In Fire Forged: Worlds of Honor V

Worlds of Honor #5

by David Weber

Honor Harrington is arguably the most popular character in modern science fiction, but there are many other stories in the Honorverse besides those in which she has the central role. This fifth volume in the popular Worlds of Honor series explores some of those stories with the help of such top writers as best-selling author Jane Lindskjold, New York Times best-selling author Timothy Zahn, and more—including an all-new Honor Harrington adventure, set in her younger years, when a mob of space pirates made the mistake of tangling with Commander Harrington. That was a fatal mistake—for the pirates . . .

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (DRM Rights Management).

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

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2011

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

[Rachel Hyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Weber is increasingly an author who seems absolutely incapable of concision. When given the brief to write a short story, it is pretty much destined to over-run the nominal word limit for such things; and even then, his short stories inevitably become larger novels (see: The Excalibur Alternative and Out of the Dark). In this case, In Fire Forged was perhaps intended as another collaborative short story anthology in which his popular and long-lasting Honor Harrington series could be extended by himself and other handpicked authors; instead, it features two short stories by Weber favorites Jane Lindskold and Timothy Zahn, a scholarly examination of the dense Weberian space hardware, and a more than 50 000 word Honor Harrington prequel by Weber himself, entitled “Let’s Dance!”.

No doubt, if he were Stephenie Meyer, this book would have been called Let’s Dance!: An Honor Harrington Novella, with Lindskold and Zahn left to their own fanfiction-y devices. And that would have been a shame. Lindskold returns to her previously explored character of former captive Judith and gives us more insight into her romance with the Crown Prince of Manticore, which is always a good time, and Zahn gives us another adventure of the mysterious Charles (of various last names), a Manticoran sympathizer from the Solarian League -- we think -- whose new story is a morass of conflicting motivations and confusing machinations that makes it fascinating from beginning to end.

But it is really the Honor story, set as it is in the days before our heroine really begins to make a name for herself, that is the main draw of this book. We have long known that Honor spent some time on an earlier deployment or two in the corrupt, pirate-ridden spaceways of the Silesian Confederacy, but here we see her in fine, damn-the-consequences action as she takes part in a joint raid on a Manpower stronghold with a bunch of terrorists in order to liberate near to a thousand slaves -- and it is really, really great. It's Honor Harrington, old school.

One of the pitfalls of Honor’s distinguished success in her star nation’s navy is that she is always getting herself promoted. She’s essentially Manticore’s highest ranking Admiral in her latest books, and has been her other nation of Grayson’s most exalted military personage for some time, which has meant her action stations brilliance has been more meta than in fire forged of late. This being the case, seeing her back in action with just her single destroyer and a fiercely loyal crew is like a refreshing trip down memory lane. We get some answers to some long-hanging questions -- like why, exactly, did Honor end up with an entirely new crew when she took command of the first Fearless at the start of On Basilisk Station? – and in addition to filling in some gaps, also gives us some likable new characters that it is to be hoped Honor will encounter again somewhere down the line.

The anthology concludes with the aforementioned scholarly treatise on starship development and hull armor in the Royal Manticoran Navy and all I really have to say about that is… well, I’m sure there are those out there who will greatly appreciate the insights into Weber’s fictional tech. For me, it was about as entertaining as reading that weighty instruction book that came with my cell phone. Oh, I’m sure that reading it would probably be worthwhile and teach me about all kinds of arcane capabilities of which I am not currently aware, but at present I get along fine without knowing about those functions. Which is exactly how I feel about Manticoran ship design; I don’t need to know how it works, I’m just happy that it does.

All in all, and despite my lack of interest in one of its entries, this is a terrific addition to the Honorverse and one that is bound to see more than one reread in my part of the world. Not only does Honor in Silesia hearken back to one of my favorite of Weber’s novels, Honor Among Enemies, but it also shows us more about the freedom fighting ex-slaves of the Audubon Ballroom and generally furthers the overarching plot of the continuing series while also giving us a thrilling chapter out of Honor’s illustrious past. There can be no doubt that David Weber is among the most consistent and clever of space opera’s modern day exponents, and I cannot wait to see what he does with his mythic creation next.

