This is the fourth book in Weber’s Honor Harrington series, and in its
original edition it had one of the Worst Covers Of All Time. Picture
Michael Jackson looking down his nose at you over a pistol pointed in your
general direction; this is supposed to be the tall, strongly built Honor
Harrington. Gag. However, the edition that’s in the stores these days
has fixed the problem. Alas, such changes are not retroactive.

Anyway, in this book we get to see what happens when Honor gets really
mad. See, there’s this guy named Pavel Young, the son of the Earl of
North Hollow. He was an upperclassman when Honor was at Saganami Island,
Manticore’s naval academy, and late one night, angry that she’d spurned a
pass he’d made earlier, he tried to rape her. As is all too typical in
such cases, Honor kept that detail to herself (though she pretty well
wiped the floor with him), and so he went on to be a Manticoran officer.

Honor and Young had another run-in in On Basilisk Station,
and then another in The Short Victorious War, after which
Young was cashiered. So Young feels he has a score to settle–and he’s
got his sights on Honor’s beloved Paul Tankersly.

I don’t think I’m giving anything away by saying that he comes to regret
that decision. For a while, anyway.

This book was rather unpleasant on first reading, mostly because some
very bad things happen to some folks I’d come to like; on re-reading,
though, though, I was fore-armed, and liked it rather better.