#honorverse
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Toll of Honor by David Weber is in at my bookstore! I preordered it and am heading to pick it up!
Who else is excited for it? Did you preorder?
@stitchlingbelle @brachylagus-fandom @pratchettfan87
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So I was thinking a while back about something David Weber said about casting Honor, that Honor herself, living in a post-racial society, would not care who played her*, but that in our modern world it does matter.
And this sent me on a long trail of thought about several things, but mostly representation and cultural changes since David first started writing the series and it suddenly hit me:
If they were to try to update the story, it'd be amazing to make Honor trans.
It would play well with her issues with her looks, especially her height (dysphoria anyone?), and make more sense of things like needing Mike to teach her about makeup. (Not to say Allison wouldn't be delighted to teach her once she came out, but what if she didn't until the Academy?)
In terms of the ongoing plots and themes, it would really modernize the Grayson sexism arc. Bad enough to have women in the military, how about telling them to throw their whole concept of gender out the window? Depending on how it was done, it could also add some more focus to her status as a genie and the themes of the Beowulf/ Mesa arc, what's an "allowable", biosculpt alteration vs what's an illegal mod... (And advanced tech makes it totally possible for her to have a uterus and keep that surprise pregnancy plotline if they like.)
I dunno, I just thought it would be an interesting take.
*(in-universe of course it would be a biopic and god she'd be so embarrassed she'd just die. Mike would organize a watch party. Somebody write this before I have to...)
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The Service of the Sword Cover Art by David Mattingly
#Honor Harrington#Honorverse#The Service of the Sword#David Mattingly#Sci-Fi#Mecha#Spaceship#Covers#Cover Art
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'Honor Among Enemies' --A Review
I’m back on the Honor Harrington train for 2024 with Honor Among Enemies and this time, Honor is being recalled back to active duty with the Royal Manticoran Navy– only this time, there’s a little bit of a hitch.
When last we left her, Harrington had been forced into exile on Grayson. Her longtime nemesis, Lord Pavel Young had killed the man she loved Paul Tankersly and in turn, Harrington had killed him. In exile on Grayson, she had set to work building out her Steading and confronting extremists on Grayson that want to overturn what they consider to be a dangerously modern new order which gives women things like ‘the ability to have an education’ and ‘the right to speak in public.’ Having see that challenge off, she’s still on Grayson when Manticore comes calling again.
Things are not going that great in their ongoing war against the People’s Republic of Haven. After a coup throws the Peeps into chaos for awhile, they’ve now recovered their footing a bit and the war is getting rougher for both sides. While the Peeps and Manticore are going at it, however, a new problem is bedeviling Manticore: pirate attacks on their commercial shipping have increased, especially in the lawless Silesian Confederacy and if something isn’t done about it soon, the commercial houses will be forced to stop shipping and the economic consequences of that could be disastrous for Manticore.
They can’t pull any of their big ships off the front line of the war, so who do they turn too? Why the one Captain they can rely on to do more with less because she has a proven track record of doing just that: Honor Harrington.
Harrington and company (her armsmen are with her, her faithful steward Mac, Cardones, Gibson, Harkness– familiar faces that have served with her before in the previous books all show up) get to work souping up the Q-Ships (fast picket ships, not heavy hitters typically) with enough armament to stand up to potential pirates and then they head out on convoy duty and the adventure begins.
I’m kind of torn on this book: it feels like a step backward from the previous two books, which saw Harrington go through some trauma (losing Paul) and then retreat in exile to Grayson where she confronts more challenges (because that’s what these books are about) but more importantly, heals herself a little bit. I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again: the sheer numbers of losses that Harrington goes through in terms of people under her command that she loses would have an affect on anyone and I really liked that Weber took the time to have her actually sit with that and come to terms with it a little bit.
This feels like a reset back to the formula of the early early books. Yes, in the arc of the series, you probably need this to be a bridge novel to get Honor back into the Manticoran fold (and I think that’s exactly what this is about) but it feels like a retread in many ways. She’s facing overwhelming odds and doesn’t have the biggest, fastest, heaviest armed ships– but she’s got ingenuity and good old fashioned know how to confront the problems and get the job done, but pays a cost for it. It’s more or less Basilisk Station stuck in a blender and throw in some pirates for good measure and it’s kind of disappointing.
