Beginnings

Worlds of Honor #6

by David Weber

The hottest military science fiction series of all time continues with a collection of tales by New York Times bestselling authors Timothy Zahn, Charles E. Gannon, David Weber and more, set in Weber's Honor Harrington Series.

The hottest military science fiction series of all time continues. The mission: to boldly explore David Weber's Honorverse; to deliver all the action, courage, derring-do, and pulse-pounding excitement of space naval adventure with tales set in a world touched by the greatness of one epic heroine: Honor Harrington. This sixth volume in the popular Worlds of Honor series includes stories by 1635: Papal Stakes coauthor and best seller Charles E. Gannon, New York Times bestseller and Star Wars phenomenon, Timothy Zahn and Joelle Presby. It's rounded out with an all-new David-Weber-authored novella featuring a young Manticoran Royal Navy commander who goes by the name Harrington.

Genres: Science Fiction, Military Science Fiction, Fiction, Military Fiction, Anthologies, Space Opera, Short Stories

377 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2013

About the author

David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952.

Many of his stories have military, particularly naval, themes, and fit into the military science fiction genre. He frequently places female leading characters in what have been traditionally male roles.

One of his most popular and enduring characters is Honor Harrington whose alliterated name is an homage to C.S. Forester's character Horatio Hornblower and her last name from a fleet doctor in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander . Her story, together with the "Honorverse" she inhabits, has been developed through 16 novels and six shared-universe anthologies, as of spring 2013 (other works are in production). In 2008, he donated his archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.

Many of his books are available online, either in their entirety as part of the Baen Free Library or, in the case of more recent books, in the form of sample chapters (typically the first 25-33% of the work).

http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidw...

Reviews

[LeisureSuitLarry · Rating 3 out of 5]

On a story by story basis:

1. By the Book - Charles Gannon: I have no idea what this has to do with the Honorverse. The only connections are Earth, space, and a postscript written by a Ph.D. on Haven. It's a reasonably good sci-fi story, but it's not really Honorverse.

2. A Call to Arms - Timothy Zahn: This is more like it. Early RMN story of some action you've never heard of. It's recognizable as as Honorverse and well written.

3. Beauty and the Beast - David Weber: The story of Alfred Harrington and Allison Chou. Great story. Provides a lot of depth to momma and daddy Harrington.

4. Best Laid Plans - David Weber: Probably the story we've all been waiting for: how Honor met Nimitz. Very nice.

5. Obligated Service - Joelle Presby: This one felt really gritty to me, and the main character is a little bleak. It definitely shows a little of the dark side of both Grayson and Manticoran officers.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my least favorite of the anthologies set in the Honor Harrington series.

The first story "By the Book" by Charles Gannon doesn't feel like the Honorverse at all. It is set in Earth's Solar System and is a political screed against the Greens who, at the time of the story, control a world-wide government on Earth. I felt that the author had written this story and then decided that maybe he could sell it to this anthology by adding an epilogue where a Havenite academic is commenting on the historic period.

The second story "A Call to Arms" by Timothy Zahn was better. It is set in an early part of Manticore's history, when Manticore is not yet seen as a strong military power, and when the Navy is dominated by aristocrats building or maintaining their power bases rather than with fighting a war. (In Honor's time, these officers still existed but were not the majority.)

The third and fourth stories "Beauty and the Beast" and "Best Laid Plans" by David Weber are good, but the suspense is limited because most readers already know how they will end. "Beauty and the Beast" is how Alfred Harrington and Alison Chou meet. Since they are Honor's parents, it's clear from the beginning that they will fall in love and get married. I found the mental link between them to be odd, since there is no indication of this is in any of the other books where they appear. "Best Laid Plans" is how Honor is adopted by Nimitz.

The final story "Obligated Service" by Joelle Presby was confusing. The main character is a Grayson woman who has completed training at Saganami Island and is now serving in the Grayson Navy (so obviously set after Abigail Hearns) but she doesn't seem to want to stay in the Navy. I had a hard time accepting that she would have gotten through the Academy with this sort of attitude, or even that she would have been accepted there in the first place.

[Timothy Maguire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to open this review with three open letters to the people responsible for Beginnings:

Dear Charles E Gannon,

I have no doubt that if you look hard enough on the campus you work on, you will find one or more 'Green' or environmental groups. I would like to suggest that you attend one of their meetings. You do not need to really do anything there, though some engagement would not do much harm. I am sure you will find no one suggesting a one-state government, especially not one that engages in historical revisionism, scientific denialism or political purges.
As you might imagine, I found your portrayal of 'Greens' as willing to engage in all of the above as more than a little offensive. While By The Book was flawed in many other ways, your inclusion of such lazy, inaccurate strawmen politics was simply the final straw. I have no doubt that your story was included in Beginnings to increase readers' awareness of your work and on that front, it is not hard not to say that it failed. Next time, you may wish to base your story on something more than personal prejudices.

Yours faithfully,

Timothy Maguire

Dear David Weber,

Over fifteen years ago, I found your book Heirs to Empire in my local library. It was, quite simply, an eye-opener, making me want to write my own novels. Since then, I have ravenously consumed your body of work. While I won't pretend I have enjoyed every single one, that's always been due to my own personal preferences.
Yet it is hard not to say that for the first time I've been disappointed by one of your books. Beginnings' inclusion of Charles E Gannon's By the Book was quite simply embarrassing. Beyond the offensive stereotypes it uses as villains, the sheer blatantness by which it is crudely welded into the Honorverse is an insult to the intelligence of everyone reading it. I have no doubt that its inclusion was the idea of the editors at Baen, but it simply reflects poorly upon you that you went along with it.

