This is the most recent book in the Honor Harrington series, and in most
ways the least satisfying to date. It’s simply not that pleasant
watching idiots fail by the numbers.

Manticore’s Centrist party lost power near the end of the previous book,
and following Manticoran tradition the Opposition parties were given the
chance to form a coalition government. And so they did–an unholy
alliance of the far right and far left, whose leaders were motivated by a
single goal: to gain power and to keep it for as long as possible. And
so for this entire book, we get to watch the new Prime Minister of
Manticore and his cabinet pissing away (you should excuse the expression)
all of the political and military gains of the last ten years for their
own personal political benefit, while compromising most of their supposed
principles.

This is one book that would really benefit from some serious trimming.
The main plot is explored in tedious and painful detail; it would really
have made a much better subplot while something more interesting was going
on.

The book does have a few high points; it’s not a total loss. And as with
its predecessor, if you’ve come this far in the series you’ll want to know
what happens next. But I sure hope the next book won’t be more of the
same.