Her antagonist from Basilisk Station shows up: Klaus Hauptmann, shipping magnate is the one who pushes Manticore to do something about it and even suggests sending Harrington, because he figures it’s a win-win: either Harrington gets the job done and protects his shipping or she dies trying and a woman he dislikes is taken off the board. Standard issue villain stuff for the series, but for some reason he decides to actually go out there himself! With his daughter!
I don't want to make it seem like it's all bad with this book, to the contrary there are a few interesting developments worth touching on:
First, this we get to meet the Andermanis for the first time and they are a wild blend of German/Chinese culture and I like them. They're a player in galactic affairs, but they're not as big of heavy hitters as Manticore or Haven, but they've got some game and they're very interested in the Silesian Confederacy and have a vested interested in making sure it's not a complete mess, so are friendly to Honor and company as they pass through on convoy duty. (i feel like we're going to see more of them in future books.)
Second, we've got the Wanderman Plot. War being what it is, Honor's crew has it's fair share of ne'er do wells and trouble makers along with really new, green recruits and one of them, Wanderman, runs afoul of the biggest and baddest asshole of the crew, Stielman and after he gets his shit kicked in, everyone knows who did it, but Wanderman won't admit it. He gets taken under the wing of the Marine Contingent, learns to defend himself and eventually, gets his own back against Stielman. It's a nice B-Plot and I hope we see more of Wanderman in the future-- I'm betting we will, since Weber seems to bring folks back now and again in this series- usually when you're least expecting them to show up.
Finally, we get some Treecat Action and Nimitz, Honor's Treecat gets a mate with the Engineer's Treecat, Samantha. That means that they're going to have go on maternity to leave until she's delivered her babies and we explore Honor's slightly souped-up bond with Nimitz that isn't quite full telepathy, but does allow her to sense the emotions of other humans and she actually shares that with the Engineer, but... because this is Honor Harrington and she can't have nice things and happy endings- at least not complete ones, the Engineer ends up dying and she feels the breaking of the bond with his Treecat, Samantha, who does survive, but it traumatized and depressed by the experience.
Overall, I'd say by itself, there are better books in this series. When you put in terms of the arc of the entire series, this feels like a bridge novel (we'll have to see if that proves correct when I get to the next one in the series) but I'm also left with the notion that it was kind of a necessary novel as well, despite feeling like something of a retread. For sure, Honor is back from exile. She's also thinking about promotion- if not to Commodore, then to Admiral and while she acknowledges she will miss just commanding a starship, she also doesn't seem to hate the idea of getting to develop the big picture strategy of the war either. Some interesting things in this book, but largely, just okay for me, so My Grade: ** out of ****
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Hi Thrawn friends (and all spaceship nerds)!
Little reminder:
Port - left
Starboard - right
Zenith - up (away from planet)
Nadir - down (toward planet)
Bonus!
Prograde - west to east (spins in same direction as its orbit)
Retrograde - east to west (spins in opposite direction as its orbit)
Hope this helps someone!
#star wars#thrawn#thrawn trilogy#thrawn ascendancy#manticore ascendant#honorverse#spaceship#starship
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🛸Spaceship Media Tournament🛸
BRACKET A: Round 1, match 10
#spacemt polls#spacemt round 1#spaceship media#boat media tourney#rocket ship galileo#honorverse#honor harrington
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The David Weber urge to switch to the POV of a minor character in the middle of a calamity and characterize the ever loving fuck out of them before they die or do something amazing (or both)
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Top 5 Ships List - 2022 Edition
5. Edward “Ed” Harbert/Leanne Rorish (Code Black)
4. Berenice “Bernie” Wolfe/Serena Campbell (Holby City)
3. Javier Giscard/Eloise Pritchart (Honor Harrington)
2. Shelagh Mannion/Patrick Turner (Call the Midwife)
1. Barbara Havers/Thomas “Tommy” Lynley (Inspector Lynley)
Honorable Mentions:
Siegfried Farnon/Audrey Hall (All Creatures Great and Small), Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries), John Sheridan/Delenn of Mir (Babylon 5), James Kirk/Spock of Vulcan (Star Trek), Olivia Benson/Rafael Barba and Amanda Rollins/Dominick Carisi (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit), Ethan Hunt/Ilsa Faust (Mission: Impossible), C.J. Cregg/Danny Concannon (The West Wing), Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan (Doctor Who)
#lynley x havers#turnadette#javier x eloise#berena#ed x leanne#inspector lynley#call the midwife#honorverse#holby city#code black#siegfried x audrey#phryne x jack#john x delenn#kirk x spock#barson#ethan x ilsa#cj x danny#copperdoc
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Honor Harrington from the Honourverse by David Weber has been heroforged
https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D504492407/
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Just played Ticket to Ride while another group was playing Ticket to Ride Europe and boy do I have some Honorverse headcanons for it!
