Rating: 
Summary: Dot the I's Cross the T's and Flint's Story is Great!
Review: ((Initial revelation of potential non-disinterest: I am David Weber's elder brother.))First, while i think the cover's better than the one on "Worlds of Honor", it's still not right -- those legs belong on a tree-antelope, not a tree-cat. "But what's *in* it?", right? This is another anthology, featuring three stories by Dave and one by Eric Flint. The first story is "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington". ((For a couple of reasons - ease of speaking being a major one, tradition another -- i think i'd have said "misdhipman", but it's Dave's call -- his world, his ranks.)) The story of Honor's "Snotty" cruise, it fills in the background on remarks she makes during "Among Enemies" about having been on pirate-chasing missions in Silesia. As usual, with Honor onboard, what ought to have been a relatively routine cruise with a bit of action and not much danger turns into something else. ((I mean, finding out you'll be serving with Honor Harrington is like being a cop in a small town finding out that Jessica Fletcher is visiting...)) And Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington finds that she must rise to the occasion when disaster strikes. This story is a little more open and clear about the political maneuvering between the "working" Navy and the "timeserving" Navy (my terms) in which Honor's career is already inevitably enmeshed, long before she knows it or of it. Also it has a Villain. I'll be writing a longer review for my new website, wherein i'll go into my thoughts on Villains vs. Bad Guys in Dave's stories. (By my reckoning, Rob Pierre is a Bad Guy -- Pavel Young is a Villain. Wossname who was behind the Dome failure is a Bad Guy [though with villainous tendencies] -- his dupe who Honor kills is a Villain.) Second story is "Changer of Worlds", which has been available for more than a year on my family website by David's kind permission; it's the story of Laughs Brightly, bondmated to Cloud Dancer, who returns to his clan bringing Golden Voice, his new mate. We know these people a bit better under other names, suffice to say. (Hint -- one of them is also known as "Nimitz") (Skipping the Eric Flint story for right now, we get to Dave's third, "Nightfall".) "Nightfall" is one of those stories that eventually has to be told in some form, if only as footnotes in some other work, i guess, but which i'd as soon not read. Despite the fact that there's a rather nasty little slice of spacewar let loose planetside in a major city, it's pretty much a static story of coup and countercoup and political maneuver. We aready know the fates, if not descriptions of the actual events, of a number of characters from other books. "Nightfall" is the actual events. I found it uninvolving and unneeded. Now, back to Eric Flint's "From the Highlands", which is, i think, the best piece of pure storytelling more or less for its own sake in the book. All of the other three stories are there to plug holes in the canon, and read more or less like that. "Highlands", while it chronicles events that may well be as important in the future history of Manticore and Haven as the other three, just reads like a story Flint wanted to tell; in which we look at the ways Gryphon's Highlanders are like Scotland's. Involving conflicting and complex loyalties personal, patriotic and political, it revolves around the kidnapping of a fourteen-year-old girl whose father, a Gryphon Highlander, is an Intelligence Analyst attached to Manticore's Embassy in the Solarian League's capital city, Chicago. Not just any fourteen-year-old girl; we've seen her before, when she was four or so, asking her weeping father if Mama had made them all safe from the bad Peeps. And she is everything her mother's daughter should be -- she's already working on escape from her kidnappers when first we meet her. Before the story is over, we will be involved with Helen's father, with her martial arts instructor, with Havenite and Manticoran Ambassadors and their respective Security Chiefs, a young Peep SS Intelligence Field Officer who faces a personal crisis of identity (he actually believes in the ideals of the Revolution), a dissipated Peep Marine Colonel who is rather more, various genetically-engineered "super-soldiers" and revolutionary former slaves and an expatriate, far-leftist Manticoran noblewoman, one of only three people kicked out of the House of Lords by vote of their peers. Stir thoroughly, apply igniter and stand well back till the flames die down. Serve hot. I give the book three stars overall; just the first three stories would have gotten four, just the Weber stories alone about three stars. Good solid reading till the next novel, but it goes by awfully dismayingly and disappointingly quickly, which is one of the problems of a fast pace.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining look into Harrington's world
