this section, I give David Weber five out of five stars!
Description: I felt like this one is hard, my visualizations were colored by the outside representations I’ve seen from the TRMN. These fans are dedicated and cosplay his universe, so when I read these books they were what I pictured. I think it was well done, but it’s possible my affiliation with his rabid fans colored my readings of things. That said, I definitely feel like the descriptions of this book was greatly improved from the last one. In that regard, this was a success for David Weber. However, in some cases he went too far the other direction with regards to descriptions. This isn’t an issue for me, but it’s worth noting it to you, dear reader. I’d give this section five out of five stars.
Overall: Aside from my issues with the jarring switches from one POV to another, I really enjoyed this novel. It kept me hooked, and gave me an idea of how to make the hard science fiction approach to space combat more enjoyable. Like the earlier book in this series, it was a bit heavy on the math. I’m in no way qualified to judge the veracity of the math, but this book was otherwise enjoyable and I’ve already bought book three. Another oddity, at least for me, was the pot calling the kettle black syndrome I saw between the Grayson Protectorate and the Kingdom of Manticore. The Manticorian’s thought the sexist, antiquated views of the Graysonites were backwards. The polygamous marriages, and how women were kept solely in the domestic sphere was foreign to Honor and her crew. This seemed a bit judgmental to me, given the classists nature of Manticorian society. One society was classist but egalitarian, while the other one was a merit based society for the males. This might’ve been missed by some, and might just be one of my quirks, but it did stick out to me. Not in a bad way, just an oddity I noticed right away. I liked the novel enough to buy book three and will be reading that next. When the author is such an iconic master like David Weber. Anyway, this wasn’t a WOWZER five star novel, but it was good. Damn good. Despite my issues with the POV hopping, was a book I would happily recommend.

After reading this book's predecessor, On Basilisk Station, I eagerly tore into The Honor of the Queen, anticipating a tight plot, intriguing characters, and well written, explosive action. David Weber did not disappoint. This book was just as captivating as the one came before it, if not moreso. This review contains spoilers.

The overall idea of the novel is intriguing. I, for one, was interested to see how Honor Harrington, a naval officer accustomed to a world where sexual discrimination is but a memory of the past, would fare on a planet where women have no rights. Having a rather feminist mindset myself, the issue struck me as interesting and, at times, really made my blood boil, so I felt as though I could relate to Honor on some level. The author handled the concept surprisingly well, as most male authors seem to be unable to fully grasp the emotions and the seriousness that comes with a topic such as this (no offense male authors). That alone would have been enough for our heroine to handle. But, of course, things are never quite that easy for Honor.

The Peoples' Republic of Haven entering into the fray was, well, pretty much expected. At this point, even after reading just this book and the previous one, it can be expected that Manticore and Haven will always find some way to be at odds with each other until a full blown war breaks out. Regardless, it added a sense of urgency to the book, which became even more dire and even chaotic when the Masadans rebelled against the Peeps.

The characterisation of Honor Harrington was spot on. She's a very likable heroine, but isn't without her faults. In fact, I believe that's one of the things I enjoyed about this book so much. We finally get to see Honor get pushed over the edge. She's usually so calm and collected, fully capable of holding herself in check and never allowing her anger to really show beneath her cool surface. To see her lose control for a moment and release her anger on someone who could, potentially, ruin her career was a bit refreshing. To me, it shows that she isn't impervious to mistakes and that she is, in fact, human. She was intriguing in the previous book and just got better in this one. She seemed a little more three dimensional here than she did before...perhaps that was because she had to deal with a lot more (the death of her mentor, trying to seal an alliance with a planet that despises her for her gender and position of power, trying to protect said planet from their enemies and Manticore's enemies, her acquired injury, her own inner and emotional turmoils, and being the best Captain she can be while still upholding the Queen's honour). Yet, she still manages to keep everything together to save the day (at risk of destroying her ship and crew) and seal the alliance.

As before, Nimitz proved to be an asset to the story. Though he may not have been a bit part of the overall plot, he is an enjoyable character and his interactions with Honor and others are often entertaining to read about. I would like to see him play a bigger role in future books, as he (as a character and a member of a very gifted species) seems to have a lot to offer.

Another thing I really enjoyed about The Honor of the Queen was the varying personalities when it came to some of the more minor characters...especially those who came from Grayson and Haven. The idea that not all bad guys are bad was definitely reinforced here. The characters of Yanakov (Grayson) and Alfredo Yu (Haven) were especially interesting. Both of them were decent people who were doing what they believed was best for their people. Characters like them lesson the whole good guy/bad guy layout many books seem to have. They add a new level to the story and force the reader to look beyond their association with planets and governments and look more at the individuals themselves.

One thing that did become a bit tiresome was how everyone who dislikes Honor is automatically a "bad guy". It just struck me as a bit unrealistic that everyone on the "good side" likes Honor and anyone who doesn't is pegged as a "bad guy". Hopefully that will lessen in future books.

The last hundred pages or so were fast paced and exciting, often keeping me on the edge of my seat. Weber really excels when it comes to writing explosive space battles...even if his tendency to interrupt the flow of the space battle to explain a piece of technology can be, at times, annoying.

The Honor of the Queen can be read as a standalone novel, but is best read after On Basilisk Station. In short, it's a great followup to the first book and, in many ways, is better than the first book. I look forward to reading the next books in the series to see what future adventures await Honor Harrington

"The Honor of the Queen" is the second book in a wonderful space opera series set some three thousand years in the future and featuring David Weber's best fictional heroine, "Honor Harrington." The books are best read in sequence and I strongly recommend that you start with "On Basilisk Station" which is the first one.

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

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

This book introduces the planet Grayson which is to become immensely important in future stories. When Honor Harrington first meets the inhabitants of Grayson in this book, they appear to be boorish, male chauvinist dinosaurs, and she has great difficulty dealing with them. However, it is a challenge which she eventually surmounts with flying colours.

A large number of important characters are also introduced in this book: and not just among Honor's Manticoran compatriots and her new Grayson allies. The two captains who the enemy "Peeps" have sent to stir the pot in Grayson will also feature in most of the forthcoming books - but not necessarily on the same side.

In this second book of the series, Honor Harrington has been promoted after her victory in Basilisk, and given command of the brand new heavy cruiser "H.M.S. Fearless." She is also the senior officer of the military force escorting a diplomatic mission under her old mentor, Admiral Raoul Courvisier, to persuade the planet Grayson to ally with her home country, Manticore, against the looming threat from the People's Republic of Haven (Peeps.)

Grayson, in the Yeltsin system, was settled by religious fanatics. It turned out to have a highly poisonous ecosystem, which forced their descendants to amend some of their principles in order to survive. But their remaining prejudices, especially against women, initially make them difficult to deal with.

However, the Graysons are sweetness and light compared with the male rulers of the planet Masada in the neighbouring Endicott system. Descended from Graysons who went into exile after refusing to make the compromises necessary to prevent the planet killing them, the Masadans' ruthless sexism and intolerant bigotry make the Taleban look like a bunch of Episcopal feminists. They are still bent on revenge - and the People's Republic of Haven is only to happy to help them secure it.

Honor Harrington is going to have to go into battle against horrendous odds - again ...

This is another clever story with wonderful and believable characters, brilliantly described space battles, and a well crafted set of explanations of how the tactical situations in which the characters find themselves relate both to the technology their ships use and the political dynamics which set up the conflicts between them.

Many people read Weber for the space battles, and this book scores very highly here. In some of the later books of the series when describing major fleet actions, Dave Weber sometimes writes a bit too much like the wargame designer he once was, but he is superb when describing single-ship or squadron-level actions such as those in "The Honor of the Queen."

Two aspects of this book may make some readers a little uneasy. At this stage of the series Weber gives full vent to his distrust of politicians, especially left-wing ones.

In later books, apparently to broaden the appeal slightly, he creates some extreme ultra right-wing reactionary politicians who he can criticise from the left so as to counterbalance his criticisms of socialists and liberals from the right. Weber thereby places the views of most of his sympathetic characters in the moderate centre of the Manticoran political spectrum. From book ten he also writes in one or two sympathetic liberal politicians! However, when he wrote "The Honor of the Queen" he had not made these adjustments.

