Uncompromising Honor

This review is for the EARC.

I have to say that this is ultimately an anti-climactic ending to this arc Honor Harrington's story. I don't believe for an instant that this is the last we'll see of Honor. In fact, I seem to remember reading somewhere that the fight with the Solarian League was supposed to be Raoul's and Katherine's story, and I have to believe that David Weber just shifted some plans so that they can be front and center in dealing with the Mesan Alignment.

Oh, yeah. Spoiler alert: The whole Mesan Alignment thing is not resolved by the end of this.

Some good things about this book. First, there are essentially two climaxes (well, two big ones and a little one). One happens about halfway through and is pretty awesome. The other happens about three-quarters the way through, and while it's gripping, it's pretty horrifying. Second, when Honor is in it, Honor is IN it. Third, the Solarian League finally learns what it means to piss off the Salamander.

That being said, there are also some things I didn't like. There's way too much talky-talky. I like the politics of the series, but there's just too much of it going on. For a book named after the main character of the series and for a mainline book of the series, the title character isn't in it very much. Frankly, she's not in either of the big climactic moments. She's the star of the third and final climax, but that one is way overshadowed by the other two. Oh, and big character death and un-death revelation fell kind of flat. Who didn't see that coming?

Ultimately, nothing I say here is going to make a difference in whether you read the book. If you've made it through 13 books in the Honor Harrington series, you're going read book 14. I just wouldn't expect to come out of this one completely satisfied. A bunch of storylines are wrapped up. A bunch of hints are dropped for the next series. I can't wait to find out more about Raoul, and he's not even two years old yet. But the nasty Mesan Alignment is still out there with whatever nefarious plan they have.

I'm always looking forward to more in this universe, and I don't see that changing. I just didn't love this one as much as I should love the ending of Honor's arc.