Reviews

Une guerre victorieuse et brève by David Weber

pluralise's review against another edition

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4.0

I continue to be impressed by Weber's ability to keep 10+ hour space battles engaging.

jasonabbott's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

mburnamfink's review against another edition

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3.0

Honorverse #3 sees the Big Show kick off, as Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven finally start the war that they've been dancing around-and as always Honor is right in the center, commanding the state-of-the-art Battlecruiser Nike in defense of critical forward base. Good intelligence on the part of the peeps and command errors above leave Honor's squadron badly outgunned by Dreadnoughts, and it's up to her tactical brilliance and guts to save the day.

That said, this is where the series starts to bloat. The main action is short, almost too short, and the narrative wanders between Honor commanding starships, falling in love, and facing down old enemies, and 'big picture' strategy discussions on Manticore and Haven. The Haven perspective, with it's tottering regime halfway between Communism and ancien regime France is pretty good, but Weber goes right for the obvious historical parallels, including one of the worst pun names in all of scifi.

riduidel's review

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3.0

Je vais tout de suite reconnaître mes faiblesses : je suis une lopette face au talent de page-turner de ce genre d'auteur. Et qui plus est, je garde des souvenirs émus de ma jeunesse face à Albator et autres Cobra.
Voilà sans doute pourquoi j'apprécie ce genre de lecture d'un premier degré affligeant, d'un militarisme dégradant et, surtout, d'un manichéisme tellement dépassé !
Mais quels sont les points à sauver de ce troisième tome ?
Certainement pas l'appendice qui nous explique l'état de la marine spatiale des deux nations s'affrontant avant le début des combats (alors précisément que ce roman nous parle de ce début ddes combats. Sans doute que cet appendice aurait été plus à sa place dans le second tome ...).
Pas non plus les choix technologiques de l'auteur, que je trouve risibles, même si j'approuve complètement l'idée de reproduire dans l'espace des batailles navales napoléoniennes. Des choix risibles ? Oui. Reprenez d'autres space-operas, comme Vorkosigan, ou [b:l'aube de la nuit|2594894|Romain Gary Coffret 4 volumes Chien Blanc ; La promesse de l'aube ; La nuit sera calme ; Pseudo|Romain Gary|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZZQTDP80L._SL75_.jpg|2616513]. Et vous verrez ce que c'est qu'une vision un peu intelligente du combat spatial. Et pourtant, c'est amusant comme exercice intellectuel, je trouve.
Ni la partie politique de l'intrigue qui fait pàle figure à côté d'un Miles Vorkosigan, par exemple.
Et pourtant, je suis quasiment fan. Sans doute parce qu'à cause des choix technologiques (ou gràce à eux), notre auteur s'amuse à mettre en place des combats qui ont une élégance certaine. Et je crois bien que c'est pour ces cinquante dernières pages de combat spatial que j'aime les aventures de cette femme capitaine.
Je passerai donc sur ces éternelles phases d'auto-apitoiement, mais aussi sur cette vision de la politique qui consiste à considérer (encore une fois) les seuls militaires comme interlocuteurs dignes de ce nom.
Bref, rien ne change par rapport au tome précédent. C'est assez limite moralement, mais pourtant très plaisant car bien écrit et plein de bruit et de fureur.
Je ne vous conseillerai de le lire que si vous êtes fans de l'idée de voir des montagnes d'acier se précipiter les unes vers les autres à des vitesses quasi-relativistes (ah, tiens, non. Un calcul montre qu'à 500 G, il faut 17 heures pour atteindre la vitesse de la lumière, donc 1,7 pour passer dans le domaine relativiste). Bon bref, c'est bourré de défaut, mais je les aime bien, moi, ces défauts.

remocpi's review against another edition

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4.0

Haven, en una situación de enorme crisis económica, le declara la guerra a Manticore para esconder sus miserias bajo la alfombra del nacionalismo. Lo que debería ser una guerra corta y triunfal se convierte, lamentablemente para Haven, en un avispero interesante.

frater's review against another edition

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3.0

This was a very enjoyable book but it felt like half a book, we spend a lot if time on the (admittedly fascinating) political build up only to fizzle at the end, where the climax is wrapped up in no time at all, mostly off screen.

Most disappointing was Pavel Young who has been built up a a monster for three books and brought onto the stage in a prime position to do damage, only to do nothing for the entire book except screw up at the en and get his comeuppance. A missed opportunity to give Honor a real challenge there.

peregrineace's review against another edition

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4.0

A great continuation of the HH series. A book all about the best laid plans of men...

jillyfae's review against another edition

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4.0

I enjoyed this one largely because of the reveal of the People's Republic of Haven as more than just a 2-dimensional boogey-man out in space harassing our intrepid heroine and her people. It was a welcome deepening of the world-building and character development for the series.

It was less action-packed than the first two, and the conflict within the members of the Manticore Navy was roughly the same as the first two, but strangely enough, it didn't get old or repetitive. At least, not yet, and hopefully not in the next 8 books either... Again, I highly recommend the series, though one should definitely read it in order.

charleshb's review against another edition

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5.0

Very enjoyable entry in the Honor Harrington series

madags's review against another edition

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5.0

We get to learn more about Pavel Young and his history with Honor. He really is the epitome of a douche-canoe. Cowardly, envious, wanton, salacious, and self-entitled Pavel Young enjoys the dubitable honor of being a poster boy for sins. Oh and spoiler alert: His rich dad is a prominent member of the Conservative party, big surprise there. The Youngs couldn’t be more cookie-cutter as your typical capitalist fat cats who are convinced they can get away with murder if they just grease the right palms and damn near always do too. So it’s interesting to have someone like that on the side of the “angels” while the Havenites are about to find out what too much of that very sort of people in charge inevitably leads to.

A good story must have you recognize that there is no such thing as “The Good Guys” or their bad counterparts. It’s just people. They may trend toward differing politics or beliefs but you can always find scumbags in even the outwardly most humane groups and the opposite will also hold true. And that’s something else that Weber revisits often to remind us. Generalizations will lead you astray.

Read the full review on my blog: https://weemadaggie.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/honorverse-a-short-victorious-war-by-david-weber/