Worlds of Honor

Worlds of Honor #2

by David Weber, Linda Evans, Roland Green

In "Worlds of Honor", a follow-up anthology to "More Than Honor", David Weber is joined by fellow sci-fi authors Linda Evans, Roland Green, and Jane Lindskold, as he pays a visit to the universe of Honor Harrington, the toughest, smartest starship captain in the galaxy. An anthology collection of five new action-filled romps (two from the master himself, and three from other leading science fiction contenders), all of which feature our favorite deep-space maven, Honor Harrington.

Contents:
* The Stray / by Linda Evans (co-author of Time Scout) explores life with the treecats before Honor came.
* What Price Dreams? / by David Weber: After the death of her mother, Queen Consort Solange, Adrienne Winton, Crown Princess of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, becomes more and more estranged from her grieving father, King Roger II. Against his will she goes on a state visit to the planet Sphinx, where the treecat Seeker of Dreams adopts her shortly before foiling an assassination attempt on her. After these events, her father's attitude changes and they enjoy a much closer relationship. She names Seeker of Dreams Dianchect.
* Queen's Gambit / by Jane Lindskold (author of Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls) tells how Honor's Queen, Elizabeth III, had to learn the hard way what monarchy was all about.
* The Hard Way Home / by David Weber: Lieutenant Commander Honor Harrington, serving as executive officer of the heavy cruiser HMS Broadsword, is participating in a series of evaluation exercises of a new type of pinnace when an avalanche strikes the Athinai Holiday Resort on the planet Gryphon, killing hundreds and burying many others under meters of snow. Honor must take command of the rescue operations and save as many people as she and the men and women of Broadsword can. Among the missing are siblings Susan and Ranjit Hibson, who must try to survive until help arrives.
* Deck Load Strike / by Roland Green (author of the Starcruiser Shenandoah series and the Peace Company series) delivers a hardhitting tale of conflict between Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven.

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

352 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1999

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

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice collection of short stories that fill gaps or expand themes in the main series. Great read. Very recommended

[The Pirate Ghost (Formerly known as the Curmudgeon) · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are good short stories, if you like short stories. All three books of this series. Almost better than the main Honor Harrington story thread. Better in some ways.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first four stories in this anthology are excellent:

"The Stray" by Linda Evans is set in the time of Stephanie Harrington, and focuses on an adult who has been adopted by a treecat.
"What Price Dreams" by David Weber is the story of Princess Adrienne, the first member of the House of Winton to be adopted by a treecat.
"Queen's Gambit" by Jane Lindskold is about King Roger's assassination and the accession of Elizabeth III.
"The Hard Way Home" alternates between 12-year-old Susan Hibson (who is a Marine in later books) and Honor Harrington (before she became a Captain) during an avalanche at a ski resort.

The fifth story "Deck Load Strike" by Roland Green is military fiction set on a planet which is not mentioned in any of the novels. The author has Manticore backing one side of a civil war and Haven backing the other side, but it didn't feel like it belonged in the series.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

2018 re-read. I enjoyed all but the last short story.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This collection of short stories took me longer than I would have liked to get through, but most of them managed to keep my interest, primarily based on the main characters, or who were at least very close to them. The last story was a little more difficult to follow, being seemingly proxied to hell, but was an interesting finish. I'm curious to see where else the author is going to take this short story collection, and look forward to reading more.

[Jim Gutzwiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worlds of Honor Book 2

Very exciting and inciteful stories in here well worth the reading.
Again, these stories help flesh out the World's of Honor Harrington, and Tree cats and make things come to life.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ganska ojämn, men väldigt bra där den är bra.

