Leigh Kimmel > Recent Status Updates

A child's struggles to comprehend the adult world.

A battle as seen by different eyes.

News of a terrible accident at a shipyard, right while the Peeps are becoming more belligerent.

More and more evidence that the Peeps' Navy officers are growing dissatisfied with the Peirre regime.

A bit from the POV of the Peeps (People's Republic of Haven) Navy. It's interesting to see them in the depths of their revolutionary fervor, before the restoration of the former Republic.

Our protagonist watches her hero depart in a way that shows how severely the RMN is turning its back on someone who lived by her code and was willing to die by it to remove a bad officer who wasn't just incompetent, but outright evil, and had used family connections to remain in place.

How loyal the Navy is to Honor, even as some of the media is portraying her as a cold-blooded killer who abused the code duello to commit legalized murder over a grudge, and the House of Lords is refusing to seat her or let her do anything related to her new status.

Confronting the man who'd killed the man she loved and attempted to kill her. And now the news reaction.

Now that Summervale is dead, Honor confronts Pavel Young, who's desperately trying to cover his tracks. An assassination attempt, barely foiled by Honor's armsmen (a requirement as a Grayson Steadholder), and now she's going to make her maiden speech in the House of Lords early, before her deployment.

Honor Harrington confronts Denver Summervale with his actions, provoking him to deny the accusation and demand satisfaction. The duel begins...

A confrontation by several lieutenants, getting one critical answer out of Summervale -- who paid him to goad Paul Tankersley into an intemperate act, then call him out on it to enable what's effectively murder -- and Honor Harrington is training herself in fast-draw precision marksmanship.

More efforts to make sure Honor's loyal subordinates don't take matters into their own hands. And a mysterious call by someone who knows at least something about who was behind the duel.

We see the actual duel, and just how outclassed Paul Tankersley was. And then we see what Honor's loyal subordinates are ready to do to the man who killed him -- and what their superior has to do to make it clear that they are not to actually carry out such a deed.

In Field of Dishonor, the incident with Paul Tankersley and Summervale was mostly offstage. Now we know just how Paul was manipulated into doing something rash, and just how deep Summervale cut, by hurting both Paul and the woman he loved.

The story of a family-run restaurant -- and how it became a hot spot for the rich and famous.

Pavel Young's first speech in the House of Lords, and more behind-the-scenes political discussion.

Some of the particulars of Honor Harrington becoming Steadholder Harrington. It makes me wonder how much was passed over in the earlier books because they were focused on other things, and how much because DW hadn't yet nailed those details down. I wish I had the time to re-read Field of Dishonor and Flag in Exile.

The riot scenes remind me of just how much time has passed since the original books were written, and the author is clearly drawing on events that happened more recently for those images, particularly the protestors-for-hire who show up because they're paid, not because they care about the cause.

A look at the politics behind the problem of Pavel Young -- and it's a doozy. A father who'll use his connections to cover for the Golden Child who never learned basic compentencies, or courage.

A bit of history on Brandy's family -- her first ancestor in the SKM came as a crook, using his identity as an exobiologist in an attempt to smuggle treecats (at a time when they were not yet recognized as sophonts) and learning the hard way that they could play complex tricks. His time in the SKM's corrective institutions created a respect that led him to settle permanently and begin a family.

A side story to the events of *Field of Dishonor* and *Flag in Exile,* it deals with Brandy Bolgeo, a wounded veteran of the disastrous battle in which Pavel Young's cowardice proved nearly catastrophic to the Manticorian Royal Navy.

Swaying the resisters -- and then Jodhas and Aaor's family come looking for them, and find people who've changed sides quite effectively.

More of the villagers come over -- and some of them are struggling within, between what the elders have told them, and what they have observed with their own senses.

The healing of a massively disfigured man, and mates for Aaor -- but all is not yet well, for there is still hostility in this tiny community to anyone with a different idea of how to handle the situation.

An unpleasant and painful homecoming. A lot of suspicion -- and the pain of a bonded mate in contact with the unmated.

Saving Aaor will take teamwork, and considerable risk. Can they connect with this secret band of resisters and find mates for Aaor without getting themselves killed, and possibly betraying this community?

Bonding with mates.

Our protagonist's success becomes pain for sibling Aaor, who also wants Human spouses. Aaor seems to be fleeing sapience, turning to something akin to a mollusk, with no obvious sense organs or anything recognizable even to close kin.

Returning to camp at last, reuniting with family -- and the full story of how fertile humans came to be, apart from the Oankali. A spare story, but deeply fraught with the breaking of powerful taboos -- yet echoing the question of where Cain and Seth got their wives, if their parents were the only two people in the previous generation.

The story of how the First Mother had a child as the result of a brutal crime, and began a line of fertile humans separate from the Oankali -- but with a hidden genetic defect that becomes stronger with the continual inbreeding.