Rating: 
Summary: Political intrigue
Review: Enjoyable space opera. Mostly political intriugue--no space battles. For followers of the Honor Harrington series, this book sets up a possible direction for future books away from the Manticore-Haven war (which would be good--that conflict needs to be resolved). The ending is a bit far-fetched, but charming nonetheless.
Rating:
Summary: Sharp Sword
Review: Eric Flint and Dave Weber write two of the best novellas i've read in a while, setting the stage for "Crown Of Slaves" and later books. Not over all the most solid anthology, but two of the best tales are in here.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed but powerful--go Haven
Review: Haven and Manticore are officially at war but effectively at peace but the two space titans continue to square off against one another. When a political leader is assassinated, neither Haven nor Manticore feels able to send an official government representative but both wish to send a message--and each space nation decides to send its top spy. In the case of Manticore, this is semi-retired Captain Anton Zilwicki, along with adopted daughter Berry and the Queen's niece Ruth. In the case of Haven, the young and intriguing Victor Cachat, along with his boss's wife. On Erewhon, disaffected ally of Manticore, the two find that their interests largely coincide. Both hate the slave trade that is carried out under the neglectful eye of the Solarian League. When evil religious zealots from Massada decide to make a statement, Cachat is forced to put on his cold-blooded act and find a way to drive it to Haven's advantage, but also to the advantage of the millions of enslaved people around the galaxy. Set in David Weber's Honor Universe, Weber and Eric Flint combine to follow up on some of the more intriguing short stories from the SERVICE OF THE SWORD. Once CROWN OF SLAVES got going, it had great action, fascinating world-building, and added a new twist to the recently predictable world of Honor Harrington herself (Honor discovers a new technology or creates a new alliance in the nick of time to save Manticore from itself and the Havenites). Weber and Flint offer an intriguing take on slave rebellions, with thoughtful commentary on the problems that freed slaves have in creating stable democracies even if they stage a successful revolution. Unfortunately, CROWN OF SLAVES did take a while to get going with an incredibly talky first two hundred pages. While a lot of material was presented in this introduction, the novel would have been strengthened by judicious pruning. I'd be interested in other readers' feedback on the ultimate solution to the problem in slave-based societies. I found it difficult to believe that recently freed slaves would make the choice that Weber and Flint had them make. If they were going to choose something other than democracy and other than an ex-slave as a nominal leader, wouldn't they have chosen someone more mature, more experienced, and who had shown a deeper and more longstanding commitment to their cause (I could even buy ex-Countess Cathy Montaigne). Wonderful character Victor Cachat more than makes up for the definite flaws in this powerful novel. Cachat's strong moral stands clash with his own ability to become a cold-blooded killer making him stand out as a fully dimensional human being. One you'd definitely want to have on your side if your country were under attack. Certainly Cachat has converted me. I'm pulling for Haven from now on in their endless battle with Manticore.
Rating: 
Summary: Not big on epic space opera, this one...
Review: I really WANTED to like this book for a couple of reasons. As a big Honor Harrington fan, I had loved Weber's series and now that he has taken a hiatus from them for a while, I hoped that Flint's book (it is sadly obvious that Weber did little or nothing of the actual writing) would be a decent substitute. Also, I actually bought this book and I didn't want to feel that I had thrown my money away. But I obviously did. Only for those reasons did I manage to get through 160 pages of this hardbound sleeping pill before I bailed. This is about a third of the way through the book and by then absolutely nothng of interest had happened. This is one of the most boring books I have ever tried to read in my life. Still maybe you will feel differently. If you like reading page after page of dull exposition, having to keep track of a whole flock of utterly unmemorable characters, the author using the book to put in plugs for his idiotic left-wing opinions and a sniggering adolescent attitude toward sexual relations, this may be just your meat. It sure isn't mine.
