Rating: 
Summary: A major Disappointment
Review: I have read all the Honor Harrington books, as well as everything else Weber has written, and I can honestly say this is the only one I did not like. Way too much talking, characterization, and scene setting. Very little action. Weber could have written the entire novel in about 100 pages, and I wouldnt have missed a thing. I hope this is just an aberrant entry in an otherwise excellent series.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best
Review: ...His bad guys are cliches this time around, utterly brainless liberals in a coalition govt with vicious, idiotic conservatives, both of them so corrupt, so incompetent in every possible way, you have to wonder how their government has possibly survived this long. We see and hear far too much of these people, and too little of Honor. Honor is unfortunately still involved in that uncomfortable, pointless almost-romance with White Haven so what we do see of her is less than enjoyable for the first part of the book. Things do pick up when she moves out to Silesia, however, and the book moves much faster after that.Still, there is not enough action in this book, and what there is of it leaves one feeling less than fulfilled, with misled good guys of noble intent killing badly led good guys of noble intent and vice versa. Weber needs to find another evil regime to replace the wonderful People's Republic, or at least a group of murderous aliens. The Sollies are clearly going to be the next bad guys, but Weber is taking a wretchedly long time setting them up for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Honor We Know and Love
Review: I am SOOOOOO disappointed in War of Honor. I have read (and liked) all of the other Honor books, as well as most of the other books Weber has written. I waited months to receive WoH. After 518 pages of struggling, I gave up on the book and read the last chapter to at least gain some closure. I've never had to do that with any of his other books. Yes, Weber does spend more time on politics and Honor's personal live, but the writing is turgid and DULL.
Rating:
Summary: Bridge book, good job but a bridge
Review: I rated this book a 3 because it is by David Weber and it is good writing. He has done a good job of creating a bridge book. Periodically, in this series, he needs to sit back and set the stage for continuing the series, and that is what he does in this novel, creates a bridge. 868 pages, and the first fleet actions occur with 100 pages to go. There is some action prior to that, but in most cases, they are reports of actions rather than "actually living" the action (the crowning battle between the Epps and Hellbarde) that we have seen in earlier novels. I gave it a 3 because I was disappointed with this book. Too much cerebral, not enough action. And to be honest, I thought that some of his plot lines ended a little too glibly. And I wanted the pyrotechnics that had been promised at the end of the last book - Queen Elizabeth vs. the new Prime Minister - to be there. Instead, they just kind of faded away (suicide, disappearance, lost in an election), never a confrontation. The only confrontation was handled very sedately. I look forward to the next incarnation of Honor Harrington. It is without a doubt the best long-running series in Science Fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to Par
Review: Up until now I've really liked the Honor Harrington series. However, this book doesn't live up to what has gone before. For starters, the book needs about 200 pages worth of editing. This is most obvious in the frequent longwinded reminders that Admiral Soandso has hated Lord Whatshisname since way back. However there are lots of other examples. But the real problem is that Honor is no longer center stage. Also, the characters and background story are becoming shallow and don't make much sense any more. I never minded the political maneuvering in the previous books because they provided background and advanced the story, but this is no longer the case. It is one thing for Lord Pavel Young to be a rich, spoiled, and politically powerful sociopath in the early books. It is something else for everyone who disagrees with Honor politically to be either cowardly, self-serving, or a fool. It is one thing for the revolutionary and expansionist People's Republic of Haven to need to be defeated in war (enter Honor, stage left). It is another thing, once the government of the People's Republic has been overthrown from within, to believe the entire leadership of the new government could be fooled by a few forged documents into restarting the war, especially when we've been led to believe they want peace and are not complete morons. Honor's part in this book, which involves the Andermanis, the Silesians, and eventually the Havenites, is almost an afterthought. In the context developed in previous books, it would have made a lot more sense for the Manties and Havenites to come to terms. Then, with the big war over and the Navy budget cut back drastically, the story could have focused on Honor and the Andermani/Silesian question. What with piracy, slavery, territorial disputes, a new wormhole junction, and more, there was plenty of opportunity. This book is a disappointment, but I won't give up on Honor yet...and even if the party's over it was a pretty good party while it lasted.
Rating: 
Summary: Advice......Read the books on the CD included ........first!
Review: In order to understand this book.... you have to read the books on the CD included with this book. Otherwise you will be bored and confused as to what is happening. Start with "On Balisk Station" and go from there.
Rating:
Summary: Just resets the story back to "Quick Victorious War"
Review: I have been reading Webber's books for years and I have to say this is not one of his better ones. If you think Webber writes good intrigue and politics then you will probably like it (intrigue and politics is about 80% of the book). I'm not in that category however. What action there is dosen't really start until around page 795... What few battles there are take little more then a paragraph to cover. The characters that Webber expands upon in the first 60% of the book are mostly discarded by the end. The mysterious new junction that has been brought up from time to time? It's pointless and does virtually nothing for the story except strech it out. There are only two good points to this book. First off Baen did a Bind-in of the ENTIRE series on CD-ROM in several formats, html, palm, and RTF. If it wasn't for this I would feel cheated. Second, this book litterly resets the storyline back to the end of "Short Victorious War". If Webber drasticly cuts down on the politics and intrigue (50% of this book was pointless) then the story might be worth reading again.
