Neil's Reviews > War of Honor

I "hate" this book, but for different reasons than the first time I read it. I think it does help having read the first nine books in the series (to a limited extent) as the first time I read it, I did not realize it was the tenth book in a series (although I did read the two books prior to this one). I hate that I finished it and felt so darn dissatisfied (view spoiler)[he has these various characters throughout the book who are the "villains" and appear to be being set up for some kind of "comeuppance" and then nothing happens. Any potential "satisfaction" is avoided as the scoundrels are done away with inbetween chapters. Never mind that I invested ten days to read this monster of a book; any satisfaction I might have had was taken away from me! (hide spoiler)] (view spoiler)[Not only that, but he makes so many other characters incredibly stupid! Even the characters who are said to be 'smart' or 'intelligent' fall short in the intelligence factor in this novel! It is annoying, offensive, stupid, and frustrating in the extreme! (hide spoiler)]. I hate that about two books ago I started rooting for the "Peeps" to win and for the "Manties" to lose, which will probably never happen. Sure, the Manties may lose some battles, but nothing ever truly serious. I mean, it does not really matter what bones the author throws the reader in terms of Havenite victories and Manticoran losses, as it does not matter at all.

I 'hate' that I both 'hated' this book and enjoyed it at the same time, that it frustrated me to no end. I suppose that could possibly indicate a level of . . . if not 'genius' on the part of the author, then whatever is a step or two below 'genius.' Most of this book is about politics; it is about people sitting around and talking and scheming and complaining and backstabbing and expressing how much they hate somebody else. I am sure there is probably more 'truth' in the book inre politics and whatnot than I realize, but it got so darn boring that so very little was happening throughout most of the book! Yet, the book still managed to hold my interest enough for me to want to know how things would turn out in the end (I mean, I remembered the gist of the book from the first time I read it, but it was still a 'bare bones' memory). I will say this - I thought the author did an excellent job at not just presenting various viewpoints throughout the novel of so many different characters, but he also managed to retain those viewpoints of most of the characters, so that they did not 'change' their stances over the course of the novel.

I found myself getting very tired of the whole “Honor-Hamish affair” thing going on throughout the book. It really takes away from the story and is completely idiotic. Well, the first third or so of the novel, anyway. I just do not know how 'necessary' it was for Honor's development as a character or to the story overall. (view spoiler)[I guess it was 'important' to the story in that she and Hamish had worked as a team opposing the current government's policies, especially in relation to the military, so to imply they were lovers and Hamish had betrayed his wife was supposed to damage their credibility and ability to oppose the policies of which they did not approve. It did not work as well as their opponents believed or thought it would; the author claims it was temporarily successful, but it never really felt that way in the story. (hide spoiler)] (view spoiler)[I also thought it was "interesting" that Emily approved of the prior affairs Hamish had; she justified them because she knew he did not love them like he loved his wife and that all but one of the affairs was with a royal courtesan, which somehow made it acceptable. Well, maybe not approved as much as understood. However, he deeply loves Honor, now, and she is worried that he would betray her and possibly leave her for Honor if the two officers ever consummated the desires for each other. (hide spoiler)] The way the author handled that really annoyed me, too, to be honest. (view spoiler)[Despite having Emily begging Honor to refrain from engaging in such an affair of the heart with Hamish, Honor tells Emily she cannot stop loving Hamish nor promise she will not engage in sexual activity with Hamish the moment an opportunity becomes 'available' to both of them that will not damage them politically. So, Emily is emotionally overwrought with fears of what could and would happen if the two smitten lovebirds acted upon their forbidden, "hidden" desires. THEN, Emily does a complete turnaround, at the end of the novel, and tells the two of them that THEY HAVE HER PERMISSION TO HAVE AN AFFAIR!!!??!?!!? Really?!?? ! After all of the prior talk and posturing about how damaging such an act could be to both of them AND the "Government," how it could set things back dramatically and tear parts of not only the Manticoran Kingdom apart but Grayson as well, Emily says, "Off to bed, both of you! And never mind using protection, either!" (translated, of course). So, what? Because the government that was trying to use their 'relationship' has been replaced, it is now somehow okay for the two of them to commit adultery? To give in to their mutual lust, their mutual feelings, and copulate whenever they can like horny teenagers?!? (hide spoiler)] Stupid, stupid, stupid moment in the book.

Some other things that bugged me:
After nine volumes (view spoiler)[of “how great and powerful the Solarian League is!” and “how advanced their technology is!” and how not even Manticoran technology is equivalent to Solarian technology (hide spoiler)], the author has changed his stripes!(view spoiler)[ In the info dump on the Solarian League (pp. 496 – 503), he NOW claims that the Solarian League’s technology is at least fifty years behind that of the Manticorans! That is quite a change! This is also the point at which the Talbott Cluster is ‘introduced’ and allows the off-shoot series to begin (starting with Shadow of Saganami). (hide spoiler)] But, yeah, it’d be nice if this guy would stay consistent. (view spoiler)[On the one hand, it does make sense that the Manticorans would have advanced on some level, technology-wise, because of their war with the People’s Republic of Haven, but prior to this novel, they were still not even close to the Solarians. Now, they have somehow supposedly surpassed the Solarians. (hide spoiler)] Whatever.

