Rating: 
Summary: A very slow paced Novel
Review: I am a dedicated David Weber fan. I own every book that he has published and up to this point I have revisited all of Mr. Weber's works. I cannot imagine rereading War of Honor; I was pretty disappointed with this book.In the past Honor Harrington series of books you had good character and plot development, along with absorbing action sequences. In War of Honor you have one battle scene that involved Honor's command. This scene was very short and disappointing. In my opinion you can read the beginning chapters until you gain the understanding of how petty the current Kingdom government is and what a self serving scum bag the Peep Secretary of State is, then skip to the battle sequence and finish the book. If you do this you will have probably have skipped about 600 pages. I concur with other reviewers who have noted this book really seemed to drag out the development and description of the Peep Secretary of State, and the current Kingdom government. I am wondering why Mr. Weber felt it was absolutely necessary to spend 600 plus pages to describe these characters. It appeared to me that Mr. Weber is attempting to setup Honor for some change of heart as to how she looks at her Kingdom government. I seemed to sense that Honor is starting to become a little disillusioned with the Kingdom's latest move into the inhabited Talbott Star Cluster. It will be very interesting to see where this leads in future books if I am correct. In conclusion, I would have been extremely disappointed if this book did not come with a CD that contains the previous Honor Harrington novels. I recommend that you wait for the less expensive paperback, or see if you can borrow the hardback edition from a local library or friend before you go out and buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: New Direction
Review: Briefly, the author is (I think) setting up the next conflict, which will probably happen more in the interstellar politics arena than in the strict "shoot-'em-up" style of the last few books. There is only so many ways that someone can get grievously wounded while fighting a lonely last ditch stand against impossible odds...
The book starts to develop the political tensions between Manticore, Haven, and the Solarian League. I expect (and hope) that the next book will deal with interstellar power politics with a touch of action.
Granted, the villains are a bit shallow, and a little bit too simple. One expects them to twirl their mustaches while foreclosing on the homestead. As a counerpoint though, the whole political situation that they drive Manticore into is rich in possibilities and future action.
Rating: 
Summary: War of DisHonor
Review: This was pure garbage. There are a lot better books out there, don't waste your time or money on this one. It was hard to get past the author's mommy complex to get to the meat of this book. Once, you get there, you wish you had not wasted the time.
March Up Country and its associated books are much better.
Rating:
Summary: Honor Harrington in another adventure...
Review: If the name Honor Harrington is unfamiliar to you, then you have been deprived of some fine reading material. Should you be one of those deprived individuals, then an introduction to Honor Harrington is in order. I don't know the lady very well, though I have read all but one of the books in which she appears. I once described her as a cross between Xena, Warrior Princess and a diminutive woman warrior I once knew... and went to war with. This is an unsatisfactory simile though, as most people can only be familiar with half of this pair. Rather than fall back on my own deficiencies, I have instead asked for and received permission to run an introduction to the lady written by someone who... knows her... better than I do, the writer who created her, David Weber. Who is Honor Harrington? Darned if I know. Well, actually, she's sort of a friend of mine, and as with most friends, it's very difficult to take her personality apart and analyze or describe it. Over the course of the novels and novellas, her character has grown up so naturally for me that it's become difficult for me now to sit down and sort out individual character traits. When I'm writing about her, it's more a case of thinking about a person I know so well that I "just know" how she'll respond to a given set of circumstances or a given challenge than it is of analyzing who or what she is. She's a brilliant, charismatic combat commander who's always "where the fire's hottest." Born of yeoman stock, she is now a knight of the realm, a great noble in two separate star nations, a flag officer in two separate navies, a confidante of queens, a martial artist, a multi-billionaire, a woman, a daughter, an empath, and the human adoptee of a six-limbed Sphinxian treecat. She's lost an eye and an arm to wounds suffered in battle, and she's paid the price in sorrow and feelings of guilt for those who have died under her command in those same battles. All of that I can rattle off without much effort, but it's more difficult to penetrate to the core of what makes her who she is. If I had to pick the three characteristics which I think are most central to who Honor Harrington is and to the reason readers respond to her so positively, those characteristics would be responsibility, compassion, and loyalty. She is not a "safe" person. She has a ferocious temper which it is very dangerous to arouse, but that dangerous side of her personality is controlled and focused by her sense of compassion and her willingness to assume responsibility for fixing problems, whoever created them. It doesn't matter to Honor whether or not a problem is "her fault." What matters to her is that there is a problem which needs to be solved, and she digs in to do just that. And the thing which makes her so charismatic