Rating:
Summary: A new author for a beloved universe
Review: I was fairly nervous that David Weber decided to share his Honor Harrington universe with another author for a full length novel. I mean, over the course of the Honor Harrington series I've come to really enjoy his work and I didn't want it ruined by an inferior work by a different author. However, this book is no inferior product. True, the tone of the work is different then David Weber's solo works but not too different. Both his vision and Eric Flint's vision seem to be similiar enough to reside in the same universe.
That said, this book shares several elements from the previous Harrington books. Its full of action and believable characters. It is quite easy to suspend your disbelief and really get into the novel. However, it is HIGHLY recommended that you read all the previous Honor books before this one. A quick read but worth it.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT SWASHBUCKLING SPACE OPERA!
Review: If you like intrigue, drama, humor, combat and romance then CROWN OF SLAVES is for you! Set in the same universe as Mr. Weber's Honor Harrington stories this one tracks the exploits of a group of super spy's as they battle for, sometimes with and sometimes against each other to free the slaves held by the insidious Manpower Inc.
Although the cast of characters is fairly large the principals are surprisingly well developed and intimately believable as you follow them through the twists and turns of what is a deceptively simple plot.
Billed as the first in a series this is one heck of a start although to be honest it does just fine as a stand alone novel. Hopefully any follow-up volumes will just as riveting and exciting.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this one!
Rating:
Summary: spies unlimited
Review: If you want Military Sci-Phi or Honor skip this book. If you want high action, intrigue, and great charachters buy it last week.
David, the last 2 books have dragged a little bit. It seemes that Eric has forced you to tighten up your story telling. Repitition is way down; the number of key charachters in the book are down; and, action and story development are way up.
Please keep this up.
This is a spy novel. Most of the charachters in this novel come from short stories written in the antholigies that accompany David's original series. On the other hand, this is a well thought out and scripted novel. The story parrallels the tail end of War Of Honor and expands the evil Manpower and Mesa story lines from those antholigies.
As a political junky I love reading about a world government based on Italian Mafia political structure. I wish some real exploraition of the politics of Mesa and Manpower had been explored in this book, but I am told that the Weber-Flint stories should go thru at least 3 more collabaritive novels. This series has alot of potential. I read this book in a day and a half, with time out for 2 ten hour shifts at work.
Rating:
Summary: I was a doubter
Review: Okay, admitting my bias - I really enjoy the Honor Harrington series and eagerly purchased each new volume as it comes out. I recognize that the most recent installments are a little slower and that overall the books tend to follow similar patterns, but even when you've been on the roller coaster before, it sure is fun each time you ride it. So back to this book, as it indicates on the dust jacket and cover this is a new series in the Honor Universe and make no mistake with the exception of a 7 to 8 page cameo with Honor she is not in this book at all. My first inclination was to pass this book over and you may think the same thing, but that would be a real mistake. Many of the characters that have been introduced in the 4 volumes of short stories are featured in this current story. Anton Zwilicki and his adopted daughter Barry are main characters as is Princess Ruth. Victor who has been featured in two short stories also plays a central role. If you read the 4 books of short stories, you already know that these are interesting and fun characters in their own right with unique strengths and weaknesses. I liked this book first because of the aforementioned characters. They were great. You cared about them and rooted them on as the story progressed. You could also see them develop and change during the course of the story (okay, so some of the development was pretty predictable and telegraphed). Second, the story presents a little different view of Manticore and Haven. Many of the characters from Manticore are still stand up people, but Manticore is not painted as the perfect Kingdom as it has in past books (with the exception of the final Honor book). Likewise Haven is not portrayed as the source of all evil. Its more realistic when the People's Republic and Star Kingdom are presented less black and white. Finally, we get to see the Solarian league and we get the strong hint that they will be figuring strongly in the subsequent books in this series. I'm not a big believer in giving a synopsis of the novel in a review, but I will say that the story takes place on Erewhon and involves much more cloak and dagger action as opposed to the large scale ship battles featured in many of Honor's books. Lots of other story lines and loose ends are left open for future novels so I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty more of these characters. In summation, there's very little Honor, but the writing is just as good, the characters are just as enjoyable, and its just as much a pleasure to read.