Yours faithfully,

Timothy Maguire

Dear Baen editorial team,

I get that you consider yourself to be a right-wing publishing house. It's hard not to think so when you publish Tea-party handbooks after all. Yet, I have to ask: why are you so willing to let it be such utter dross?
By The Book is, quite frankly, a bad story. It's driven by lazy, often poorly thought-out ideas, relies on a central character so bland you can almost see through him and is so badly tied to the Honorverse it's supposed to be set in that you can all but see the lines where it was converted across. This isn't the first time you seem to have published something based on its politics and I suppose it's better that it's just one short story rather than some of your other howlers (The Last Centurion, anyone?).
I'd like to suggest a new position in your editorial team: Quality Control Officer. This doesn't really need to be a new staff member, but it should probably be someone who doesn't attend the local Tea Party rallies. Their job would be, quite simply, to point out when you're letting your enthusiasm for an author's opinions blind you to the failings of their writing. I think you'll find it helps.

Yours sincerely,

Timothy Maguire

PS: I was a little disappointed to see that you didn't bother including Joelle Presby's bio on Beginnings' dust jacket. Given that her story was the highlight of this book, that's a little sad. As it's also a commentary on institutionalised sexism, it's also a little embarrassing when she's the only woman writing in the book.

++++

I'm sure by now it's clear that I wasn't hugely impressed by Beginnings, but why? Let's get down to the basics.

Beginnings is the 6th Worlds of Honor anthology published in David Weber's Honorverse, collecting five stories themed around 'beginnings'. Two of these were written by David Weber himself, with Joelle Presby, Timothy Zahn and Charles E Gannon providing one each. So I'll go over each one individually as the quality varies wildly.

By The Book
Charles E Gannon
1 Star

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that my opinion of this is very clear already, but I do need to at least explain my loathing for this. I'll try and keep it short, but this is one flawed story. To be honest, if I was asked to teach a course on Creative Writing, By The Book would be on the syllabus as an example of how not to do it. In short, it's a generic story told very badly whose sole redeeming feature it that it's utterly irrelevant to the universe it's set in.

By The Book's constant flaw is that it's generic in all the worst ways. It's about the exploits of a rebellious captain serving under an evil regime. It's about the conflict between those living on Earth and those living in space. It's about determining the fate of the human race. The plot is a who-dunnit in space that relies almost entirely on supposition rather than anything that looks convincingly like investigation. Stop me if you've seen this before. It's the second longest story in the book (Only one of Weber's own is longer) and I honestly couldn't tell you why.

It's also told spectacularly badly. Virtually ever political group and label has to be laboriously explained to our fearless lead, because he's somehow managed to get to a high rank in a highly political military without learning any of it. The villains are strawmen we never see during the course of the novel. The finale basically invents an explanation for everything that's happened that conveniently allows the hero to determine the fate of the human race. A minor plot point relies on the entire cast failing to understand the basic concept of quarantine (in short, the main character completely violates the quarantine he himself put into place). The main character is somehow a decent guy, totally lacking the inane stupidity that drives the rest of the 'Dirtsiders'. This is, of course, due to him being brought up by a bunch of people who still believe in the US Constitution.

The sole solace of this story is also one of it's worse features. The only connection between By The Book and the Honorverse it's supposed to be set in is a crudely taped-on epilogue, giving a historian's perspective on how this affected the history of the Honorverse (spoiler alert: it didn't). This is one of the laziest ways to connect two stories I've ever seen. Add in the fact that it's also not very well written (on a scale with the rest of the story, to be honest) and well it's all a bit of a waste. It's entirely obvious that the epilogue was added on afterwards and solely to tie it to the Honorverse. The only good thing that comes from it is that you can easily pretend the whole thing has nothing to do with the Honorverse.

Over all, By The Book is simply one of the worst short stories I've read in recent years. It's driven entirely by lazy stereotypes, the main character's so frikking perfect one-dimensional seems like a compliment and the plot seems to mostly rely on a general dose of stupidity. How this got into a book with this large an expected readership is incomprehensible.

A Call To Arms
Timothy Zahn
4 Stars

Given its predecessor, it's hard not to massively over-egg this simply just for having the temerity to be decent. However, A Cal To Arms is a genuinely decent, engaging story, possessing the only moment of this book where I went 'That was awesome!'. Its only real flaw is that it reads like it's a bit of a rehash of many Honorverse themes without a lot of originality.

Setting the story in the early days of Manticore initially seems like an odd choice, but once the plot gets going, this really works. Zahn uses the technological limitations of the setting ('Autocannons, really?' One of my first thoughts when reading this) to tell a story that simply wouldn't work during the main timeline, which is all kinds of cool. It also emphasizes in many ways the timeless nature of the conflicts that are at the core of the Manticorian Navy. A nice touch is the finale, which emphasizes the political conflicts, to produce a bittersweet ending.

What works less well is that it uses a lot of the same tropes as many other Honorverse stories. The clash between patronage and professionalism is something that's been done over and over in this setting and this doesn't do as much new with it (excepting the bittersweet ending). A few extra touches, a page or two here or there could also have done wonders to flesh this story out a bit more.

A Call To Arms is perhaps more satisfactory than great. It's got some great moments, but the overall story is perhaps a bit more weak than I'd like.

Beauty and the Beast
David Weber
2 Stars

The first of Weber's entries in Beginnings, it tells how Honor's parents, Alfred and Abigail, met. While this shows a lot of initial promise, it really fails to do as well as could be hoped. Unfortunately, the most interesting parts of the story are generally ignored in favour of a fairly extraneous subplot and what's hard to describe as anything other than a really odd narrative choice.