is the combination of that sense of responsibility with her absolute loyalty to the people she commands. Of course, that capacity for loyalty extends upward from her, as well, but it's the downward reach, the quality that communicates itself to the most junior person in her crew, that creates a matching sense of loyalty and devotion from those under her command. Most of all, Honor Harrington is someone who knows who she is, whether I do or not. She is no more free of self-doubt than anyone else, but she knows what she believes in and where her responsibilities lie, and she is constitutionally incapable of doing one inch less than her sense of duty requires of her. I like her. And I suppose I wish I were more like her. ...David Weber, September 20, 2002 War of Honor is the latest in a series of books and short stories by David Weber... and a few selected other writers, among them David Drake of Hammer's Slammers fame. All of the Honor Harrington series contain many behind the scenes manipulations that various rulers and despots make. One can see all the problems inherent with different forms of government, and can also draw parallels with our own world: The People's Republic of Haven; The United Soviet Socialists Republic, The Star Kingdom of Manticore; Great Britain, The United States of America; The Solarian League. A parallel for Grayson is a bit more difficult. My personal take: The nation of Jordan... in a few years anyway, though other nations could also be drawn as parallels. This installment of the series is set in the aftermath of a great war in which the Star Kingdom of Manticore defeats the military of the Peoples Republic of Haven... and just when the victorious army is poised to begin setting up a provisional government and start arresting war criminals... a shift in their own parliamentary government forces them to back off and accept a ceasefire... without a treaty being signed no less! The corrupt liberal-led government strings out the treaty negotiations with the Republic of Haven... the People's Republic having been overthrown by an internal military coup... refusing to negotiate in good faith and using the state of flux for domestic political manipulation. This angers the leadership of the "defeated" Havenites... and gives them some time to get their secret R&D and shipbuilding projects up to speed... thus overcoming the Manticoran edge in military force. Because of some self-serving politicians on both sides of the conflict, things escalate to the point of war... not because anyone in power really wanted a war, but rather because of the lust for power of a few individuals who could not see past the boundaries of their own little world. There are some parallels here as well to be drawn by the reader. This book is quite a bargain in that in addition to the 869 pages of edge-of-seat entertainment, there is also a CD, The Honorverse Disk, containing several e-books as well. Thus with the purchase of this one book, the reader can familiarize him/her self with all of the preceding chapters of the Honor Harrington saga. I personally recommend a short story called Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington, in the Changer of Worlds ebook. This will give you some of the background of the main character, though there is much more to be learned about this complex character... who seems to have come alive and is developing more abilities and idiosyncrasies with each new chapter in her life. This book is by Baen, though distributed by Simon and Schuster. I really don't understand all the marketing ploys publishers enter into with each other... however, a visit to Baen's website is well worth the effort. If you haven't read any of the Honor Harrington series, buy this book... it will bring you up to speed... if you know all about the lady and her exploits... buy it anyway. You can't go wrong. Dale A. Raby
Editor/Publisher
The Green Bay Web
Rating:
Summary: Sadly disappointing
Review: I have been following the Honor Harrington series for a number of years, and for the most part, have thoroughly enjoyed it (despite Weber's insistance on whitling away at Honor: first an eye, then an arm). However, War of Honor was a definite disappointment. There didn't seem to be much of a plot. The war with the Peeps is over, but no one seems to want a peace treaty. Political enemies want to bring Honor down. Honor and Hamish are fighting the fact that they are in love, since he is devoted to his wife, a quadraplegic. All elements that have been used before. The main problem with the book is that nothing actually happens! in the first seven *hundred* pages, more than six hundred are of people sitting around lecturing each other on politics and diplomatic matters. In fact, the very few battle scenes are all off-camera, so to speak. Slavery is suddenly a big issue, but I don't really remember any mention in the earlier books about slavery. The characters also suffered from a bad case of two dimensionality. The current government, who want to trounce Honor for the sake of trouncing her, are mean and nasty and incompetent. On the other side, the enemy is either incompetent villains or brilliantly noble, forced into actions they don't want. Oh for a brilliant bad guy, like the ones on Grayson in the earlier books. Basically, War of Honor suffered from a bad case of telling, not showing, and as a result, it dragged. It was far too long for the lack of plot, and the whole purpose of the novel seems to be to get Honor into bed. All in all, the only thing that made buying this book worth it to me was the fact that it came with a CD with electronic versions of all the earlier books, so I can go back and reread them, and thrill to sparkling dialog, exciting battles, and grand characters, since none of those appear in this latest instalment
Rating: 
Summary: Where Are The Three Amigos?