Rating:
Summary: too much talk, not enough honor
Review: i have to say that i was disappointed with most of the 800 pages of this novel. given that five years have passed since the last book, a certain amount of exposition was inevitable. however, i found myself skimming through pages of dialogue concerning characters' plans, motivations and attitudes only to find that the same things were repeated in other characters' conversations a few chapters later. analysis was too often repeated two or even three times. much of the conversations could have been replaced with a few narrative paragraphs. i felt that honor herself was almost a peripheral character.
i was thoroughly annoyed by a subplot involving her and white haven's relationship. i hadn't been too thrilled with its development in the last book, because the whole situation is so cliched, which weber usually is not. i don't think that a society in which women enjoy equality of education and emplyment, and equal opportunity in social, financial, military and political areans, would react in a manner more suitable to uneducated, lower-middle class fundamentalists. this particular subplot seemed to exist only as a reason for honor to suffer emotionally. one subplot was not resolved in this book, though i suspect it will re-appear to some purpose in the next. although the major figures of the three main cultures are presented as extremely well-educated, politically astute people, not one of them wonders if there is any factionalism involved in the workings of haven's government. not once. even though haven's president deeply distrusts her sec'y of state, and even states that she will monitor diplomatic communications so that he cannot interfere with them, she fails to do so. any real action is delayed until after page 600. this is when the book starts feeling like the others in this series. however, by that time, i was continually skimming, just to finish it and find out what happens. weber's strengths include the ability to make the baddies real human beings, to make 'the enemy' real people, some of whom we care about, and to create and explain complex political and military situations. here, he has taken these strengths to extremes. i know the villains are petty, malicious, stupid people, do i have to wade through so much dialogue demonstrating this? there are sections where one of his other strengths, his way with understated irony and humor, show up, mainly, it seemed to me, in the last 200 pages. it seems to me that, for all its length, this is a 'transition' book, a way to get from the situation in the last book to the situation in the next. and i will be reading the next in this series. but if it is in any way like this one, i won't be reading its sequal.
Rating:
Summary: Much anticipated but disappointing
Review: This book would have made an awesome novella. Unfortunately it is nearly 900 pages long, 700 pages of which are basically padding (or background whichever you prefer). But the padding isn't all that interesting. News Flash! The bad guys are bad. The good guys are good. Weber just doesn't tell us much new or compelling about either the good or bad characters. Most novelists devote a portion of the beginning of a book to setting up the plot and introducing characters. As I read this book, I kept waiting for that part to end--and so it did, after about 700 pages. In this 700 pages he introduces one almost interesting new character (the peep foreign secretary) and reintroduces one interesting character from the past (Georgia). The rest is entirely predictable and repetitive exposition. For example, the bad guys must have met a dozen times to connive. The bad guys do some unexciting bad stuff like perhaps embezzle funds (though it is made explicit). The bad guys seem very committed to their agenda, that that is made clear, but what ever their agenda is (other than being a foil for the good guys) is never described. It isn't character development when we already know they suck! Clearly Weber is making more of a break from the kind of novels that the early books were (Ashes of Victory represents something of a hybrid between the earlier books and this one). He certainly seems to have improved his ability to write dialogue. While many readers conservatively want their favorite novels cloned, with the names and dates changed, I am all for authors evolving. However, in this book Weber seems to toss out a few things with the bath water of a writer expanding his horizons--like the careful plotting, action, and pacing of the earlier novels. My overall feeling regarding this book is disappointment and anger. Disappointment because I have anticipated the arrival of this book for years and it was dull and slow paced. Anger, at my self, because I have anticipated this book for years.
Rating:
Summary: Too much jaw-jaw -- Weber needs a firm editor
Review: I am a great fan of the Honor Harrington books--I've read the entire series either two or three times--but I was frustrated by _War of Honor_. David Weber spends the first 600+ pages with little more than conversations among groups of people. In fairness, he _is_ having to set up a new round of imperial conflicts, and he does enjoy illustrating various political and military mind-sets and their consequences, usually providing relevant parallels to current issues and mindsets, including the current debate on Iraq. But he could have achieved the same in far less space. Indeed, he has done so in previous Harrington novels. This book only contained about 200-250 pages' worth of story (if that much), but was expanded to 750 pages. It was a chore to read, not a pleasure. Someone at Baen (Jim? are you reading this?) needs to have the backbone to make Weber remember that one of the foundations of good writing is to cut out every word that isn't essential. There were whole chapters in this book that weren't essential, that could have been reduced to a paragraph somewhere. In short, this is not a novel I would recommend to anyone except die-hard Harrington fans who are willing to endure the padding for the all-too-brief glimpses of Harrington herself. I hope Weber does better in the next book, or the series itself may start to decline. ..bruce..
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