Anyone with liberal or left wing views about economics or defence and security issues and who isn't willing to put them aside to enjoy a novel may be irritated by the political slant of the book. However, this slant is not as strong as that taken by some other military SF writers such as John Ringo.

The other aspect of the book which may be slightly uncomfortable for a minority of readers is the role of men and women. In respect of Grayson, the novel looks from a viewpoint totally committed to absolute equality between men and women at how a society which has gone down a different road can be persuaded to reform. In respect of Masada, their status as the bad guys is confirmed by their horrible crimes against women.

If you like this book, you will want to read the rest of the series. At the time of writing there are thirteen full length novels and four short story collections in the "Honorverse" as the fictional galaxy in which these stories are set is sometimes known. The main series which tells the story of Honor Harrington herself currently runs to eleven novels; in order these are

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

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

More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Worlds of Honor III: Changer of Worlds
Worlds of Honor IV: The Service of the Sword

The two spin-off novels are "Crown of Slaves" (with Eric Flint) which is a story of espionage and intrigue featuring a number of characters first introduced in earlier Honor Harrington books or short stories, and "The Shadow of Saganami" which is a kind of "next generation" novel featuring a number of younger officers in the navies of Manticore and her ally Grayson.

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

People's Republic of Haven during books 1 to 3 = Bourbon France
People's Republic of Haven from book 4 onwards = Revolutionary France
Star Kingdom of Manticore = Great Britain
Gryphon = Scotland
Grayson = Portugal

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

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

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

Like On Basilisk Station before it, David Weber has produced a very engaging piece of fiction I thoroughly enjoyed. I'd also like to point out that Baen's free library has made me a customer. Having read these two books has inspired me to finish the series, which currently stands at ten entries.

Since the series is based on her, the reader must know that Honor Harrington will survive any inevitable conflict, but the question is the degree of her triumph. While this does mark the series as pulp of a sort, and something of a potential soap opera, Mr. Weber isn't being excessively overt just yet in this second entry. This time, Honor heads a squadron in her shiny new Star Knight class heavy cruiser, to secure a treaty with Grayson, a moderate settlement of fairly religious zealots. But there was a schism in the past, and even more devout crazies were expelled before a civil war could annihilate everyone.

Grayson citizens believe women are second-class citizens, cause of the first and second Fall of Man, so the fact Honor is a woman captain is an anathema to them. The conflict here is several levels deep, as Haven is obviously involved with the deposed faction in order to secure its own interests in the system. Against prejudice, Haven, and a particularly incompetent political envoy, Honor is expected to rise above.

The only real problem I have is that the series is named after her, so predictably, she'll come out on top. What fun would it be if she didn't? But in this case, it's not the conclusion but the path that's important. It's fairly obvious after this excursion David will need to up the ante, and that doesn't bode well for our poor captain. But I still look forward to reading the third book in the series.

After Basilisk Station, you might have wondered, but Honor of the Queen confirms that whenever Honor Harrington is assigned some sort of mission she will accomplish at least two things: 1) just about completely destroy whatever ship is under her direct command (not on purpose - it's just an inevitable outcome of being led by her), and 2) she will absolutely devastated her opponents, emerging not unscathed, but completely victorious and more than likely snag a promotion or two in the mix, as well as the uninhibited gratitude of all around her.

Harrington is being sent with a diplomatic mission to the planet of Grayson - who should know by the fact that Honor is coming that something catastrophic and horrendous is about to happen to their society. Not to mention that the Graysons are pretty close to being religious zealots who have completely denied women in their society any and all rights to women. How long will that last with Honor on the way? Oh, and throw in a mix of even more religious zealots who want to completely wipe out and suppress the Graysons. Any bids on who ends up standing up to them for Grayson?

In Honor of the Queen Webber has once again struck a near perfect balance of relentless action against political intrigue. In a few places it starts to get monotonous, but if you just persevere a little bit more you find the release of the action completely worth the build of the intrigue.

The most wonderful part of the book is another chance to spend more time with Harrington and see her develop more as a leader as well as discovering more depths of her character and passions. And the raw power residing in her person is just incredible. One of my favorite scenes is where she and Nimitz almost singlehandedly take out a crew of assassins.

Contrary to how my first paragraph may have sounded, I do absolutely recommend this book. I highly recommend you read Basilisk Station first - but do yourself a favor and grab as many of these Honor Harrington books as you can and curl up for a looooong time with some incredible writing.

This second book in the series has a lot right going for it, and is a solid follow up to 'On Basilisk Station'. While it falls a little short from its progenitor, it is still a solid read.

Honor, who is a little one dimensional, is still the strong, hyper-capable commander that Weber seems to prefer. It is a little tedious that she can do no wrong, so the fact that he allows her a small misstep is nice to see. The side characters, especially the Graysons are also welcome additions. It's nice to see so many supporting characters from the previous book make their way back here.

Unfortunately, Weber mitigates this some by making an enemy even more intractable and stubborn then the previous book, this time in the form of the Massadens. Their evil is a little to extreme for me, and I would much rather see some shade of gray in the actions and responses. Also, Weber continues to have Honor face off against un-believable incompetent allies and superiors. While this can be interesting, Weber tends to go to this well a bit to much.

The story itself is good, well paced, with satisfying battle scenes. The ground combat scenes are a bit week, as Weber is clearly more comfortable with the more strategic distant space combat. There is thankfully less time spent with detailed and tedious explanations of tech, although there is still a significant amount of time spent with one character giving long winded explanations to another, explanations that would seem out of place anywhere but in a novel.

Overall, this is an excellent read and one I recommend to fans of the series.

Thus is the 2nd volume of the lengthy Honor Harrington sage, now up to 10 volumes and still far from complete. Honor is a Captain (later Admiral) in the space Navy of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, which is under attack by the larger Republic of Haven. The series is based to a large extent on the popular Horatio Hornblower novels, and the background history accordingly based on the Napoleonic wars.
This installation finds Honor sent to protect Grayson, a relatively weak world allied to Manticore. Grayson was founded by religious reactionaries; its traditional enemy Masada by even more extreme conservatives of the same sect. So it's a society where women are expected to be subservient. There is also little tradition of technological innovation, so the Grayson fleet is backwards and of limited value when Haven sends a fleet of modern ships to ally with Masada. But Honor is assigned to hold the situation in check with, as usual, a grossly inadequate force. The story builds to a concusion where Honor will be forced to fight a battle against a hugely superior enemy, something of a stock plot for the Harrington series, especially the early entrants. The subplots focus on Grayson domestic politics and a conspiracy to assassinate the Protector, the Grayson head of state.
Both the strengths and weaknesses of the book are those of the series. Honor is an attractive character and the Grayson society is interesting. The story is suspenseful and exciting, making for a good read. On the negative side, Weber has worked out in detail all the technical aspects of the ships and weaponry he is describing, and he doesn't let any of that work go to waste. I once heard an experienced SF editor advise would-be writers to work out the background for their stories in detail and then not directly use most of it. The fact that you have thought it out will give it a realistic feel, while you avoid boring the reader with excessive exposition. Good advice, which Weber fails to use. He goes into ship sizes, throw weights, and relative velocities with such loving detail that some passages read almost like a parody of the excesses of hard SF.
The political preaching in this novel is also unnecessary. In Weber's universe, welfare is almost literally the root of all evil. The generous welfare system of Haven is portrayed as having wrecked the economy; the military aggressiveness is seen as a direct result of the weak economy, forcing Haven to conquer more productive worlds in order to generate the wealth needed to keep up the dole payemnts for the Haven core worlds. This is explained in almost identical expository sermons in each of the first several Honor Harrington novels. The identical fervor of the same speech repeating in several volumes left Weber at monemts in danger of turning into the John Norman of the hard SF fraternity. Fortunately, Weber ultimately avoided that temptation and no longer gives the same set sppech in each novel. And, of course, he can write better than the execrably leaden prose of Norman.
The flaws give the book some moments of awkwardness, but Weber is smart enough to get back to the story before things get too boring. So I can give this book a solid recommendation in spite of the faults. It can be read without having read the prior volume, "On Basilisk Station".