Let's get to the story's main problem. Early on in the novel, Alfred and Abigail form a powerful psychic connection, which not only allows them to know what the other is feeling, but also their bearing. While this is the story's main driver, it suffers on a number of levels. Firstly, this connection isn't even hinted at during the novels that the Harringtons have appeared in, which makes the idea a little hard to swallow, but it's also a level of psychic ability the series really hasn't shown in humans (it's more treecat level). Now while this isn't in itself, a huge problem, the way it's used to resolve the plot is. In short, this psychic connection allows Weber to short-cut around the problems his characters face. This plot point's sole saving grace is that both characters regularly mock its absurdity, making some unfavourable comparisons to bad romance novels.

Far more interesting are the problems that Alfred faces outside of this psychic connection. His lust for violence and his horror at it are some of the most effective parts of the narrative. This side of Honor's father is a surprise, but a welcome one. Also interesting is his desire to find a cure to neural disruptor effects. Not only is this a fun bit of foreshadowing, but it's also a good way of illustrating his guilt over the battles he's been in. Both of these elements of the story are, to be honest, far more interesting than the psychic connection, but they receive far less time.

To be honest, I found that Beauty and the Beast had more potential than satisfaction. Parts of it feel simply trite and overdone, with a plot that's unfortunately exceedingly predictable.

Best Laid Plans
David Weber
3 Stars

The shortest of the stories in Beginnings, Best Laid Plans is the only story that features Honor in the book. It's a quick, short piece that hits a few high notes, but is unfavourably close to a story from a previous Worlds of Honor book.

The short problem with this is that this preceding story (which introduced Stephanie Harrington, the first person to bond with a treecat, which formed the core of Weber's young adult novel) is simply better. It's a more interesting story, a better take and is simply a lot more thrilling. In comparison, Best Laid Plans has a lot less going for it. It's less engaging, with smaller stakes and a simpler narrative.

Still, that said, it's fun to see Honor being utterly uninterested in bonding with a treecat. It's a take on her character that's missing from the main novels, in particular because of the way it reflects on her ambitions. Unfortunately, this is only a small part of the story and doesn't do a whole lot to raise it up.

Obligated Service
Joelle Presby
5 Stars

Quite simply, the highlight of this book, Presby's story is an excellent piece dissecting the institutional and occasionally unconscious sexism of the Honorverse's Graysons, managing to be something quite unique. Out of all the Mil SF I've ever read, this is one of the very few books that's really made me think.

What's kind of awesome about this is that Presby doesn't write about a great leader or a skilled warrior, but rather an ordinary woman. Claire's just a skilled engineer with some severally lacking social skills who just wants to finish her term of enlistment and get a decent job. She's only in the Navy because it offers her an opportunity she can't find anywhere else. I'll be honest and say I've never seen a character like her in a SF novel before and she's extremely welcome.

Even better (for a kind of grim, depressing version of 'better') is the dissection of the often unconscious sexism that fills her life. It's one thing to read about the unfairness of gender stereotypes, but it's another thing to see a character being ordered to beauty clinics to fix skin scars or upbraided in the street about her dress by strangers purely because of her dress. It's exceedingly well written and, again, genuinely unique. I dare anyone to not be enraged by the frequent, petty problems inflicted on Claire, just because of her gender.

What really works in this novel is that most of her problems come not from genuine misogyny, but rather simple thoughtlessness. Claire's cousin, the 'man of the house', piles indignities on her because he's too young and feckless to take responsibilities for his actions. Several other characters take offensive actions simply because they're making incorrect assumptions. Only her first captain acts stupidly because of genuine misogyny, making bizarre assumptions that rely entirely on his belief that Claire can't possibly be anything other that an incompetent sex addict. Claire in many ways is also guilty of this, having internalised many of these ideas and her rebellions against it are some of the most impressive parts of the story.

Overall, I found Obligated Service to be excellent. The really good news is that apparently Presby and Weber are planning to collaborate on a novel in the future, which I won't deny I'm really looking forwards to. Obligated Service is, quite simply, excellent, a depiction of unconscious sexism that manages to not only make it pervasive and offensive, but also really stupid.

Overall thoughts

I bought Beginnings primarily because it was signed by David Weber and as a result I wasn't disappointed. That said, I was quite disappointed by its contents. With the exception of Presby and Zahn's entries, the stories were nowhere near as satisfying as I'd hoped. Both of Weber's entries were below what I expected and it's hard to look at Gannon's opener as anything other than utterly terrible. It's not something I would recommend as a hardback and as a paperback it's only for the dedicated fan.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beginnings is a superior Honorverse anthology - better than In Fire Forged though that has its own charm too. It also marks a departure from earlier anthologies, in so far it starts breaking new ground in the honorverse universe, both in the very beginning before Manticore, hyperspace and all, early in the PD period and in the upcoming Timothy Zahn series set when Manticore changes from a rich but quaint and unimportant state to the commercial power of the Honor times, change due of course to the discovery of the wormhole (for reference the YA Stephanie Harrington series takes place somewhat before this and may later cover aspects of it too) The military change when to a superpower is covered btw in House of Steel.

But there is also a lot of regular stuff - the meeting of Honor's parents on Beowulf, the meeting of Honor with Laughs Brightly and a "regular woman" 's take on Grayson social revolution which we have so far seem through privileged eyes, but not through the eyes of poorer women coming from very conservative steadings and households, where the Protector is known as "Crazy Benjie", women are (still) property and the modernization is to be postponed and given token acceptance only..

