Uncompromising Honor

Honor Harrington #14

by David Weber

Uncompromising Courage. Uncompromising Vengeance. Uncompromising Honor.

The Solarian League—for hundreds of years they have borne the banner of human civilization. But the bureaucratic Mandarins who rule today’s League are corrupt and looking for scapegoats. They’ve decided the upstart Star Kingdom of Manticore must be annihilated.

Honor Harrington has worn the Star Kingdom’s uniform for half a century. So far, hers has been a voice of caution. But now the Mandarins have committed atrocities such as the galaxy has not known in a thousand years. They have finally killed too many of the people Honor Harrington loves.

Now Honor Harrington is coming for the Solarian League. And Hell is riding in her wake. 

About Uncompromising Honor:

“…a balanced mix of interstellar intrigue, counterespionage, and epic fleet action…with all the hard- and software details and tactical proficiency that Weber delivers like no one else; along with a large cast of well-developed, believable characters, giving each clash of fleets emotional weight.”—Booklist

“. . . moves. . . as inexorably as the Star Kingdom’s Grand Fleet, commanded by series protagonist Honor Harrington. . . . Weber is the Tom Clancy of science fiction. . . . His fans will relish this latest installment. . . .”—Publishers Weekly

“[E]ach book contains food for multiple tastes [and] provides a feast. Readers . . . will get enough hardware-geek stuff and space battles to make their palms sweaty. Those who love political intrigue will nigh have their brains explode from following all the tentacles of strategy. . . .Those who love fully drawn characters with everything at stake . . . will have lots to cheer about. And those who love bad guys committing atrocious deeds, only to get what they deserve from the good guys, will sleep contentedly at night because justice has been served. Uncompromising Honor provide[s] a long, luxurious trip. . . [that is] emotionally and intellectually gratifying. . .”—New York Journal of Books-West

“Weber’s books [are] enjoyable as fiction and profound as works of art. . . . [in them] great power competition makes its way into the space age on a galactic scale. . . . Battles are described in vivid, suspenseful detail. . . . both sides grapple to do their duty as they understand it . . . [and] it is the human touches that make this book so gripping. . . . Weber’s fans will greatly enjoy Uncompromising Honor [and be left] eagerly awaiting the next installment of this magnificent series.”—Mark Vandroff, Center for International Maritime Security

“This latest Honor Harrington novel brings the saga to another crucial turning point…Readers may feel confident that they will be Honored many more times and enjoy it every time.”–Booklist 

About David Weber and the Honor Harrington series:

“. . .everything you could want in a heroine …. Excellent … plenty of action.”–Science Fiction Age

“Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!”–Anne McCaffrey

“Compelling combat combined with engaging characters for a great space opera adventure.”–Locus

“Weber combines realistic, engaging characters with intelligent technological projection . . . Fans of this venerable space opera will rejoice . . .”–Publishers Weekly

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

773 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2018

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

[Gillian Wiseman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have loved this series. The first seven books are superb, and I reread them every few years. Having said that, I could barely read this one.

It's too long. It has too many points of view. It was too predictable. And I'm sorry, it was way over the top. Everything about each and every character has become "the best" or "the worst" or "the most ever seen" in any living human ever. I mean, come on... the descriptions of Emily's spirit, of Honor's horrific determination, etc... were just tiresomely OTT.

And who did NOT expect the "revelation" of a certain character's survival? I mean, it was so predictable. I knew from the very moment their ship was diverted that the only reason was that there would be massive (foreshadowed) death, and they would somehow survive by the skins of their teeth. And then, we only get to read about it in backflash. How about cutting out a hundred pages of descriptions of missile systems, and give us some actual adventure-plot survival story?

And the whole idea that the Manties could stand up militarily and handily defeat the Sollies just didn't pass muster for me. Defend themselves, yes. Romp directly into the center of their home system and defeat them with (seemingly) one arm tied behind their backs? NOT believable.

Sorry, this series passed its prime about 3-5 books back. It needs to end.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe I keep reading these things. 800 pages, and more death and destruction than is even remotely required. Fortunately, it can be skimmed when you get to the stupid parts, which cuts the book about in half. I gave it 3 stars, but even that was a push.

[Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some faults in the series from the beginning. Too many characters, a few pages of random information dumps here and there... But for all that, you could at least count on 200 pages of spaceship on spaceship violence that were almost impossible to put down. With each book in the series, the action diminishes and the bloat of characters, politics, technology and everything else takes up more and more space. I'm glad to know what happens as Honor's story seems to be wrapping up, but there's not much joy and excitement left in this series anymore.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ending of the Honorverse story-line started in 1993 with On Basilisk Station though of course the story goes on and hopefully sooner rather than later we get another book in the universe; to paraphrase the title, the novel was uncompromisingly good with one major complaint, namely that it ended - I wanted another 800 pages at the least - this being said the ending is quite satisfactory from the main story line point of view (Hono's saga, the Grand Alliance vs the Solarian League) but of course the main bad guys disappeared down the rabbit hole with Houdini and while they make their presence felt in a very clear way, nobody really knows where to look for them so again I want more and soon!

[Guillaume · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good points :
- story advancing
- no repetitions from other books
- a few interesting treecats scene

Bad points :
- too much worthless meetings
- Is it really a Honor Harrington Book ? She's maybe in 25% of the book.
- too much secondary/unknown characters taking too much book time

Maybe I should have waited for the final, non ARC book (hoping it's going to be severely edited...)

[Antonio · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the middle of this right now and it's essentially unreadable. There are more meetings and people chatting and talking over dinner and sitting an talking and thinking and talking and more talking than I care to mention. The few battle scenes so far were exciting but the bulk of this book, so far, is people talking and meeting and talking. Once I see a chapter begin with someone sitting at a table drinking something, I fast forward to the next chapter. I think Weber has lost his vision for this series. IMO, the main story should always be with Honor Harrington and not so much time spent with other characters and their machinations. This has become painful to read.

[John Cunningham · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Spoiler alert!) Well, it's Honor Harrington so there's much to like. The book isn't quite a sequel since it takes place concurrently with the last Honorverse books, so I had to refer to Cauldron of Ghosts and Shadow of Victory to refresh myself. The pacing for me was too slow. The space battles are top notch -- but I was disappointed at how much time is spent by the many many characters in staff meetings and at meals, talkety-talk-talking amidst descriptions of how well cooked their steaks were.

Too many ancillary characters introduced, sometimes with a deep background, plots around them developed and then abandoned -- adding nothing to the story. Scenes intended to tug at my heart strings fell flat. The Alignment is as super duper bad as always -- never missing a beat, perfect terrorist ops going on flawlessly, their agents all nano-suiciding if caught, etc. Even though the Sollies expire painlessly in a *very* anti-climactic ending, the Alignment is left very much alive and kicking for some espionage sequels I suppose.

Honor herself doesn't kick into gear until 9/10ths of the book has languidly passed by in character development scenes and meetings, and then gets pissed and drives the war to a close in about 50 pages in what seems to be a rushed ending.

I wish an editor had whacked about half of the book out and tightened it up, given it better pacing and helped make the well written space battles "pop" more.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, now that I have finished Uncompromising Honor, I can state that my reading rut is officially over. I think it’s been at least several months since I’ve really “read” a book, and I was beginning to despair that the rut would extend well into the summer. Thankfully, Mr. Weber released the latest Honor Harrington novel to end the reading rut cycle! And not a moment too soon!

Seeing as this is the 14th book in the core Honor Harrington series, not counting the numerous spin-offs and anthologies, if you’ve not read any of the preceding novels, this review may not be for you. But for those of you who have followed this series through thick & thin, then welcome aboard!

As with all my reviews, I will attempt to keep spoilers to a minimum. There’s more than a handful of notable events that take place in this book, and I feel these are best experienced organically. Longtime readers of Weber will have certain expectations that will likely be met, but even with that, if it’s not mentioned in the official book synopsis, I will do my level best to avoid mentioning it here.

David Weber is one of the more consistent writers in the science fiction business today, and by that I mean readers of his works typically know what to expect in any given novel. This may sound like a criticism, and at times that familiar repetition can get a little…frustrating. But, after a LONG break between Uncompromising Honor and the previous Harrington novel, that familiarity was actually very welcome. I knew I was getting swaths of technical jargon, rich and verbose dialogue, narrow misses up the wazoo, and some of the most destructive space battles yet put to page. Lo and behold, all these things came to pass. But again, it’s what I needed. Something comfortable and familiar to jump into.