David Weber has created Science fiction's equivalent of C.S. Forrestor's Horatio Hornblower saga with his ongoing saga of his heroine, Honor Harrington. With her faithful, and empathic, treecat Nimitz, this series is a true delight. This is swashbuckling, space opera sci-fi at its best, with excellent characters, a vibrant universe, complete with an intriguing socio-political plot which drives the overall plot of the background of this fascinating universe.
"The Honor of the Queen," the 2nd novel in the Honor Harrington weries, takes place a couple of years after the events of "On Basilik Station." Honor has command of the cruiser Fearless, an up-to-date modern heavy cruiser, and is given command of a small squadron of ships to take on a dilpomatic mission to the planet Grayson in the Yeltsin system. Honor's Star Kingdom of Manticore is seeking allies against the People's Republic of Haven (Peeps) which has been funding its welfare-state economy by conquering and looting worlds.
The good news for Honor is that the diplomatic mission is commanded by her mentor, Admiral Raoul Courvosier, detached from the Navy to the Foreign Office for this mission. The bad news: Grayson is a feudal planet, a planet founded by religious zealots, a planet where women don't even have the right to vote, and equality of the sexes is unheard of. to say nothing of the idea of women serving in the military. And no one's told the Graysons that the Manticoran commanding officer is a woman.
It's bad enough that Honor has to deal with sexism form the Graysons, but even worse, Grayson's long standing war with the far more extreme and repressive zealots who live on the planet Massada is heating up, dramatically. Even worse, the Peeps are attempting to take advantage of the situation.
This is a truly enjoyable novel, with a high fun factor. Mr. Weber does a nice job of portraying the conflicted nature of much of the Grayson high command, and he takes the relationship between Honor and Nimitz even further than before. Mr. Weber's chaacters are fascinating, and a number of characters introduced in this novel will be recurring characters throughout this series.

In my opinion, this second book is better than On Basilisk Station. Weber seems to be more confident in his characters and his writing style. The dialogue and the story unfold at a much more natural pace and there is hardly any techno-babble (which was the biggest sore spot for me in the first book).

I don't read book summaries anymore (they give as much away as theatrical previews, if not more), so I had no idea what the plot was about. When it became obvious that Honor would be dealing with a backwater planet full of sexist religious fanatics, I groaned. It's become pretty standard fare for SF/Fantasy to take real world examples of religious fools and use a broad brush to paint all religious people as such. Fortunately, Weber proves to be more subtle than that and goes to great lengths to demonstrate how having misguided notions (fostered through many generations in isolation) doesn't necessarily make one a completely worthless individual. There are good men on this backwater planet who are trying to do their best according to the ways they've been taught. In fact, he even turns the tables just a tad and shows how arrogant and self-righteous those who are "enlightened" can be. He's not afraid to let his hero, Honor, make stupid decisions based on her own pride and preconceived notions.

Of course, this does not even touch on the overall plot, which I won't bother to summarize, but I liked it. The continuity with the first book is there but not off-putting and the characters actually appear to be changing in realistic ways. Still wouldn't rank him up with Bujold (while Weber's plotting and characterization are fine and he builds realistic characters, his use of language simply doesn't compare), but there's nothing wrong with that. He writes a good story and, ultimately, that's what counts.

The second book about Captain Honor Harrington follows the same model as its predecessor, "On Basilisk Station": Honor Harrington receives an assignment from the Kingdom of Manticore around a planet where the enemy Republic of Haven has political interests. Intrigue with natives and battles both on ground in the space follow, with Honor proving her command mettle in massive ship-to-ship duels written in precise and exciting language with extreme attention to technical details. If you liked "On Basilisk Station," you'll find more of the same enjoyment here.
This time, Honor heads to the planet of Grayson to oversee a strategically important treaty. There's a serious problem, however: Grayson was founded by religious fundamentalists who see women as inferior, and getting the people of the planet to trust her or take her seriously is difficult. Meanwhile, Grayson faces a war with a splinter faction that moved to another planet and is even more radical and dangerous -- and they are negotiating with the Republic of Haven and have secret plans to use Haven's technology to assist their dreams of conquering Grayson.
The ship battles are again excellent, and there are more of them than in the previous book. The best action scenes, however, are some great ground duels and marine battles -- author David Weber does a fine job keep the action varied. He also does good work with the conflict between Honor and the prejudiced people of Grayson, showing how they can overcome their bigotry. Weber adds many shades of gray to people we might accept as irredeemable when we first meet them. This dramatic conflict helps to flesh out what is otherwise a straightforward military science-fiction/space opera. Good fun.

Honor Harrington is on a diplomatic mission to Yeltsin's Star. Why was she chosen? She's a woman. However, the
planet she's going to, Grayson, thinks a woman's place is in
the house. There's a problem with Grayson----a big problem. It's at war with the neighboring planet of Masada.
Why are these to planets at war with each other? Religion.
The Graysons and the Masadans are both members the Church of Humanity Unchained founded in Idaho in the far
future by the Reverend Austin Grayson. The planet's namesake. He and his followers leave Earth way before the
SKM and PRH are founded. The early Graysons who'd combined Christianity with environmentalism, didn't want any part of technology. When they reached Grayson, they
found out that they couldn't live without technology. So Austin Grayson decided to soften his beliefs somewhat. The
hardliners didn't like this so they left Grayson for Masada and set up a government not unlike the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Masadans view the Graysons as the Apostate. So who's backing the Masadans? None other than the Peeps themselves. Their Sultan Class battlecruiser, Saladin, is in the area. However, it's known as
the Thunder of God. The commander of the Navy of the Faithful is Sword of the Faithful Matthew Simonds. Sword
Simonds hates the PRH and he thinks he can use them until they're of no further use. He finally leads a mutiny against the PRH's crew and takes over the ship. Honor,
in the meantime, has learned that her patron, Admiral Courvoiseur, has been killed and the survivors of his ship
are taken to Blackbird Base where the women in the crew are brutally raped. Honor herself is wounded in an assassination attempt on Grayson's leader, Protector Benjamin, whose brother is a Masadan agent.

I think the biggest complaint I've got about Flag in Exile is that the rest of the series is solid 4 star work. This one had a promising start... but enough plot holes to make swiss cheese look solid destroyed my ability to suspend disbelief, and once I started down that road it seemed like every plot move of the author brought up the "totally implasuable" alarms. Even more... the implausable plot choices of the author put a spotlight on the predictability of the story this time around. There are also WAY too many speaches, and WAY too much melodrama... which all adds up to a frustrating novel. I've really enjoyed Weber's movement of the tall ship era into an interstellar future, but the downside for him is that it opens his work up to comparison with the amazingly good work of folks like C. S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian.

I'd absolutely still recommend the series... but you might want to just blast though this one quick to move on.

Spoilers:
David should have run the dome collapse idea past a crew of real engineers... because nothing about that entire plot line worked right from the beginning. Even today, no simple operator would have the ability to modify the program of automated equipment when the performance of the equipment was THAT critical to the overall structure (and there'd have been an audit trail a mile long)... he'd have been better off having one of the engineers on the bad guys team. Then on the QC side they have to DRILL into their concrete equivelant to test it's strength!?... we've got non-destructive ways to do that today. That's a relatively minor point in the face of the key problem... NO modern society would EVER let a bunch of school kids onto an active jobsite UNDER a partially completed structure - TOTALLY implausable - pure Melodrama (yuk). Then there's the schizophrenic application of technolgoy... great antigrav tech that somehow doesn't get applied to reinforce a structure under construction... but can be used for frivelous persuits like hang gliding. I could actually go on and on picking apart this plotline but it's not really relevant, the only reason I noticed all the little stuff (like a security force that locks down airspace for a VIP but doesn't bother to have redundancy at a security station) is because of the unsuppressably large plot hole at the beginning.

It could be that if you're not a techie you'll be able to get through this ok and still enjoy the plot as it unfolds... but I sure as heck couldn't.

