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A review by edb14
The Short Victorious War by David Weber
4.0
Here I am in the third of the Honor Harrington novels, and I just don't know how the author is going to be able to keep up this level of quality and entertainment for 14 books. Already the cracks are beginning to show.
Our heroine once again is at the critical moment during a Haven invasion that could start off a deadly war, and once again she is part of a force that is vastly underpowered compared to her opponents. This time she is not in charge and her critical efforts only happen in the last five pages, but otherwise some of the set pieces are starting to repeat themselves. Honor is steadily climbing in ranks and always starts the novel inordinately pleased with her new appointment, which serves to confuse me as a reader in understanding exactly how good her ships are. She seems to be given the best of the best every novel, and yet the next novel there is an even greater "honor" waiting for her. Once again a slough of names and characters are thrown at the reader's head with few of the important ones from previous novels making a reappearance. Once again everyone is very impressed with Honor and if any of her enemies make an appearance, there is a plethora of like-minded superiors who are ready to back her up. Its all enormously good schlocky fun, but it is very similar to the previous two novels.
Weirdly, this novel actually has very little Honor in it at all. Though she starts a new relationship and clashes with an enemy from her past, Honor has little effect on the overall plot. I suppose this is a natural development enough; she cannot indefinitely be underestimated and underpowered and yet be the linchpin of the resistance, but I wish David Weber had completely changed the type of novel instead, putting a different focus or spin on Honor's activities so that she could still be the center of attention without being in command of an armada in the middle of a space battle. Instead, this novel splits its attention between Havenite conspirators, Manticoran politicians, and random vignettes of starship captains throughout the warring territories. This made the novel drag a bit in the middle, especially when interesting personal conflicts erupt in Honor's life and Weber takes a break for several chapters to talk about Haven politics. My least favorite aspect of sci-fi space operas is their tendency to spend whole chapters characterizing random people only to have them killed off by the end of the chapter and never be mentioned again. I don't want to waste the mental energy on learning the entire backstory of a red-shirt if their entire purpose is just to provide relevant information for the main character. I would prefer if the only character deaths under focus were more closely related to the main character or the plot.
Overall, though, I liked this third one better than the second. The plot made more sense, even if Honor was basically a side character in it, and the violence was toned down a lot, which made the experience a lot more fun for me. I will probably continue with this series, but I don't know that my stamina will last for the entire 14 books.
Our heroine once again is at the critical moment during a Haven invasion that could start off a deadly war, and once again she is part of a force that is vastly underpowered compared to her opponents. This time she is not in charge and her critical efforts only happen in the last five pages, but otherwise some of the set pieces are starting to repeat themselves. Honor is steadily climbing in ranks and always starts the novel inordinately pleased with her new appointment, which serves to confuse me as a reader in understanding exactly how good her ships are. She seems to be given the best of the best every novel, and yet the next novel there is an even greater "honor" waiting for her. Once again a slough of names and characters are thrown at the reader's head with few of the important ones from previous novels making a reappearance. Once again everyone is very impressed with Honor and if any of her enemies make an appearance, there is a plethora of like-minded superiors who are ready to back her up. Its all enormously good schlocky fun, but it is very similar to the previous two novels.
Weirdly, this novel actually has very little Honor in it at all. Though she starts a new relationship and clashes with an enemy from her past, Honor has little effect on the overall plot. I suppose this is a natural development enough; she cannot indefinitely be underestimated and underpowered and yet be the linchpin of the resistance, but I wish David Weber had completely changed the type of novel instead, putting a different focus or spin on Honor's activities so that she could still be the center of attention without being in command of an armada in the middle of a space battle. Instead, this novel splits its attention between Havenite conspirators, Manticoran politicians, and random vignettes of starship captains throughout the warring territories. This made the novel drag a bit in the middle, especially when interesting personal conflicts erupt in Honor's life and Weber takes a break for several chapters to talk about Haven politics. My least favorite aspect of sci-fi space operas is their tendency to spend whole chapters characterizing random people only to have them killed off by the end of the chapter and never be mentioned again. I don't want to waste the mental energy on learning the entire backstory of a red-shirt if their entire purpose is just to provide relevant information for the main character. I would prefer if the only character deaths under focus were more closely related to the main character or the plot.
Overall, though, I liked this third one better than the second. The plot made more sense, even if Honor was basically a side character in it, and the violence was toned down a lot, which made the experience a lot more fun for me. I will probably continue with this series, but I don't know that my stamina will last for the entire 14 books.