Let’s not beat around the bush here…if you’ve read one Honor Harrington novel, you’ve kinda read them all. The overall structure is the same in nearly every book, and it goes a little something like this;

A) Quick recap of the major events from the previous book through witty dialogue.
B) Honor has some happy moments, with witty dialogue.
C) The main villains do some plotting, with witty dialogue.
D) The sub-villains do some plotting, with witty dialogue.
E) Treecat shenanigans!
F) A minor battle somewhere, usually with Manticore being victorious (superior technology for the win!).
G) More main villain plotting, with…well, you get the idea…
H) More sub-villain plotting.
I) Protagonist counter-plotting.
J) New and even more superior technology being discussed in detail, usually by the enemies this time.
K) Another minor battle somewhere, usually with Manticore getting valiantly roughed up.
L) More main villain plotting.
M) More sub-villain plotting.
N) Dastardly actions and unnecessary deaths.
O) Honor’s pissed and she’s not gonna take it anymore (nerd rage!). Que an icy visage that could freeze the sun, a radiant anger that could scorch the Sahara, and righteous fury that quakes the heavens.
P) EPIC SPACE BATTLE SCENE!
Q) Quiet reflection on the events of the previous hundreds and hundreds of pages.

And yeah, for as far back as I can remember, that’s been the basic formula of the Honor Harrington novels. Again, it’s not a complaint. It’s like going to a restaurant and ordering your usual…sure, you could try something new or seasonal, but at least with the usual, you KNOW you’re going to like what you get. Could Mr. Weber maybe shake things up a bit and try something new? Sure, he could. But he doesn’t have to. This series has been built on a somewhat standard formula, and has plenty of readers, so there’s really no compelling reason to change things. Honestly, there are few authors out there (that I’ve read anyways) who can match Weber in getting all the pieces in place for a big, bad showdown. Unfortunately, it can tend to be hard to burn through the scene-setting portions of the book, given how wordy they are. Working for the government, I feel that Mr. Weber must have a similar mindset of disseminating information to the reader as government trainers have to us employees. And it goes something like this;

1. Tell the people what you are going to discuss with them.
2. Discuss those things with them.
3. Tell the people what you just discussed with them.

And because Mr. Weber follows that structure, conversations tend to become tedious. Everything is explained in minute detail. And while I prefer to have more information to work with rather than less, his books do tend to fall into the “information overload” category. The only problem is, there are enough little plot tidbits and nuggets hidden in the fluff that if you skim paragraphs, you’re going to miss something.

It may sound like I’m being harsh, but that’s not the case. I thoroughly enjoy these books. The villains are either incompetent fools or dastardly and vile douchecanoes, and I love it when they get thwarted, stopped, outmaneuvered and/or blown to smithereens. The heroes are appropriately heroic, taking the moral high road whenever possible and lamenting the events that have lead them to take violent action against others. Honor is a complex character, more a force of nature at this point than anything else. She’s endured much over the course of 14 main books, and while she may be down at times, she’s never out. There is a twist near the end of the novel that genuinely had me concerned for where her character was heading (though, to be honest, I would have completely understood and accepted it HAD she gone down that road), but for the most part it’s the same Honor Harrington as ever; efficient, focused, and deadly…but still human. This far into the story, she’s essentially larger than life, a space-opera Mary Sue if you will, but I’m willing to give Weber a bit of a pass in that regard, given all the speedbumps she’s encountered over all these years.

While this book gives us a few more side characters to follow in terms of advancing the plot, they largely play second fiddle to established characters like Honor, Michelle Henke, Hamish Alexander, and Nimitz the treecat. The only exception to this rule is troublemaker and general malcontent Damien Harahap, more commonly known as Firebrand. If you’ve been following the Honorverse through the last few books, he’s a somewhat familiar character, employed by the Mesan Alignment to sow unrest and discord in the Fringe systems. He takes a more central role here, going through somewhat of a crisis of faith, and ultimately proving pivotal in Manticore’s struggle against the Alignment’s long-term plans.

