This is the worst Honor Harrington novel I have read.It reminds me of many American TV series that start out great, then the writers run out of ideas so they introduce the most bizarre and stupid characters and plotlines in an effort to cover up they have no idea what they are doing. If this fails then simply kill off as many characters as you can in the hope that this will distract the audience so they don’t realise you have haven’t a clue what you are doing.This book has too many plotlines that appear from nowhere and too many inconsistencies. I’m sure he ran out of workable ideas and is now just plucking any new idea out of the air and just sticking it into the story without checking if it fits with the information he has already included in previous books. On top of this he has fallen into his old habit of padding out every conversation or thought with pages and pages on inconsequential waffle. Characters endlessly debate decisions backwards and forwards again and again for no reason. Part of my problem is that the basic story is excellent and makes me want to find out the ending even though I often hate the way he gets there.In some ways I wish I could just stop reading these books, as I get so frustrated, unfortunately I’m hooked on Honor Harrington so I will probably read the next book, but I look forward to it as much as going to the dentist. I like strong female leads in books and David Weber’s Honor Harrington is one of the strongest. I always look forward to the next novel in this series and have thoroughly enjoyed most of the spin off books as well. The political situation greatly enriches the military one and Weber always provides enough acts of heroic daring and dastardly infamy to keep me happy. My one complaint is that the later novels in the series have run too long and this lessens both the tension and the impact of the great action scenes. I’d like to see Weber try to reduce his word count by about twenty percent and give the reader a tighter story. Not that I won’t anxiously read the sequel however long it is.
A good book that gets us back to having people blowing fleets up. But it could do with a tighter focus on the main characters and a bit of a shove on the getting on with the story stakes. The ending had me wondering wtf happened the next chapter. Yes it's that much of a sudden stop that I can't even call it a cliffhanger. If this wasn't part of such a great story to date I'd have quit after the battle of manticore. It feels like the ring of fire series, in need of a good shake
—melissarose
The book i have been waiting to read. Weber wrote three books leading up the significance of the events which happens in this book. At the end it didn't have the on the edge feel after all this build up. By stretching it so much the excitement was lost.Also the over explanation of plots and the many different point of view just add pages without the fun part. I am reading the series just to get to the end of it.
—Karinaaa
Honor is in for the fight of her life. Fascinating military tactical story.
—xiran
Back into being a fun read.
—Haris