Even if -- or perhaps especially if -- he does take a lot of words to do it.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three Honorverse short stories and some technical material.

1) Ruthless by Jane Lindskold, a sequel to Promised Land from The Service of the Sword. An enjoyable story about Michael Winton and Judith of Masada and the deepening of their characters and relationship. Well done. 4/5.

2) An Act of War by Timothy Zahn, a sequel to With One Stone from The Service of the Sword. A nifty story featuring Charles again, and shenanigans around his slippery dealing. 4/5.

3) Let's Dance by David Weber. The longest story in the book, covering the Casimir raid prior to On Basilisk Station, and how then-Commander Honor Harrington broke up a slave depot on Casimir (an event mentioned in At All Costs). This story, in tone, does not fit with the other early Honor writings, and like much of the Eric Flint-inspired Mesan/Ballroom grand plotline feels somehow different, in a bad way, from all the other Honorverse material. A bad graft into the early Honorverse. 2/5. First time Weber has had the lowest ranking from me in one of the short story anthologies.

4) An Introduction to Modern Starship Armor Design. Mildly interesting, but mostly filler. 2/5.

[Doug Sundseth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology contains two novellas, one short novel, and one essay. They vary wildly in quality.

Ruthless - Jane Lindskold: Lindskold's previous novella in this series was quite good, featuring the escape of many women from a repressive religious dictatorship on Masada. This features the leader of that escape, but is regrettably nowhere near as good a story. The plot here strains credulity badly; I found it hard to credit that anyone would take the actions that the villains took. There is no real protagonist, though it seems that Michael Winton and Judith are intended to share that role. Neither of those characters really makes important decisions. The dialog is painful to listen to: nobody actually sounds like any of the characters here. And the decision of all the characters are cringeworthy. 1 star, though it pains me to say it.

An Act of War - Timothy Zahn: This is a follow-on from "With One Stone" in the previous book in this series. It's better written than that novella and far better than "Ruthless". The plot here again strains credulity, but not beyond the breaking point. The protagonist, though, seems to be strangely drawn. He obviously has a variety of schemes in process at any time, but it's never made clear why. And the end of the story doesn't really resolve anything. 2.5 stars.

Let's Dance - David Weber: A short novel set while CMDR Honor Harrington is the captain of an older destroyer in Silesian space. It begins with the capture of a pirate and continues with her interaction with a corrupt political structure. As with most of the stories featuring major characters from the mainline series, this has to provide a reason why the actions here are not mentioned in elsewhere, which slightly damages the impact of the ending. 4.5 stars.

An Introduction to Modern Starship Armor Design - David Weber: A deep dive into the interaction between weapons and armor aboard starships. Interesting if you're that kind of geek (fortunately I am), but rather dry. 3 stars.

Overall, the only piece I would seek out or recommend is "Let's Dance".

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't have this marked in GR as previously read, but when I got it for Christmas the stories did seem familiar so marking it as a re-read.

This has four stories/sections:

"Ruthless" by Jane Lindskold is a sequel to the story "Promised Land" in The Service of the Sword. Judith and her daughter (and the other women who escaped from Masada) are living on Manticore. But when her daughter is kidnapped, the kidnappers threaten to send the child back to Masada if Crown Prince Michael doesn't follow their instructions. This was interesting, but not nearly as good as the first Judith/Michael story.

"An Act of War" by Timothy Zahn is a very convoluted story featuring Charles. He is either a secret agent or a rogue capitalist or a con man. Charles was a side character in "With One Stone" by the same author in The Service of the Sword. (That story had Rafe Cardones on a special mission while serving with Honor in Silesia.)

"Let's Dance!" by David Weber is a prequel which takes place when Honor is the captain of the HMS Hawkwing. Despite orders to cooperate with the Silesian governors, Honor works with alleged terrorists to attack an installation that is part of the genetic slave trade. This incident was referenced in another book or story, but I don't remember exactly where (Cathy Montaigne and someone else are recalling it). This was the best of the three stories.

"An Introduction to Modern Starship Armor Design" by Andy Presby is written as a semi-scholarly article by a retired Manticoran officer about the development of space weaponry and the responses in starship-building. I know there are people who like this sort of detail, but I'm not one of them.