But while this series never lacks for characters with personality, for me the draw to these books are the battles, and Uncompromising Honor doesn’t disappoint. There are several decent set-pieces prior to the grand show down at the end, and they are tense and destructive, with interesting and unique tactics for the ever evolving technology in play. I always appreciate when tactics trumps numbers, and that’s never been truer in this series than here in Uncompromising Honor. And while I sometimes have a hard time figuring out the science behind everything, namely the speeds at which ships and missiles travel, for the most part things are easy to follow. After being supremely outmatched by the Manties, the Solarian League is developing advanced technologies of their own, and the results are surprising and entertaining.

I do have a few other nitpicky issues with this book, chiefly with the deus-ex-machina use of treecats as built-in defector medicine. I absolutely love treecats, and David Weber is expanding their lore in interesting ways, but they do tend to make things a little “too easy”. Need a lie detector? TREECAT! Need to convince someone that they need a friend and need to do right? TREECAT! Need to drive a point home even more than usual? TREECAT! It can all be a little much sometimes. Couple that with a few super lucky breaks for certain characters, which takes the tension out of events, and there’s a sense that things just kind of fall in line a little too easily. Sure, there’s mass destruction going on ALL around, and millions are dying, but our favorites are likely to pull through just fine.

I can say that Uncompromising Honor definitively wraps up the Manticore/Haven vs. Solarian League conflict in a rather final way. This really only leaves the hunt for the Mesan Alignment for the next book. But that’s IF there’s a next book. While the door is intentionally left open for the possibility of another entry in the series, the way things play out here it’s almost as if this is the final Honor Harrington book. I’m honestly good either way, as I feel this is as good a stopping point as any, as a great deal of dangling plot threads have been picked up and woven into the narrative. If this is where it must end, then it’s a nearly perfect ending.

All in all, I really enjoyed Uncompromising Honor. It’s been quite a few years since the last main series release, and it was good to revisit these characters that I’ve been reading about for the past 13+ books. And if this is to be Honor’s swan song, she certainly made an exit in grand fashion!

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of the Honor Harrington Series. It was the first Sci-Fi series that I got hooked on. Over the years this series is what I compare all others against. I found that I liked military science fiction with a strong female leader. I was so excited that the next book of the series finally came out. My only complaint is that I had to wait five years for it.

The Manticore Star Kingdom is now at war with the Solarian League. The League is headquartered in Chicago on Earth and is a very old League and extremely enormous in size. Its Navy ships are in the hundreds of thousands and Manticore is just recovering from almost being completely destroyed. I was surprised at how much I had remembered of the story considering the five-year gap. It was so great to be reading about the Star Kingdom again. My only complaint was there was not enough about Honor. I wanted the entire story about only Honor like in the old days of the series. From what I have read, this might be the last book in the series. How sad to think of Honor coming to an end. I guess I will have to re-read the series. I have never re-read a series before. Over the years it is this series about Honor Harrington that I have measured against any new series I start. I imagine that will not change as this is still my first and favorite series.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is long at thirty hours twenty-seven minutes. Allyson Johnson does a great job narrating this entire series. Johnson started out as a teenage actress. She won an Emmy at age of twelve. For the almost past twenty years she has been a dedicated voice-over artist and audiobook narrator. She has won multiple Earphone Awards and was an Audio Award nominee.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 3 out of 5]

HONOR HARRINGTON is one of my all-time favorite series but it's one of those which has suffered a bit of drift over the years. The best of the series was all about Honor versus impossible odds and heavily focused on her POV. Unfortunately, the past few books have gradually become heavily politicized stories about Character X talking with character Y about doing Z for three chapters then doing Z exactly like they talked about.

The fact the Solarian League is an incredible bunch of incompetents who might as well be zombies in a shooting gallery for their intelligence made the enormous war against them feel perfunctory. Indeed, I can't really recall any other conflict (other than against zombies) where the primary concern about our heroes fighting the enemy was whether they'd run out of ammo or not. Still, my love of Honor is such that I followed her through to the conclusion of the war here. Which David Weber, in his foreword and afterword more or less states is the end of Honor's adventures.

Honestly, I feel like this is a good cap for Honor's adventurers despite the fact I wish we'd followed her completely through the series. The Solarian League are a detestable bunch of villains are their ruling council, the Mandarins. While the Mesan Alignment remains at large, this is a decent ending for the series were David to stop completely. The Honorverse is it's own franchise, though, and I think the series will benefit from moving away from big galaxy shaking conflicts anyway.