Rating:
Summary: Fun Clak and Dagger Space Adventure, Good Characters
Review: Recomendation: Buy (...) In the past, I have loved David Weber's Honor Harrington series, but disliked his other work. I fund most of Weber's "Non-Honorverse" work to suffer from a common flaw in military science fiction. Everything was too scaled up and dramatic, everything involved a threat to the existence of humanity. The Honor Harrington books were a relief in part because at no point in the series was the existence of humanity in any danger. I tended to like Eric Flint's novels at the beginning, but lost interest later. His books often seem to have an ideological slant that annoys me, and to start with a straightforward plot I like, than go in a different direction. I was a little worried having Flint write in the Honorverse would introduce inconsistency, because the "bad guys" are often exaggerated liberals in the Honorverse. I was relieved to see that this was NOT the case in _Crown of Slaves_. Flint was able to show a different side to the "bad guys" without introducing inconsistency or excessive polemics. This book was a very good "cloak and dagger" novel set in the Honorverse just before the last Honor Harrington novel. It involves former spies from Haven and Manticore who go to Erewhon to vie for the allegiance of that potential ally, and get caught up in a conflict involving the genetic slave trade. The authors did a a great job at handling Machiavellian political scheming and elaborate plots. They also created some excellent characters, from the kind of plucky teenage heroines that L'Engle gave me a taste for to larger than life super-spies. There were also several characters from the Wrong Side of the Tracks. There were characters who were famously dangerous and could scare people with a look that reminded me of the protagonist from _Nightingale's Lament_. The "super spies" were super-competent enough to be heroic, but still managed to seem both human and plausible. There were an unusual number of typos in the book, most words that were followed by a synonym that was clearly supposed to have been deleted. There was a case where a character was portrayed as ruthless, than had a bout of conscience over something that had to be less ethically problematic than things he had done in the past. The end was satisfying, but marred by a sudden burst of naivety.
Rating:
Summary: Fun Clak and Dagger Space Adventure, Good Characters
Review: Recomendation: Buy (...) In the past, I have loved David Weber?s Honor Harrington series, but disliked his other work. I fund most of Weber's "Non-Honorverse" work to suffer from a common flaw in military science fiction. Everything was too scaled up and dramatic, everything involved a threat to the existence of humanity. The Honor Harrington books were a relief in part because at no point in the series was the existence of humanity in any danger.
I tended to like Eric Flint's novels at the beginning, but lost interest later. His books often seem to have an ideological slant that annoys me, and to start with a straightforward plot I like, than go in a different direction.
I was a little worried having Flint write in the Honorverse would introduce inconsistency, because the "bad guys" are often exaggerated liberals in the Honorverse.
I was relieved to see that this was NOT the case in _Crown of Slaves_. Flint was able to show a different side to the "bad guys" without introducing inconsistency or excessive polemics.
This book was a very good "cloak and dagger" novel set in the Honorverse just before the last Honor Harrington novel. It involves former spies from Haven and Manticore who go to Erewhon to vie for the allegiance of that potential ally, and get caught up in a conflict involving the genetic slave trade. The authors did a a great job at handling Machiavellian political scheming and elaborate plots. They also created some excellent characters, from the kind of plucky teenage heroines that L'Engle gave me a taste for to larger than life super-spies. There were also several characters from the Wrong Side of the Tracks. There were characters who were famously dangerous and could scare people with a look that reminded me of the protagonist from _Nightingale's Lament_. The "super spies" were super-competent enough to be heroic, but still managed to seem both human and plausible.
There were an unusual number of typos in the book, most were words that were followed by a synonym that was clearly supposed to have been deleted. There was a case where a character was portrayed as ruthless, than had a bout of conscience over something that had to be less ethically problematic than things he had done in the past. The end was satisfying, but marred by a sudden burst of naivety.
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