[Kathy Davie · Rating 4 out of 5]

With four short stories, In Fire Forged is fifth in the anthology series, Worlds of Honor, and a spinoff from the Honor Harrington military science-fiction series. I wanted to make this a 3.5, but that wouldn't be fair to the other three good stories in this anthology just because I'm unthrilled with Presby's contribution.

Series:
"Ruthless" (follows from Worlds of Honor 4: "Promised Land")
"An Act of War" (Honor Harrington, 9.5)
"Let's Dance" (Honor Harrington, 3.5; Nimitz doesn't have his skinsuit yet)

The Stories
Jane Lindskold's "Ruthless" is a plot to force Manticore out of their alliance with Grayson by kidnapping Judith's daughter, Ruth. Getting her daughter back will require that Judith get Crown Prince Michael to act like an ass in public and denounce the policies of his sister, Queen Elizabeth.

This is a sweet love story between Michael and Judith. Michael fell for her in In the Service of the Sword: "Promised Land" (Worlds of Honor 4) when Judith and a rebellious pack of Masadan wives plotted to escape their husbands. Learning enough to take over a space ship and blast out of Masada space, Michael and his fellow crewmates rescued the ladies and their children when Masadan forces came after them.

Timothy Zahn's "An Act of War" takes place on the Peeps side with a Solarian, Charles Dozewah, scamming a sale of advanced military technology to the Peeps and being forced to "prove" it works. Caught up by StateSec and then the Andermani as Charles' scheme becomes more and more complex, Charles has left a tell that unravels everything.

I enjoyed getting reacquainted with the Andermani in "An Act of War". In the Honor Harrington series chronology, Honor has just escaped from the Peeps' prison in Ashes of Victory , 9.

David Weber's "Let's Dance" finds Commander Honor Harrington partnering up with some strange bedfellows much to the dismay of her crew. The Audubon Ballroom's primary goal of freeing the slaves genetically designed by Manpower, Inc. is lauded by many Manitcorans and Peeps. The manner in which they go about it is not. The Ballroom treats fire with fire, and the atrocities on both sides are horrendous. In "Let's Dance", Honor continually questions her actions, but continues on the moral high ground going against orders.

I enjoyed "Let's Dance" for its moral courage, although I'm disappointed that nothing happened with Commodore Teschendorff. Honor's final encounter with him was a bit too subtle for me as well. Lots of action with a bit of the cloak-and-dagger when she initiates her inquiry through the model sailing ship builder, Betsy.

Andy Presby's "An Introduction to Modern Starship Armor Design" is a laudable attempt to read like a white paper on the evolution of weapons and armoring capability, but it falls short in a number of ways: Presby inserts too many personal thoughts with half-thought-out references. The language is perfect as it was incredibly difficult to read with "any" ease — my eyes kept glazing over. Unfortunately, I think Presby's eyes must have glazed over as he needed a copyeditor to point out the ill-fitting articles and word choices. What he "revealed" was also uneven. In-depth in some areas and skimming in others. If you are going to create an account, be thorough about it or make it shorter. Consider inserting [see Appendix 9.5b.7cxj] or something similar to fill those gaps. A much better version exists in "Worlds of Honor 1: Universe of Honor Harrington". Feels like the publisher threw this in to pad out the book.

The Cover
A typical Baen publications cover with Honor dashing to the rescue, laser pistol blasting away.

[LeisureSuitLarry · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is no such thing as a bad honor Harrington book, even if they're short stories.

[Faith Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three long shorts or short novelas. The story by David Weber was grand. the other two by other writers, were okay.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

2018 re-read. not bad at all!

[Douglas Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really one book, but several stories told in the same universe, just like all the others.

[Jon]

In Fire Forged is the fifth in the shared world Honorverse anthologies subtitled Worlds of Honor. This one contains three substantial stories and one compendium of "factual" information about space armor.

The first story, Ruthless, by Jane Lindskold, tells the story of an attempt by some political enemies of the Winton royals to disgrace Crown Prince Michael. They arrange to have his friend, Judith's daughter, Ruth, kidnapped and then threaten to return her to her father on Masada. Judith was one of his wives who was rescued by Honor and her crew in one of the earlier novels dealing with the Grayson alliance, The Honor of the Queen.

