A Call to Duty

This book is placed several hundred years before the Honor Harrington series. At that time Manticore was just a little backwater kingdom of little interest. The story starts a little slowly – understandable as the writers have to introduce the characters and build the economic, political, and social situation of the time. However, it really gets going in the second half and provides a strong action finish (as we would expect from David Weber and Timothy Zahn).
Pretty good space opera with a strong military thread.