Sail on, Salamander.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

[2 May 2018]
I enjoyed this book. The first half contained a few exciting space battles, and actually involved Honor quite a bit. After that there was a section that slowed down quite a bit, focusing on a number of long political "discussions" and several hard to follow conversations among the Solarian League special intelligence analysts. Then in the last third things heated up again and became very exciting, suspenseful, and maddening. Maddening because it seemed like everything was resolved much too easily. And, in fact, not everything was resolved. The book was advertised as the "climax" of the Honor Harrington series. That may or may not be true, depending on how you define the series, but I suspect there will be at least one more book in the Honorverse generally, though it may not be by Weber. I got the feeling from this book that the author was taking short cuts in order to wrap things up and "be done with it". That infuriates me, but I can understand it after twenty-some books. Still I would recommend it to all Honorverse fans.

[W. Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It will sound like I'm griping, and I suppose I am a bit. For all of the things that disappointed me, I was still ecstatic to have more Honor Harrington. The story itself actually MOVED somewhere. It had consequences for all involved. It gave us a peek at some storylines that have been hanging a bit. We got to see some frigging resolution to some things!

That's why I gave it 4 stars. I enjoyed it even with the flaws. Maybe I enjoyed it because we've waited so long for it. Possibly. If nothing else, it cleared the decks for the story to continue in a better, more focused way. There were some very good personal bits in the midst of all the stuff happening and there some very good stuff surrounding the personal bits. But it didn't flow as well as the earlier books.

This book was like a brain dump of all that Weber wanted to get done with Honor and the current storyline. It was a book about events more than it was about the characters. The best of the earlier books were character-driven more so than event-driven. It was about personal conflict and interaction. For a while now, it's been about the events and where the storyline needs to go.

Overall I have mixed feelings about this book. I'm glad Weber finally got back to the main storyline without repeating stuff from earlier books, but a lot of it still felt more like an Honorverse novel than one of the mainline books. Perhaps there was too much Firebrand and focus on the Solarian League intrigue still. There was a lot of jumping around from one character to another in the storytelling. On the other hand, I liked that all those threads were finally coming together in the same place for once.

In some ways it was fantastic. In other ways, it was plodding and even unsurprising. I guessed several major plot points well before they happened which always annoys me. I'd rather be engrossed than guessing about what's coming. Some things seemed to happen too fast in the storyline, such as the Sollies' technical advances and putting together Operation Fabius. Given the lethargy of the League, it seemed to be contrived. Some things happened and then that was the end of it. Major characters meet their end, off-page. Others just no longer appear. And as usual, there was the obligatory calculations of missles, flight times, etc. Not so much on the acceleration of ships at X number of gravities, etc., thank God.

The wrap-up to the story was satisfying in that it was actually wrapped up. This could really be the end of the Honor Harrington-led phase of the story. There was conflict, death, triumph and closure on a lot of things personally for some characters, but a lot of it seemed rushed, forced or checking a box. Getting from the beginning of the book to the end really could and probably should have been more like three novels or more. There were so many characters, so many events and so many locations. The final resolution of the conflict with the League and the post-war aftermath with the Grand Alliance was more like telling us what would have happened if there'd been an actual book dedicated to it.

The Honor books have seemed like no one is offering editorial advice for a long while. Maybe Weber is at that point where he can do what he wants. You see that with a lot of writers who get to a certain level of sales/popularity. No one seems to edit them anymore for plot and story.

So, yeah. Four stars. Could have been five. Maybe it could have been three. Still would have read it no matter what, because even for all the flaws, she's still Honor Harrington.

[Per Gunnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The enormous blurb of this book reflects fairly well on the book itself. Too many words. The book is perhaps not huge but at 961 pages it is definitely big. Unfortunately the book would be better with a lot of the words removed. I used to really like Honor Harrington as well as a lot of the other works from David Weber. Unfortunately his later works consists of a lot of talk, talk more talk and not enough real action by the characters involved.

The writing of David Weber is undeniably good but nowadays he seems to focus on all the wrong things, or at least not things that I want to see in a military space opera. I do not think Honor herself is in more than 25% of the book. Come on! It is a Honor Harrington book for Christ sake, not a spin-off.

