This is the next book about Honor Harrington, except that it isn’t really
about Honor Harrington. As a result of the rigors of her capture and
escape, she spends most of this book in rehab and on light-duty–teaching
at Saganami Island, Manticore’s naval academy. And of course she mostly
saves the day at the end of the book. We visit with her periodically.

The book is partially about the fruit of Honor’s tactical experiments in
Honor Among Enemies and Admiral White Haven’s execution of
(what should have been) the final phases of the war with Haven.

But mostly, it’s about Honor’s honorable opponents, those men and women
in Haven’s navy who are now fighting a double war–not only an open war
with Manticore, but also a covert war to preserve their nation from the
fanatics who now rule her.

And everything’s beginning to look nice and shiny,
and then it happens. I’d tell you precisely what happens, except that Weber
kindly devoted the whole next book to it so you’ll have to wait until the
next review.

Anyway, there was much of interest in this episode; there were a number
of things that annoyed me, including a subplot I have a real distaste for;
and there were a lot of extra words. In short, it’s worth reading if
you’ve read the previous books and want to know what happens next, but
there’s nothing special about it.