Review: A collection of stories about Honor Harrington, the heroine of the popular space warfare series, this book provides solid entertainment for the fans of Mr. Weber. A Weber story of Honor's first cruise, combined with a treecat's view of some of the series developments, plus the story of McQueen's rebellion, form the bulk of this collection. Eric Flint provides a separate story, more loosely connected but still in the world and times of Honor's series. Due to Weber's heavy contribution, this collection is more consistent and integrated than earlier Honor's World anthologies. --inotherworlds.com
Rating:
Summary: Honor, Treecats and Politics
Review: Changer is worth having, bottom line. Ok? It's on the keeper shelf, and I had to move my sagas (the real thing) to fit it and begin leaving room for the next set of Honor Harringtons. Now to what's good and bad. Again, I complain that the treecats are getting too cute. I'm sorry, David, but they just aren't plausible to me. Not because of size, or a great many other easy objections, covered with a certain amount of neatness in the "teach them to sign" part of Ashes of Victory. I just can't quite believe in them as written. Annoying, by the bye, because I really want to believe in the treecat sentience. Sigh. Their society doesn't feel workable, as it is shown. Granted, oral history can be remarkably accurate up to 500 years back, and sometimes, in traditional societies without literacy, there are feats of memorization that astound us urban, literate types. I am objecting here to feel - it's all too damn pat. So anyway, onward. I really loved Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington, even if I did nearly type in Hornblower. I liked the portrait of an incompetent and cruel superior, who needed to be worked around by the command. I'm glad they did. Honor gets to be a hero - we knew she had been from early in her career - and handle having command fall on her head in a bad situation in a beautiful bit of space combat. I loved that - the whole battle sequence was so well written I was literally holding my breath until spots began dancing before my eyes. Very, very good stuff! Nightfall answered my objection in Ashes of Victory that Weber shouldn't kill off major characters off-stage. I enjoyed it, though I admit that knowing the ending kind of took the edge of tension off it. I rooted for Esther McQueen. I did think Weber offed Rob S. Pierre a little to fast and casual, but it was well written and I wish the sequence could have made it into Ashes. Although given the length of that book, perhaps that was a good editorial decision on Weber's part. Does it sound like I've been holding off on commenting on Eric Flint's contribution? I'm afraid I have been. Now, to be absolutely fair: Flint's "about the author" description describes him as an unregenerate Trotskyist. Having spent my college career on the Soviets, and exploring the really interesting splitting of semi-Marxist sects in America, I have developed some very strong opinions, and they aren't flattering to the ideology and its true believers. It makes me uneasy to comment on From the Highlands because it was better written than many of Flint's other efforts, and he didn't editorialize quite so badly. Oh, yeah, he did editorialize and lecture the reader, mostly about politics and who should believe what. I liked the plot, I liked the writing (and I'm thrilled that Flint managed to restrain his verbal tics, this time out) and the action sequences. The combat was good. Now, my objections crystalized in the moment where Flint has the State Sec officer heroically standing as a true defender of the Revolution, hard as steel. ARGH! To reach a truly disgusting level of brutality, bring on the knights of the revolution. Anybody remember Felix Dzerzhinski besides me? Anybody remember what Trotsky did to restore discipline in the Red Army in 1920? The defenders of the revolution will cut your throat quite impersonally. Isn't that nice, to know that you were just of the wrong class, or in the wrong place? That style of politics, the Gryphon Highlanders one and all haters of their aristocracy, and willing to contemplate blood feud. The renegade noblewoman (oh, please, can we please lose the notion that this is somehow a great thing?) who views her class through that particular lens (let's not forget that the notion of a class traitor, once introduced, however positively, leads inexorably to the negative and justifies a lot of bad stuff)and the Solly masses being kept down, dumb, and ignorantly happy...ARGH! again. Look, it's not that it wasn't fun. But the century just past has made me wary as can be of ideology (I almost misspelled that on purpose but decided it would be too cute), and the notion that all a messianic movement needs is pure enough hearts willing to defend it. Flint managed to make a mess of my enjoyment of the story with this, and I wanted to cry. I wanted to just enjoy the story, and I got this. So much for my opinions. I'd give this a four if Flint had managed to restrain his politics.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly above average--avoid the 'cats