In a manner eerily reminiscent of Harrington's usual tactics, Michael decides to head directly into danger with only his personal Armsmen to rescue the child. The chase is interesting, the final crisis short and not terribly bloody, and the end of the story is just flat anticlimactic. Perhaps Weber is reserving the writing of Judith and Michael's tale to himself, so that Lindskold couldn't do it justice.

Timothy Zahn of Cobra fame pens a story, An Act of War, that is as twisty as a snake. An apparent arms smuggler, Charles Dozewah, is captured by State Security on Haven, and has to improvise a plan to avoid being tortured and put to death by them for an earlier swindle in Peep territory. He proposes a plan to Oscar Saint Juste that will use a captured and rebuilt Manticoran battleship to convince the Andermani Empire to side with Haven rather than the Star Kingdom.

The plan begins to go astray when the captain of the false-flagged ship has some plans of his own, and tries to turn it from a suicide mission into one that he and his crew will survive. In the end, the plots of Saint Juste are foiled, by a bit of legerdemain of Charles' engineering, and his former allies - and the reader - are left wondering just what happened.

Weber contributes Let's Dance to this collection. The terrorist forces of the Audubon Ballroom, anti-Mesa and anti-slavery fanatics, are heavily involved here, thus the title, their battle cry. The story takes place prior to the first Honor novel, when she is captain of a patrol vessel in Silesian space, hunting for pirates and slavers. When Honor is made aware of a space station that is being used as a waypoint for the slave trade, she must decide between obeying orders and saving her career and doing the right thing by capturing the installation, freeing the slaves and prosecuting the slave traders.

Well, if you've read any of the Honor novels, you know what her answer is going to be, don't you? Her creative solution, allying with a large force of Audubon Ballroom soldiers, leaves us cheering for the underdog (Is Honor ever really the underdog, though? I'm betting with a proven winner).

A couple of good quotes:

"That's the true measure of an officer - of a human being. Right or wrong, popular or unpopular, he has to know where duty, moral responsibility, and legal accountability meet the honor of his uniform and the oath he swore to his monarch and his kingdom. When that time comes, an officer worthy of that uniform and that oath and that monarch makes the hard decision, in full awareness of its consequences, because if he doesn't make it, he fails all of them...and himself."

"When that happens, when there's no choice but to kill evil, then kill it. It's your responsibility, your duty, and if you flinch, you fail - not just yourself, but everything important in your life. But if it must be done, if there truly is no choice, then do it because hou must, not because you want to, and never, ever exult in the doing. That's the price of your soul, Honor - the ability to do what has to be done without turning yourself int the very thing it is that you're fighting against."

This collection is worth reading for Weber alone.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology contained three stories and one technological article. I'm afraid the latter made my eyes glaze over. However, the three stories were strong enough that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I am glad I had read The Service of the Sword first as there were two continuations of stories from that anthology.

"Ruthless" by Jane Lindskold continued the story of Michael Winton who is in line for the throne and Judith who escaped from Masada. This one was a page turner and kept me on the edge of my seat.

"An Act of War" by Timothy Zahn was another continuation. This wasn't my favorite of the stories, but I had a sick fascination to see where it was going and if a character was going to end up alive or dead.

"Let's Dance" by David Weber was a long story that featured Honor Harrington from early in her career. I liked seeing some more background for a fictional character I've grown to care about.

"An Introduction to Modern Starship Armor Design" just wasn't my cup of tea.

I would strongly recommend this book to fans of Honor Harrington, provided they had read The Service of the Sword first. For most others, the stories require too much background to truly enjoy them.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun to go back to an "earlier" version of Honor Harrington and fill in one of the few missing chapters of her military career. It was also nice to see Weber tackle something based more on a personal judgement call than the one-true-path being clear as day, although there's very little doubt about how she'll choose and that the powers-that-be will engineer a backhanded "punishment". 4 stars.

Zahn's story seemed overly simple at first and got better and more complex as it went. It's been awhile since I've read the other HH short story collections, so it took a quick Google to recall that his lead character is one we've seen before, with a lot of questions unanswered. 4 stars.