If Manticore's politicians are so short-sighted and bound by personal enmity and cynical politics that they won't let the RMN make use of Hinor's talents and abilities, rest assured that Protector Benjamin and *his* Admiralty are not.
The People's Republic of Haven has begun to swing the tide of battle a bit; if not actually in its own favour so far, at least a bit less one-sidedly toward Manticore.
While this book certainly has its quota of lasers, grasers and missiles and deadly space warfare, the more important parts are politics on Grayson, the religion-dominated world where Honor has been made the first female Steadholder (roughly a Royal Duke in terms of our own peerages, and very much the great feudal lord that such a title once implied).
On half-pay from the Manty Navy, she is invited to join the Grayson one -- as an Admiral. She does, and the usual results of giving Honor Harrington spaceships to play with ensue. (This woman attracts Forlorn Hope Last Stands like Jessica Fletcher atttracts murderers...)
Meanwhile, on Grayson, various reactionary elemsnts, offended at the thought of a woman having power, and even more offended that Honor had made no attempt to hide her relationship with her late lover, are trying to stir up bogotry and hatred against her... And some of them are very powerful men, indeed; men who will stop at nothing to discredit her, even if it means the deaths of countless innocents -- possibly even their own people!
But what this book is mostly notable for, in my opinion, is that it shows us more of the Grayson State Church of Humanity Unbound, and its God the Tester... And of Reverend Hanks, the physically but spiritually great man who stands at its head; a truly Good Man in the way so few, even religious, are truly Good Men. ((David swears he is *not* based on Archdeacon (later Bishop) Pinckney of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina, who we both had the good fortune of knowing while we were kids and he he was Archdeacon in charge of missions in that diocese, but i cannot imagine any other face or voice for him...))
And there is a terrible crime -- two terrible crimes, actually -- that shake Grayson and its society to their roots.
And Honor must stand, literally sword in hand, to being justice to a traitor...
Good read.
((In interests of total candour, i am David Weber's elder brother))

David Weber has created Science fiction's equivalent of C.S. Forrestor's Horatio Hornblower saga with his ongoing saga of his heroine, Honor Harrington. With her faithful, and empathic, treecat Nimitz, this series is a true delight. This is swashbuckling, space opera sci-fi at its best, with excellent characters, a vibrant universe, complete with an intriguing socio-political plot which drives the overall plot of the background of this fascinating universe.
"The Honor of the Queen," the 2nd novel in the Honor Harrington weries, takes place a couple of years after the events of "On Basilik Station." Honor has command of the cruiser Fearless, an up-to-date modern heavy cruiser, and is given command of a small squadron of ships to take on a dilpomatic mission to the planet Grayson in the Yeltsin system. Honor's Star Kingdom of Manticore is seeking allies against the People's Republic of Haven (Peeps) which has been funding its welfare-state economy by conquering and looting worlds.
The good news for Honor is that the diplomatic mission is commanded by her mentor, Admiral Raoul Courvosier, detached from the Navy to the Foreign Office for this mission. The bad news: Grayson is a feudal planet, a planet founded by religious zealots, a planet where women don't even have the right to vote, and equality of the sexes is unheard of. to say nothing of the idea of women serving in the military. And no one's told the Graysons that the Manticoran commanding officer is a woman.
It's bad enough that Honor has to deal with sexism form the Graysons, but even worse, Grayson's long standing war with the far more extreme and repressive zealots who live on the planet Massada is heating up, dramatically. Even worse, the Peeps are attempting to take advantage of the situation.
This is a truly enjoyable novel, with a high fun factor. Mr. Weber does a nice job of portraying the conflicted nature of much of the Grayson high command, and he takes the relationship between Honor and Nimitz even further than before. Mr. Weber's chaacters are fascinating, and a number of characters introduced in this novel will be recurring characters throughout this series.

My favorite volume of the Honor Harrington series.

We get to meet the fascinating planet called Grayson. Settled by anti-technology religious zealots, it was technology that allowed the settlers to survive on a hostile planet rich in toxic heavy metals.

The planet and culture that evolved was decidedly patriarchal, and major social changes would have to happen to bring the Graysons into the modern universe.

There is plenty of suspense and daring-do- enough to keep you reading well past dawn (like I did).

It's a modern sci-fi classic introducing an interesting people, their troubled past and their shared struggle to meet the future.

Let me reiterate: I despise science fiction. The authors can make up any dilemma they wish for the characters, and make up any solution, and there's nothing to keep them honest. Also the writing tends to be mediocre at best, full of silly metaphors that mean nothing to you and much wooden prose. And I dislike pastiches, especially when I enjoyed the basis for the imitation. So this is strange. I like Honor Harrington, and the series of books about her, which imitate my old favorite Horatio Hornblower (notice the initials?).
In this, the second of Honor's adventures, she's been sent from her home system of Manticore to Grayson, an outlying system inhabited by a society of misogynistic religious fanatics from earth. Their problem is that their neighbors, on the planet of Masada, are even more fanatical than they are, and consider anyone who disagrees with them "apostates" and think them better off dead. The People's Republic of Haven has decided to take advantage of that, and sent a small fleet of warships to Masada, where they join the Masadan navy and completely upset the balance of power. Both Grayson and Masadan societies were originally very luddite, so their own fleets are nothing compared to what the Havenites and the Manticorans can put into the mix. When the Masadans and their Havenite allies attack, the result is a test for Honor and her ships, as the Havenites fleet is larger than hers, and contains a battlecruiser she can't hope to match at anything like even odds.
There are many things for Honor to deal with along the way. She has an uncomfortable dinner with the chief of state of Grayson, winds up badly injured herself, has to deal with a very self-important diplomat, and the like. Hanging over everything is the overtly sexist society she's been ordered to protect.
Honor, of course, survives and handles it all with aplomb. The book's plot slides right along, and it's a good afternoon read. I would recommend it.

Flag in Exile (1995) is the fifth SF novel in the Honor Harrington series, following Field of Dishonor. The initial volume in this sequence is On Basilisk Station.

In the previous volume, Rob had created a new political body -- the Committee for Public Safety -- and took over the People's Republic of Haven. He blamed the Navy for the assassination of Harris. Most of the people believed his cover story, including members of the Navy.

The Navy was still suffering from the shock of the losses at Hancock and Yeltsin. The new accusation of Navy personnel assassinating Harris shocked them even more. Then Rob started purging the Navy high command.

Meanwhile, the RMN was preparing for a courtmartial of Pavel. He had ordered his division of heavy cruisers to break off from the main group and flee from the Peeps. All the other cruisers returned to the formation. Even direct orders from Honor were ignored by Young.

The Convervatives were portraying the courtmartial as a personal attack on Young. They were ignoring the evidence and blaming Honor for the charges. They were delaying a declaration of war to force the government to put Honor on the beach.

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

Paul Tankersley was a Captain (Junior Grade) in the RMN. He was killed in a duel with Denver Summerdale.

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

Frederick Goldstein is a Captain in the RMN. He is Admiral White Haven's Flag Captain.

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

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

In this story, White Haven is watching the Peeps maneuver. They are more of them than usual and they seem more determined. White Haven has bad feelings about them.

White Haven tells Goldstein to fire. The HMS Queen Caitlin releases her broadside and dumps the missile pods she has been towind. Her consorts also fire their missiles.

Thirty-two hundred missiles head toward the Peeps. Then the Peeps fire twelve hundred missiles back at him. It looks like the People's Republic has finally got their act together. Then a second Peep formation appears.

Meanwhile, High Admiral Mathews has a idea and is taking it to the Protector. Wesley wants to ask Honor to join the Grayson Navy. She knows more about running a Navy than anyone within the Grayson Navy.

All of the Grayson officers are used to commanding smaller ships. Moreover, none of them have experience in fleet operations. Even Wesley lacks experience with superdreadnaughts.

Grayson has recently received eleven ships of the line from the RMN. Wesley wants Honor to teach his senior officers how to use their new ships. One admiral is being trained on the Superdreadnaughts, but the Grayson Navy needs more.

Benjamin approves of the notion. Yet he tells Wesley to wait until Honor recovers somewhat from her grief over Tankersley's murder and the consequences. Eventually, he will get to ask Honor to command a squadron of SDs.

