This is the fourth (and to date, the final) anthology in Weber’s
“Honorverse” series; this time, Weber shares the stage with Jane
Lindskold, Timothy Zahn, John Ringo, Victor Mitchell, and Eric Flint.

“Promised Land”, by Jane Lindskold, is the story of a young Grayson girl, the
daughter of spacers, whose ship is captured by Masadan pirates. Her
parents are killed; she is taken home by the Masadan captain, who
in the fullness of time marries her. Masadans view women as property, and are also
polygamous, so Judith becomes a very junior wife in a rather unpleasant
household. But Judith has a secret weapon–though her “husband” doesn’t
know it, her parents had already taught her how to read. She plans to
escape…and finds some surprising allies. The story takes place at
around the same time as The Honor of the Queen, and
adequately explains (if any further explanation were necessary) why
Manticore chose to ally with the Graysons rather than the Masadans.
As a story, it’s OK; I enjoyed it mildly.

“With One Stone”, by Timothy Zahn, concerns Honor Harrington’s executive
officer, Rafe Cardones. It appears that somebody has been
testing a secret weapon in the Silesian Confederacy–a device that can
take down a ship’s gravity wedge at a range of millions of kilometers.
In Weber’s universe, a ship’s gravity wedge is its chief source of
propulsion, and also its best armor. Such a weapon would turn the world
of naval tactics upside-down in an instant, especially if Haven had it and
Manticore didn’t. Cardones gets dragooned by Naval Intelligence to help
look for it. Again, not a bad story; it’s got some quite nice bits in
it. But Zahn’s portrayal of Cardones wasn’t particularly interesting.

“A Ship Named Francis”, on the other hand, is quite good fun. Over and
over in the Harrington books we meet naval officers and crews who are
strong, resolute, and adept at their duty, with a handful of bad apples
to give the plot some savor. Given Sturgeon’s law, that implies that
there are a lot of screw-ups, idiots, fumble-fingers, and general
incompetents hiding somewhere out of sight. According to John Ringo and
Victor, that place is the Grayson Space Navy’s ship Francis–and
an appalling picture it is, too.

Ringo continues this theme in “Let’s Go To Prague”, in which two
Manticoran spies, members of the elite Covert Insertion Teams, decide to
take their vacation time on the planet of Prague–a planet which happens
to be under Havenite control. Much robust and ribald comedy ensues, and
our heroes (if that’s the right word for them) are lucky to escape with
their skins and careers intact.

“Fanatic” is by Eric Flint.
In Worlds of Honor #3: Changer of Worlds, Flint
introduced us to a young man named Victor Cachat, a man committed
to the principles of the Rob Pierre’s revolution, a man, indeed, far more deeply
committed to those principles than Rob Pierre or his cronies. Victor
works for the Office of State Security; and being both competent and
politically correct, he has become one of the OSS director’s fair-haired
boys. And so, in the wake of Esther McQueen’s failed coup, Victor is
sent to the La Martine sector, there to take over and purge the Havenite
naval and OSS forces stationed there of undesirable elements. Of course,
his notion of which elements are undesirable might be a bit different than
his boss’s….

Victor Cachat remains a lunatic, but he’s an extremely skilled lunatic,
and I enjoyed this story thoroughly; it’s worth the price of admission
all by itself.

Finally, Weber contributes “The Service of the Sword”, a story of the
first ever midshipwoman in the Grayson Space Navy. We met Abigail Hearns
briefly during her time at Saganami Island in
Ashes of Victory; here we get to ride along on her middie
cruise. We also get to meet Captain Michael Oversteegen, a delightful
character we’ll see later on in Crown of Slaves (review
forthcoming). The story itself is entertaining enough; but it wasn’t
particularly memorable.