Heirs of Empire

Dahak #3

by David Weber

Restoring the empire that had been destroyed 45,000 years earlier, Emperor Colin finds problems in the genocidal Achuultani and in his children Sean and Harriet, who have been marooned on a hostile planet.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fiction, Military Fiction, Military Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook

544 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1996

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

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. The last installment of one of the best military/space opera trilogies I have ever read. David Weber does it exactly right in this final installment. The plot is detailed and complex and yet at the same time fast-paced and never boring. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Heirs of Empire" is the last in the Dahak series but it is obviously a stepping stone to the Safehold series (See... "Off Armageddon Reef"). This book went in a completely unexpected direction and I loved it.

In this book, David Weber focuses on the fate of Colin MacIntyre's children who are grown and have been inducted as minor officers on their first cruise. In many ways you see the seeds of "The Shadow of Saganami" (from David Weber's Honor Harrington universe) as young officers are suddenly thrown into responsibilities far beyond what was expected of them in their first cruise.

I was totally floored when I realized Weber was building ideas in this book that were expanded upon (like totally plagiarizing himself) in the Safehold series and I'm glad he did. Once again Weber does a great job (though a little rushed) in the implications in warfare of the various capabilities of weapons. Something as simple as having a bayonet that mounts on the side of the rifle so that it allows you to continue shooting can devastate an opposing force not prepared for that.

I think this is the best book in the Dahak series and could be read by itself.

You can read the whole series in the single omnibus book..."Empire from the Ashes". You can get it for free like I did if you buy one of the Honor Harrington novels. I bought "At All Costs" and there was a CD that came with it that had the Dahak series included (along with previous Honor Harrington Novels) as well as other promotional novels from Baen Books.

I know that sounds like a commercial but I am not associated with Weber nor Baen Books. I'm just a David Weber fan.

For those practicing modesty, the F-word is used over 10 times.

The ending wrapped up most of the open questions.

I have read this book several times and will probably do so again.

[Flint · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're a fan of the first two books you may or may not like this one. For all intents and purposes the Dahak series ended with the previous novel. Don't get me wrong, all your favorite characters are all here in this installment and they do have their own little story, but the book isn't really about them anymore. It's about their teenage kids who by way of some diabolical plot end up being lost in space with no means to communicate or get home on their small ship. They do however land on an uncharted 4th empire world, which has descended into a pre-industrial theocratic society with little to no technology, except for an existing computer which can let them send a message home. Unfortunately this computer is guarded fiercely since it has great religious significance and it's defensive weapons may still be intact to protect it. The kids are discovered by a village who have been long time rivals of the church and see them as "Angels" after witnessing what they can do. The governing power of the Church receives word of what's happening and sends an army to put down their long time enemy since they believe they've sided with demons. The kids believing they have caused all this feel guilty and decide to teach the villagers how to defend themselves and improve on their primitive flintlock weapons to beat off "mother church." When the armies of god are defeated, they send even more armies against them, and they defeat more enemies and do this again and again until they finally reach the HQ of the church. There's a huge plot hole which I won't bother to give away, but needless to say this story takes up 3/4 of the book and doesn't even end properly, although it was adequate. If nothing else you won't be bored reading this book, but it is a huge departure from the first two books in the series. Weber went from hardcore space opera to I don't know what. I would have much preferred it that he had a proper sequel to end out the trilogy and then somehow used this story for a fourth book.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike fellow Baen superstar John Ringo, David Weber is fundamentally a nice person, and if he isn't the most adept writer, he's good enough for the beach. The Dahak setting plays to the strengths of Weber's 'war of spreadsheets' style, with truly gonzo weapons (That's no moon, that's a battlestation! And there are thousands of them!) In this book, the action calms down as a plot to destroy the reborn Empire of Man strands the heirs of Empire on a planet ruled by anti-technology fundamentalists. To get back, these smart, decent, (and superhuman) kids will have to launch a holy crusade. Pike and musket battles are interspersed with some fun intrigue, but where this book shines is the simple decency of all the main characters. Reading it, you almost believe that if we just worked together, and got along, we could fix the problems of this planet. Religious fundamentalists are depicted as credulous, ambitious, evil fools, and that's just fine by me.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Weber needs to add to this series!!!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow start, but a good read.