Honor is concentrating on her steading. She is the only female Steadholder on Grayson. Harrington Steading is the fastest growing with her Sky Dome business. She is gradually getting used to life without Paul.

This tale follows Honor when she when she joins the Grayson Navy. She puts her new squadron through some stringent maneuvers. Several of her commanders learn her approach to command.

The Peeps get a surprise when that attack Yeltsin. The next installment in this sequence is Honor Among Enemies.

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

-Arthur W. Jordin

It's fair to call this (the second in the series) a very pivotal book, because the main character's entire future is completely transformed by its events. While the books are designed to stand alone well enough, the only way to understand some of the key relationships is to read them in sequence.
Religious and gender issues come to the forefront here, with Honor experiencing attitudes almost unheard of in her homeland. This is the only part of the book that is questionable in its consistency: Honor's emotional reaction to the situation is a little too emotional for someone supposedly raised in such an egalitarian society. Even allowing for a couple of very bad experiences in her career, and that words can hurt some people more than pulser fire, I can't see a character as strong as Honor taking her ball and going away--even briefly--just because the nasty sexists are rude to her. She's too strong a woman for that. However, that said, the remainder of the personal interaction picture in the book is creative, sensible and richly interesting. Weber is not afraid to have permanent consequences to characters and no one's future and health, not even Honor's, are certain.
Although Weber takes an awkward turn once in awhile, this is still some of the most engrossing space opera out there--especially in terms of a well-developed heroine who enjoys a growing position of authority and respect. This series will be of special interest to persons of the Christian faith; while the opening pages of this book make you think that you're on the way down the path of stereotyping, as the portrait of Grayson develops, even someone of entirely different beliefs (such as myself) comes to respect and like a lot about Graysons and their faith. Good stuff.

Honor Harrington is back, and this time, the stakes are higher, and much more personal. In *The Honor of the Queen*, Honor Harrington is assigned to escort a diplomatic envoy to a backward colony only recently discovered a few hundred years before.

This means that the colony had left "Old Earth" over a millennium previously. They are the off-shoot of a cult that took to the stars to escape technology. Though they are not necessarily amenable to Harrington and her crew, they are vastly better than their neighbors. The neighbors are an offshoot of the original cult that were expelled from the cult's planet, Grayson, and settled on the nearby world of Masada.

The People's Republic of Haven, who tried to take over a space terminal at Basilisk in the first book as a preparation for invading Manticore (Honor's home star system) are also back. They are ready to ally themselves with the lunatic Masadans in order to gain a foothold in the Grayson system. In effect, the book is about a Cold War-esque struggle between Haven and the Star Kingdom of Manticore.

Given the somewhat backward views on women, Honor takes her ship to do a supply run and leaves a back-up force behind. She thinks this is the best way for the opponents of the Grayson/Manticoran alliance not to use her as an issue to derail the treaty. In her absence, the Haven/Masadan alliance strikes, and the results are devastating losses to both Manticoran and Grayson navies and facilities.

Once Honor comes back to the system, she finds that she is outgunned due to the Masadans having control of a Haven warship that can easily destroy her small escort fleet. If help doesn't arrive in time, she, her fleet, and everyone on Grayson, will all die.

This might seem a rehash of the first book, and iin some ways, it was. The plot line was similar, yet it was unique enough with some twists and turns to not seem like a complete plot re-tread. Really the amount of thought put into the cultures of Grayson and Masada, and Weber's worldbuilding continue to impress me.

The pros of the book also include the respect for religion. Some would think from my description that the author trashes religion, but he does not. This is an in-space version of the difference between, say, Western Christianity and radical Islam/a Koreshian Doomsday cult. Clearly not all religion is evil. Christianity is widely practiced in the novels timeframe, and not trashed. The religious backdrop was a plot element, not commentary.

The other good parts are the same as in the first book. Realism, respect for the enlisted/NCO's, and so forth. However, there were two major problems with the book.

The first one is that the plot is still undeniably a recycled plot from the first book with a few changes, and I wanted to see some originality. The great narrative made some difference to help me enjoy the story, but not enough.

The second issue I have with this is that the character of Captain Honor Harrington is just too perfect. This is not my bias against officers (even fictional ones) speaking, but my bias as a reader. The way that every other character gushes over Harrington (even many of the bad guys, for goodness sake!) just seemed to out of place. It's like she is the best naval officer in the whole history of man. It just pulled me out of the narrative, as I wanted a main character that is believable, not the infinitely, absurdly best ever. I want a protagonist, in other words, not a Canon Sue. I fear that Harrington is headed that way, and it isn't good.

Despite these flaws, it was an excellent read, and while I can't recommend it as much as the first one, I do recommend it for a good read. Give it a try, it's a fun book.

The Honor of the Queen (1993) is the second SF novel in the Honor Harrington series, following On Basilisk Station.

In the previous volume, Commander Honor Harrington is readying the light cruiser HMS Fearless for the upcoming Fleet exercises. The ship has been the victim of Admiral Sonya Hemphill's new approach to armaments. She has undergone a major refit, tearing out most of the heavy missile launchers and substituting a gravity lance and torpedo tubes.

Since Fearless is no longer capable of traditional tactics, Honor concocts new ones and tries them out in the Fleet exercises. Although initially successful, the Aggressors soon learn to handle her tactics and "kill" her ship thirteen out of fourteen times.

The initial elation soon dies under the subsequent defeats and the crew of Fearless begins to think that first success was a fluke. Moreover, Admiral Hemphill is extremely disappointed with the success of the Aggressor countertactics and makes her displeasure known. Then the Fearless receives orders to transfer to Basilisk Station.

In this novel, Honor Harrington is a Captain (Senior Grade) is the Royal Manticoran Navy. She was promoted and given command of a heavy cruiser. The new vessel was commissioned as the HMS Fearless after her light cruiser at the battle of Basilisk.

Alfred and Allison Harrington are Honor's parents. Alfred is a retired RMN medical officer. Ally is a genetic surgeon. They are both respected physicians on Sphinx.

Raoul Courvosier is an Admiral in the RMN. He was Honor's instructor in tactics at the Saganami Academy and is still her mentor. He is being lent to the Foreign Office for a mission to Grayson.

Andreas Venizelos is a Lieutenant Commander in the RMN. He is Honor's executive officer on the Fearless.

Alice Truman is a Commander in the RMN. She is the captain of the light cruiser Apollo.

Jason Alvarez is a Commander in the RMN. He is the captain of the destroyer Madrigal.

Alistair McKeon is a Commander in the RMN. He is the captain of the destroyer Troubador.

Benjamin Mayhew IX is the Protector of Grayson in the Yeltsin system. He is a reformer determined to bring Grayson society into the current era.

Bernard Yanakov is the High Admiral of the Grayson Navy. He is the principal contact with the Manticoran mission.

Alfredo Yu is a Captain in the People's Navy. He is serving as a liaison with the Masadan Navy.

Thomas Theisman is a Commander in the PRN. He is currently the commander of a destroyer spying on the Yeltsin system.

Matthew Simonds is the Sword of the Faithful for the Masadan Church. He is Yu's contact with the Masadan Navy.

In this story, the Fearless is undergoing yard maintenance. She has a flaky beta node that needs replacement. The yard officers prefer to defer such an expensive and difficult job. Honor is not going to leave without a replacement.

When the Fearless leaves the yards, Honor hosts a recommissioning party. She has learned how to handle such social affairs, but she still isn't comfortable in that role. She is mingling with her guests.

Ally teases Honor about Andreas. She mentions that Honor is missing a great opportunity for an affair with her XO. Honor points out the regulations forbidding such affairs with others in her line of command. Alfred agrees with Honor.

Courvosier cuts Honor out of the herd for some private time. He provides more information on her next mission. He also chides Honor about her aversion to diplomacy.

Honor will command the escort force accompanying Courvosier to Grayson. She meets with the Foreign Office team. Then she and Courvosier brief her officers.

Alice is the second in command of the escort. Jason and Alastair command the other ships in the escort. All ships will accompany five merchant ships to Grayson. Some of the ships will take the other merchanters to Casca.