Thus, here's the cracky Havenites all play Ticket to Ride Space Edition.
Eloise's poker face gives her an advantage and the bloc of lightly allied (much in the way of glances is employed to ensure that the Navy can block the Commissioners from winning) RHN officers keep struggling to read her. Except Javier, who unofficially isn't a part of the secret naval alliance.
Strategic thinkers take longest route every game.
Shannon uses math and pathfinding to run the odds for everything in her head.
@stitchlingbelle I think you'd like this?
#honor harrington#honorverse#honor harrington novels#shannon foraker#eloise pritchart#javier giscard#ticket to ride#game night#au idea
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(My apologies for the lack of quality, but y'all know it had to be done.)
#honorverse#horace harkness#scotty tremaine#barbie#fanart#I mean it's practically canon#I'd love to see Harkness's arrest records one day
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Honor Harrington: Tales of Honor: The Secret Fleet - Ship Models by Jonathan Lauer
#Honor Harrington#Honorverse#Tales of Honor: The Secret Fleet#Peoples' Republic of Haven#Star Kingdom of Manticore#Sci-Fi#Mecha#Spaceship#Jonathan Lauer
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'Flag In Exile' --A Review
The next chapter in the Honor Harrington series, Flag In Exile, finds Honor, well, in exile, after the events of the previous book, Field of Dishonor, made her a political liability for the Manticoran Royal Navy.
So, she goes to Grayson. After saving the life of their Protector, Benjamin Mayhew a couple of books previously: (see: The Honor of The Queen), she was made into a Steadholder and given her own land to develop and she throws herself into that, learning the ins and outs of the society and while her decision to not join the main Church on Grayson is controversial, she makes it clear that she respects the beliefs of the citizens in her charge and is always in the pews for Sunday services and people by and large respect that.
But, Grayson being Grayson (and still decidedly conservative), there are some people that aren't wild about it and they start to plot against her. Her big project for her steading and for Grayson are the development of the Sky Domes, which use Manticore's technology to reclaim the toxic land of Grayson and potentially make their orbital farming platforms obsolete at least someday and that's where her enemies strike, deliberately sabotaging a dome construction that kills scores, including many children, unleashing a wave of hatred and backlash against her.
In the meantime, this being an Honor Harrington book, she's called back to naval duty-- this time for Grayson and leads a fleet of reclaimed Havenite super destroyers against the People's Republic of Haven-- we see the return of Mercedes Brigham and Alfredo Yu-- both from The Honor of the Queen, even if the latter has defected to Grayson so serves as Honor's flag captain-- there's some tension between them initially, but they resolve it together, as Honor almost always seems to do and when Haven goes on the offensive, they make Grayson their target once again.
Honor's people, having figured out that the Dome collapse was sabotage, prepare to bring charges in a public meeting of all the Steadholders, but realizing that, her enemies make one final attempt to bring her down: shooting down her shuttle as it comes back down to Grayson and going one step further, and, finding out that she survived, trying to assassinate her directly in the flaming wreckage of her shuttle- the head of Grayson's Church, Reverend Hanks, intervenes just in time and takes the bullet for her and that proves to be the fatal undoing of her enemies. In the public trial, she names them and they, in turn, challenge her to a duel- with swords this time. Honor ends it with one, killing blow, and truth and honor are restored to her steading and Grayson.