Review: CHANGER OF WORLDS includes four short stories and novellas set in Honor Harrington's universe. Best of the four is FROM THE HIGHLANDS written by Eric Flint. A Manticoran captain joins with renegade Havenites, antislavery solarians, and a disgraced Manticoran noblewoman to rescue his daughter from kidnappers. To succeed, he must fight ethnic supermen, the Havenite SS, his own command chain dominated by the Manticore conservatives, and the local police. Excellent. Honor fans won't want to miss Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington--the beginning of Honor's career and nearly the end of it as she must face a superior officer bent on destroying her as well as external enemies. Relying on her leadership and skills rather than on conveniently discovered superweapons, this is classic Honor Harrington on a small scale. From a historical perspective, Nightfall is essential to the Honor continuity. It deals with the internal struggle between Admiral McQueen and Saint-Juste and defines the direction for the Havenite government. Way below average is the title story--Changer of Worlds. The treecats are cute and smart and all but this entire short story is simply a dialogue between a bunch of cats. Nothing happens, no character development takes place. The story merely describes the 'cats' decision to send the new colony of 'cats to follow Honor. Yawn. Read it if you love those 'cats--it is thankfully short after all.
Rating: 
Summary: Again, the Worlds of Honor
Review: Changer of Worlds is the third anthology in the Worlds of Honor series. This volume contains four stories, three by David Weber and one by Eric Flint. Only the first story is about Honor herself. Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington by David Weber describes Honor's middy cruise with the HMS War Maiden on pirate-chasing duty in Silesia. It proves to be rather more interesting than usual and the Salamander finds herself in the hottest of combat for the first time. Changer of Worlds by David Weber tells what happens one afternoon while Honor babysits the kits for Nimitz and Samantha. From the Highlands by Eric Flint discloses the actual events underlying the Manpower Incident in Chicago on Old Earth. It all starts when somebody kidnaps Anton Zilwicki's daughter Helen. That was their first mistake, but hardly the last. Nightfall by David Weber depicts the last days of the Rob Pierre government and the consequences of making assumptions. These tales fill in some of the backstory and show other points of view within the main story arc. They enrich the universe and allow minor characters in the main story to take center stage. Highly recommended for Honor Harrington fans and anyone else who enjoys science fiction stories about spatial combat, alien societies, special ops or political intrigue.
Rating:
Summary: Again, the Worlds of Honor
Review: Changer of Worlds is the third anthology in the Worlds of Honor series. This volume contains four stories, three by David Weber and one by Eric Flint. Only the first story is about Honor herself. Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington by David Weber describes Honor's middy cruise with the HMS War Maiden on pirate-chasing duty in Silesia. It proves to be rather more interesting than usual and the Salamander finds herself in the hottest of combat for the first time. Changer of Worlds by David Weber tells what happens one afternoon while Honor babysits the kits for Nimitz and Samantha. From the Highlands by Eric Flint discloses the actual events underlying the Manpower Incident in Chicago on Old Earth. It all starts when somebody kidnaps Anton Zilwicki's daughter Helen. That was their first mistake, but hardly the last. Nightfall by David Weber depicts the last days of the Rob Pierre government and the consequences of making assumptions. These tales fill in some of the backstory and show other points of view within the main story arc. They enrich the universe and allow minor characters in the main story to take center stage. Highly recommended for Honor Harrington fans and anyone else who enjoys science fiction stories about spatial combat, alien societies, special ops or political intrigue.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the price just for Flint's story.
