Rating: 
Summary: An Underrated Treasure
Review: After reading More Than Honor and some of the reviews about this book, I was not expecting to captivating a read. I was wrong...Big Time. This book is an equal of any other book in the HH series and also unique in its own right. Many of the stories in this book lack the big noises and flashing things of deep space combat. However I find it a welcome...rest. In short: read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Tasty, Yet Less Filling
Review: First off, let me state that the Honor Harrington series is one of the best things to happen to the science fiction field for quite awhile, at least since the quiet death of the cyberpunk movement. Military SF has been moving into vogue lately, and David Weber's work is the best of the lot. He has created a vivid, detailed, and intricate setting that remains internally consistent, which is no mean feat. He has also developed a large number of characters for whom the reader will feel a significant attachment.However, this short story collection, by various authors and including Mr. Weber, falls somewhat short of the mark, unless you really like "all treecats, all the time". The first story, "The Stray", is adequate but overly long because the same events are related from multiple points of view. Done well, this can be intriguing; here, it is simply annoying when it takes the injured human hero 40 pages to crawl to his aircar, especially as this takes place in a flashback, so we know that he made it. The last story, "Deck Load Strike", is much shorter but not terribly interesting. The good guys meet the bad guys and a short fight ensues. Yeah, this is the essence of the vast majority of SF, I suppose, but here it seemed to be stripped to its bare bones and the characters simply fail to come to life. Also, the timing of some of the events of the battle sequence are just plain odd. I mean, a century-old fish-factory ship launches aerial troop transports for the raid, yet somehow crosses many kilometers of ocean to arrive at the strike point at the same time? Fast ship. "What Price Dreams?" offers a nice glimpse of treecat society and a well-thought-out look at how bad guys set up their plots within plots with their high-tech resources. However, the two primary high points can be seen coming from miles away and are utterly predictable, albeit satisfyingly executed. "Queen's Gambit" provides some backstory for Honor's Manticoran monarch, Elizabeth III. While the conspiracy portions of the story are rather fascinating, the investigation aspect is a bit dull. Some of it seems so casually done that I kept expecting the Mystery Machine to pull up and disgorge Scooby Doo and friends, crying out, "Let's look for clues!" However, the resolution, with its balance of political compromises, is well depicted. Best of the bunch is "The Hard Way Home", which features Honor herself in a tale set previous to the series premiere. Here, treecats fortunately do not serve as the deus ex machina to save the day. And for a nice change of pace, the conflict is not military or political in nature, but rather humanity against the elements. Weber has a deft touch with characterization and can sketch out even supporting characters with just a few strokes. If you want to make your Honor Harrington collection complete, go ahead and pick this one up. But certainly, if you've never read any of the books, skip this one and start with "On Basilisk Station"--you'll be far better off.
Rating:
Summary: Manticore Tales
Review: For those of you new to David Weber, World of Honor has five tales in the universe of the Honor Harrington series (which started with On Basilisk Station). You *do not* need to have read the series to enjoy this book, though! One of the tales mention facts only brought to light in the nineth book of the series, but it is not really any spoiler, in my opinion. On the other hand, you _might_ want to read More Than Honor first, at least the "A Beautiful Friendship" tale before reading the treecat stories in this book. It gives a better sense of continuity. That, though, is entirely optional too. Now, for the stories in this book. The first story, The Stray, was described by some as a detective story. I disagree. While the main plot is, indeed, a detective story, most of it actually deals with Scott MacDallan's relationship with his treecat, his adoption, and a desperate fight for survival as Scott gets seriously wounded in the middle of nowhere. As for the adoption, it's not exactly how David Weber describes it in a few respects, but this is a minor detail. Man&Treecat vs Nature, treecat lifestyle, man & treecat relationships, that's what this tale is mostly about. The second tale, What Price Dreams, tells the story of the adoption of Princess Adrienne of Manticore, the first member of the royal family to get adopted by a treecat, and how Seeker of Dreams, said treecat, helps save Adrienne's life and her relationship with her father. It also kind of shows why members of the royal family can't get a life insurance. :-) The third tale, Queen's Gambit, shows how Queen Elizabeth III (the monarch at the start of the HH series) came to power, and how the people who plotted to get her there came to deeply regret it. Finally, it shows Her Majesty paying a high price for her throne. Fourth tale, The Hard Way Home, tells the story of the Attica Avalanche, when one XO Commander Harrington help save some lives. Actually, though, the show belongs to one Susan Hibson, a 12 years old girl. I'm afraid I haven't read the fifth tale, though, as it's not directly related to any of my favorite themes, nor written by Weber. All of the other stories are worth it, though, even if none would rate an "excellent".
Rating: 
Summary: Better than "More Than Honor"!
Review: Four Sci-Fi authors take you into the universe of Honor Harrington and the amazing treecats! David Weber wrote two of the stories himself. I found this book much better than "More Than Honor". You will see villages of treecats and find out how intellegent they REALLY are! My favorite story was one Weber wrote of a Princess being adopted by a treecat and how over a dozen treecats came to her rescue from an assasination attempt! I cannot tell you how WONDERFUL this book is. If you are not a David Weber fan, you will be converted into one after reading this book!
Rating:
Summary: More treecats and less fighting
Review: Honor Harrington now appears to be a franchise, something that makes me a little bit uncomfortable; however, my wife bought me this book, and I willingly read it, so that says something, I suppose. As my title indicates, these stories focus more on the treecats and less on Our Heroine. As a cat lover myself, I had little problem with this, and in fact the stories could pretty much be ordered in quality based on how much the treecats were involved. I thought the first two stories were the best. "The Stray" involves a brutal crime that a treecat helps to solve - in the early days of human contact when treecats were still very mysterious and not to be trusted. David Weber's "What Price Dreams?" is from a similar era and focuses on the appeal of humans to treecats. Both are emotional, bittersweet stories, rather different from the usual HH fare. "Queen's Gambit" focuses more on politics and the investigation of an assassination, but a treecat proves helpful nonetheless. This one wasn't quite as strong as the other two and seemed to end somewhat inconclusively, as if it would have been better as the first or middle third of a full novel rather than a story to itself. The last two I didn't like at all. Despite having Harrington as a major character (the only story of the five to do so), Weber's "The Hard Way Home" has a contrived situation (Harrington dealing with an officious boss first during a military exercise and then while trying to save the victims of a massive avalanche) and too many expository blurbs unaccompanied by progress in the story. And "Deck Load Strike" is simply dreadful: confusing and badly characterized, it reads about as I would imagine an imaginatively annotated description of a militaristic computer or board game would. My recommendation: buy the book only if you're fond of treecats and even then only read the first three stories.
Rating:
Summary: All but one ...
Review: I didn't know anything about Weber, or Harrington, or treecats last Friday night when I first picked this up, idly, at a local bookstore. By Saturday night, when I finished the last story, I still didn't know that much about Harrington (or care all that much, based on the glimpse in "The Hard Way Home,") -- but Treecats were a different proposition altogether -- and that's why I thought "Deck Load Strike" shouldn't even have been included in this book. Its only mention of treecats is in a metaphoric phrase more than three-quarters of the way into a story that, unfortunately, is just another tired old war tale in which ultimately only the bad guys survive, and nobody really wins. However ... the other stories make the book well worth the cover price. What I'd really like to see is a fleshing out of the tale by Linda Evans; "Hard Way Home" has a pair of interesting proto-protagonists, and "Queen's Gambit" is a lovely bit of insight into not just 'cat culture, but people culture too -- specifically, the awful pain people can inflict on one another in the name of love. "What Price Dreams" brought tears to my eyes. Now, if only the last whole useless story had been left out, this would be a gem of an introduction into Weber's universe of treecats, chivalric services, and all-too-human royal families. What didn't I like about the last story, besides the lack of treecats? It's gratuitously profane and vulgar, it has very little originality and its style was tired before Ernie Pyle ever saw his first battlefield with the WWII USMC. Green should be ashamed -- and so should Weber, for letting this junk pollute what could have been quite a pleasing read.
Rating:
Summary: what is wrong with this book?
Review: I find it hard to understand the other comments regarding Weber's skill at characterization. If there is anything that defines these books it is that his characters are completely flat, except for the tree cats which are just too cute and purrsome to take seriously. The stories were OK, some better than others. But without the sweeping Tom Clancy elements of the regular Harrington books, it seems rather, well, pointless. The best thing about Echoes Of Honor is that he is finally giving his heroes some worthwhile opponents, instead of the cardboard evildoers from the first few novels. The stories in this book are generally a step backwards in that regard.
Rating:
Summary: Only 2/5 Weber, but still pretty good
Review: I have read four of the five "short" stories in this book, and even though only two were written by David Weber, I've found it an enjoyable and worthwhile read. In contrast, I thought the non-Weber stories in "More Than Honor" to be sub-par. Definitely not the case here. One interesting point: the authors have done a nice job of integrating elements of the previous stories, presenting a seamless backdrop. All in all, this is a pretty good book--not a substitute for the sequel to "Echoes of Honor," perhaps, but a good book nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing. Like a disconnected TV serial.
Review: I just finished this book. Kept going because I kept hoping something would happen toward the end that would mean something. This book starts out promising. There are some wonderful character developments and the treecat species focus prepares one for an adventure with depth. Nothing of the kind takes place. The multiple authors end up degrading the characterization of this species (Weber in "The Hard Way Home" turns them from a highly sentient species into simple superannuated pets) and ends up dropping it entirely in the last story. The book hangs together and develops for the first two "chapter stories". But why Weber just dropped it after? The only thing I can think of is that he needed enough material to fill a contract in order to satisfy his publisher and makes some money. But the result is junk. It is worse because it obviously could have been a real book that went somewhere instead of flopping to the ground like a dead fish. My advice is to go to a bookstore and read "The Stray" and "What Price Dreams?" Which are the first two, then leave this one on the shelf if you bother to read it at all.
Rating:
Summary: treecats, TREECATS, and humans.../ethics in the kingdom
Review: I needed to get to sleep, but kept telling myself I'd read just one more story. I was so mad when one story didn't have a treecat in it, that it took a second reading to see.. The great wonder of Weber's universe isn't that Honor Harrington exists. It's that she is valued by the ordinary citizens of her day. This book shows some of how that respect for ethics became bedrock in the kingdom. (As opposed to USA history, i.e. get the resources away from the Amerindians - who has the most gold rules.) The kingdom's villains (Great heroes need great villains to oppose..) have an additional handicap, treecats. And the short stories limited space hurt, villains remain shadowy figures here. At least there weren't any cardboard cutout clowns (Peeps) as in Drake's story from 'More than Honor.' Well worth owning for all the stories, but the first two are the best.
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