Mission of Honor (Disciples of Honor #4)

Fans of military science fiction will be euphoric with the return of Harrington

The seemingly endless war (a dozen books worth) between the Star Empire of Manticore and the Republic of Haven is finally drawing to a conclusion. The Manties have all but won. However, the Empire leadership believes they must further cripple the enemy as they distrust the idea that the other side wants peace as they would not if the situation was reversed.

Admiral Honor Harrington is almost all alone amidst the top brass in her belief that the Republic wants to end the conflict. She leads a group to the Havenite system to negotiation the terms of peace. However, the peace in our times is devastated when a sneak attack on the Manticoran worlds occur while the Solarian League flexes its muscle at the same time as they distrust the apparent winner of the war especially when they claim the Manties have provoked them with vicious attacks.

Fans of military science fiction will be euphoric with the return of Harrington who struggles with political and military leaders and bureaucracies as too many of those chicken hawks in charge who never left the office cannot see passed their ambition to the horror of battle (think Cheney vs. Eisenhower). Fast-paced from start to finish, Honor works on a peace agreement when new conflations erupt. Once again David Weber provides a strong winner in one of the top sub-genre series as the aptly titled Mission of Honor takes readers on quite a spin.

Harriet Klausner

8 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

The culmination of the last 5 Honorverse books.

This book is like a train-wreck. You can see it coming a mile away, but know it is too late to stop. The plot revolves around the titular Honor Harrington FINALLY being dispatched to Haven to bring the Manticore/Havanite war to an end. As the war is wrapping up, the Mesan Alignment's long term plans start to unfold.

I cannot truly recommend this novel at this time. Only half the story is here, and it feels truly incomplete. Just as with the 2 novels dealing with Honor's internment, this novel would be best read with the yet unpublished follow up novel. It is really part of a duo, not a stand alone novel at all.

Fans of the series can likely predict every major plot item in the book, from Honor being absurdly good at her job, to minor characters being killed off for emphasis.

I rate this 3 stars for fans of the series, but only a single star for non-fans.

6 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

The Story Continues - Slowly

If you've been a fan of the series you'll read the book. If not, start at the beginning of the epic. As other reviewers have commented this is half a novel and leads up to what one assumes will be at least a partial finale with respect to the simmering and far too long undiscovered Manpower/Mesan conspiracy - a finale that can't come too soon as far as I'm concerned. This volume was frustrating to me simply because the first 2/3 of the book moved at a glacial pace and violated the first rule of writing: show, don't tell. There were just too many discourses and I found myself torn between putting the book down for a day or so and wanting to throttle it.

David Weber is one of my favorite writers and the last hundred or so pages demonstrated to me why I like him, but it took such a long time to get there. Perhaps he was tying up loose ends for the next volume but I'd be grateful if he now told himself that part was done and gave us action and visceral satisfaction in the sequel.

I used to work with a guy who hated to make a decision and when asked for his opinion always replied that he didn't have enough facts to formulate one. No matter how much additional time you gave him the answer was always the same,"I need more facts." Eventually the rest of us just voted and moved on. We have all the facts we need from what Weber's already given us so let's just move on.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Disappointing

I've been a fan of David Weber's work for a very long time, but this book missed the mark. Where Weber frequently has major characters that he trades in and out from one book to the next, for some reason he felt the need to include major characters from his "Shadows" series, even though they had little to no bearing on the story. We're forced to follow Abigail Hearns as she leads a Search and Rescue party through the ruins of a ship for no purpose whatsoever, as well as having to read through Helen Zilwicki and Gwen Archer, when none of those story lines had anything to do with the plot itself. It was window dressing that didn't need to be there.

Further more, Weber takes what used to be my favorite thing about his writing style and turns it around. While he does an outstanding job with his technical descriptions, as well as his character background descriptions, we often find ourselves spending thirty pages getting through five seconds of conversation because Weber takes us on tangent after tangent.

In addition, the book is rife with spelling and grammatical errors, even simple things that should have been caught with a Spell Check, much less an editorial process.

In all, however, the book ends with something I've wanted to see since the beginning of "War of Honor," and I stand ready to read the next installment of the series.

But please, Mr. Weber, leave the "Shadows" characters in the "Shadows" series.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

highly recommend

I have been waiting for this book for a long time . excellent book keeps me wanting for more. david weber is a very good writer as was c s forester.

Highly Recommended

This book was awesome!! I could not put it down!!!!!

Highly recommended

Fans of the series will not be disappointed. Some may not like the slower pace of this book, but there are many events transpiring at this point in the story. The resolution of the Manticore Haven war (we hope) the building conflict with the Solarian League, and the emergence of the Mesan Alignment. Mr. Weber also takes us through the polics that drive the military decisions. This is what gives the series so much depth. Without this, all we'd have is a shoot 'em up. As usual I'm left wanting more.

Not his best in the straight "Honor series".

I think he jumps around to much for a Honor Harrington book.

Weber does it again

David Wever has done it again. He has written another great Honor Harington nove. In the one he has taken all of the honorverse storys that have come out in the last couple of years and brought them together. He begins to end one story almost as if he were about to end the series but by the end you will know it is anything but the end. It is a book I couldn't put down and look foward to the next installment in fact I almost wish I could read as fast as he writes it. Anyone who likes miltary scifi I would strongly suggest you read any of David Webers Honor Harrington novels and if you just enjoy great story telling try some of his other novels also.

Ends Too Soon

I just finished reading Mission of Honor. I loved the book. It ended too soon, but then all of his books end too soon since you want them to go on forever. It just keeps building and building and building. Yes, there is a cliff hanger at the end of the book. I really, REALLY wish that the sequel would come before it probably will come out.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.