[Mike Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over all I found this a much better collection than the previous Worlds of Honor collection - More Than Honor - with the exception of the last story - Deck Load Strike - which was quite frankly dreadful and should never have been in there and certainly shouldn't have been the last story and so colour one's memory of the whole. I have written a few words on each story:

The Stray by Linda Evans - this was a good, enjoyable little story, though it did read a bit YA for me. Not because of any YA protagionists (they were pretty much all adult) but because of the way it was told. Everything was explained in an excess of detail (I get it already, lets move on... please) and with a lot of repetition (my memory's not that short). This style detracted from the overall story, at least for me. Then there was the actual writing; I really found this clumsy at times; awkward sentences that I had to re-read and unpick to make sense of (not very YA that, I admit!). I was surpised by this as I got no sense of it when I read a couple of collaborations between Evans and Weber a year or two back; maybe in those Weber had worked over her writing to remove such clumsiness. Still the story was very enjoyable, but....

What Price Dreams? by David Weber - this was classic Weber on top form with an excellent blend of political intrigue and action and with the short format he really couldn't indulge himself with info-dumping quite as much as is sometimes his want. Excellent.

Jane Lindskold's Queen's Gambit - this was close to Weber's What Price Dreams? Political intrigue combined with rather less action than Weber's but still an excellent read. My first from Jane Lindskold and enough to arouse my interest in her as an author.

The Hard Way Home by David Weber. This was, once again, classic Weber in his best form. Again there was little space for massive info-dumping (though of course he still managed to get quite a bit in!) and he does unashamedly fire every emotional salvo in his (pretty extensive) armoury. An early Honor Harrington story (pre On Basilisk Station) jammed with action and tension if slightly on the YA front. Excellent.

Deck Load Strike by Roland J Green - I'm sorry but I won't be looking for any more of Green's work for some time to come. The writing was frankly dreadful; clumsy sentences, thoughts, emotions, even the action which was probably his strongest writing. I continually found myself re-reading sentences, often several times over, just to figure what he was saying (I still can't work out the title at all!), there were numerous inconsistencies throughout and to say it was filled with cliches and frankly puerile quips intended, I'm sure, to be super clever, is to be generous. Here's a brief example that I think says it all:

They weren't giving up, however. Bullets whined and rattled on either side of Ryder, and a Sea Fencible doubled up, to fall screaming and writhing.
Welcome to the Fraternal Order of Those Who Know Bullets Hurt.

That has to be one of the most fatuous asides I've come across in a military action story in a long long time. As an ex army soldier myself, I was honestly offended by it. I wish I'd followed my first instinct and given up on this one straight away rather than be so completionist. Such a shame that this story ended an otherwise very good collection.

[Leons1701 · Rating 3 out of 5]

So the second Honorverse collection pretty much follows the rules set out in the first one. We get a treecat story (two of them actually) a story by Weber (again, two of them) a story with a Havenite point of view and a story that doesn't really fit.

The Stray is the first of two treecat stories, set shortly after A Beautiful Friendship (from the first collection) but using none of the same characters. It's not a bad piece, but it does seem a bit off at points, Scott's psychic abilities seem to contradict some of the things Weber established elsewhere, though that can be explained by anyone who had such abilities keeping them very much a secret.

What Price Dreams by Weber is the next treecat story, a tale of the first member of the House of Winton to be adopted by a treecat. Some nice typically Weber action, might be the best story in this collection.

Queen's Gambit by Jane Linskold reads pretty much like it was written by Weber (though with less infodumping). A tale of the very beginning of Elizabeth's reign and how she dealt with the assassination of her father. A bit of rarity in these collections as a non-Weber story that uses known characters extensively. Worth noting that Linskold is one of the few authors that gets to play in the Honorverse again, two more short stories and the second and third books of the YA series spun off of A Beautiful Friendship. Obviously, I'm not the only one who noted how well her style fits. :)

The Hard Way Home is the second Weber story, a tale of disaster and courage, though marred a bit by some of Weber's least necessary infodumps ever. Honor must coordinate rescue attempts after a massive avalanche buries a ski resort, but an interfering noble ally of Pavel Young's makes things difficult. Meanwhile, Susan Hibson, years from becoming a Marine, is one of the victims of the avalanche, buried in a lift car with her brother and several other survivors, she is the only one who can possibly escape to get help. Not a bad story at all, though a bit slow in starting due to infodumps about the social opportunities on an asteroid mining facility. Not kidding.