The Weber stories were excellent though completely predictable from when newly commissioned Lt Alfred Harrington, former enlisted Marine, decorated with the highest enlisted award for classified action is met by "Uncle Jacques" at the spaceport on Grendel to be helped to settle in his medical studies on Beowulf, scene switching soon to one Alison Chu meditating on how to ditch faster her current boyfriend, the arrogant Illescue (surprise, surprise...) and then switching to the dastardly Mesan operatives on Beowulf, who have orders to teach Uncle Jacques - now only a "lowly" BSC Captain - a lesson for meddling, to the one some 15-20 years later, on Sphinx, where one 13 year old gun toting teen with a clear minsdet on a Navy career - mindset that for example doesn't allow having a treecat companion as rumor has it such people have a much harder time getting into Saganami - and already concerned that she is growing too tall for a "proper woman" and taking after her 2m father rather than her 1.5m mother, decides to take a trip (armed properly of course) a bit far than her parents would approve - fobbing them by misdirection - while coming from the wilderness, one experienced treecat scout called Laughs Brightly - whose mindset doesn't allow for human bonding as much as he thinks he would have enjoyed doing so with the younger version of the local steadholder before he went into space to become a Marine and then a doctor - brings a young cousin to help on a forage mission to the same place and of course we know what happens next...

The Grayson story also excels through its "common girl" POV contrasting nicely with the Abigail Hearns stories from earlier books.

I greatly enjoyed the first story set in the near future as the Honorverse goes in the times of the Green-Neo Luddite domination of earth when earth - Spacer conflict is brewing but I had to check a few times that I was reading a Honorverse book as the story (free in the sample) could have been set in Paul McAuley's Quiet war milieu or James Corey Leviathan universe, or maybe in a toned down Ringo/Kratman future; but if you get over the dissonance and take the story on its own, it is very good

And then the weaker piece of the book that is just a small fragment from the Zahn series I alluded to earlier and as such it feels very incomplete though it introduces the feel of the period and what i expect to be main characters of the announced trilogy

Overall the anthology is maybe the best Honorverse such with 4 superb stories and one that is a fragment (good but incomplete) of a larger story to come and it has a place at least for now on my top 25 list for the year

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories were good, even interesting but nothing that truly stood out. The best of the stories was Weber's second entry, about a young Honor Harrington and everyone's favorite treecat, with some strong overtones of the fortuitous meeting of their ancestors Stephanie Harrington and Climbs Quickly. Charles Gannon's opening story "By the Book" was remarkably well matched in tone to most of Weber's work and had some good backstory on the early diaspora period. Zahn's "A Call to Arms" was the most readable of the five stories in this collection and filled in a perspective that the early Honorverse books talked about but didn't show in any detail. Weber's first entry "Beauty and the Beast" was the most disappointing. While Weber gave some good insight into Honor's father, Alfred, and her Uncle Jacques, that same insight was entirely lacking for her mother, Alison, by far the most interesting of the Harrington clan to me. It also featured an insta-love story and I despise that trope, even with the not-subtle almost-telepathy angle, which was more plot device than good storytelling. Joelle Presby's "Obligated Service" had potential but was confusing for the varying degrees of not-well-described backwater thinking in all her characters, who didn't even all conform to the same legal system or seem to have any clue that this was the case.

Recommended for Honor Harrington fans as fun but not necessary for the larger series. Not the place to start with the expansive Honorverse; if you're curious, On Basilisk Station is your best bet.

[Larry Lennhoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beginnings is a collection of stories dealing with the origins of various established features and characters in the Honorverse. The quality of stories is irregular - I will review each one separately

By the Book (Charles E Gannon). I didn't care for this story, which shows us the very early history of the Honor verse before the discovery of FTL travel or artificial gravity. At first I thought it felt like a story the author had written independently and then just sold to this collection. That's easy to do, since the story is set well before any of the existing people or institutions we are familiar with existed. But on thinking about it some more I realize the author has in fact used some of Weber's tropes - just some of the one's I like the least. In particle, just as in the early Honorverse a caricature of left wing politics is used to demonize the opposition. I also think the author was trying to imitate the theme of the hero being willing to make great sacrifices (as it turns out, of other people) for their cause. The differences, in my eyes, is that whereas Honor made great sacrifices to avert clear and present dangers, and the people she put at risk tended to ones who had volunteered for the career, if not for the particular danger, the heroes of this story are averting a risk they think is coming in a century or so, and the consent of those they put at risk is not solicited.

A Call to Arms (Timothy Zahn) A story of the early history of Manticore, post plague, but before the discovery of the wormhole junction. A good workmanlike job, the story seemed to me to exist mostly to provide the setting for further stories set at that time. If so, I'll be happy to read them

Beauty and the Beast (David Weber) 2 sentences in I was convinced I was going to love this story. Those two sentences showed that the main character was going to be Honor's father Alfred Harrington, and my response was 'this story should be called How I Met Your Mother.' Instead I really disliked this story. It furthers the deification of the Harrington line; it creates a relationship between Honor's parents that does not seem to match that we see later in the books, and it takes one of the few characters that functioned in the military in a non-warrior capacity and showed that he was a superlative warrior, he just chose to do otherwise. The equation of all virtues with military virtue is one of the tropes of the Honorverse I don't care for.

Best Laid Plans (David Weber). This story on the other hand I enjoyed a great deal. It shows how Honor and Nimitz came to bond. I enjoyed seeing both characters at an early stage, and the view of paths not taken by each of them.

Obligated Service (Joelle Presby). I'm not sure what this story shows the start of, but I liked it a great deal. My favorite Star Trek was DS 9, and this story reminded me of that by showing the nitty gritty and the seamier side of the Honorverse. Focusing on an ordinary Grayson steader and her friends and family gives us a look at what things are like for people in the trenches, a perspective that often goes lacking in the Honorverse. I'll be looking to see what other thing Presby writes/has written.