The RMN has supplied the names of the warships and their commanders to the Graysons. Bernard knows that some of the crew members will be women. Yet his introduction to Honor as senior naval officer of the escort is a surprise.

Most Grayson men have the same emotional reaction. Some treat the RMN females as sluts. Mayhew knows that this reaction is likely to strain the alliance. He charges Yanakov with changing the Grayson Navy, but this proves to be very difficult.

Grayson was settled five hundred years before Manticore. The settlers had left Terra because of their religious beliefs. When the planetary environment turned out to be toxic to humans, their faith kept them trying to survive.

In the early years, the colony divided between the Moderates and the Faithful. After centuries of war between the two parties, the Moderates shipped the surviving Faithful to Masada in the neighboring Endicott system. That planet was much more friendly to humans, but the Faithful are still determined to conquer Grayson.

Both factions are patriarchal. Grayson doesn't allow women to vote, own property or serve in the military. The Masadans treat women as chattels.

The Peeps have sent a secret mission to Masada. They have also provided more modern ships. Yu commands that mission and coordinates with Simonds. Theisman lurks in the Yeltsin system to watch for new developments.

This tale leads Honor to believe she is creating a problem with the alliance. She decides to accompany Alice and Alastair to Casca. On the way, Alastair points out that she is running away from the problem.

The Masadans invade the Yeltsin system with PRN assistance. Courvosier helps the Graysons by providing sensor data from the Madrigal. Then he accompanies the Grayson ships going out to challenge the Masadans.

The Peeps have a surprise for the Allies. The next installment in this sequence is The Short Victorious War.

Highly recommended for Weber fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of naval combat, cultural differences, and diplomatic relations. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

Flag in Exile is David Weber's fifth book in his long lived Honor Harrington series and focuses on the ramifications of her actions at the end of the last book. It simultaneously builds more of the political and social background of the 'Honorverse.' While there are significant personal and political events that occur in this story, this novel also manages to return to the realm of space combat that is the heart and soul of this series. To that end, it is an enjoyable read to anyone who likes the Honor Harrington series, but would likely prove unsatisfying to anyone who was not already a fan of Weber's principal universe.

For a full review go to www.sophyanempire.wordpress.com or short link to [...]

I have greatly enjoyed David Weber's Honor Harrington series so far and hope to continue to do so, but I noticed some issues in Flag in Exile that have been constantly reoccurring, and it has gotten to the point that I feel the need to address these problems. However, despite the negative tone of this review, that is not to say that I didn't enjoy the book. On the contrary, Weber writes an interesting plot chock full of interesting characters and well-written space battles, which make the book hard to put down. Spoilers follow.

Flag in Exile picks up a year or so after the events of the previous book (Field of Dishonor). Honor has returned to Grayson (the planet she saved in Honor of the Queen) to recover from the emotional trauma of losing Paul Tankersley. She is not given much peace, however, as she also carrying out her duties of Steadholder Harrington: the first female steadholder on a patriarchal planet. Due to her position of power, she is forced to endure a great amount of criticism and scorn from the more traditional of Grayson's steadholders and people. Honor needs to rise to the challenge and prove that she is not only a war hero, but a successful steadholder and politician on a world that doubts her and wishes for her to fail.

Outside of Grayson, the war between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven (the Peeps) has begun to turn in the Peeps' favour. Despite their somewhat inferior technology, the Republic's Navy manages to capture a couple of systems, and the Kingdom fears the loss of more important allied systems. On half-pay from Manticore's Navy, Honor is asked to serve in Grayson's Navy as admiral of the First Battle Squadron.

A couple of familiar faces from Honor of the Queen are brought back. Specifically, Alfredo Yu and Mercedes Brigham hold prominent roles on Honor's flagship Terrible.

Various events transpire and the plot begins to unfold. Locally on Grayson, one particularly dissatisfied steadholder, Lord Burdette, plots and succeeds in carrying out a horrible sabotage, killing both children and members of Harrington Steading, and later an assassination attempt, resulting in a very unfortunate and unexpected death. While these unfortunate events occur, the Peeps are carefully executing a plan to invade the Endicott system (where Grayson is located).

Honor is forced to defend her, well, honour in an intense, to-the-death fencing match against Burdette and then immediately steps into the role of Admiral Harrington to defend the Endicott system. In a climactic naval battle, Honor takes heavy losses, but manages to hold the enemy at bay and even take out a majority of the invading force. Through her courage and determination, she saves Grayson for a second time, proving herself as a true heroine in Grayson's eyes.

One can hardly complain about the overall plot of the book. It's gripping and often exciting. Even though I don't particularly enjoy politics, I flew through the political portions of the book (mostly dealing with Grayson politics, which are actually rather intriguing). I suppose one minor complain that could be made here is that the situation in which Honor is seemingly the underdog, hopelessly outnumbered with her damaged ships, yet possesses the courage and determination to fight to the death to protect a greater cause is becoming a bit tiresome. Otherwise, the plot is fantastic.

The characters are also well thought out. Weber seems to take great care in making sure the reader gets to know the supporting cast just as much as the main characters. I personally enjoy reading about the various viewpoints, thoughts, and even quirks of characters aside from the hero of the story. The author certainly doesn't shy away from killing off a character that the reader has gotten to know and attached to. Even the Peeps, the bad guys of the book, are given personalities, and one can see that not all members of the Republic's Navy are evil simply because they are not on the "good" side. It's great to see that the supporting characters are given so much attention and life, and it certainly adds a new aspect to the story.

Unfortunately, this brings me to one of the main problems with this book: Honor Harrington herself. Weber obviously loves his main character, and while he takes the time to ensure that the reader really knows the minor characters, Honor is becoming something of a caricature. Simply put, she is too perfect. She has already proven herself to be a competent commander in the navy and it is made clear that she is also successful in the political arena, even when the odds are stacked against her. Her plans rarely seem to fail, and even when they blow off course, something occurs to make them succeed anyway. Not only can she succeed there, but she's also very accomplished in hand to hand combat. Before Flag in Exile, we knew she could shoot and was practically a master in a form of martial arts. In this book, we are also made aware that, despite only having a year or so of training, she is also amazing with a sword, even going as far as to defeat an opponent who has had a considerably greater amount of experience. At this point, she is also physically attractive and her beauty is described or referred to several times in the novel (as well as her soprano voice). She can do no wrong, and even when she is considered to have made a mistake, she is still right in the eyes of the higher ups. Honestly, this all might not be so bad if she was aware of her success, but she maintains a naïve modesty and refuses to acknowledge her accomplishments. Honor succeeds at everything she tries, often making her difficult to relate to and sometimes a bit of a pain to read.

What also becomes tiresome is the degree to which Honor is the centre of attention. Manticore's officers and higher ups all respect and love her (even though they have been forced to put her on half-pay), the Peeps respect and fear her, and Grayson's Protector (Benjamin Mayhew IX) and the other prominent figures that matter respect and are concerned for her. Everyone knows who she is and has some reaction to just how good she is. I was always under the impression that there were other people in the galaxy who were more successful and prestigious than Honor, but Honor is still portrayed as being the best. Even Hamish Alexander is written as being second rate.

What comes as a double-edged sword for me is Honor's pain for those who die in combat. While I'm glad that Weber has opted for Honor to feel some emotion for the inevitable losses of military battle instead of casting them aside as unimportant, he tends to take it to an almost melodramatic degree.

Nimitz manages to provide Honor with yet another advantage. The two of them share a rare (practically the only) telepathic link that allows them to share their emotions. It also allows Nimitz to portray others' emotions to Honor. This was an interesting idea when it was first introduced, but has now just become another instrument to make Honor better than everyone else.

Moving away from the character of Honor, the portrayal of the really bad guys (Burdette, Marchant, and the Citizen Commissioners, for example) is starting to bother me. They're all just unbelievably, stereotypically evil (and often shortsighted in their extreme evilness). I'd hoped for some more ambiguous antagonists by this point; perhaps a character that actually has believable, relatable motives and goals. Instead, all we get are plotting, scheming archetypes with no goals other than to bring the mighty Honor Harrington down.

