Must have Books - Honor Harrington

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	On Basilisk Station by David Weber On Basilisk Station is the first installment in David Weber's cult hit Honor Harrington series, which has charmed the socks off schoolgirls and sailors alike. Honor--the heroine of this fast-paced, addictive space opera--is a polished, plucky bulldog of a naval officer, part Horatio Hornblower, part Miles Vorkosigan, part Captain Janeway, and with a razor-clawed telepathic cat thrown over her shoulder for good measure. The series' kickoff puts a giddy Commander Harrington at the helm of her first serious starship, the HMS Fearless. But her excitement quickly fades--political maneuvering by top brass in the Manticoran navy has left her light cruiser outfitted with a half-baked experimental weapons system. Against all odds, she still manages a clever coup in tactical war games, a feat that earns her accolades--and enemies. The politicians she's offended banish her to a galactic backwater, Basilisk Station. But that outpost soon proves to be a powder keg, and it's up to Harrington and the Fearless crew to thwart the aggressive plans of the Haven Republic. A perfect mix of military SF and high adventure.
	The Honor of the Queen by David Weber On the planet Grayson to participate in diplomatic talks between the Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven, Honor Harrington discovers that she is stuck on a fiercely patriarchal, misogynist planet. 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!
	The Short Victorious War by David Weber Banking on a short, victorious war to replenish their depleted treasury, the ruling class of the People's Republic of Haven do not count on coming up against Captain Honor Harrington and the Royal Manticoran Navy.
	Field of Dishonor by David Weber The fourth Honor Harrington novel is definitely the best in this increasingly popular military-sf series. Honor's old nemesis, Pavel Young, takes revenge on her for having him dismissed from the navy by hiring a duelist to kill her lover. This swiftly brings upon him a dire and vividly described fate, which puts Honor on half-pay on the planet Grayson, where she is a feudal magnate. Honor has always been as much a descendant of the Superperson as of C. S. Forester's very human Horatio Hornblower, but Weber has thought enough about her so that, when the time came to produce a character-driven military-sf novel, he could do so quite handsomely. That time is now, and these are a new Honor and a new Weber. With the war against the People's Republic of Haven clearly destined to last as long as the Napoleonic Wars after which it is modeled, expect to see more of both.
	Flag in Exile by David Weber Here comes Honor Harrington again, and her entire crew of fans will man the yards to cheer. In her fifth adventure, she is trying to overcome self-doubts about her competence, grief over her lover's murder (despite having splendidly avenged it), and the barriers to a woman's being an effective feudal ruler on the fiercely patriarchal planet of Grayson. She is making headway when a Havenite fleet shows up, bent on the destruction of Grayson, and she must go back into space as an admiral while her enemies resort to open treachery and murder in trying to bring her down. Honor triumphs again, but with a believable amount of difficulty; she is growing into one of the more complex protagonists in military sf. Meanwhile, her fandom will continue to fall in love with Nimitz, the empathic treecat, and admire Weber's sheer ingenuity in so many aspects of creating Honor's universe.
	Honor Among Enemies by David Weber In this sixth outing, Honor is invited to rejoin the Royal Manticoran Navy at the instigation of some of her worst enemies. The RMN has withdrawn from the Silesian Confederacy in an effort to focus on its war with the People's Republic of Haven and the shipping cartels have been losing vessels: cargo, crews and all. Klaus Hauptmann sees a glorious opportunity: invite Honor to command the Q-ships which will draw pirate and privateer fire. If she dies, great; if she succeeds, even better. Honor and her companion Nimitz find unexpected friends (and enemies) along the way, and fans of this series' space battles will not be disappointed. In addition to a better glimpse of the Silesian systems, we finally get to meet a few of the Andermani.
	In Enemy Hands by David Weber Many may think Weber's new Honor Harrington story is the best of the lot, but all will concur that its tone is distinctly darker than that of the other six. Commanding a joint Grayson-Manticoran squadron, Honor is aboard the point ship when it encounters a formidably well led Havenite force. She is captured and scheduled for execution under the direction of People's Commissioner Cordelia Ransom, but she manages to escape. Although she wipes out Ransom in the process, her latest exploit ends up as a true cliff-hanger, with Honor, minus an arm and an eye, and a hard core of 20 loyal followers marooned on a Havenite prison planet. Everything series fans have enjoyed before is here again, with new dimensions filled in. The Havenites, for example, are clearly splitting into camps of ideologues and professionals, and the expected Nimitz subplot has the tree-cat and a contingent of comrades founding the first tree-cat interstellar colony on Grayson.
	Echoes of Honor by David Weber David Weber provides intergalactic thrills and political intrigue in this far-flung military space adventure, continuing where In Enemy Hands left off. The People's Republic has publicly executed Honor Harrington--or have they? While the Star Kingdom swears revenge, Honor (alive and kicking) plans escape from the prison planet of Hell. Weber's extensive knowledge of military protocol combined with deep technical exploration make for a highly detailed book, yet he avoids bogging down in it. His great storytelling skills keep this book racing along like an action-adventure movie. Fans of Star Wars and old-fashioned seafaring tales will find lots to their liking here, as will those looking for a future setting in which women play an equal role.
	Ashes of Victory by David Weber Why in Christ's name can the woman never bring a ship back intact?" muses Hamish Alexander at the triumphant return of Honor Harrington in Ashes of Victory, the apparent resurrection of a woman he'd seen executed by the Peeps some two years earlier. Yep, she's back: minus a left arm and an eye, minus a few inches of hair, and more than a little banged up in the process, the indestructible, ever-resilient Honor is back from the dead--and she's got some 400,000 liberated POWs from Hades in tow for good measure. Picking up where Echoes of Honor left off, the ecstatic reunion that begins Ashes proves short-lived as Honor once again lives up to her nickname of "The Salamander," always ending up where the fire's hottest. In the longest book of this naval space-opera series, David Weber plunges his beloved heroine (now an admiral!) into a thick tangle of political plots, as she takes on a more mature, behind-the-scenes role than in previous books. But don't fret: there's still some good action as HH prevents an assassination attempt and Manticore and its allies test-drive their new weaponry. And quite a few characters get what's coming to them too, including a few who drop like picked-off Peeps. All in all, yet another worthy installment in the series.
	War of Honor by David Weber David Weber's Honor Harrington series continues in this 10th novel, which picks up the action several years after the previous volume, Ashes of Victory. With a ceasefire in place with the Peeps, the new government of the Star Kingdom ignores the wishes of Queen Elizabeth and then threatens the very fabric of the Manticore Alliance against the People's Republic of Haven. We find Honor in the role of a senior political advisor, performing with her usual flair and élan. With War of Honor coming in at over 800 pages, Weber has room to expand subplots and secondary characters and bring to the reader a feeling of depth and completeness seldom seen in science fiction novels. Favorite characters from past stories return, many of them growing in stature from unimportant secondary characters to major players in the "Honorverse." Weber serves up trouble in Silesia, the excitement of a new wormhole junction, scheming in Manticorian politics, strange events deep in Peep territory, and plenty of exploding spaceships--and, as publisher Jim Baen says, "We like exploding spaceships."