Honor of the Queen (Honor Harrington, Book 2) – David Weber
Title: Honor of the Queen
Series: Honor Harrington, Book 2
Author: David Weber
Genre: Science Fiction
After Basilisk Station, you might have wondered, but Honor of the Queen confirms that whenever Honor Harrington is assigned some sort of mission she will accomplish at least two things: 1) just about completely destroy whatever ship is under her direct command (not on purpose – it’s just an inevitable outcome of being led by her), and 2) she will absolutely devastated her opponents, emerging not unscathed, but completely victorious and more than likely snag a promotion or two in the mix, as well as the uninhibited gratitude of all around her.
Harrington is being sent with a diplomatic mission to the planet of Grayson – who should know by the fact that Honor is coming that something catastrophic and horrendous is about to happen to their society. Not to mention that the Graysons are pretty close to being religious zealots who have completely denied women in their society any and all rights to women. How long will that last with Honor on the way? Oh, and throw in a mix of even more religious zealots who want to completely wipe out and suppress the Graysons. Any bids on who ends up standing up to them for Grayson?
In Honor of the Queen Webber has once again struck a near perfect balance of relentless action against political intrigue. In a few places it starts to get monotonous, but if you just persevere a little bit more you find the release of the action completely worth the build of the intrigue.
The most wonderful part of the book is another chance to spend more time with Harrington and see her develop more as a leader as well as discovering more depths of her character and passions. And the raw power residing in her person is just incredible. One of my favorite scenes is where she and Nimitz almost singlehandedly take out a crew of assassins.
Contrary to how my first paragraph may have sounded, I do absolutely recommend this book. I highly recommend you read Basilisk Station first – but do yourself a favor and grab as many of these Honor Harrington books as you can and curl up for a looooong time with some incredible writing.
Worldview: Atheistic
Recommended Age: Due to some of the more graphic action I’d be leery of Middle School age children reading this, though a more mature child could handle the material decently. The language isn’t too rough and Webber does an excellent job of keeping the sexual side of the story as tasteful as possible.
Links:
Author’s Website
Baen Books David Webber Page
Honor Harrington’s Wikipedia page
I think HotQ is the best book of the HH series. It is easy to understand without reading On Basalisk Station first. But in retrospect the series declines from this point. Haven politics was somewhat amusing at first with the historical references but that wore off due to Weber’s heavy handed propaganda.
Flag in Exile may be the last “really good” Harington tale. Bujold’s Vorkosigan series is better.
The General Series by S.M. Stirling is better also but doesn’t have space ships.
I would say I only slightly agree. I think the first few books of the Harrington series are pretty awesome. There are a few which I think left me less than satisfied and then came the Flag in Exile and others covering her capture, imprisonment and escape. But recently I read War of Honor (which was just stinking amazing!) and then Mission of Honor. The latter of which ties together and begins moving towards what will be probably some of the most insane books in the series. I absolutely can’t wait to see what he does next in the series.