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology was the usual mixed bag. I won't give you any spoilers but here are the stories it contained:

By the Book -- Charles E. Gannon
this story takes place during the time period of colony ships leaving Old Earth. It didn't seem to fit with the rest of the stories and was by far the weakest of the lot.
2 stars

A Call to Arms -- Timothy Zahn
This story is from the early day of the RMN and covers the Axelrod invasion attempt of Manticore.
3 stars

Beauty and the Beast -- David Weber
This is the story of how Honor's parents met. By far the best of the lot.
4 stars

Best Laid Plans -- David Weber
This one was the story of how Honor and Nimitz met and bonded.
3 stars

Obligated Service -- Joelle Presby
The story of a poor, Grayson midshipwoman and the trials she went through while in the navy. Takes place during the time period of Mission of Honor
3 stars

BTW, this review is for the eARC available on BAEN's website. (Like all ARCs it was full of spelling and grammar errors. If that really bug you, you may want to wait for the print version.)

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story in the collection is “By The Book” by Charles Gannon is set earlier in the Honoverse than other stories about 1609 years before Honor’s birth. It is a story about Lt. Lee strong of the Custom Patrol of the Earth Union. “Call to Arms” by Zahn gives background behind the attempt takeover of the Manticore Binary system by the Axelrod Corporation. Lead character is Lt. Travis Long. “Beauty and the Beast” by Weber is one of the stories I enjoyed the most and is about the meeting of Honor’s parents when they were students in medical school on Beowulf. It also gives some background information about both Alfred Harrington and Allison Chou. “Best Laid Plans” by Weber is the other story I enjoyed the most is about how 14 year old Honor meets and bonds with Nimitz. “Obligated Service” by Joelle Presby is about Clair one of the first women of Grayson to graduate from Saganami Island Academy. The story is mainly about the resistance of Grayson men to accept women in the Grayson Navy. Each story had a different narrator who did a good job narrating the stories.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got a Hardback copy of this anthology at Libertycon and read it on the flight home. The Gannon and Zahn stories were good and the Joelle Presby and 2 Weber stories were excellent. You would expect Weber to write well in the Honor Universe but Presby's story fit into the Honor universe perfectly. I expect to see a Joelle Presby novel published by a major publishing company in the next year or two.

[Dan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title says it all. Each of the stories represents a beginning of one form or another. Two of the stories are penned by Weber, one dealing with Honor's parents meeting, and one about a young Honor meeting a certain treecat. The other three stories range from not bad (surprising for Zahn) to pretty damn'd good

[Melinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories that weren't direct Honor backstory- yawn. The ones that were, were a bit too 'neat.'

[Kathy Davie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five short stories in the sixth in the Worlds of Honor military science fiction anthology series which is a part of the Honorverse.

My rating on this would have been a "5", except that Presby's story brought it down a point.

The Stories
Charles E. Gannon's "By the Book" is a clever story of betrayals, sabotage, and terrorism as sidelined members of a universe-wide government struggle to achieve their own respect and battle the arrogance and callous indifference of those in power.

And man, the powers-that-be must be really bad as there are so many dissidents including their own leaders as well as the downtrodden. An interesting possibility of what could occur if terrified Greenies should rise to power, and much too 1984 and Brave New World for me to want to live there: revising history, destroying books, a terrifying use of propaganda, and the manipulation of the system to punish (or destroy) the unwanted. And, LOL, the manipulation of the system by the "rebels" to achieve their own ends is priceless. It's incredible how very much information and world building Gannon manages to pack into a mere 94 pages! I gotta find out if this is part of a series, 'cause I wanna read more.

Timothy Zahn's "A Call to Arms" is part of the Honorverse and provides a window on some of the earlier issues the navy experienced. It's sad that most of the navy is more concerned with weaseling their way up the promotion ladder than in being prepared, although I suppose that's reasonable since said navy hasn't experienced a battle of any sort in over 100 years. Still there's no reason to treat Long as the captain did, jerk. Reading this had my heart in my mouth! The battle tactics, the suicide thrust…! Egads… Weber or Zahn might want to change that first Epilogue to a Prologue, though. It was irritating that Zahn left me hanging about the fate of the Phoenix! I liked Brad.

"A Call to Arms' Story
Lyn is hiring a mercenary group to destroy the minor and unprepared Royal Manticoran Navy, and luckily, Lieutenant Long has just been transferred to the Casey.

The Characters
Yeah, I know, I don't normally track the characters of short stories, but I want the information for myself since this plays directly into the Honorverse with the Royal Manticoran Navy, and I didn't see much point in holding it back from y'all.

The Royal Manticoran Navy
Lieutenant Travis U. Long, a.k.a., Travesty, is gung-ho on military and maintenance procedures. A fact that is not welcomed by those over and under him on HMS Phoenix which is commanded by that jerk, Captain Castillo. I mean, no one has threatened their navy in, well, a century. Ensign Locatelli is onboard through nepotism---his uncle is Admiral Carlton Locatelli, and he expects this to grease his way upward. Lieutenant Commander Bajek is the ship's weapon's officer. Senior Chief Fire Control Tech Lorelei Osterman is sympathetic but realistic. Brad Fornier is one of the capable ones and also sympathetic. Commander Vance Sladek is the Phoenix's executive officer.

The HMS Casey is captained by Commander Rudolph Heissman with Commander Celia Belokas as his exec. Lieutenant Commander Alfred Woodburn is the ship's tactical officer. Lieutenant Rusk. Captain Shapira is part of Heissman's task force.