In the meantime, there's a space battle. Honor takes losses, but manages to bluff her way out of a total disaster, coming out to meet the Havenite forces, making them think she's less damaged than she actually is. They break off and everyone lives to fight another day (or, at least until the next book.)
Overall: I'm starting to have some questions here. At what point does the trauma seriously catch up with Harrington? I get it- from a writer's point of view, you want to put your main characters through something, but Honor's been through the wringer quite a bit here. We saw some acknowledgment of it when she started one of the last books at home on Sphinx, but the Dome collapsed, still recovering from the loss of her lover, Paul, and the sheer galactic numbers of space warfare she's got to handle make me wonder about if she's going to crack at some point.
(That last point is really interesting to consider: in the space battle, I think she walks away with somewhere between 6K-15K dead, which is like WWI numbers-- the British suffered 19K dead on the first day of the Sommer, for instance, but in terms of modern warfare today-- the US lost about 3K in Afghanistan and we had lost 15K on one battle, you have to wonder what the public reaction would be. It's also worth noting that Afghanistan was not a peer/near-peer conflict for us, whereas a conflict with say, China, would produce far higher casualty figures. But the numbers: how do commanders psychologically handle that? That would be something interesting to explore, I think.)
I also want to say that these are starting to seem a little formulaic again, but I know better now. Every time I've thought that and wished for Honor to have a little more than duty, naval battles, and enemies plotting against her Weber has delivered in the subsequent volume. So, I'll hold off on my judgment until then. My Grade: *** out of ****
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The sun rose over Nouveau Paris. Hope had started to burn to dark ashes with the death of Admiral Giscard at Lovat, and had burnt to dust by now, with the knowledge of the planned Mantie attack on Haven to come any day now, from Eighth Fleet, like the last war, and with the knowledge that the Republic wouldn't be getting any ceasefires this time around, as well as the news of the capture of one of Haven’s best Admirals, Admiral Tourville, and the near-complete loss of Admiral Chin’s Fifth Fleet, which had limped back to Haven with 17 ships, out of an original 85 podlayers. The sun, ironically named Hope, rose over not the reborn Republic, the Athens of the stars, but a Republic waiting for the death blow from the sword of Eighth Fleet, which they all knew was coming.
Author's Note: This is the last really dark sunrise, just saying. Sorry for getting a little behind on the tumblr posts, I've just been using the queue, and not posting the chapter here, even in the queue until after it comes out on Ao3.
#honor harrington#honor harrington novels#honorverse#ao3#ao3 link#fanfic#the sun rose over nouveau paris#thomas theisman#eloise pritchart#the republic of haven#I take some liberties with canon#I can write things that aren't pure blood#but not this one#but the last one will be the Grand Alliance#operation beatrice#lester tourville#javier giscard#eighth fleet
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The weird thing about the Mesan alignment as a story concept, the idea that these guys are genetically engineered to be better than other people at specific things, is that it necessarily validates the concept of eugenics in-universe. If you can reliably breed someone who is good with x or y mental or physical work, with the right tech at least, then the problem with eugenics policies are not that eugenics is pseudoscience in service of race and class hierarchy, but merely that the policies required to enact a eugenics project are inhumane. At no point have I read a passage of any of these books which challenged the Mesan alignment's belief that they can produce innately superior humans, however much it portrays them as evil for doing the things they do.
The thing is, though, that if you believe in eugenics, and furthermore you believe in an ends justify the means sort of worldview, which is the de facto moral stance of most military stories, then all a Mesan would have to do to radicalize you to their cause was convince you that the universe they intend to build is worth the slavery and murder and the like.
To the books' credit, they take the position that slavery could not possibly be worth it, and it does not present that as debatable. But there's this weird philosophical back door that is not gotten rid of.
Maybe David Weber will surprise me further down the line. I haven't reached the end of the series yet, and maybe there will be writing which suggests that he has given this thought. I sort of doubt it, though. There have been a number of parts which I have read which made it seem like the author has some blind spots. Ho hum. It's not enough of an issue to drive me off the books, but it does give me pause.
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