[Naïma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnifique dernier tome de la trilogie. Tous les thèmes chers à David Weber et qu'on retrouvera dans Honor Harrington sont ici, le récit est beaucoup plus maîtrisé et passionnant que dans les deux premiers tomes. Bref j'ai passé un très bon moment.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this final book in the trilogy, but after a decent start it started to go wrong for me. It might have enjoyed it more had it been a standalone novel, but as a conclusion to two previous books it was a bit of a let down.

The book mainly consists of a sort of a thriller and a weird adventure. The political thriller part of the story didn’t really engage me, especially as the only way the author could keep the deception going was by suddenly making the main characters stupid. In the end I found myself skip reading many of these sections.

The adventure with the ‘children’ started well, but after a while it became clear the author was getting carried away and was determined to throw in whatever came to mind. Unfortunately, although there were some interesting sections, I found most of it a bit ridiculous.

My biggest problem with the book is what happened to book 3 of the Dahak series, because this wasn't a satisfactory conclusion to the trilogy?

[Curtiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emperor Colin the first is the only person in the galaxy ever to stop the genocidal Achuutani, and he went on from there to resurrect a 45,000 year dead empire. But, there's a traitor out to murder first his heirs Sean & Harriet MacIntyre, and then Colin himself and three-quarters of a billion of his subjects.

When the fleet's newest flagship is programmed to self-destruct on its maiden voyage with Sean & Harriet aboard, they end up stranded on a theocratic world (the only human-populated world other than Earth to survive the bio-engineered plague of 45,000 years ago), a world whose weaponry is restricted to gun powder and pikes since Mother Church imposes a strict ban on all advanced technology. In fact, the Church has declared them demons, proclaimed Holy War, marshalled the Holy Host, and ordered them exterminated.

Mother Church is in trouble, and so is the traitor!

[Steven Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with the rest of Weber's Space Military novels, this one was a blast. The narritive is split, however, between Colin McIntyre's "typical" problems of people trying to usurp his power, and his children's inspired military campaign on a primitive world. This almost makes the story feel like two separate novels, as the effects of the storylines have no impact on each other. (This would be a bad book to read in parallel with other novels! You're already reading two with just this one!)

Despite that, however, the book is great fun, and I found myself racing to the end, wondering how things were going to be resolved. I love books that do that to me.

[Gwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book. What you cannot tell from the cover or anywhere within the book, however, is that the book is apparently third in a series. Stupid publisher. Now I have to go find the first two books in the series and read them!

This book was really great. I loved the characters and the plot. The only thing that would have made this better would have been if the author had split up the book into two or three volumes and provided MORE plot and detail.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story set in the Dahak series. I was a little disappointed with the way the twin's story is resolved.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was great until the end, when it left its main story to go to another side story and never got back to the main story, just at a critical time. I was frankly astonished the author would do this. What an ass!

When I bought this book, I had read many David Weber books so I knew what to expect. What I didn't know was this is the third book in a trilogy and I hadn't read the first two. However, this book could be viewed as a stand alone book and I felt pretty comfortable with the characters and scenarios shortly after getting into the book.

In this book, Emperor Colin and his wife rule over a massive empire of hundreds of worlds, which they've put together some 45,000 years after the collapse of the last empire. And their two grown children, who've just graduated from the military academy, are with some friends on the biggest, newest battleship flying to another destination when disaster strikes. Someone truly evil who is after the empire blows the battleship up, but first, the five young people get away on a small ship. However, they discover they're in the middle of nowhere and it takes them 21 months to get to the nearest planet, which strikes me as pretty stupid of Weber. Meanwhile, Colin and his wife and friends have mourned the kids' loss and have gotten pregnant again, so there will be an heir.

Their son, Sean, his sister, Harry, and their three friends approach this planet which they discover has a medieval quality to it and no technology, except for one giant tech source. They need assistance with their space craft and think they can get it there. Except for when they approach too quickly, they are fired upon and their craft is damaged. They retreat and go to another location, where they stay and send out drones so they can see what it's like there and what the language is like so they can learn it.

When they finally go down to the planet, they go to the Valley of the Damned, where they are fired on and they fire back, destroying the automated systems firing on them. They find an ancient computer from 16,000 years ago and discover a journal that tells the history of the planet, how technology was banned, how the Church was created and dominated the entire world, etc. Sounds like a precursor to Safehold, doesn't it? Well, that's cause it basically is. It's Safehold in practice.