Deck Load Strike is by Roland Green, and fills out the traditional requirements by including a Havenite POV and not really working at all as part of the Honorverse. The best thing I can say about it is that it fits a lot better than A Grand Tour did. Unfortunately, there's no evidence elsewhere in the series for the sort of proxy warfare depicted here. And the depiction of Erewhon seems a bit off. But what's worse is that it isn't even particularly well written (there's a reason I never really got into Green's own works). They should have passed on this one.

[Kathy Davie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An anthology of five short stories set in the Honorverse and second in the Worlds of Honor anthology series.

The Stories
David Weber's "What Price Dreams?" is a fascinating fill-in on how the Crown Princess, Adrienne, was adopted by a treecat.

Brief mentions of Stephanie Harrington as the first adoptee.

He also wrote "Hard Way Home" which has two primary stories. One is of Susan Hibson as a 12-year-old and her dreams of joining the Royal Manticoran Marines while the other is of another of Honor Harrington's run-ins with one of Pavel Young's cronies. The two protagonists eventually meet when Honor takes over the search and rescue effort to find skiers buried by an avalanche.

I sure hope someone writes a story where Novaya Tyumen gets creamed...

Linda Evans' "Stray" was a sweet story about a doctor's relationship with his treecat and the biological disaster stopped when a murdered person's treecat and his clan managed to convey the conspiracy to the doctor. Evans almost has the feel for this. A good story and not as well-written as it could be. We get a better idea of what Stephanie Harrington did as an adult.

Jane Lindskold's "Queen's Gambit" is a fascinating look at King Roger's assassination and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne. We briefly meet Mike who even more briefly mentions her friend, Honor. We do learn how Justin inherits Monroe. Nice bit of fill-in on the back story.

Roland J. Green's "Deck Load Strike" had the most horrible ending. His story was extremely confusing to follow. although he had a light, subtle touch on the romance which he just smashed into at the end.

[Mayank Agarwal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worlds of Honor
Mix bag of short stories, the one’s by David Weber and Jane Lindskold were good the other two were bad.

1.The Stray by Linda Evans
Disappointing, too many loop holes in the plot. The story didn't feel consistent to what David Weber has built up of the Tree Cats in Sphinx. Also the writing skill didn't have flow – too many repetitions. (2/5)

2.What Price Dreams? by David Weber
Loved It. A typical Weber story- great plot and storytelling. Full of Emotions, Intrigue, Thrill & Politics. Tells us off the first adoption of Royal Family member by a Tree Cat. (5/5)

3.Queen's Gambit by Jane Lindskold
Jane Lindskold style is very similar to Webers’s, in fact a bit better when it comes to the political intrigue. Seeing Elizabeth as the new Queen and being so in control was cool. Also the introductions of two interesting character – Daniel Chou & Jean Marrou in Honorverse makes the world more interesting. I really enjoyed the very unexpected ending. (4/5)

4.The Hard Way Home by David Weber
David Weber at his best- full of emotions. Got the stupid detestable senior, a disaster, children trapped, heroic rescue and introduction of Susan Hibson. (5/5)

5.Deck Load Strike by Roland J. Green
It is bad. First of all it didn't fit in Honorverse and had too many discrepancies with David Webber’s world. Also the writing was just horrible. Better to skip this pointless story totally. (1/5)

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology of stories set in the Honor Harrington Universe is very difficult to rate. The first two stories, 'The Stray' by Linda Evan, and 'What Price Dreams?' by David Weber himself, were pretty dull and barely a three star rating, while 'Queen's Gambit' by Jane Linskold was a solid five stars. 'The Hard Way Home' by David Weber again was better than his first short tale, but not by much, and 'Deck Load Strike' by Roland Green took a while to get going but ends dramatically and has some fun characters. Overall this collection improves as you go along, peaking in the middle, so give it a chance if you start to get bored with the first two stories.

[Nyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, though sometimes sad or bittersweet, collection of love, loss, strength, courage, warfare and tree-cats.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology was quite good with only one story that I thought was a bit iffy.

The Stray by Linda Evans was nicely done story that had early interaction with treecats. The only thing a bit odd was the "red-headed Celtic person with ESP powers" theme. I'll wait to see if that thread develops.

What Price Dreams? by David Weber was excellent. So much was explained about the special status of treecats in Manticoran society. I loved the relationships that were established in the story.

Queen's Gambit by Jane Lindskold was a look at Elizabeth III prior to the start of the Honor Harrington books. Less about the military or treecats, it is more political intrigue.

The Hard Way Home by David Weber was another story of Honor Harrington. Except as an example of how the military deals with incompetent people in command, it was pure fiction with some trappings of science fiction. There's an avalanche, young people are trapped, and someone must rescue them. That someone is Honor. I liked this quotation: It was much harder to disappoint someone who expected good things out of you than it was to confirm the expectations of someone who figured you'd screw up anyway.

Deck Load Strike by Roland J. Green was the final story and it was a bit odd, especially with the ending. It went places I didn't expect and didn't quite tie it all together, or at least not the way I wanted it to. Basically it is the story of a proxy war with an ally of opportunity.

If you like science fiction, this should be a good read, provided you already are familiar with the setting. Less military SF for the most part, it was easily accessible to those readers who skim the military parts.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a full review, just explaining why I'm knocking a star off what would otherwise be my usual 5 for a target fully hit: One small but glaring failure of research.

From "The Hard Way Home", p. 252 in my hardback, about 29% of the way through the story, a single-paragraph section beginning as quoted:

High above the Olympus Valley's floor, uncountable of [sic] tons of fresh snow lay smooth and white ... The snow pack ... was deeper than usual this year, although the sun had been unseasonably warm for the last few weeks. The overburden of the fresh snow lay on a base which had been weakened and softened ever so slightly by that warmth, and no one knew it at all.

I don't ski, but I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, whose license plates read "The Greatest Snow on Earth"®. So I've listened to decades of avalanche-danger reports and I know that the last clause there should instead be, "and every forecaster assumed that".

I would expect that Weber could have wangled a way to make that necessary assumption inadequate in prepping for the disaster inevitably, and obviously, to come. Which means he should have.

[Doug Sundseth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As is to be expected from a multi-author anthology, the quality of the stories here is variable.

The Stray, by Linda Evans, is interesting, but the plot is a bit rote and the ending is abrupt. 3 stars

What Price Dreams, by David Weber, is a bit better, but lacks both character and plot depth. 3.5 stars.

Queen's Gambit, by Jane Lindsckold, is quite good, with a good examination of Elizabeth's early life and a well-crafted plot. Unfortunately, the need to abide by later (in series time) canon results in an unsatisfying ending. 4 stars.

The Hard Way Home, by David Weber, is the star of this volume, with an excellent plot (for its length), several new characters that are quite well written, and a few details of Honor's early career. This is an easy 5-stars and almost justifies the book on its own.

Deck Load Strike, by Roland Green, is a somewhat routine, but fairly well-written story of low-level warfare against a PRH-backed insurgency/invasion. Entertaining, but not especially strong. 3.5 stars.