The main story arc of the Solarian League against the Star Kingdom of Manticore continues and we have now passed from sneaky (and cowardly) subversion tactics to outright war. As the blurb states, the corrupt Mandarins of the League do not hesitate to kill civilians with weapons of mass destruction so the stakes are rather and obviously quite a lot of the military action is spent to prevent said destruction.

There are a few quite good, and massive, space battles in the book. On these pages David Weber shows that he is still very good at writing these kind of things. However, half way through the book even Weber’s good writing could not stop me from thinking, get on with it already. There is just so much talk, politics and sub-plots between various characters that it is maddening.

One thing that raised my hopes for this book was this sentence in the blurb: “The Salamander is coming for the Solarian League, and Hell is coming in her wake.“. Unfortunately I would consider this a load of BS. As a matter of fact, to me, it felt like Weber suddenly just decided he wanted to finish the book and rushed to end it. The ending is nothing of the climax I hoped it to be and somewhat unrealistic as well. What was supposed to be the big Harrington-bringing-Hell-to-the-Solarian-League felt more like a sizzle.

If it was not for the fact that Weber does write very well even though, as I wrote, he spends a lot of words on the wrong things I would have considered this book as sub-par. As it is I consider it okay(ish).

[Rich Van Ollefen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really like the Honor Harrington series for the first 10 books or so. Then the writing shifted from space opera to space politics and conspiracies. I was hoping for a bit of a return to the earlier style, but was very disappointed. The book is long, wordy, and shifts viewpoints enough that if I had cared enough what was going on I would have had to take notes to follow everything. I didn't care by about page 50 or 60, and skim-read most of the book. If I did enjoy the complexity of Dave Weber's last few books, this would have been 4 or 5 stars, but I don't, and it got 1 star. There was some action scattered through the book, but not enough for me.

I read another review that said at least Honor was in 25% of the book, in my opinion it was less than 10%, she was virtually a minor character.

If there is another book, I won't bother with it.

[LeisureSuitLarry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for the EARC.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Daisy X Machina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to DNF this novel. I read the a couple of Honor Harrington books years ago and picked this book up for a booktube reading challenge (The Book Junkie Trials). I was looking for a fun, light read with a military theme and remembered the Honor Harrington novels. No one does military scifi like David Weber! Unfortunately, I picked this last novel in the series, which I assume is Honor Harrington's swan song. I will say straight up that this is not a standalone novel. I had no idea who most of the characters were or the past events that kept being referred to. And there were a ton of characters and subplots going on. I think the author tried to ameliorate this with massive info dumps which made my eyes water and which I did not retain. When in the middle of a chapter, I couldn't even remember whose side of the conflict I was reading, I knew I needed to DNF it. Maybe if you read all the prior Honor Harrington novels, this could be a lovely wrapup but otherwise stick to the earlier novels.

[Light Blue Butter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, is it an Honor Harrington book if Honor herself is barely seen in it? This series was brilliant until about 2-3 books ago. I miss the Honor of old where she captained a ship; I miss her gutsy calls and calculated determination. I miss seeing her actually DOING something other than sitting in meetings and floating around at dinners and parties.

And now, I'm more than ready to say goodbye to a story arc that's been stretched too thin and far. Thanks, David Weber for an incredible journey, but enough is enough.

[Piotr · Rating 2 out of 5]

My biggest disappointment in the whole series. In my opinion, some of the threads unnecessarily placed in this book instead of in the next part of the spinoff, shadow of saganami. The whole story first stretches and maneuvers to be cut in a few quick events which deserved much more attention.

[Brett T · Rating 2 out of 5]

This year's Uncompromising Honor closes the door on one chapter of the main sequence of the Honorverse saga, but in a rather unsatisfying manner.

The Star Empire of Manticore has been facing two enemies in recent books -- the shadowy Mesan Alignment and the immense Solarian League, the home nation of humanity in the galaxy. After several books dealing with the Alignment's work, Uncompromising turns the focus to the conflict with the League. The Alignment is still pulling strings in the background, but the primary focus of this story is the buildup towards conflict between the two star nations.