They go to the local village, where Harry had been fired upon and injured and they rescue her, blowing up half the village but killing no one. The people think the two women are angels because they speak in the language of angels and wear the attire of angels and only women are angels. They were worried these people would be demons. The local priest approaches them and they talk to him. He feels very honored and believes the two men are the angels' "champions" and preaches the gospel of the angels around the countryside. Word gets back to the Temple and they send a small army out to destroy the heretics. The four young people help the villagers defeat the army, partly through the use of minorly advanced technology, such as rifled muskets that you can put bayonets on and still shoot with. The Temple sends a bigger army. In the meantime, the Malagorans (the country the village is in) have gathered the weapons left by the defeated army and recruited more men, spending a little time training them. They then march toward the Temple. They meet a large army at a small pass where its defenses look impregnable, but Sean takes a large group of soldiers through a swamp around their back and hits them from behind, completely surprising them while the main Malagoran army attacks from the front. The Temple army, after suffering some bad losses, surrenders. The Bishops are stunned. Isn't God on their side? They recruit armies from the surrounding countries to go fight against Sean and his army and they are all defeated. Soon Sean and the Malagorans are at the walls of the Temple. The Council agrees to a parlay, agreeing to send out hostages if Sean and Tamm go inside to meet them with some of their troops. However, it's a trap. Sean realizes this at just the right time and gets his men lined up in a triangle while Temple pikemen rush them, but they're obliterated by the Malagoran's rifle fire. However, they can't stay there forever, because they'll be bringing up artillery to shell them and then it'll be a bloody disaster. Meanwhile, the rest of the army storms the gates and it's bloody as hell. It's a real battle and it's fought to a standstill. Sean and his men escape to a walled in area with ammunition and they fight off attackers, but they take bad losses. Sean thinks if only he could get to the Temple computer, he could program it to turn off its defenses and the fifth member of their crew could fly in with fighters and annihilate the Temple troops. So, he takes a few hundred men and heads for the temple. Once there, he heads for the computer. They find it and it's ID protected. And they're under enormous attack. And that's where Weber leaves us.

Weber takes us back to Colin, his wife, and his friends. They discover a bomb big enough to destroy the planet is buried beneath the palace. They start evacuating the planet, but find out the bomb is armed and don't know when it'll go off. Meanwhile, Colin's pregnant wife has escaped to earth to stay with her father, the governor. They're attacked by 100 men. Will she die? Will Colin die? Will the kids die? Well, we find out about Colin and his wife, but we actually don't get a good resolution to Sean and the others because we're never taken back to the Temple and the battle. Weber never mentions it again. We don't know how it shakes out. All we know is, at the very end of the book, Colin receives a transmission from them and that's it. So apparently everyone survived. Yay, I guess? Shit, I wanted to see how the damn battle ended!!! Why did I wade through hundreds of bloody pages only to be left sitting there without ever knowing what happened to Sean, his crew, the Bishops, the Temple troops, and the Malagorans and their priest? I mean, what kind of asshole author leaves you hanging like that? That's why this five star book is only getting three stars. It deserves better, but then so did I -- a better ending. He cheated his audience out of a satisfying ending and I resent it. If you like the Safehold series, there's probably no reason to read this. If you like this sort of book, it's cautiously recommended, but only if you don't mind being left hanging with an unsatisfying ending.

[Gilles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lu en anglais.

Ouf ! Les terriens ont réussi à arrêté la gigantesque force d'invasion des Achuultani. Ils on aussi appris que les Achuultani sont dominés et endoctrinés par une intelligence artificielle paranoïaque. Mais ils devraient être tranquilles pendant quelques centaines d'années avant la prochaine d'invasion.

Le quatrième empire complètement décimé par une arme biologique, l'empereur actuel, Colin McIntire, met en place le cinquième empire pour se préparer à protéger la terre et affronter les Achuultani dans le futur. Mais, dans l'ombre, un des pions de l'ancien chef des mutins se met en tête de devenir lui-même empereur et a déjà réussi à se propulser dans les hautes sphères du pouvoir. Pour commencer, il décide d'affaiblir l'empire en s'en prennant aux héritiers de l'empire, les enfants de Colin, tout en développant une cinquième colonne à l'insu de tout le monde.

Et là on descend de niveau par rapport au tome précédent. On a d'un côté des terroristes qui travaillent en douce au sein de l'empire. Et de l'autre, on a des batailles sur une planète reculée, dirigée par une faction religieuse fanatique, et dont la civilisation se trouve à peu près au niveau de l'ère napoléonienne.