Review: War of Honor Where Are The Three Amigos? The "War of Honor" is David Web's tenth and the latest Honor Harrington space-war saga. It takes place five years following Operation Buttercup in "Ashes of Victory." The plot is centered around the politicos of Haven and Manticore on settling the territorial disputes that have been going on five years after Operation Buttercup. What bitter victory the war Manticore alliance won against the 'Peeps' is all for naught. Failed diplomacy would have Honor Harrington et al. of the alliance to fight the 'Peeps' once again. Only this time around the 'Manties' are not singing and dancing to "My Little Buttercup." Of the 59 chapters in this book (excluding the Glossary), about 90 percents are concerned with recurring internecine political cat-and-mouse games between the two space confederacies. To have 53 chapters revolving around the theme of "how dare they refuse our offer to settle..." is an overkill. It creates a forced enthusiasm on the reader's part to stay with the story for the sake of what's to become of Harrington. As a Weber fan, this reader finds the "War of Honor" a major disappointment in plot and substance.
Rating:
Summary: The Salamander Strikes Again!
Review: David Weber refuses to write a bad story about Honor Harrington. That makes those of us who eagerly await each novel just that much happier.
This one goes into some more personal, emotional matters that smoe Weber loyalists question. But it contributes to the overall growth and maturation of the main character. And that's always to the good; only people who cling to the TV-series frame of reference, where growth is bad, can object to someone growing up.
And Honor DOES grow up in this one; maybe more than SHE would prefer. But, that's life.
One thing you have to say about Weber's writing; he puts in more plot twists than the L. A. Freeways! Watch out for the politicians in both the Republic of Haven, and in the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
Rating: 
Summary: Book 10 still had me chomping at the bit
Review: I read the book in installments on Baen's websubscriptions and then bought it when it released. War of Honor nearly killed me waiting for the next set of chapters. I would ration myself to one a day. Okay... so this one was not as heavy on the Space Battles. There was more polotics. BVut that was the POINT!! There is a lull in the storm and all of the political issues lend stress and suspense to where the story is going. I think Weber did an excellent job of portraying the Star Kingdom's slide towards two potential Wars that nobody wants. If he had not had as much politics I do not think it would have worked. At the very least I would not have developed the loathing for some of the characters that made their getting their cumpupance(sp>) so sweet. Heck, I love the Action, but it the context of the Action that makes it so much more interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Of high-ranking men who don't want an interstellar war
Review: David Weber's War Of Honor tells of high-ranking men who don't want an interstellar war - but who face this prospect anyway, when fighting challenges their worlds. Political confrontations and swift action make for a political thriller which proves hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Starts slow, but then returns to Weber's usual form
Review: Weber departs from his usual action-oriented style that we know and love for the first half of this book. I found myself just plodding through it in honor (pun intended) of the loyalty I've developed in reading the previous nine books in this series. Fortunately, the pace picks up in the second half of the book and I finally found myself in the mode I love - not wanting to put the book down. I'm eagerly awaiting the next book, but hope Weber reads some of these reviews and watches the movie "Wonder Boys." Some good editorial decisions would have taken 200 pages out of the manuscript and brought this up to the level we expect from one of the genre's best writers.
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