(view spoiler)[On pages 836 – 837, the author gives another stupid spiel about ‘how tough Super Dreadnoughts are,’ about how tough they are to kill. Maybe if they are Manticoran Super Dreadnoughts! It doesn’t seem to matter ‘how big, how tough, how armored’ Havenite SD’s have to be to try and compensate for their lack when compared to Manty SD’s, they still get killed off much easier than the Manty SD’s, which makes most battles ‘stupid and boring,’ to be honest. I was really wishing the Peeps would have just killed off ALL of the Manticoran forces they faced! Well, other than maybe Honor, but I also wished she had been 'recalled' and the Manty forces were destroyed without her.

I also hate how 'smart' the author makes the Havenites out to be (the "good" Havenites as opposed to the "bad" Havenites) until it is time for them to be stupid so that they can have their collective asses handed to them by Honor and Co., or Hamish and Co. The author throws the reader a crappy bone about how Hamish supposedly felt that Esther McQueen was a better tactician than he was before she was killed (796 - 797). Riiiiight!!!!! I seriously doubt that! I know the Havenites cannot be 'all-knowing' like the reader is, but it gets very tiring when the Manties, by and large, are the ones who can 'foretell the future' and the Havenites cannot. It bugs me when authors do that, when they deliberately make 'smart' people stupid just because that stupidity is needed at that moment in the story to propel the plot along. I guess my biggest bone to pick has to be with the Grayson squadron named after Honor being sent to support Honor's forces in Silesia. I have no issues with Grayson doing that; I do have issues with the Havenites suddenly turning so stupid they would not wonder if or plan for this specific squadron to be joining Honor at Sidemore Station. As badly as the Graysons worship her and bend-over-backward to protect her, it only seems logical that they would have sent additional forces to support her and her mission.

I have mixed feelings about how the Andermani initially opposed the Manties and then 'changed their mind' in terms of how they dealt with the Manties. I felt that they should have still opposed the Manticoran presence in Silesia AND that the Havenites would have been more forthcoming about their mission against Honor in Silesia. But, that is must my opinion; the author obviously chose to go a different route.

I know I said this earlier, but I really disliked how the author 'white-washed' the Manticoran "villains" of the piece like he did. Not that I thought there really should be too many repercussions against them, as they felt they were doing the best job they could at the time, but the way he 'wrapped things up' was just too convenient and ultimately unsatisfying.

I wish the Queen had been killed after that last assassination attempt. I also found myself wishing she'd just die and somebody else have to replace her. I really dislike her and her attitude; she really needs to die a long, slow, painful, pain-filled death.

I hated that the Queen was so cursed stubborn. I guess, on the one hand, it does make some kind of sense, but I still hated it, that she would not consider the information released by the Havenites about the treaty correspondence as being 'accurate' in the least bit. Lady is stupid, by any stretch of the imagination. If "Her Government" had been striving for some kind of peace treaty, than something more should have happened that what ultimately happened in the book. She should have been able to figure out that somebody or some bodies did not want peace to occur. So, yeah, she's a high-handed overbearing idiot I can only hope is painfully killed in one of the upcoming stories/novels.

What is the deal with genetic slavery and genetic slaves? It seems like it was mentioned a time or two in a prior novel or so, but it is more of a 'front burner' issue in this novel, and it feels like it came out of nowhere. One of the lamer parts of the book (a book filled with many lame parts). (hide spoiler)]

There was an interesting dissection of Honor on pages 247 – 253(view spoiler)[, especially how Honor abandoned her responsibilities to Grayson when she remained on Hades to try and capture enough vessels to take every single captive/prisoner off-planet who wanted to leave when the escapees left en masse (hide spoiler)]. I never thought of it that way or looked at it that way.

(view spoiler)[I did like that Haven had closed the gap in terms of the technological advantage the Manticorans had enjoyed for so long. I am sure by the next book, that is going to change, but, for now, I appreciate it. It is funny how much I was hoping the Andermani would get into a 'larger conflict' with Manticore and the Havenite squadron would come to the assistance of the Andermani. But, that is just me. (hide spoiler)]

Overall, I suppose I liked the book. Kinda. Not as much as I would have liked; it was too focused on politics and not much else. (view spoiler)[I assume the 'politicians' were the 'bad guys,' yet they are never punished for their behavior, their malfeasance, their poor decisions. Not in anyway that truly mattered. (hide spoiler)] I think I would probably rate it 2.5 - 2.7, but I did not like it enough or enjoy it enough to give it 3-stars, so 2.0-stars it is.