Rating: 
Summary: 'War' is hell...
Review: It goes on and on and on and on. And on. I couldn't wait for this book to come out! I dove into it and now I feel like the drunks who dive off bridges into bayous in the summer; it's much too shallow and I had to struggle to survive the experience. Quick, somebody call 911! The Honor Harrington universe is going into respiratory & cardiac arrest!
An earlier reviewer said something along the lines of Mr Weber being unable to write charahter driven stories. I never believed that, I always cared deeply about Honor & Nimitz, Scotty & Harkness et al. I was always interested in what was happening at Harrington steading & the Copperwalls. You'll get none of that here, or mentions so brief and uncertain it's like an Elvis sighting. What about Honor's parents and new siblings?! Now THAT would have been a relief from all the political and should we shouldn't we hand-wringing!
If like me you were absorbed by the balance of humanity, intrigue, action and grit of the preceding Honor Harrington novels, I think like me you'll find this one long, dull, unfulfilling and disappointing. I'll keep it of course, because if nothing else it contributes materially to the details enriching the Honorverse; but this reminds me entirely too much of the second Back to the future installment; a weak effort especially in comparison to what had gone before. Hopefully, like said film, it will be weak in comparison to what came after too. There are a few bright spots, but on the whole this one is the tunnel at the end of the light.
Unfortunately, Mr Weber seems to have over reached his creative wellspring with too many projects; I'm reading the March to the Stars at the moment & I just got done with the Shiva option and those were very good! War of Honor is not.
Rating: 
Summary: "Those who fail to learn from history..."
Review: "War of Honor" is the story of dirty & interest-riddled political huslers attempting to undermine everything in there own state just to stay in power. This isn't a new concept in human history. In fact, this story reminded of the political situation in the middle-easy during the late '60 and early '70. In 1967 Israel was attacked by no less than 3 arab countries bent upon it's destruction. Yet Israel managed to beat the odds and the arabs until they screamed "Uncle". Yet no peace treaty was forged - Only a cease-fire. When Egyptian president Natzer died, his successor knew he couldn't keep his position unless he improved his economy - and that ment talking peace to the Israelis. But they ignored his discreet overtures and in '73 he had enough and launched an attack along with Syria to get his territory back.
This is basically what happens in this book: High Ridge doesn't want to formalize the peace, His military adviser are certain that they have the technological superiority, their Intelligence "experts" ignore all unsubstatiated rumors from all scorces other than their own and then pay the price for their arrogence. The only bright spots are Honor and Hamish who have enough foresight to convince the alienated Graysons that they need their help and they get it.
Structurally the final action scenes play just like in "Echoes of Honor". Manticore loses many small engagements, one really big one with small scale characters who are bound to show up sometime in the future, they stalemate in one fight, and totally win in a semi-important fight involving Honor. I must admit that this story starts out quite slowly and I found myself dragging through some less than stellar chapters. But Weber manages to build the growing suspence of interstellar diplomacy slowly breaking down quite well until it all goes up in a really big, satisfying boom in the end.
From a personal point of view, Honor is finally forced to face up to her feeling towards Hamish and we finally get to meet his wife, Emily. The conclusion of her dilemma is both surprising and satisfying as Honor suddenly establishes an empathic link of her own with Hamish. And to cap matters off, Emily realizes that getting between the two of them is being selfish despite her own feelings (thanks to Samantha's sound advice). This is the future after all and if Beowulf can live with strange familial structures, so can we!
Rating: 
Summary: Read and move on...
Review: Decent book but definitely a thinker's book and not a book of action. Nearly the entire length was given to political discussions and character disseminations. There was very little of the action that characterized the rest of the books in the series.My biggest complaint is that too much of the expository background was inserted into the characters' thoughts. Honor repeatedly "thought" what the author wanted us to know. She would "think" seven pages of thoughts to get us up to speed while only a second of 'real time' had passed. I am not sure about the rest of the world, but I cannot think seven pages of exposition in a split second. Every time this happened, the spell the book had managed to weave was broken, and I was jarred back to reality. The pages of exposition (while admittedly fairly important) ruined the rhythm of the work. That being said, I am facinated by the characters of Honor, Hamish, Emily, and Elizabeth and am interested in seeing where the convoluted relationships go. I plan to purchase the next book in the series and fervently hope that some of the dross that filled this one to overflowing will have been eliminated in the eleventh in the series. Final Word: A decent, fairly intellectual read, but not the best by far.
Rating: 
Summary: I can't believe I read the WHOLE thing
Review: I've read everything David Weber has written. He is one of my favorite authors. I would have never guessed he was capable of something this bad. 1) The dialogues drone on and say very little. 2) There are so many characters the reader should make up a program to keep them straight. 3) The scene switches between locations, sub plots and characters so frequently that the reader can't really get interested in any one sub plot. 4) One of the most salient characters in modern space opera is actually turned into a boring, flat character. 5) After finishing the book, you will discover (too late) that there is a glossary in the back of the book that would have helped sort out all of the unexplained acronyms 6) Nothing but talk takes place for the first 350 pages. 7) What little action takes place is very unimaginative and unexciting. 8) I suspect this book was written to set up a new series of Honor books. If you skip this one you won't miss a thing because it will all be recapped in the first few pages of the next book.