Après le tome précédent, ce livre m'a au départ déçu. Mais après réflexion, je suis plutôt généreux, je l'ai noté 4 étoiles. Mais c'est sûr que j'aime mieux ma science-fiction avec des batailles spatiales plutôt que ds affrontements avec piques et mousquets.

[Mick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the series started out slow this was a great installment. I especially loved the scene changing ending between the security forces and the marines and we moved back and forth and changed perspective on them. Weber's highest tech setting.

My only gripe, and I guess you have to this to make it a "human" story, is that with all this technology people still run things like the mass-trans. A man weighs the cargo, enters it into a computer, and adjusts everything and presses a button. This is in a world that builds military starships the size of large moons. Really? IMO, you can only write about advanced gravatronic weapons in a universe that is post-AI, not pre-AI. Though there is one AI ship (that just happen to become sentient on it's own) nothing else is. Given the Imperium choose not to make their computers AI because they felt it was dangerous (like creating black holes is not). But, hey, I'll give him that. I won't excuse a guy weighing cargo for a system that moves matter from one point in space to another at 800x the speed of light.

[Itamar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good fun and includes evil schemes, heroic heroes and companionable relationships. I did feel a bit like coming into a series mid-way through (not having read the previous books) but it was fine overall.
There's quite a bit of combat, although it's strictly person-to-person or army-to-army ground combat and not Weber's signature space-combat. The book actually feels like two books in one due to the split narrative arcs in the Imperium and on Pradal (complete with two sets of heroes and villains), but I enjoyed it overall. I don't think it's going to stand out in my memory, though.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colin, whom we first met as a near-future astronaut orbiting the Moon, finds himself the emperor of an interstellar empire. It is an empire where those who don’t get blown up—and even some of those who do—live to a ripe old age with gene modification and cyborg implants. And the kids, as Garrison Keillor used to say, “are way above average.” Publisher’s Weekly compared the book to a hot fudge sundae. And if you eat continually while reading its more than 500 pages, the bathroom scale will not be your friend. 3.5

[Sic Transit Gloria · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is actually two only slightly related stories in one book. The first is about the character we already know from the first two. Colin and the gang must figure out where a security leak is in their government...little do they know how powerful and ambitious that person is. The second story is about the children of these characters (ages: about 18). A deliberate act of sabotage has stranded them on a planet that's populated, but with a very low tech level. Save, of course, the defense network that promises to shoot their sub-light ship to smithereens if they try to get off planet. Oh, and getting to the hidden computer isn't going to be a walk in the park; it seems the powerful religion worships it as their deity...

I've always been told that I should always try to find the silver lining. For one, this book does an ok job of making the characters have feelings. Perhaps it isn't the best at this, but I believe it's an improvement over the previous two books. This book is also good in the respect that it has some fairly interesting plot twists and action.

Spoilers from here on in, people.

Alright, now that that's done with, we can discuss just why I not only gave this book one star, but also put it into my category labeled "worst books i've ever read". Let's start with the fact that this story is actually two. While this has certainly worked in other books, the main reason it did was because the two stories reflected upon one another or were otherwise closely related. When the two story lines diverge in "Heirs of Empire", they really don't affect one another. Furthermore, these two stories aren't smoothly transitioned; they feel like they interrupt each other, pulling a reader from one train of though to another rather rudely.

I have fewer problems with the first story, so we'll start with that. Although it presents interesting plot twists, the plot line is very dull, consisting mostly of the villain gloating to himself over his plan coming together and the head of security yelling at people to figure out the plan. What was that head's name again? Ninhursag or something. I really wish she had some strategy for figuring things out other than being mad at people, though in her defense, it was absurdly effective.

There was also the minor point of scientific ethics. Mainly, the characters had none. That's bad enough, but they actively ridiculed anyone who had even a shred of moral restraint towards scientific experimentation.

There are two things I dislike about the second story; I think I'll discuss religion first. David Weber either created his society without putting any thought at all into the implications, or he did so in a not-so-subtle jab at religion. Let me explain: The planet the protagonists land on is basically a theocracy. The church is extremely strict, prevents technological advance, and has it's own Inquisition. The priests are actively portrayed as fanatical morons. (The first story line isn't exempt from this either, the two terrorist groups serving as antagonists are clearly based on Christianity.) Weber's apparent view of religion is no better than Anne MacCaffery's. If you have any sort of seriousness invested in something other than agnosticism or atheism, this book will offend you.