King Edward is the current ruler of Manticore.

Jeremiah Lyn is short and unassuming in appearance and works for the Axelrod Corporation; he's hiring the Volsung Mercenaries for his employer's ambitions. Self-styled Admiral Cutler Gensonne leads a mercenary band, the Volsung Mercenaries. Captain Sweeney Imbar is the commander of the Odin. Captain Blakeley is a scrappy if snarky fighter. McConnovitch is a data scavenger. Captain Olver's ship, the Naglfar, is playing the dying "swan".

David Weber's "Beauty and the Beast" is a look at how Alfred Harrington met and fell in love with Allison Chu. Which of course, I loved. I do adore getting the backstory on characters I love. And Weber provides both humor and dramatic tension in this.

The Characters
Lieutenant Karl Alfred Harrington has just been promoted from sergeant and received the Osterman Cross for his very hush-hush action on Clematis. Upon accepting his promotion, Harrington requested a transfer into the Navy and to attend the Ignaz Semmelweis University of Beowulf in Grendel, the most prestigious medical school in the galaxy.

Allison Carmena Elena Inéz Regina Benton-Ramirez y Chou has been passing at the university. She wants to carve her own way, on her own merits and is studying gene therapy and surgery.

Jacques Benton-Ramirez y Chou is both Allison's twin and older brother---and the Benton-Ramirez y Chou family is Beowulf, almost royalty. He portrays a dilettante but is actually in an undercover role with the Biological Survey Corps (BSC), which is actually more of a black ops military unit that coordinates frequently with the Audubon Ballroom. Sojourner X is a genetically modified slave who escaped; he's now a professor at the university, an informer with Jacques, and a member of the Ballroom. Colonel Sean Hamilton-Mitsotakis is Jacques' superior.

Captain Howard Young is related to the North Hollows; in this story, he's the Manticoran military attaché on Grendel. Franz Iliescu is a jerk of a Manticoran with a huge chip on his shoulder studying at the university and very annoyed with Harrington's presence. Dr. Penelope Mwo-chi is probably the most highly qualified neurosurgeon in the galaxy and the reason why Harrington wants to attend this school.

Giuseppe Ardmore and Tobin Manischewitz are Manpower agents on Beowulf; their cover is as employees of Black Mountain Security. Manpower is an extremely wealthy private corporation which manufactures genetically modified slaves and is located on Mesa.

The Solarian League is Earth.

David Weber's "The Best Laid Plans" is the tale of how Honor bonded with Laughs Brightly. And it all begins with an illicit field trip into dangerous territory for a bouquet of her mother's favorite tulips. Lucky for Honor, that Laughs Brightly and Sharp Nose are there inspecting the promise, or lack thereof, of the pods that are important as part of the treecats' winter diet.

The Characters
Honor Harrington (the treecats call her Dances on Clouds) is thirteen years old and quite adventurous---very like her ancestress, Stephanie Harrington. Laughs Brightly, descended from Climbs Quickly, is a mischievous scout with the Bright Water Clan of treecats, and he has no intention of bonding with a human. Sharp Nose is his younger brother; Songstress is the clan's newest memory singer and the daughter of their mother's sister. Death Fang's Bane Clan is how the treecats refer to Stephanie's descendants.

Commander Alfred Harrington is her dad (Deep Roots), and he's currently stationed on Hephaestus; Dr. Allison Harrington is her mother.

Ranger McIntyre is the Sphinx Forestry Service ranger Honor contacts for help.

Joelle Presby's "Obligated Service" was terrible. Oh, it was, um, emotional enough, but Presby didn't keep it together enough for me to understand the subplots going on. It took forever before I figured out that the Grayson Navy officers were trying to scare off the Grayson women. I still don't understand what Claire's underlying reason was for staying in the navy. Oh, it was easy enough at the very end, thank god, but I struggled throughout the story. It read more like Presby had ideas that she dropped in place but forgot to connect and smooth out. It was just too disconnected for me.

It takes place in the early days of the Grayson Navy's cooperation with Manticore.

The Cover
The cover is Baen-proud with brilliant colors and dramatic action as a fleet of spaceships hover over an armor-clad man racing through flames with an unconscious woman over his shoulders as the bad guys are firing at him.

The title reflects the time period in which the short stories are set; they are Beginnings and take us back in time.

[Steven Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of the short story anthologies set in the Honorverse universe. This book is the sixth collection and features the authors David Weber, Charles E. Gannon, Joelle Presby and Timothy Zahn. I enjoyed this "Worlds of Honor" book more than others in the series, however, these books are only only good as the stories within.

'Obligated Service' is probably my favourite story from the collection because it expands the universe and fleshes out how its complications interact with each other. The story follows the life of a young enlisted woman in the Grayson Navy. The young commoner exposes the sexism and classism that troubles Grayson society that Weber has previously minimized.

'By the Book' is very unusual. It takes place centuries before the core stories and reveals some of the politics of Earth in the early exploration period. The story is steeped in politics and offers a criticism of Green/anti-technology. The mystery/conspiracy at the heart of the story helps drive the unfamiliar story.

I didn't care for 'The Best Laid Plans'. The story tells the fateful meeting of Honor Harrington and Nimitz. I've never cared for the stories from the tree-cats perspective and as the series has moved forward I have become annoyed at Honor's Mary-Sue status. She might be the least interesting character in the series by the later books.

'Beauty and the Beast' is really bad. It is the entirely saccharine story of how Alfred and Allison Harrington met. It's over the top and way too long. The problem with prequels/backstory is that they need to show something new. Allison Chou's abduction is meaningless because we know she gets free and is in no real danger. I'd happily recommend skipping this one.