I was only slightly less absorbed with Lindskold's story and it was a solid fill-in-the-blanks connection to the Crown of Slaves spinoff. It was also tightly written relative to Weber's penchant for info dumps, which I appreciated. 3.5 stars.

[Kathryn Baron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Completely did not remember reading this. No particular memory of the stories either. Weber's story about Honor fills in a small critical bit of her biography and is an interesting character note - it should probably be included in any sequential re-reading. However, given how absolutely it vanished from my memory- I probably won't. It's a 3 star though. The other's really not so much. And I didn't bother with the mil-spec handbook thing. I very much doubt I did the 1st time I read this

[Cris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any collection of stories by different authors, I found the stories to be of varying levels of interest to me.

"Ruthless" by Jane Lindskold acts as a sequel to an story in an earlier collection but stands alone.

"An Act of War" by Timothy Zahn is a well-written sci-fi story.

My favorite story is "Let's Dance!" by David Weber. The story's length fits just right.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology contained three novellas and a very detailed section on the Royal Manticore Navy's technology and strategy. Two of the novellas provided interesting background/further information for some minor characters and were okay. The third novella was a very good story of Harrington's earlier adventures as a Commander of the Hawkwing in Silesia.

[R. Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

This is another outstanding anthology by David Weber that has 3 stories that two other authors (the third being by Mr Weber) are as good as David Weber has written. I highly recommend this series of anthologies as they cover the little byways that make up the Honor Harrington Universe .

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first story by Lindskold, but found the next two hard slogs (by Zahn and Weber). The final "story" was a mind-numbingly boring "history" of technical design of imaginary space battle ships. Yawn.

[Steven Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy how these short stories fill in the gaps between books while adding to the main character's backstory. In this book I loved the story of how Honor met Nimitz and how they bonded as a treecat and his human.

[Neeuqdrazil · Rating 4 out of 5]

More short stories/novellas in the Honorverse. A lot of these (in all of these collections) provide background and depth to characters and situations that get mentioned in passing in the main-thread series.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short story collection.

I got this because I am find of the Honorverse stories and 3 favorite authors contributed. There is a technical story which is not my thing but the rest were fantastic. Good way to try small bits from good authors

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid short stories in the Honor-verse. Great way to spend time!

[Anatoly · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Best of the series so far.

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good collection of novellas.

[Peter Nielsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of short novels in the Honorverse.

[Liz B · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Ruthless"-2 stars
"'Let's Dance'"--3 stars

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another entertaining collection of short fiction in the Honorverse.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short anthology as opposed to Service of the Sword (#4) but it has 2 superb stories, both sequels of stories in volume 4 and a HH story by the author that depends on your familiarity with the Honorverse for degree of enjoyment - for someone who read all Honroverse so far and participated in interminable discussions on forums about it, the story is good with its moments, but more of a filler than anything new; for a less experienced Honorverse reader the story may be a good introduction to "what's all the fuss" since it requires very little background and shows Honor at its early "death ride" stage but in 100 pages not in 300; there is also an essay about starship armor in the Honorverse who lost me quickly since while I love the socio-political info-dumps, I only skim the technical ones for the salient points.

But to my surprise I really loved the first story about Judith the young Masadan who "barefoot and pregnant" led a successful escape of Masadan women from their sadistic owner-husbands in Promised Land (HH4, Jane Lindskold as here too)- with the connivance of the Manticore navy and of midshipman Michael Winton - younger brother of the Queen and still a Crown Prince at the time - who now two years later is trying to adjust to freedom, life on Manticore, raise her two year old Ruth and decide what to do with the budding romance with Michael; but others have an inkling of the romance, so when Michael is due to visit, someone kidnaps Ruth to force Michael to disgrace the royal house. Of course things do not quite go as planned for the kidnappers...