Review: First of all, I should say that I loved the first Harrington books so much, I would probably buy any book with David Weber's name on it. Granted, some of the later works have been a little less stellar, but the overall story still has me hooked. Now, on to the contents of this anthology. Three of the stories are by The Man himself, so I will discuss those first. MS. MIDSHIPWOMAN HARRINGTON is a little piece detailing some of Honor's early exploits against Silesian pirates and Manticoran bigots. Solidly written, it will no doubt provide a base for future short stories or novels set before Basilisk Station. CHANGER OF WORLDS is the first Harrington story told from the point of view of the 'cats. In it we learn Nimitz and Samantha's real names as they visit Nimitz's clan prior to the birth of their 'kittens. This story verifies some of the theories floated in previous novels as to why treecats decided to settle en masse on Grayson. Like some of the other reviewers, I enjoyed NIGHTFALL as a stand-alone story. It describes in much greater detail Esther McQueen's aborted coup attempt. While I was glad to learn more about the incident, however, I feel that this should rightfully have been told as part of a novel format. Perhaps if it had been switched for some of the endless backstory in ASHES OF HONOR, I would feel better about both books. Finally, Eric Flint's FROM THE HIGHLANDS is a nearly uncredited gem of a story. (You won't find his name anywhere on the cover.) We get to learn what happened to Anton Zilwicki after the death of his Navy-hero wife; it turns out he became a spy and went to Earth. When his daughter is kidnapped, several convergent story lines spring into action, leading to political disillusionment, True Romance, rioting in the streets, an assassination or two, and a general warm fuzzy feeling. I would be delighted if Flint wrote more in this vein, especially if he returned to characters like idealistic SS officer Victor Cachat. This could also be a chance for a lot of Weber fans to check out more of Flint's body of work. I know I will. To sum up, the three Weber stories are fine appendages to his books. For the most part, they detail events already described in general. While they stand up fairly well as individual stories, they don't really compare to Flint's tale.
Rating:
Summary: A must for Honor Harrington fans!
Review: For all you Honor Harrington fans out there, listen up! This is a collection of stories worth reading! Most are written by David Weber, himself. The first story, my personal favorite, is about Honor and her quirky pet treecat before the first book of the series began! It was Honor on her first ship tour as Midshipwoman! This book is a must for all Honor Harrington fans! Not just a bunch of short stories either. Each story is like a small book. Don't expect ten pages per story, expect seventy-five or more! An exciting book that will tame the hunger of fans until Mr. Weber gets the next Honor story out. Highly recommended reading!
Rating:
Summary: What Else Is Happening
Review: I gave this book 5 stars because I couldn't give it 4-1/2, which would have been my preference. I thought all of the stories in the collection were strong, especially "Changer of Worlds" and "From the Highlands," and I found all of them very appropriate offerings for those of us who have been following Honor from the beginning. Dave has said repeatedly that there will never be a novel set earlier than On Basilisk Station, so these short pieces are obviously where he intends to fill in the back story, and so far, I think, he's done an excellent job of just that. In addition, he and the authors he invites in clearly are also using the stories as a way to fill us in on what else is happening contemperaneously to the Honor-centered events we see in the novels. In this collection, this is particularly true of Flint's "From the Highlands," which I thought was an extraordinarily good piece of work. While I suppose one should hesitate to differ with the author's brother, I found "Nightfall" stood very much on its own merits, not just as a piece to fill in around the novel. I can't disagree with the observation that it's something of a downer, but it also deals with what is in many ways the endgame of a revolution which has been a downer from the outset. One thing I rather regret is that the title story -- "Changer of Worlds" -- has been available on-line for so long. I think it loses some of its punch for those of us who were thoroughly familiar with it before it actually saw print. For those readers who HAVEN'T already read it, however, you have a major treat in store for you. And as for "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington" ... What can I say? This is vintage Honor of the On Basilisk Station/Honor of the Queen variety. Not only does it fill in more background on the Star Kingdom's military build-up and the "old boy" aristocratic mutual support society which operated so strongly in the RMN before the war, but it's also a ripsnorting action tale that shows our Honor to best advantage. It's not as strong as one of Dave's novels, no. But it's a darn good read, anyway, and I strongly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I have read what is available of this book ...and all I have to say is this book looks wonderful. The book is a collection of short stories (three by David Weber and one by Eric Flint, I believe), and they cover both the early career of Honor Harrington and the exploits of several secondary characters mentioned a few books ago. Bravo to Mr. Weber for his wonderful stories. Bravo also to Mr. Flint for his short story (more like novella)! Now I just have to wait for the next book!Thank you!
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