Rating:
Summary: Weber drifts aimlessly for 800+ pages
Review: I have been an Honor Harrington fan for a few years now, having picked up "On Basilisk Station" on a whim and enjoying it a great deal. Weber still has a flair for storytelling, but in War of Honor he spends more and more time getting swamped in political turmoil and in a painful exegesis of Honor's unrequited longing for Earl White Haven. Weber is at his best during his battle scenes, and some of the more light-hearted interactions between Honor and her friends and staff; unfortunately, he can go on for pages about how the nobility of his too-good-to-be-true heroine leads her to inflict emotional damage on herself. It's a wonder that Nimitz (her six-legged treecat) isn't tempted on occasion to put her out of her misery. This is book 10 of the main stories of the "Honorverse," and Weber's lack of direction is beginning to show, a problem common in series sci-fi/fantasy (witness Robert Jordan's seemingly directionless "Wheel of Time" series, or Raymond Feist's endless milking of the once-entertaining books on Midkemia). At least Weber has the good sense to actually finish a story, even if it takes him 800 pages, and there is good potential in some of the story threads he's left open. The other problem with continuing series is that the main character often becomes so developed it's difficult for us (and the writer) to know where to take her next. Once Tom Clancy had taken Jack Ryan from CIA assistant paper-pusher to president of the US, it was tough to see much career advancement left for him, and Weber has a similar problem with Honor: she's gone from Commander of a light cruiser to admiral, and she holds various titles of nobility on two worlds. What's next? First space lord? Queen? Fans of Honor will nonetheless want to buy this book, especially if you get the hardcover version with the CD containing all of the previous books. For those new to Weber, I'd recommend starting with "On Basilisk Station"; Honor's (and Weber's) travails will be a lot easier to endure if you've come to know and love her by the time you get to this book.
Rating:
Summary: No place else to go.
Review: Great book. Though I personally didn't like the political ending, this neatly wraps up the series. Virtually all of the strings are tied off. Harrington has reached the pinnacle of her life, militarily and politically, in both star systems. To write another full length novel in this series would be a grave mistake, though short stories set in the Harrington universe will be welcome. During the past nine years I've come to truly enjoy and love the characters in the HH universe, but I hope that Weber will not make the mistake of trying to write continous sequals even when the story is done. Actually he's the only author I've seen who actually milked ten books out of the same setting without totally ruining the world and character. Take a look at Dune, the prequels and sequels have just become tedious. Jordan should have wrapped up his Wheel of Time series within eight books. I'm hoping that Weber will now turn his attention to writing a few more Bahzell Bahnakson books and maybe a few sequals to Path of the Fury. By the way, Dave Weber should not be collaborating with anyone. His collaborators only drag him down to their level. Take a look at the books that he's done with John Ringo or Eric Flint. They are nowhere near the level of craftsmanship that he exhibits when writing alone.
Rating:
Summary: One-third of this book is good!
Review: In fact, that's just how I read it - skipping over the interminable talk, talk, talk. It's been a while since I've read On Basilisk Station but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have read any more Honor books if it had been this bad. I'm hooked into Weber's world creation, tho, so am stuck. Perhaps if Baen re-hired the editor they so obviously fired 5 years ago we could get at least one more decent Honor book out of Weber!
Rating:
Summary: Bore of Honor
Review: The title of this book should be "Bore of Honor" or maybe "Talk of Honor" or maybe "Committee Meetings of Honor." The only war is the fight to stay awake while trying to get through 800 pages of mind numbing talk, talk , talk. There are a few action pieces. Unfortunately, they seem to have been deleted in favor of the descriptions of endless committee meetings. They are big teases. Just when it seems like we will have something exciting, the chapter ends. The next chapter usually starts with what amounts to an after action report. All of the Space Navies, Manticoran, Grayson, Andermani, even the peeps, er RHN types, are noble, alert, concientious, hard working, cheerful, competent, etc. The policitians are slime ball idiots (hey, not bad David! You got one thing right!). Honor and her love interest act like teenagers. Please, spare us all of the guilt trips. Could somebody just screw things up without the pop psychology and the endless speeches of noblesse oblige? I guess greed got the better of Weber. He should have let Honor hang up her galactic spurs after the last book. This one might be considered a "junction too far."
Rating:
Summary: Like reading an 800 page CSPAN transcript
Review: David Weber can't write dialog. All his characters share the same voice, and it's the voice of a particularly boring PoliSci professor. This book is about 50% dialog. David Weber can't write any sort of descriptive or background material that isn't so dry and wooden that it sheds splinters. This book is about 45% of that. Never has political intrigue been so leaden. Let's not even mention the attempts at humor or romance. Those are just too painful to mention. David Weber does one thing well -- great big space opera battles, with missles flying, lasers flashing, ending (usually) with virtue rewarded and stupidity punished. This book devotes a handful of pages to this. A very poor reward for wading through an ineptly edited and infinitely tedious description of the politics of an imaginary Star Kingdom.
Rating: 
Summary: 5 Stars especially if you picked up the cd-rom version!!!!
Review: I'd read several other David Weber Books and was hooked on him as a author before I ever read a single Honor Herrington book. Finally I perchased "War of Honor" with the cd-rom included. Which had all 10 David Weber books (including War of Honor on it), I then read all the books. I think the book itself is around a 4 rather than a 5, but if you picked up edition that includes the cd-rom I'm sure you'll vote its worth a 5 star count. This book to me while it is a bit slow and has a lot of politics is setting up the stage for future books in the Honor Herrington Series. While its not the most exciting book there are a number of rather fasted paced sections. This book is more important in reguards to the political changes taking place both in Manticore and Haven. This is a must read for those who enjoy David Weber's writing and especially the Honor Herrington series!!!
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