'A Call to Arms' isn't too bad. It's set early in Manticore's history when an early Solarian plot is launched to conquer the kingdom. It probably gets simple pass for having some naval combat and politics in the story.

So as you can see some highs and some lows. Read at your own discretion.

[Doug Sundseth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story by story review and ratings:

By the Book, Charles E. Gannon - Set in the earliest days of the Diaspora, this is novella begins with a hijacking and becomes a book about covert action within the unified government of Earth. Decent characterization, solid plot with interesting twists, and an intriguing look at the politics of the early Sol government. 4 stars.

A Call to Arms, Timothy Zahn - This novelette (or very short novella) is the genesis of what would become the Manticore Ascendant series. It feels very much like one of Weber's pieces, with a strong tactical sense, a strong protagonist and several solid supporting characters, and an excellent plot (within the limits of the length, of course). 5 stars.

Beauty and the Beast, David Weber - A novella covering the meeting between Honor Harrington's parents, which was, of course, rather exciting. Excellent characterisation, solid plot (with no cheating by the auther), and a very satisfying conclusion. 5 stars.

The Best Laid Plans, David Weber - This novelette describes the meeting between Honor and Nimitz. It's entertaining, but there's not much surprising here. 3.5 stars.

Obligated Service, Jodie Presby - Another short novella, this describes the experience of a female Grayson Ensign who is more typical of the society than most of the stars of other Honorverse characters. It's an interesting choice that almost works really well but is limited by both its length and an ending that is weaker than the core of the story. 3.5 stars.

Unlike nearly all anthologies, there are no bad stories here, and two of the stories are exceptional. The best book in this series so far. Since it kept me reading past midnight on a workday, this can't be anything other than highly recommended.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology has five very different short stories:
By the Book by Charles E. Gannon
A Call to Arms by Timothy Zahn
Beauty and the Beast by David Weber
Best Laid Plans by David Weber and
Obligated Service by Joelle Presby

Some of these I wasn't as fond of, and others I loved.

Gannon's By the Book I would have enjoyed in a collection of SF mysteries. It didn't really have the feel of the Honor Harrington universe. I felt as though it had a Honorverse envelope wrapped around a mystery set in Earth's not-distant future.

Zahn's A Call to Arms was much better. Set in Manticore's more distant past when Manticore didn't have the end-all and be-all of technology, this military science fiction story had me on my toes throughout.

Weber's Beauty and the Beast was perhaps my favorite. In the story of how Honor's parents came to know each other, I could see the hints of the people they would become. And yes, there are truly villainous bad guys.

Weber's second story Best Laid Plans made me smile. A young Honor Harrington has an adventure.

Presby's Obligated Service, for me, was an absorbing story. It wasn't always comfortable to read, but it made me think. In so many of the books, we see the more upper-crust Grayson citizens. This is more of a look at the underside of that life as a young woman tries to make her way in the Grayson navy.

This is absolutely written for fans of the series. If it weren't for the story By the Book, the collection would be a solid 4.5 stars, rounded up to five. That first story drags it down to a four-star book for me.

[Clyde · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides five shorter works (novella or novelette length) set in Weber's Honorverse. All relate a beginning of some sort.
They are a mixed bag.
The first story, By the Book didn't do much for me. Meh at best.
I skipped the second story, A Call to Arms, as it appears to be a shorter form of the later novel of the same name, which I had already read. (A Call to Arms)
The third story, Beauty and the Beast, which tells how Honor's parents met, and the fourth story, The Best Laid Plans, which tells how Honor and Nimitz came to bond, are the best in the book. Solid four stars on them both.
The final story, Obligated Service, was another meh story for me. Too long and a bit unfocused.
For me, 3 stars overall. YMMV.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five short stories set in the Honor Harrington Universe. The first story by Charles Gannon goes back to when folks just started going out to other worlds and the troubles in the Solar System. The Timothy Zahn story is an excerpt of sorts from the Weber/Zahn series set in Manticorian space around the time of the discovery of the wormhole. The first David Weber tale brings together Albert Harrington and Allison Chou in a very interesting way. The second David Weber tale provides some details on how Honor Harrington gained a treecat. The Joelle Presby story provides the a tale of Grayson women opening up the Grayson navy and society to a more equitable treatment of women. In all a very interesting set stories for readers of Honor Harrington.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beginnings is great anthology collection with things kicking off with a detective story and then bouncing around all over the place with great stories and introductions to new character and expanding on events in the other books! :D We get to see the Axiom battle of Manticore up close, the after effects on Grayson following Mesa's attacks and not to mention the meeting of Honor's parents where you can see where she got here genes from and we finally get to see Honor and Nimitz meet! :D

A brilliant collection of stories that are clever, heart warming, full of rip-roaring adventure and action packed! :D Brilliant and highly recommended! :D

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other than the 1st entry (just didn't really fit), this was a pretty good anthology that filled in more of the Honorverse Canon. There were two excellent back stories with Honor's parents and (finally) the story of how Honor was adopted by her treecat Nimitz. The best story of the bunch was the last, which detailed the much more realistic struggles of a lower class Grayson female's entry into the Grayson Navy. It also shone a bright light on just how difficult and slowly Protector Benjamin's reforms are perculating through Grayson Steadings.