Secondly, there's the ending. I believe that this is an even bigger problem than the one I just mentioned. Frankly, the ending of the second story line is the worst ending I have ever read. Here's the scene: The protagonists are desperately trying to hold off a more numerous enemy. Most of their troops' advantages in range and firepower are minimized in the tight city streets. They can't bring Imperial firepower to bear with the defense network running. A couple of them make a dash for the computer in the temple. They're trying to get into it, so they can use their Imperial weapons to change the tide of battle. But wait! A last second charge by the enemy is made through the secret tunnel! The heroes are trying to hold them off, the mainframe is almost penetrated...

And that's where it effectively ends, as the rest of the book is on the first story line. Seriously. I am laughing right now as I realize how ridiculous that sounds, but that is exactly where they cut off. All they tell us after that is on the very last page of the very last chapter: The children manage to send a message to their parents that they are alive. Do they tell us about how they managed to win? No. Do they tell us what justice happened to the antagonists? No. Do they tell us how the people of the planet reacted when they learned the truth? No. Do they give us any resolution at all?

No.

Here's the sad part: Up until that point, the final battle was actually pretty epic. I was pumped. I could feel the desperation and energy and adrenaline. And it just...stops. If this book had had a proper ending, it might have gotten two stars from me. But look at where it is: The absolute worst place I could find.

Conclusion: STOP at the second book. Seriously, you're not missing anything.

One last little note: I was all excited by the battles and action while in the middle of the book, and then I realized that they were fighting with muskets and pikes in a sci-fi book. While it might make a good alternate history, or interest a Napoleonic-era history buff, I just want to know where all the space battles have gone.

[Alex Borghgraef · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intergalactic intrigue AND high-tech castaways conquering a backwards planet through their knowledge of military history and technologies, how much more Baen can a Baen book get :-D Of course it reminded me of Pournelle's Codominium, War World and Janissaries series, but these have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Best (and alas last) book in the series. I'd give it 3.5 if I could, but since I can't, 3 will have to do.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had not read the other books in this series when I picked this up off the shared paperbacks collection at work. I don't think it mattered though because the first couple chapters did a LOT of explaining things. It was so slow and dry I only made it through 72 pages. It just didn't hold my interest.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually liked this one even more than the first two books. I enjoyed the children's perspectives, especially the girls. I was glad that the kids found fighting difficult. It seemed like the first two books glorified it a bit much for me. I also liked that it shifted from an external threat to an internal one.

[Stephen Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giving it a 4 for too many loose ends for the last book in the series. It would be nice if David Weber would come back and expand on this universe. It really seems like this book became the kernel which started the Safehold series with the notion of religion being used to prevent technological advance to avoid future problems.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published 1996, being multi-racial & multi-species before it was cool, David Weber's Heirs of the Empire is a healthy, uplifting sci-fi that also teaches the true horrors of battle without jingoistic glorification. But of course, I started with Book III of the series but now have the first two volumes to look forward to, Mutineers' Moon & The Armageddon Inheritance.

[Željko Filipin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colin is looking for an internal enemy while his kids are fighting a war of their own on a forgotten planet.

I have enjoyed reading all three Dahak books. The story is somewhat similar to Silver Ships. A young man finds an old space ship and the adventure begins. In Silver Ships, the characters were too one-dimensional for my taste. I have enjoyed this series much more (than Silver Ships).

[Darth JarJar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it. The pacing is not too slow, the interstellar conspiracy stuff do make more sense than the first book, and I like how it started off as a nice little adventure and the scale steadily became more grand as the book progressed. And there is a satisfying conclusion. But why does everyone have to marry each other?

[Elden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to read this book as I wait for David Weber to release in his other series. As this is his first series I can definitely see how they shape the other series. It is still a good one but it ends in a cliff hangar as they never clear up the threat.

[Kei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ties all sides of the story together quite neatly, and it does end....
... but it leaves you wanting to know quite a bit more about all of it, and the future of the Empire and the characters you have come to know.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book!

Colin's kids are growing up and making enemies of their own. The Empire is growing and coming under fire from some ambitious conspirators of Anu.

Dayak helps, but this is more a people book.

[Eric Folley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than #2; not as good as #1. I wanted to like this series more but not disappointed that I read it.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this without reading the previous two novels of the series, but there is enough backstory that it still worked fine. Good pulp fiction although a sappy ending.