| $@%&! level: Medium-High "Bedroom" level: None Violence level: High (and rather graphic) Back Cover: “Honor in trouble: Having made him look the fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her. Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station. The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens. Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called “Republic” of Haven is Up To Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system. But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad.” |
As a character, I'd say that Honor Harrington rates right up there with Batman on my favorites list, and for many of the same reasons. She is scary-good at what she does, able to take people apart with her bare hands, and utterly determined to do what she knows is right regardless of the cost—and also regardless of who tries to stop her. And she's got a bit of a temper on her, oh my, doesn't she just.
And then, just when I'm thinking that here's a woman I could never relate to, she's also got serious self-worth issues when it comes to her romantic life, an alien treecat as her constant companion, and a deep love of hot cocoa.
And yes, it may be a long build up to the climax, but Weber keeps it plenty entertaining in the meantime, mostly via character development. You've just got to love Scotty and Harkness, for one. And then there's the joy of watching this one ship do the impossible and actually discharge their duties, and the fuss they kick up by doing so.
I do have one complaint for David Weber though. The middle of a chase scene with spaceships racing for the hyper limit and shooting missiles at one another is no place to stop for a seven page history of the Warshawski sail!