At all costs

Seasoned voyagers through Weber's Honorverse (the Honor in question being Harrington) mustn't be put off by the stupendous size of the eleventh volume of the lady's adventures. All the pages are needed to encompass a fast-paced tale that brings together all the elements developed in previous books, and push them a good way along toward an ultimate conclusion. Over the course of those pages, Honor becomes pregnant (her contraceptive implant failed) by her acknowledged lover, Hamish Alexander. That might solve the problem of her needing--because she is a Grayson Steadholder--an heir, but for the custom that such are supposed to be legitimate. Since in the Honorverse a marriage needn't be limited to two people, Honor marries both Hamish and his first legal wife, Lady Emily. By the time Honor deposits her forthcoming offspring in an artificial womb and goes off to command a fleet, both Havenites and Manties are vigorously attacking each other's production facilities, and somebody is intriguing with the genetic slave rings, which leads to two assassination attempts on Honor that are blamed on the Havenites. The climax is bloody and fine preparation for at least one more desperate round of fighting. It also leaves Honor reflecting on the price of war in warriors' lives. --Roland Green Copyright 2005 Booklist

Nobody does space opera better than Weber, and his heroine, Honor Harrington, introduced in On Basilisk Station (1993), remains as engaging as ever in the latest tome to chronicle her adventures. At the start, intelligence agents of the newly democratic Republic of Haven detect a hidden hand behind their renewed hostilities with the Star Kingdom of Manticore. As the Havenites struggle to convince their foes that they are being manipulated by common enemies among the genetic slave trade, the Manticoreans force their hand until there's no alternative but the Mother of All Space Battles. Weber manages to invert the respective moral positions of his sides quite adroitly, showing how emotion and prejudice can impair even the finest among us. The sweep of interstellar conflict contrasts with developments in Honor's personal life that could have been maudlin, but succeed in being highly moving. Reading like a fusion of Horatio Hornblower, Robert A. Heinlein and Tom Clancy, this is easily the best installment in the series to date; one can well imagine that when future star warriors develop their tactics, Weber's narratives will provide a template. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved