War of Honor by David Weber (Honor Harrington #10)

Review written 2003

I'm not particularly fond of novels written with too many shifts in point of
War of Honor is not as action-packed as most of the previous novels in the series, but rather tells the tale of the deadly political game behind the action. The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the empire formerly known as the People's Republic of Haven are in an uneasy truce as the story begins. The Havenites are desperately trying to restore a semblance of democracy to their formerly totalitarian government, and the story of the political struggle of President Esther McQueen and her ally, Defense Minister Thomas Theisman, with her Secretary of State, who desires power for himself, is the main focus of those scenes set in the Republic.

Theisman's people have labored hard in secret to restore technological and numerical parity with the Manticoran fleet, and they must decide exactly how to use their new ships and equipment. In the Star Kingdom, the North Hollow government and its liberal allies have been busy disassembling the machinery of war to support their domestic social and economic programs. Harrington and her allies have been rendered nearly powerless, and are further hindered, as the story develops, by orchestrated attacks on their personal and private reputations.

While the Star Kingdom focused on the war with the Peeps, the Andermani Empire has grown ambitious, and piracy in the Silesian Confederacy has gotten out of control. This one slowly builds to a burn. Duplicitous behavior by McQueen's Secretary of State derails the peace negotiations, and the fiscal policies of the Manticoran government erode its ability to defend itself, when the Havenites launch a preemptive strike. The book is quite long, around 800 pages, but should provide you with many hours of enjoyment, as the tension builds to a climax. The way it ends, I expect we'll be seeing more of Honor fairly soon.
view. Occasionally, however, I find one that is written well enough to keep my attention despite the changes. War of Honor, the latest in the Honor Harrington series, is one of those.