Like I said before, despite my negativity, I actually liked the plot and events of this book a lot. My actual rating is a 3.5, but I've rounded down to 3 because Honor is becoming way too unbelievable and difficult to read and relate to. I've actually noticed the problems mentioned above in the earlier books, too, but decided to give Weber the benefit of the doubt (and give him more time to get a feel for his main character), but by this point, it seems that things aren't going to change. I sincerely hope that the next books do something to make Honor less perfect. So, Flag in Exile had a tight plot and some really interesting supporting characters, but the reoccurring issues are starting to get distracting. 3.5 stars.

Grayson, a patriarchal sexually discriminating cultural backwater, discovered only 200 years ago by their neighbors, is a christian world. A biblical world, whose doctrines have led to polygamy and women having no rank or political rights. Honor Harrington arrives with the diplomatic mission of The Royal Manticoran Navy to make them an ally, a buffer, against the People's Republic -- The peeps. But Grayson has its own civil war emerging with the citizens of Masada; a near planet where long ago banished fanatics plot to blow up the entire planet of Grayson to God's glory. In secrecy the Peeps have armored the Masada with a superior battleruiser which more than doubles everything the Royal Navy brought with them. Things start to escalate and enemy is sneaking everywhere. How will Harrington succeed to orchestrate the defence of the Grayson when their admirals won't even consider women worth shaking hands?

The strategic alliance part of the story starts nicely and the cultural clash with the Grayson, while quite stereotypical and non-creative, is nicely told. The problems with dealing with feminine authority are nuanced with the diplomat characters and in Grayson military. Harrington struggling to deal with her emotions are reflected in conversations with her officers. The female lead, the likable heroine, suffers somewhat from certain stiffness and predictability, loosing control in contrast to intelligent responses. She is black and white and with Nimitz (Harrington's telepathic treecat) they can singlehandedly take out a crew of assassins. The scenes in space offer lot of technical details, show engaging naval battle tactics and tight maneuvering.

Three (3) stars. Written in 1993 this is the 2nd book in Weber's Honorverse. Almost surprisingly the best part of the book is the first third where the diplomatic issues are being scened and fleshed out in tingling conversations. The build of suspense starts leveling at 2/3 of the book when Harrington is unleashed to do her honor to the Queen to fight against overpowered adversary. Luckily the bad guys are a little more varied than what one might expect, some even decent. But very little more is revealed from the Peeps or the Masadans. The overwhelming glory that awaits for Harrington at the end is understandable from a sequel point of view but for this book, the ending is too tidy, too glorious. An undeniable embodiment of military science fiction, but a little too much sugar on a cake.

Given the amount of positive reviews Weber gets for his Harrington books, I assume this review won't be well received, but I just have to say it.

Throughout the book (I chose the Audible edition), I kept asking myself whether this was intended for young adults rather than a more mature audience. I've been reading Sci Fi for a very long time, and this book, more than others, represents that which I tire of the most.

First, the childish fascination with totalitarian governments as being chivalrous (which, I suppose they are, by definition). A monarchy has little to differentiate itself from a dictatorship or autocracy, and even with the smattering of legislature presented in the text, it still belies a rather primitive approach to governance. Am I to really believe that by the time humanity becomes an interstellar spacefaring race, that monarchy will be the best government that the "good guys" can come up with?

Second, the rather pointless diversion in the form of the straw character who was the token peacenik. The guy served as little more than a one dimensional whiner who by weak argument ends up supporting the author's clear belief that War is Wonderful, and that armed conflict should always be the first choice. The peacenik could have been a more nuanced character, but instead we get a jawless caricature that serves no purpose other than a receptacle for the author's scorn for peaceful settlement.

Of course, to do this, he has to paint people with religious zeal to be unidimensional nincompoops. Understand, that I am not, nor have I ever been a religious person, yet I was offended by his treatment of religion. The Graysons are portrayed as "more reasonable" simply on the basis of being less devout.

Finally, one would be hard-pressed to find a fully three-dimensional characterization in the entire book. Yes, we like all our protagonists to be staunch lantern-jawed butt-kickers, and Harrington's character certainly "racks-up" when things get tough. I can forgive one all-too-perfect protagonist, perhaps, yet there wasn't an ounce of nuance in any of the supporting characters.

This book is not at all unique in deserving these criticisms, but it does seem to be particularly effective at distilling those very properties that drive me up the wall. And, it isn't really science fiction. It's Horatio Hornblower with spaceships and kill-o-zap rayguns. The author might better serve his readers by writing directly to that market instead of putting the veneer of space-age on what's otherwise a traditional swash-buckling genre.

This book is one of the best I have ever read, hands down. The characters and world are complex and engaging, deeply sympathetic (even the bad guys) and easily able to understand, even when they are extremely wrong. The worms of men and women that form the enemy are hated, but their humanity remains intact, and not all of them are so despicable. I would recommend this book to anybody interested at all in fiction that concerns itself with deep character development and with the ideals of honor and duty. Though American and thus not enamored of a monarchy, I find the sense of royalist duty in this book to be truly inspiring and at times, heartbreaking.

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

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

The Honor Harrington stories are replete with parallels to the time of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In particular, the Royal Manticoran Navy in which the heroine is a captain is clearly based on the Royal Navy at the time of Nelson. (In this book she finds herself seconded to serve as an admiral in the navy of Manticore's ally, Grayson.)

The technology of space travel and naval warfare in the Honor Harrington stories has been written so as to impose tactical and strategic constraints on space navy officers similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago. Similarly the galactic situation in the novels contains many similarities to the strategic and political situation in European history in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

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

In the earlier book, "The Short Victorious War", Honor's home nation of Manticore, and their allies, were attacked by the People's Republic of Haven or "Peeps" - an agressive superpower which has been gradually conquering the small nations on its borders in bitesize chunks.

Following a coup in the People's Republic after their first round of attacks were not successful, Haven is now run by a "Committee of Public Safety" headed by one Rob S. Pierre, which has imposed a reign of terror. However, the new Peep government is just as committed to the war as the old one was.

Weber clearly means the reader to understand that Haven represents Revolutionary France. Early in this book, the Grayson High Admiral prsents a report to his head of state which concludes that "this is going to be a long, long war unless one side or the other completely screws up" and "this war isn't about territory any more. It's become a war for survival; someone - either the Kingdom of Manticore and its allies, including us, or the People's Republic of Haven - is going down this time, Your Grace. For good."

At the start of this book, Honor Harrington has been relieved of command of HMS Nike and put on half-pay after the fighting two controversial duels. So she has returned to Grayson where she is now a "steadholder" e.g. one of the most powerful people on the planet.

Up to this point in the series, Weber has appeared to show disdain and even contempt for politicians, but now that his heroine has become one, she has to think through the decisions she takes from that very different perspective. From this book onwards in the series, the way that political needs affect military objectives begins to be considered in a far more realistic and less oversimplified way.

However, Grayson doesn't just need Honor as a political leader: they desperately need her naval experience, so they ask her to take command of a squadron of superdreadnaughts.

More traditionalist elements on Grayson are horrified at the idea of a female steadholder, so Honor has to deal with some very nasty tactics, including a horrible act of terorism. Honor has to defend against enemies both within and without.

There is an author's note in my copy (September 1995) explaining that the original manuscript was completed in October 1994. Between the time it was finished and the novel's publication came the Oaklahoma bombing, an act Weber describes as "even more despicable than my fictional villains." He adds "That we cannot allow those actus to go unpunished or extend to those who commit them any shred of respect, whatever the "cause" which motivated them, is a lesson the civilised human community must teach itself."

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

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

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

More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Worlds of Honor III: Changer of Worlds
Worlds of Honor IV: The Service of the Sword

The two spin-off novels are "Crown of Slaves" (with Eric Flint) which is a story of espionage and intrigue featuring a number of characters first introduced in earlier Honor Harrington novels or "Honorverse" short story collections, and "The Shadow of Saganami" which is a kind of "next generation" novel featuring a number of younger officers in the navies of Manticore and her ally Grayson.

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

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

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

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

Legislaturist former rulers of Haven = Bourbon monarchy and French nobles
Rob S. Pierre = Robespierre
Committee of Public Safety = Committee of Public Safety

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

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

At this rate, I may actually finish the Honor Harrington series before the heat death of the universe. Having just finished Flag in Exile by David Weber only fifteen years late, I think I'm getting the hang of this series.