In the middle of this is Admiral Honor Harrington, our series heroine, who is trying to steer a course between all-out war and knuckling under to the pushy, arrogant and belligerent "Sollies." Manticore and its enemy-turned-ally Haven have an immense technological edge over the League's Navy. After all, they've been fighting each other off and on for 50 years, while the League Navy may not have fired more than one shot in anger at a time in about a hundred. But that League Navy is immense, and the sheer weight of metal gives Honor and other wiser heads pause at the idea of taking it on.

Behind-the-scenes treachery and sabotage, as well as underhanded tactics from the Sollies, push both sides toward conflict, and tragedy pushes Honor herself into a full take-no-prisoners mode that makes a confrontation inevitable.

Uncompromising earns a couple of points for not rehashing some of the same events covered in the last two or three books, and for bringing one part of the overall tale to a conclusion. The manner by which is concludes is a little facile, though, and can make a reader wonder why this step didn't happen three or four books ago.

It loses those points and more besides, though, with the by-now-typical meandering Weber speeches, conversations, dialogues and meeting minutes. Without much effort Uncompromising could shrink by 45% and be twice as good as it is. With that effort and some strict editorial standards it could maybe trim another five to ten percent and be really good. It's hard to see how an 800-page book can be sketchy, but Weber's choice of what to leave in (everything) and what to take out (not nearly enough, and a bunch of that wrong) make it so.

With one plotline resolved, the series can turn towards its other main enemy and the undivided focus may spur a quicker pace. The Honorverse is too much fun to just chuck it against the wall (not to mention what it would do to the wall and your rotator cuff) but it was a lot more fun when things happened instead of got talked about, and maybe it can be again.

Original available here.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally! The mad wizard weber (MWW) (author) moves the timeline forward. No more jumping all over the place... Altho to be fair, this book does start either 'before' the events on Mesa, or at least, before news of the events reaches the rest of the books characters until around halfway through the book..

Regardless! It doesn't FEEL like the constant backtracking and reshashing of the same events over and over again as the last .. 4-5? books have. (Shadow of Victory, Shadow of Freedom, Cauldron of Ghosts, A Rising Thunder, Mission of Honor.).. So if that was a major turn off for you in the past.. it's FINALLY OVER!

This book brings about the end of, paraphrasing the author here, the 'Story Arc' of Honor Harrinton, which began in 'On Basilisk Station'.

It does so with some cheesiness in various aspects, and some death and destruction in others. But it does so satisfactorily by the end.

Direct Author quote from his schedule post on his forums: "For the record, I never said that Uncompromising [Honor] would be the end of the Honorverse. I anticipate doing a lot more books in this literary universe. Some of the novels I want to write amount to backstory — Alfred Harrington's Marine career, for example. Others would explore threads I never got the chance to follow up on in the main arc. And others will probably continue with core characters from the current line of novels."

Some speculation on this is that, like the safehold series, MWW will do a timejump forward 20-50 years where the 'young' people that are mere children, or even Ensigns, will be our new main characters 'Captains' and 'Admirals'.. and where Honor herself may be an older political figure such as First Space Lord.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am obviously in the minority here but I can only say thank goodness there is finally some closure to the series. This series has been going downhill for a long, long time and I feel good that I saw the story come to some sort of closure but I no longer feel the need to read any further Honorverse books.

Why?

The early books were great. Few characters, pretty well developed and intense action and distinct story arcs. The later books? Sprawling political intrigue, ok, but not well done. Lots and lots of redundant dialogue. Lots and lots of characters thinking and telling rather then doing. Honestly, painful. Also, David Weber just isn't that good at the political intrigue aspects.

Also, enough, I say enough, of the science gibberish. The books don't use science to make them more easily relateable but rather read as if it is to make a game based on the books easier to setup. OK. Fine. Not why I read though.

Perfection. All the good characters are beutiful and strong. Come on David. And what is up with the fixation on the onion analogy in this book?

Lastly, perdictable. I, and I am sure others, could see the conclusion of this one coming from the first few chapters. It was a pretty large book but you could have boiled it down to a third its size and had a much better read.

So you have to take this as a series not just a book. I will probably reread the first handful of books again. After the first 5 books or so the series really tanks.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thoughts:
For a while now it felt like weber painted himself into a corner in the story. It started as sci fi and moved into space opera before going getting even heavier into politics and espionage and somewhere over the way it lost a lot of its roots as it was forced to grow into this new story.

