2019 Dragon Award Finalist, Best Mil SF: "Uncompromising Honor"

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If you want the condensed version of the review, you can find it on Goodreads. I'll post an Amazon review, as well.

Greetings to all my internet friends and neighbors, and for those of you who came here for the Dragon Award finalist review, I have no idea at this point how to write this review. There are now 5.2 6 days left before voting closes at midnight on August 31.  And for those family members who dropped in: does anyone have the recipe for Bessie's blackberry cobbler? I'd be happy just with the recipe for the crust, actually.

There are two books that I have deliberately put off reviewing in this series. The first of these is “Sons of the Lion” by Jason Cordova. I actually have already read and reviewed it, on July 8, but I haven't blogged on it because I loved it so much, that I wanted to hold on to it. That might not make sense to you, but it does to me.

The second book I deliberately postponed reading is “Uncompromising Honor,” by David Weber. That one I MOSTLY postponed because of the length. When I was doing my initial data collection for this series, I recorded a page length of 784, but just now I double-checked, and the figure I'm seeing is 961. I'm reading this on a Kindle, and for some reason, it won't give me page numbers, just location numbers. Either way, it's massive, and that's MOSTLY why I put that off until today. I have a second (small-ish) reason, but it's rather scary for me to admit it: I didn't like the last couple of Honor Harrington books I read.

That's certainly NOT the way I started out. I guess if there had been an “On Basilisk Station” party, I would have shown up with home-baked bread, fried chicken, and mashed potatoes for EVERYBODY! But, after failing to connect with recent works, I had an inkling...

This is reported to be the 19th Honor Harrington book. I haven't verified that count personally, so I don't know if it includes the delightful stories that feature other characters than Honor, but regardless, this is an overwhelmingly successful franchise. It was prompted by the actions of Jim Baen himself, and the author includes that particular reference in the Afterword, along with sly suggestions that there may be more on the way.

The cabal running the Solarian System have managed to move the entire polity from a stodgy keeper of intergalactic law, and the greatest economic power, to a huge, blind puppet in the hands of a few mean old men and women, determined to keep a firm grasp on power. All of the backbiting and political treachery we have seen in the past gets accelerated, without even lip service being paid to the military restraint of past centuries.

That doesn't mean that the Solarian Navy is now composed of dimwits and fools. There are plenty of competent officers and crew, and leadership roles are often filled with people who avoid unnecessary civilian casualties. However, the ranks of the Navy have been depleted to a significant extent by a one-sided battle that takes place before the book opens. Those that are left are hungry for revenge. And it's up to Manticore and her allies to stop them, regardless of the cost.

A word about battles: Weber writes space battles with attention given to every detail. We know the classes of ships involved on both sides; their tonnage; their offensive capabilities, down to the last missile; we know how their defensive systems work together. We are given a look inside the mind of the commanders on both sides, and see their plans, and their counters to the actions of their opponents. And even though we root for the Star Kingdom of Manticore, for any given battle, we don't have a guarantee that the good guys are going to win, and the bad guys are going to lose. Hence, there is always a certain amount of on-the-edge-of-your-seat tension in a space battle.

Sigh.

I fear that here I must insert my opinion that this is a strength that has become a weakness. The first battle in the book just drags ON and on and on, page after page (and I could tell you how many pages, if it weren't fo the Kindle being stubborn) and it just got to be TOO technical for me.

Another sigh.

And the same thing is true of the non-battle scenes as well. Everything just drags in this book. The conspiracy-discovered scene. Feeding the children green peas. The discussion of the secret weapon.

I fully realize that in saying this, I am speaking against good sense. David Weber has pleased an untold number of readers with his descriptive powers. You can't argue with success! Well, I'm not really trying to argue; I'm just saying that for THIS reader, it's just too much. Maybe, if I were sent to a mountain cabin for a week, or a hermit, or incarcerated, I'd find myself pounding on a table with the handle of a broom, and screaming “MOAR! MOAR!”

But I suspect it's just a matter of taste.

And now, The Question: Is “Uncompromising Honor” a realistic candidate for the 2019 Dragon Award for Best Military Science Fiction?

I hope to kiss a duck, if it ain't. Weber has won this category TWICE. He has a HUGE fanbase. It's not my choice, both because of the personal tedium I experienced while reading, but also because it's an Honor Harrington novel.

Now, before you scalp me, let me explain that. I'm saying that's a deficit with this particular novel, because it really doesn't do enough with Honor Harrington. All of the character development has taken place in the existing work; I don't think her personality stamps this book in the same way that you'll find in the previous books in the series.

I'm just going to leave that here; make of it what you will. Know that I really, really DO know that I'm swimming upstream with this opinion. But, I've got to give you the best I have to offer, and this is it.

Peace be on your household.