The second story also continues a thread, this time started by Timothy Zahn in With one Stone (HH4) and featuring mysterious Charles, a con-man (or maybe more?) who hangs around the People's Republic to ostensibly con them of large sums of money with supposedly super-Solarian tech that will help them win the war; in the first installment it leads to the destruction of a Peep ship and capture of another, so Charles has changed his appearance and name and peddles comm stuff; but PRH is now the bailiwick of State Security and Oscar Saint Just who are an order of magnitude more competent and murderous than their Legislaturist counterparts (an Ohrana vs Cheka comparison), so Charles soon finds himself in a cell waiting his torture and execution; but he has a Plan B of course


All in all, this one while not at the level of Service of the Sword which was among the best anthologies I've read, it is pretty good and an worth read

[Mmonchi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una recopilación de tres historias ambientadas en el universo de Honor Harrington. Son entretenidas y se ve el oficio de los autores, se pasa un buen rato leyéndolas. El problema es que no son relatos completamente independientes, porque se sabe lo que va a pasar en libros posteriores, ni tampoco forman parte de una historia mayor, aunque a veces lo parezca e incluso se puedan aprovechar los personajes en el futuro. A los fans de Weber les encantarán.

[Lizabeth Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Fire Forged edited by David Weber

Worlds of Honor 5

A collection of stories and articles set in the Honor Harrington universe. Started out well with the first two stories, then fell flat with the rest of the book. 3.5 out of 5 simply due to Lindskold and Zahn.

“Ruthless” by Jane Lindskold
While speaking to a woman from Human Services outside her apartment, Judith Newland’s daughter disappears. The child is being used as leverage against Prince Michael Winston. Lindskold gives us a look at one of the more important refuges of Masada as well as advancing the relationship of Judith and Michael. The search for Ruth also introduces Alice Ramsbottom, an intriguing new character with great potential. 4.5 out of 5.


“An Act of War” by Timothy Zahn
Sequel to “With One Stone” from PROMISE OF THE SWORD. Charles Dozewah, aka Charles Navarre, is on the People’s Republic of Haven to arrange a sale of something that could help with the war against Manticore. Before he can complete the deal, Charles is arrested by State Security. As even when Charles is involved, everything isn’t as it seems. It was nice to see some of the back story that was happening when Honor Harrington first was revealed to be still alive. Charles is truly an extraordinary person. As most conmen and spies go, he’s definitely one of the best. 4 out of 5.


“Let’s Dance” by David Weber
Commander Honor Harrington is contacted by John Brown Matheson of the Ballroom while visiting planet side. The local Ballroom members believe Manpower has a hidden slave base in the Casimir system. Sadly, this was the weakest story in the bunch (I don’t include the technical piece as, frankly, I usually skip them). Set pre ON BASILISK STATION, I was so looking forward to early Honor, not to mention the involvement of the Ballroom. It was terribly slow, even during the action scenes. Definitely not a short story. I was vastly disappointed. 3 out of 5.


“An Introduction to Modern Starship Design” by Andy Presby.
As I said, I don’t read these. It isn’t my field and doesn’t interest me, so no rating.

[Steven Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The fifth book in the Worlds of Honor series consists of four short stories.

"Ruthless" Then Crown Prince Michael Winton in his service in the Royal Manitocoran Navy and Judith Newland, shortly after her escaping Masadan captivity. Agents kidnap Ruth; Michael and his best friend and fellow serviceman go on a wild goose chase. I did not enjoy this story. It is emotionally overwrought, the plot/conspiracy at the heart of it is not particularly interesting. It does not expand the universe in a meaningful way.

"An Act of War" An unusual arms tech dealer arrives on Haven and offers a revolutionary technology to the Havenite government. Oscar Saint-Just plans to use the technology to build tensions between the Andermanni and Manticorans. I found this story alright. A problem with the story is that is set in the past compared to where the books are. There is no tension. We know they won't go to war and there won't be an incident, so... where is this going?

"'Let's Dance!'" A Honor Harrington story set early in her career as she engages in a diplomatic mission in the Silesian Confederacy. The premise of the story is interesting: trying to deal with the complicated, corrupt power structure of Silesia. I did not find this story terribly satisfying. Honor Harrington is often (and perhaps rightfully) accused of being a Mary Sue. It makes the plot predictable. I think failure would have been more intriguing and a better motivator.

"An Introduction to Modern Starship Armor Design" This is a narrative technobabble dump, but I found it oddly compelling. It was my favourite of the four entries in the collection, which should say it all. Written as a research summary of the development of military armor shows the complexity and thoroughness of the series/universe.

Overall I'd say this is a book worth skipping for fans of the Honorverse.