Though a friend at work recommended the series, and due to the length, I was suspicious it would be throw-away pulp; I'm willing to admit now that that my fears were mostly unwarranted. Weber clearly enjoys the universe he constructed, and has spent significant time developing it. In Flag in Exile, Honor retires to Grayson as steadholder after losing her commission thanks in no small part to Pavel Young. This allows Weber to expound on the changes Harrington has influenced in their society as they struggle to accept her. As expected, this is much easier said than done.

This is thanks to a number of developments that complicate the plot, again, into a snarl of politics with the added zing of religious zealotry. Poor Honor. Her new venture in Sky Domes promises to make her even more wealthy, she's been requested to act as Admiral to a squadron consisting of half a dozen super dreadnaughts and other lighter attack craft, and considering her pseudo-exile, things are progressing swimmingly. Until accounting for the concerted effort to undermine Sky Domes, assassinate her credibility through righteous manipulation of the population, outright murder to further these aims, and an oncoming attack from Haven that doesn't even allow her an hour of sleep in the interim. The final half of the book is unrelenting. Even knowing Honor would win in the end never stopped me from cringing as circumstances stacked against her.

The thing that really affected my sensibilities however, was that Benjamin Mayhew's iron reign on the other steadholders is essentially the only thing standing between Honor and the indignant conspirators. If an accident of birth had created Mayhew more in the image of the zealots seeking to destroy her, things would have taken a disastrous turn. Weber even included an afterward describing his own concern over the blindness that sometimes overtakes men and women, so utterly convinced of their own virtues that the ends justify any means, no matter the human fallout. These crusades appear constantly in our own history, and sickeningly, Honor's struggles are hardly an exaggeration; if anything, they're nothing compared to the atrocities committed in the name of holiness.

I wouldn't say Weber is a master of this kind of subject matter, but he definitely understands the underlying complexities inherent in a government that seeks to subjugate such intolerance. The machinations are believable and compelling despite the mundane nature plotting and scheming might otherwise suggest. And once again, the naval battle almost necessary in any Harrington novel, only really plays a bit part toward the end of the book. Much like Field of Dishonor, this novel provides vital background and motivation that will flesh-out the rest of the series.

I like where this is going!

I have been reading through the Honor Harrington books from start for the past week or so. I am a huge military sci-fi fan and I cannot believe that I haven't discovered these books before. The space battles in these books are incredible. However, the seeming invincibility of Honor Harrington is beginning to get a little annoying. To be honest, every break seems to fall her way. I am not sure if anyone can defeat her, in space combat or otherwise.

There is really no drama if you are certain that Honor cannot lose. I will continue reading, but ultimately this will probably make these books less enjoyable. At this point, even if she did lose to someone or something, I am not sure I would find that credible. I hope that Weber's tale lures me back in again as the books progress.

Though she's a woman and not a diplomat, Honor Harrington, the highly competent and well-respected Manticoran Navy Captain, has been assigned a diplomatic mission to a planet run by a patriarchal religious cult. Why would the Manticorans send an aggressive woman with no diplomatic skills on this type of mission? There's only one possible reason: to try to make The Honor of the Queen more interesting...

I wasn't thrilled with On Basilisk Station, the first book in the Honor Harrington series, because there was too much exposition about military tactics and spaceship dynamics and Honor was too perfect and seemed cold and distant. I decided to read The Honor of the Queen because I already had purchased it in audio and I was hoping Honor would be more relatable as we got to know her better. Actually, she does seem more human, going on an almost murderous rampage at one point and becoming teary-eyed at another. Weber begins to make it clear that Honor has emotions, but we rarely see them and she's such a Mary Sue that it's difficult to feel comfortable with her. Even her homicidal rampage was more righteous than reckless.

But my biggest issue with the Honor Harrington series is that the plots so far (I've read only the first two books), though exciting at times (e.g., the big space battles at the ends) are constantly being interrupted by dull exposition about base and closing velocities, acceleration rates, missile weights, engagement times, energy ranges, magazine sizes, projected courses, etc.

This material does not have to be dull. As I read, I kept comparing it to Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin (Master and Commander) novels which have analogous plots (just at sea instead of in space). Those books contain a lot of information about warships and naval tactics, but they are immensely entertaining because the protagonists are real people with interests, hobbies, relationships, problems and faults.

To be fair to David Weber, it is certainly possible that my disappointment is partially caused by Allyson Johnson's narration of the audiobooks. Her voices are pleasant, but she uses little inflection. I downloaded a free print copy of The Honor of the Queen at the Baen Free Library and read several pages that I thought were dull in the audio version. They were better in my head than they were on audio, but I still found myself skimming over some of the exposition (which is difficult to do with an audiobook). I'm not sure that any narrator is skilled enough to make The Honor of the Queen exciting for me or to get me past the glaring problem with the premise of Honor being sent as a diplomat to a misogynist society.

I think I'm finished with Honor Harrington, which is too bad because I spent one of my Audible credits on the third book.

In Flag in Exlie Honor has settled in on Grayson. Her Steading is prospering things are going well for awhile. Then it happens! Again Haven returns and Honor get the chance to go back into space. Not as a captain but as an Admiral. Haven is only one battle she must fight. Her enemies on Grayson Plot to have her removed in many ways. and through one Cowardly act(That the author comments on since it's parralells somethng that happens years later in our world.)Honor must defend herself again losing more friends Honor must take the field of Honor again. I have read the first Five HH books in a row now and She Grows more as a person. if you like a strong characters and exciting storyline this is a great addition to the HH universe.

David Weber's Honor Harrington's are an enjoyable retelling of the story of Horatio Nelson, set in space, with his main character, Honor Harrington, paralleling the life of Nelson. The details are good, the books are exciting, and the character of Honor an interesting one.
The books have a few minor flaws. Weber's writing can be clunky in spots (though the books are exciting enough that it's easy to ignore this). What I tend to find a tad more annoying is that all the folks we run into who are against Honor (the military enemies as well as the lowlifes she meets in her own Navy) are clearly bad guys. I tend to prefer the Patrick O'Brian approach, where not all the French naval officers we encounter are villians. Despite this, though, the books are still good ones. Their strong points make up for their weak ones.
One final note on book ratings here at the store. If I really liked the book, why did I give it 3 stars? My rating system tends to be that 5 stars are reserved for the best of the best -- War and Peace, Don Quixote, and so on. 4 stars are for "this is a very, very good book," and three stars are "this is an above average book, a fun read." Clearly others on the list use the the store rating system differently than I do. (I also prefered their old 1 to 10 rating system, under which I'd have probably given The Honor of the Queen a 7.

This book is an excellent piece of work, both from the perspective of character development and from the perspective of technical details. Weber develops highly enjoyable characters of considerable depth, but manages to include enough data regarding technological considerations to actually provide a plausible "guesstimate" of what future military personnel may face as humanity goes out into space. He also includes some interesting speculative sociology, as the star nation Honor Harrington is trying to help are the descendents of extremely conservative fundamentalist Christians, with some very outmoded and counterproductive ideas regarding the "proper place" of women in society. One of the most interesting themes in the book revolves around the mutual discomfort that Harrington and her prospective allies feel toward each other, and how this gradually evolves to respect. Do yourself a favor and read this book!

After having read this serios over in part many years ago and in whole 5 or 6 years ago finally finding that this series was on the kindle was a big deal for me

Like always this series does not disapoint it is a clasic technical focused space drama. A combination of fantastic plot development and a whole host of memorable charicters the pace, detail and drama are such that I litterally could not set this book down

This book like the rest of the series is a must read

A lot of sagas fall flat on their butts after #1 somehow they can never seem to retain the level of action and grit that is in the first. That is now the case with this one however, Honor is back and the lady is taking some names.
She is sent on a mission to a planet founded by religious zealots(from Idaho no less). Only there is one little problem that someone at the diplomatic crops forgot to mention these people hate women almost as much as the Talaban.
Now I know you want to see how honor gets herself out of this don't you? As always plently of action and the book never lets up.