Mystery

In this episode, Manticore is at a serious disadvantage. Haven has had a number of military victories which have destroyed much of the industrial infrastructure that was building units for the Manticoran Navy. The Manticorans have always had fewer people than Haven but they made up that disadvantage by having much better military hardware. Now the odds are even more in Haven's favor.

But Haven isn't really interested in pursuing military victory. Their new government only went to war in the hopes of forcing the Manticorans to the peace table. This is even more important now that they have learned that their former Secretary of War manipulated the messages passing back and forth between Haven and Manticore in order to keep the pressure on and for his own political advantage. But they don't have proof - just really strong suspicions.

Haven has proposed a meeting between President Pritchard of Haven and Queen Elizabeth of Manticore to discuss a possible peace treaty. After much convincing, Elizabeth has agreed to meet on neutral territory - the newly organized planet of Torch which was founded by ex-genetic slaves and is now ruled by Queen Berry who is the daughter of Anton Zilwicki.

However, there is a mysterious organization who doesn't want a better relationship between Haven and Manticore. They have developed some nanotech that turn people into unwilling assassins. They have used it on Earth to kill the Manticoran Ambassador and they have used an assassin to try to kill Queen Berry but she was saved at the cost of the lives of her bodyguards. They have also tried to assassinate Honor Harrington by using their nanotech on her young flag lieutenant. They have also tried to make it look like Haven was responsible for all the assassinations and assassination attempts and Queen Elizabeth is more than willing to blame Haven.

So Manticore withdraws from the peace process and goes back to war against Haven. Because of their disadvantages, Honor is given control of the eighth fleet and tasked with making raids on Havenite planets with the goal of damaging their industrial infrastructure. They also have the advantage of two new weapons which level the playing field some. But the new weapons aren't in large enough supply for anything more than the eighth fleet.

Haven needs some military victories in order to force Manticore back to the peace table and come up with an audacious plan to bring the war to Manticore's home system.

While all this war stuff is going on, lots is also happening in Honor's personal life. Through a medical error, she finds herself pregnant which really couldn't come at a worse time. Her political enemies on Manticore and Grayson are eager to use this unmarried pregnancy to do her harm. Luckily, she still has powerful friends and family who are determined to manage things for her. Thus, this is the book where Honor marries both Hamish and Emily Alexander and becomes the mother of a son.

This was a great story with lots of things happening. At over 30 hours of listening there was time for a lot of detail both about Honor's personal life and about the politics between Haven and Manticore. ( )

In this episode, Manticore is at a serious disadvantage. Haven has had a number of military victories which have destroyed much of the industrial infrastructure that was building units for the Manticoran Navy. The Manticorans have always had fewer people than Haven but they made up that disadvantage by having much better military hardware. Now the odds are even more in Haven's favor.

But Haven isn't really interested in pursuing military victory. Their new government only went to war in the hopes of forcing the Manticorans to the peace table. This is even more important now that they have learned that their former Secretary of War manipulated the messages passing back and forth between Haven and Manticore in order to keep the pressure on and for his own political advantage. But they don't have proof - just really strong suspicions.

Haven has proposed a meeting between President Pritchard of Haven and Queen Elizabeth of Manticore to discuss a possible peace treaty. After much convincing, Elizabeth has agreed to meet on neutral territory - the newly organized planet of Torch which was founded by ex-genetic slaves and is now ruled by Queen Berry who is the daughter of Anton Zilwicki.

However, there is a mysterious organization who doesn't want a better relationship between Haven and Manticore. They have developed some nanotech that turn people into unwilling assassins. They have used it on Earth to kill the Manticoran Ambassador and they have used an assassin to try to kill Queen Berry but she was saved at the cost of the lives of her bodyguards. They have also tried to assassinate Honor Harrington by using their nanotech on her young flag lieutenant. They have also tried to make it look like Haven was responsible for all the assassinations and assassination attempts and Queen Elizabeth is more than willing to blame Haven.

So Manticore withdraws from the peace process and goes back to war against Haven. Because of their disadvantages, Honor is given control of the eighth fleet and tasked with making raids on Havenite planets with the goal of damaging their industrial infrastructure. They also have the advantage of two new weapons which level the playing field some. But the new weapons aren't in large enough supply for anything more than the eighth fleet.

Haven needs some military victories in order to force Manticore back to the peace table and come up with an audacious plan to bring the war to Manticore's home system.

While all this war stuff is going on, lots is also happening in Honor's personal life. Through a medical error, she finds herself pregnant which really couldn't come at a worse time. Her political enemies on Manticore and Grayson are eager to use this unmarried pregnancy to do her harm. Luckily, she still has powerful friends and family who are determined to manage things for her. Thus, this is the book where Honor marries both Hamish and Emily Alexander and becomes the mother of a son.

This was a great story with lots of things happening. At over 30 hours of listening there was time for a lot of detail both about Honor's personal life and about the politics between Haven and Manticore. ( )

This was an excellent book that really made it clear just how both the Manticore and Haven governments are caught in a web of another entity's making. It also made clear the high cost of an all out war. This is science fiction at its finest with a well-rounded look at politics, inter-personal relationships, and military affairs. As such, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I highly recommend this book and series. I would suggest starting at the beginning of the series and reading The Shadow of Saganami either directly before or after this as the events of that book occur during this one. ( )

More interpersonal relationship stuff than political - which I feel Weber does better. Or maybe which I just enjoy more. ( )