To Honor You Call Us discussion

What's right with this book? What's wrong with this book? What's the strongest point and the weakest point? What is this author's best quality here? What's his worst? Praise the author. Trash the author. What are the highs and lows?

Liked it a lot. Good characters that you could relate to and seemed to evolve as the story unfolds. Third person but good balance between telling and showing (well maybe a tad leaning toward telling). Didn't switch around to much between POV which is a pet peeve of mine. Could follow the science didn't drag with the explaining. Liked the balance between serious and humorous. Characters went through some bad stuff in past and present but didn't dwell on it excessively. Most of all dialog was believable for people living on a vessel in a wartime environment. Was reading an article about soldiers returning from the recent wars in the Middle East and what they have to suffer mentally and physically. There are a lot of books out there, especially YA, that have characters that are assassins or live in a war time culture but they don't reflect what the longterm effects of that would really be on a person. I think this book dose a good job of that.

Kari wrote: "Liked it a lot. Good characters that you could relate to and seemed to evolve as the story unfolds. Third person but good balance between telling and showing (well maybe a tad leaning toward tell..."

Thank you for the comment, Kari. Back when Star Trek: The Next Generation was in its first run, I was talking about the show with a clinical psychologist who used to ply his trade in the US Navy. He said that in the real world, after going through even a third of what Picard goes through, he would have been relieved of command and be given shore duty while he underwent intensive treatment for trauma. I try to write with a consciousness of the cost of war, not just for the societies and the fallen, but for those who simply live and fight their way through it.

TO HONOR YOU CALL US (To Honor You Call Us (Man of War, Book 1)) a story of 24th century "naval" warfare, in space, using a lot of 20th century weapons and tactics. The preferred side-arms for officers are the ever popular M-1911 .45 caliber pistol and a sword. There is a lot of concern about punching holes in space ships in the process of repelling boarders. The characters are pretty believable, well, maybe a little exaggerated sometimes, but considering it is military sci-fi, it is easy to make allowances for their quirks. The plot is the eternal battle of good versus evil, with evil having the edge in men and materials. The good have the typical over abundance of strategically located horse-shoes and the uncanny ability to do the right thing at the right time, in the right place. The story is sometimes serious, sometimes almost humorous (think about a boarding party of characters straight out of HMS Pinafore). If you have served in the military, you may think some of the people you served with have been transported to the 24th century. All in all, it is a very easy 4 star read if you are into this genre. I am looking forward to volume 2 in the series.

You know I was awake last night thinking about boarding parties and how the heck they can match up gravity orientation. Punch hole in a ship and how can you know if you are entering through the ceiling, floor or a side wall. What happens when gravity it's is lost - must play hell with tactics and execution. One wonders if someone can attack a rival ships gravity and glue folks to the deck? Also if you are stuck in zero G would swinging a sword or axe still work sufficiently - using a 1911 in zero grave would produce interesting results..... Finally went to sleep figuring that somehow there would be a way to address those little problems. Other random thoughts if one can tow a detection array, why not some sort of missile platform that one could park before a battle to use with a destroyer to be a force multiplier and allow you more shots that you have missile
tubes.? Just some random thoughts..

David--apparently each ship has its own gravity field/generator a la the Enterprise of Star Trek fame. The structural design of the ships includes a hatch for connecting the boarding tube. The interesting thing is that all of the docking ports (Krag, Terran, etc.) are compatible with each other. I remember one boarding party waiting in the extension tube until they got the gravity equalized or at least stabilized. The towed array, as you note, is problematic, but like I said, TO HONOR YOU CALL US is about the 24th century space navy, using 21st century tactics, hardware, and terminology. I thought it was a very entertaining story, and am looking forward to the next book. That may prompt some more discussions.

Sorry for the hiatus on the discussion, Not sure I buy the "everybody uses the same docking port methodology argument". I think it's far more likely that everybody uses a somewhat different one, and also that the gravity levels might be different from race to race - having some sort of gravity equalizer / neutralizer might make more sense, I think it unlikely that a boarding party would choose to enter at a portal on a ship unless performing a rescue - making a hole in the other guys ship might make for confusion and distraction for the boardees... Also thinking that if they ever get in a zero G situation guns/projectile weapons would be out... might need some sort of an energy weapon... Even a sword would cause you problems

As to towed platforms and arrays, I would think that all combatants wold be looking for ways to make their weapons more effective and once someone uses a sleeper weapon approach like Max has, others would pick up on that and try to develop more of the same.

I think there are two types of 'boarding' to be concerned with--one is to go aboard for an inspection, rescue, or something like that. In this case, you probably would use a boarding tube and a compatible docking port. Going aboard to 'kick a-- & take names' would definitely require a different approach. It might be a tractor beam and a transporter (a la Star Trek) or just plain treachery--a false white flag of truce or medical emergency. I agree that gravity could be a problem, but they seem to able to adjust to the changes without cumbersome space suits. Some of this may be the author's imagination and his way with words. So far, in this series, we are basically dealing with off-shoots from earth based civilizations which would sort of null out the gravity factor. (Even the Krag are descended from NYC rats.)
It definitely would be hard to fight in zero gravity, no matter what weapons were at hand.

FOR HONOR WE STAND carries on the tradition, and even adds a quirk or two. I really love Max's way of thinking, and Dr. Sahim is doing nicely (Think Capt. Kirk and Bones).

I bought the book based on ratings and reviews. Having read few novels of military science fiction I wasn't sure whether I might like it. I found the book hard to put down and enjoyed the pace of it. I have purchased For Honor We Stand and look forward to getting started on it.

I bought this book after completing another military science fiction that I liked. This book was really good and I read the next two also. I loved the characters and the way they worked their way out of the problems. I wanted to find it in talking books for my brother but it was not available.

All three books are available from Audible.com in audio versons. [Thank you for your kind remarks.]

Thanks for the answer. Sorry I did not get back sooner. I was referring to the Talking Books pgm through the Library. They send books that run on a special reader and is very easy for blind people to use. The service is free.

H. Paul,

I read Honor and enjoyed it a great deal. As I said in my review, I'm a great fan of the Hornblower and Jack Aubrey books, and liked the way you took that concept into the future.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...