The result is a book that is readable enough to recommend.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worlds of Honor is a great collection of short stories that fill in time between the settling of Manticore and contacts with treecats and how they have infiltrated society and how they come to change it for the better with great action and humour! :D Plus there is an in depth look at Honor when she was was a Lt. Commander (where Nimitz saves the day! :D )as well as a different perspective on the State Sec Peep War which is shocking and brillaintly done! :D

Worlds of Honor is brilliant, fast-paced, clever, humorous and action packed! :D Brilliant and highly recommended! :D

[Sally Hensley]

Worlds of Honor contains 3 books, Book 1, More Than Honor, Book 2, Worlds of Honor, and Book 3, Changer of Worlds. I have read Books 1 & 2. Early adventures of Honor and Nimitz. I have not read Book 3 as of yet, the stories jump around a bit and I want to read them in chronological order. Therefore, even though I have "finished" the total book, I will be coming back to read book 3. These books, by David Weber and other authors, are well worth the jumping around!!

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first four stories in this anthology are reasonably good, Honor-universe stories. Two are by David Weber ("What Price Dreams?" and "The Hard Way Home"), one by Linda Evans ("The Stray") and one by Jane Lindskold ("Queen's Gambit"). The final story by Roland Green ("Deck Load Strike") is a hot mess, totally confused and confusing, pulling the entire anthology down.

[Keziah Jensen-Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of stories. I really like the treecats, so it was fun getting more information on them. Much the same style as the other books I've read by David Weber. Expect lots of important characters, even in a short story.

[Mmonchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hay historias que cualquier aficionado a este universo querría saber: cómo entraron los ramafelinos en la casa real de Mantícora, cómo murió el padre de la reina o cómo era la vida de Honor cuando empezaba su carrera. Algunas de estas historias cuentan, y muy bien, este tipo de cosas. Por eso no entiendo la presencia del último relato: parece una narración de guerra a la que han añadido algunas referencias a Mantícora y Haven para encajarla en el contexto, así como meter la palabra "ramafelino" medio sin querer. Sobra en el libro y le baja el nivel.

[T.H. Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've never read the Honor Harrington series, you're missing some great fiction. These are short stories that 'fill in' some of the edges of the main story flow (which is something like 19 novels.)

[Marti Garner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories

[Neeuqdrazil · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very mixed bag. Some good stories, some less good stories.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection by a first-rate group of authors. The stories here delve deeper into the background of characters and situations from the main novels.

[LinHigley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honor to the writers that believe in Webers World.

I always enjoy a good read. You should also. The complete suspension of disbelieve is always a good sign in stories.

[R. Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

World'sof Honor (Honor Harrington - Worlds of Honor Harrington Book 2) is as engrossing and enjoyable as the other books based in that universe. Well worth reading.

[Timelord Iain · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd anthology... loved everything with treecats... the last story with no main series characters, focused on a backwater proxy war, I could have done without and not cared less, really....

[Douglas Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good follow-up on the first novel in the series. There is a relationship between the two and it has a good underlying feel to it. I am very happy with the editing and would suggest this for anyone looking to read a well-founded SciFi series (so far).

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.
Picked this up when I realized I wasn't patient enough to get into the latest Honor book. It's a quick read, and most of the stories are fairly well done.
Most revolve around or at least feature treecats, easily Weber's most imagination-grabbing invention.
Only one of the guest authors was (allowed? brave enough?) to touch Weber's characters: Jane Linkskold's story about Elizabeth Winton's first days as queen at least tied with Weber's tale of the first 'cat adoption of a princess as best in the collection. Linksold has Weber's style down cold, down to the frequent changes of POV and bits of political intrigue: I would have believed it was him writing.
Weber's other story concerning the first time Honor and Susan's paths intersected was good, but the two solid pages Weber required to explain the educational and recreational opportunities or lack thereof on a certain obscure mining station - that wasn't even central to the story! - reminded me why I wasn't eager to grab the next full novel in the series. Green's story of a dirt-side shooting war on an obscure planet between Manticore, Erewhon, the Peeps, and - oh yes - a few concerned locals was both practically incomprehensible and essentially pointless. (Oh, but isn't all war pointless?!) Anyway, it brought the collection down in my opinion: skip it and stick to the nice cuddly 'cats.
Worth a read if you are a fan and committed reader of the Harrington series, but none of the stories stand on their own if you're not familiar with the world.