Book review: Mission of Honor (Honor Harrington series, Weber)
Unspoilered reaction: WOW. Talk about being worth the wait. This book seems a little like a return to some of the earlier days. For one thing, it's only 583 pages in hardcover. It was a pretty tight read, and towards the last third, I had a really hard time tearing myself away from it to do other stuff. There's a lot of tech stuff that I probably could have lived without knowing. He's done a much better job of writing Honor/Hamish (there are no naked tickle fights in this one, for example). And of course, it wouldn't be a David Weber book if he didn't kill people off.
Spoilers:
Well, let's see. What doesn't happen in this one? In general, Weber takes what has been the arc for the last eleven books - the war with the People's Republic of Haven - and TURNS IT ON ITS HEAD. I mean, I know he started peace negotiations in the last book, but I think we all knew that wasn't really going to happen. Then we had the Battles of Lovat and Manticore, in which we lost a ton of people, but Manticore remained victorious.
A lot of people, nameless people, die. Weber brings Mesa into things with a oh-God-he-went-there attack against Manticoran space and kills a lot of people. A lot. There's a neat little montage of reaction as it's happening, and by "neat", I mean "wrenching".
The Mesans BLOW THE ORBITAL SPACE STATIONS OUT OF ORBIT. TO PIECES. FOUR MILLION DEAD. Oh, and while the Mesans aren't willing to breach the Eridani Edict against planetary bombardment, they don't mind if some pieces ACCIDENTALLY hit the planet below. Sphinx gets hit bad. As in, an entire clan of treecats killed off bad. Not to mention the whole part where he kills all but five of Honor Harrington's extended Harrington family members ( her parents, siblings, and the kids are not included in the 5). We've never met most of the dead Harringtons - I think the only one we've even really seen on screen is Devon, the cousin who inherits when she's "killed" by the Peeps.
That's not the part that made this the second book by David Weber that made me cry.
In the Sphinx-gets-hit section, he also kills off Miranda LaFollett (she's at the gathering of Harringtons)... and he kills Colonel Andrew LaFollett. He doesn't jerk us around quite as much on that one - or it didn't hit me as hard as Alistair McKeon dying in At All Costs. It still hit hard. That made me cry, just a little. Probably because he scares the reader by giving you the really dreading feeling that he's killed off Allison and Raoul, and then hits you with Andrew's death, in the line of duty, ensuring that Allison and Raoul are safely ejected before he gets out. The part that had me tearing up was this:
Yet that gift came at the price of a dark and personal agony, for it was the last gift, the last miracle, Andrew LaFollett would ever give her. And now, the last - and the most beloved - of her original Grayson armsmen was gone.
I made him Raoul's armsman to keep him safe. To keep him away from me, from the way people keep dying for me. The thought trickled through the tearing anguish. I tried. God, I tried to keep him safe.
But she'd failed.
The Honor/Hamish deal is much better, there's not really a "romantic" bit until page 474... and then he has to tell her and us about Sphinx, and Andrew. Hamish also gets a look at part of Honor he's never had to see.
There is a really good reflection on how Hamish and Honor feel like they've failed in what should have been their foremost duty, and dealing with it, without going to stupidly martyr-complex guilt trip land.
Honor is out of the ships, and off negotiating on Haven for a good chunk of the book.
There is one bit I felt was missing, where they wrap up Captain Zilwicki being out of the loop for six months or so - I would have liked to see a reunion between him and Cathy Montaigne.
Is this the first book that Michelle Henke has had all the names spelled out? Sometimes he gets a little over the top there. Regardless, Admiral Henke gets to Kick Some Ass. She also has a certain Captain Tremaine as one of her cruiser division commanders... and his flagship is the Alistair McKeon. Sorry. I am an unapologetic McKeon fangirl, and have been since he pulled himself out of that console about Fearless. I used to say that if he or Rafe Cardones were killed, I'd probably give the series up. Well, that didn't happen. I'm glad, because this book was worth it.
There wasn't much of a Grayson focus in this one - although Lieutenant Hearns is back in action. There's a brief part that takes place on Grayson but nothing that really moves the story along. The Mesans bring the same sort of attack to Grayson that they do in the Manticoran home system, and it's not as bad. The only major casualty in that one is High Admiral Wesley Matthews, who we met all the way back in The Honor of the Queen. Judah Yanakov is replacing him, which might prove interesting...
Some people feel like there's not enough action, and it is more political than military, but damn it is GOOD. I just hope we don't have to wait almost five years for the next one.
I'm looking forward to seeing where things go from here, and I really need to check out Honor Harrington fanfic. Because if there was ever a universe that would be ripe for fanfic, I think this would be it. There's not much focus on the interaction of people, and ... yeah, like I need another fandom.