And really so much happened, so much concluded that these last few stories felt forced and unsatisfying. There is more tell than show, and the emotional weight and drive to many of the characters feels like its missing. The snark and wit are still there, but it feels arrogant instead of cunning.

Anyway. this book felt like 900 pages of buildup for maybe 200 of actual story and a rushed conclusion. He needed to end the arc somehow, and like.. the characters ive grown to enjoy over the last 18 books are -there- at least in name. But it felt off balance and unsatisfying.

There isnt really any doubt this is intended as a stop point, and if he continues in the universe in a different arc I might pick it back up as there is a lot I really enjoyed about the series exploring the sci fi cultures and politics. But after so long, and after so many awkward bits of buildup with lackluster payoffs (not to mention writing the same book 3 times from 3 different points of view..) im more than happy to let the series retire.

[Johan Bastiaanssen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book could be the end of the Honor Harrington series as we know it. The mandarins that have been ruling the Solarian League will finally be brought to justice, but many of the familiar characters in the series do not live to see this conclusion. The core of the Mesan Alignment has disappeared down the proverbial rabbit hole, and maybe Honor's children will be the ones to deal with them if they ever return.
But before you get to this point, you will be familiarized with new weapons developments, weep over the valiant death of thousands of brave officers, salute the men that will not abandon ship before every woman and child is brought to safety. The SLN does not win any battles in this book, but they cause Beowulf to suffer a horrible massacre perpetrated by pawns of the Mesan Alignment.
If you have never read a book in the Honor Harrington series, please start at the beginning of the series. So much detail and so many characters will only be fully appreciated if you have taken the time to read most of the earlier books. This story may seem long, but it builds up to a small climax early on, and then takes you for the long ride to the grand finale. Definitely worth the read!

[Cst · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I had never seen this book released. I had forgotten about the way the last book went and now I not only was reminded how bad that went but I also had to read this one.

There is clear feeling of a universe spiralling out of control. Too many characters have too many talks about too little action. There are whole plotlines completely ignored even though the book is more than seven hundred pages. What little action there is is strewn in between countless pages of unending dialogue. This dialogue often repeats, with three or four sides discussing the same event, what they think, what others think, what they think the others think and what this all means in this giant and uncaring universe. I was so bored I started skimming through these scenes once I had a rough grasp what was going on. I was never surprised, except that one time when the author was too chicken to do something interesting.

I wish I never read this. The action is okay, but it is smothered by all the dross around it.

[Metatr0n · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made it maybe to 10% then quit.

The most jarring thing about Honorverse is that everybody is so stupid. According to earlier books most POV characters should be pinnacles of human kind (since they are gene edited to some extent), but what we actually see are people in positions of power and authority that are below average on scale of intelligence at best.

Smart people don't go explaining everything step by step, they go in leaps the smarter they are the wider "gaps" between these leaps.

The scale of self-delusion is unimaginable, characters come to some stupid conclusions just to further the plot even when they have information that directly contradicts these conclusions.

This book is just insulting drivel.

[Clyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

After several rather lackluster books in the Honor Harrington series, I have to say that Weber seems to have his mojo back. I reckon this is his best book since Echoes of Honor. 4+ stars.
This seems to be the end of the Honor Harrington series. However, in the book's "Afterword" Weber strongly implies that Honor will make appearances in future books set in the Honorverse (but not as a main character commanding ships headed into battle hell). We shall see.

[Alexia Chantel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Action, Honor Harrington, and treecats. I would have liked to have more of all three, especially the treecats. But Honor Harrington book 14 still has space battles! Space battles for the win!

*ebook courtesy of Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

Full review to come at Reading Between the Wines Book Club.
http://www.readingbetweenthewinesbook...

[AMS16 · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is what happens when an author is bored of his character.

This book was so atrocious that I don't know how to begin, but I'll just put in one comment:

If the "good guys" were capable of taking down the Solarian League without any casualties or any apparent effort, why didn't they do it before millions were killed?

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Capstone to a major series arc.

This book had a lot of good moments, but others not so much. I found the multiple POVs and parallel plot lines in this book at times tedious and confusing. I remain a huge fan of the series, but for me this wasn't one of my favorite books.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, I highly recommend it!