Space Opera Fans discussion

The July 2018 THEMED pick is A Call to Duty by David Weber and Timothy Zahn. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

This book fits our New Adult category. The theme is Academy, and some of the action takes place during the main character’s military training.

Official description:
Growing up, Travis Uriah Long yearned for order and discipline in his life... the two things his neglectful mother couldn't or wouldn't provide. So when Travis enlisted in the Royal Manticoran Navy, he thought he'd finally found the structure he'd always wanted so desperately.

But life in the RMN isn't exactly what he expected. Boot camp is rough and frustrating; his first ship assignment lax and disorderly; and with the Star Kingdom of Manticore still recovering from a devastating plague, the Navy is possibly on the edge of extinction.

The Star Kingdom is a minor nation among the worlds of the Diaspora, its closest neighbors weeks or months away, with little in the way of resources. With only modest interstellar trade, no foreign contacts to speak of, a plague-ravaged economy to rebuild, and no enemies looming at the hyper limit, there are factions in Parliament who want nothing more than to scrap the Navy and shift its resources and manpower elsewhere.

But those factions are mistaken. The universe is not a safe place.

Travis Long is about to find that out.

This book is in the Honorverse but takes place hundreds of years before Honor Harrington or even Stephanie were born. It’s a good entry point.

I read this book when it first came out and enjoyed it. Here is my review.

I read it and liked it even though not as much action, except perhaps at the end, as in HH books. But it shows how much ships have changed and how some of the traditions at HH's time may have started.

I found it enjoyable enough to immediately continue through the rest of the trilogy, but marked it 3 stars which is my own shorthand meaning “won’t reread unless I’m in a strange mood or it’s been several years”.

I have been wanting to start the Honor Harrington books and so far haven't found the time. This book seems to be a good place to at least dip a toe into the Honorverse. Book 1, Chapter 1...

Audrey wrote: "I have been wanting to start the Honor Harrington books and so far haven't found the time. This book seems to be a good place to at least dip a toe into the Honorverse. Book 1, Chapter 1..."

Actually I wouldn't recommend this as the best place to start the Honorverse. It may be first in the internal chronology, but it's no where near the best of the series. I'd recommend you start with On Basilisk Station. That gives you a better introduction to the Honorverse universe.

thanks, Betsy. I own Basilisk Station. I will pull it out and read first.

I read this a few months ago, and while I liked it enough to buy and read the rest of the trilogy, I didn’t enjoy it enough to plan to reread it in a couple of years. It does give some good backstory to the Honorverse, and the main character has his own personality, as do a few others. That is, they aren’t just standard characters from other books.

In some ways this is like the Honor books but in other ways it isn't. Of course there are two other writers so it should have differences. It has slower political scenes for one thing. Even though well enough done so you want to punch those that oppose building a bigger navy. Their ideas are so off it's amazing people would still think that way then.

I just finished my second reading of this. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the first time. It seemed to drag at times. Not in the same way as many David Weber books drag with extended technical descriptions and political conversations. Rather, sometimes the descriptions of what was going on were in such excruciating detail (they took a step up this ladder, then walked down that corridor, then through this hatch) that I thought nothing would ever actually happen. It was still exciting, especially at the end, but I think on the whole the writing could have been improved.

I finished, and liked, On Basilisk Station. I am now about 1/3 of the way through A Call to Duty. It has a rather different tone and writing style. But so far the politicians have the same types of unhelpful ideas in both books.