[Bjoern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well as is common with anthologies i liked one of the stories absolutely (Curiously "Beauty and the Beast" the story i've mocked in my status updates as she combines ESP talents in Honor's parents [that actually would make sense seeing Honor's special bond with Nimitz and all] and hard-assed espionage thriller action sequences with a couple snuffing out Mesan agents left right and center, but it's also fast paced, has a nice solid but not too overblown romance angle going on and the comparison between outside view and inside reflection on Lieutenant Alfred Hornblower is actually funny.), i hated (most of) another story completely ("An obligated service" about the Grayson midshipwoman that is genderly discriminated against nonstop from her superiors and crewmates that seem inflexible like battleshipsteel and unable to imagine that an officer and gentleman should maybe not let his position about women serving in the navy out just as far as those jerks do... sadly the protagonist is - absolutely complying with her birthworld and -time as it was told about before in the series - agreeing with them and we get almost fifty pages of self-pity, weird stories about stripping cousins that nonetheless send back close to all their pay to support the family which then the underage head of said family embezzles [not really, it is his right so embezzlement does not fit, but he takes it from the money others would need to get fed or clothed and some day they may lose the roof over their head because he leaves not even the rent on the accounts, including that of the Midshipwoman/Ensign that is almost all the time deep in the red numbers... *sigh*] and a shady obstacle course through the question if she deserves her rank and commission or if it is just done because the others wouldn't be able to get rid of her without pushing her upthe ladder? It is frustrating, infuriating and draws out far too long to be any kind of enjoyable, even when in the end it seems as if it takes a turn to the better with Benjamin's heir apparent taking her side).
Two of the stories were not bad per se, just weird in their placement in the Honorverse ("By the book" is placed in the 24th century old reckoning or 250 years Post Diaspora in an environment we have not yet heard anything about with an eco dictatorship ruling earth ("Greens and Neo-Luddites" that is Ecofreaks and machine haters) and oppressing every human in range, including the already underprivileged "Upsiders" living on the moons, asteroids and spacestations of the Solar System. An officer nominally from the privileged class, but secretly from a family not well renowned because of their worldviews is now pushed into the examination of a crime against a support vessel delivering spare parts and food to the station starting all spaceships leaving the system, scratching on the thin veneer disguising a widespread conspiracy against the ruling system. And it has lots of the usual crime procedural stuff like not telling every clue the detective has got, leaving out lots of red herrings and deliberately lying in interrogations so the reader won't get the conclusion too early... Not quite my sort of beer, but if you need to confuse your readers because your crime is so simple and plain, feel free to. Just don't expect me to return for another story :p) ("A call to arms" on the other hand is playing around the time the Starkingdom of Manticore starts having a navy because of all the external threats starting to show... Mercenaries try to overrun it for a company that might be a mesan sockpuppet and a lone Tacofficer responsible for outwitting and outfighting them despite having all the advantages about the home team on their side. The concept does sound solid and actually the story had some of the best character portrayals in the whole anthology, but here i took offense to the veeeery primitive nature of the weaponry and the reaaally hard hit tactics and strategy seemingly had to take because of that. Oh and "Movie physics" striking back in the overuse of course change descriptions even when they already have gravitic wedges in use. So meh.... nice but unremarkable)

The final story is the "clone" of the story a beautiful friendship recently remade in the first volume of a YA series inside honorverse describing how Stefanie Harrington and her treecat Lionheart met and continued their lives together bonded... Now this one ("Best laid plans") of course stars Honor Harrington and "Laughs brightly" who soon is to become Nimitz but it goes through much the same motions as the previous tale. A lone girl being in the wilderness where she should not be, having not quite told her parents what she was planning... a meeting with nasty lethal critters trying to eat cat and girl, girl killing critters under danger for her own life, bonding and the rest is known... Again solid writing, but just not very exciting as we knew the basics (Honor bonded with Nimitz early in life going still through puberty afterwards) and a blind fool must recognize the parallels to great-many-greats-granny Stef from the story shown here.

All in all an enjoyable book with the quality of texts known and expected from the authors invited to share in the honorverse with Weber, but nothing special when i remember some of the other anthologies, certainly not spectacular enough to shine on its own without the rest of the 'verse helping!

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

My goal was to read the Honor Harrington stories in order. That means having 5 or 6 books going at once. I have based my readings on the the chronology list in the Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorverse
This is the second anthology of the six I've finished. I had to cheat and read the last story way ahead of it chronological order, but it was worth it.

[Ben Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun story's

These short story's fill in some of the information just briefly talked about in the Honnor Universe. They are funny, sometimes a little sad, and give great back ground information. I highly recommend reading this book!

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin. The first story is super political, with lots of resonances with the anti-science, anti-protest Trump administration, although from the date (2013) and the names of the bad guys (Greens) that clearly not what it's aimed at. Once we get away from Sol the fun gets going.

[Daniel Kane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first experience with the Honorverse. I liked the first four stories quite a bit. The last one I wasn't as fond of, but maybe I just didn't have the required background knowledge of the universe to enjoy it fully.

Interesting enough that I may pick up the book that started it all.

[LinHigley · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories were good enough to squeeze a few tears.

The clear Skills in the writing was spectacular. Great story lines add to the enjoyment. I will reread these again in the future.

[R. Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

An outstanding anthology that draws on the imaginations of David Weber and his fellow authors. My biggest problem with reading books based in the Honor Universe is that I can't stop reading the stories they have written. Thank you all for your work.

[Glenn Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Past to Future

Started out thinking that I would not enjoy this book. I usually don’t like short stories. It usually takes me a while to get into a story. Each of the stories in Beginnings was very enjoyable. I will look forward to reading more of Worlds of Honor.

[Iva Ferris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again David Weber and friends have contributed new stories to and enlarged the background of our favorite heroine, Honor Harrington. We love treecats!

[Marti Garner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories

This book is a read. I thoroughly enjoyed every single story. I hope to find more stories with Ensign Claire in them.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stories.