Review::Echo's of Honor by David Weber (Honor Harrington series Book 8)

Echoes of Honor by David Weber

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Echo's of Honor by David Weber (Honor Harrington series Book 8)

As always I love this book even three times around. If reading this in order or reading it by itself I always have to keep In Enemy Hands close at hand. These are a companion set that have to go together and they are the turning point for me for these novels.

As I have mentioned before I got invested in the Honor Harrington Series because I like the character of Honor Harrington. Probably in honesty I liked the idea of the character. This was early 90's and we were already seeing many inroads with female characters by then. This character promised to be something almost unique with, and I have to be honest here, being modeled after a famous male character in fiction, Horatio Hornblower.

Honor may have started out as a comparison to that character but it almost seems like David Weber did a sly trick here by further developing the character of Lester Tourville who is with the Peeps but has a brash personality that almost sounds as calculated and colorful as the person Horatio Hornblower had to create when he was around his men.

Throughout this series the character of Honor Harrington has been always best portrayed to us through those who work and die or live around her. It's difficult most of the earlier books to really see her inner self through her own point of view because of the persona she had to maintain to keep the cool calculated person who always tried to do the best with what she was given. These middle novels give us more insight into Honor and a better look at her from within her head as she has to adapt to the new circumstances of being a prisoner of war and trying to keep her head above water.

Even though she has the title of Admiral she has to work hard to maintain the necessary discipline that it takes to drive a multinational force of ex-prisoners to their top form.

David Weber does a tremendous job of creating a world and all the parts that make it run both politically and militarily. Even for someone who is trying to follow the battles and not trying to make comparison's to famous sea battles or plot-lines from other famous fiction it becomes evident that David has a grasp of his world. (Although it's about this time that he does make the admission that he has begun to find it a daunting task to keep up with.)

The Peeps are still in flux, they just don't know it, rebellion looms. There are many characters who are being brought in with strong character and sound values and starting to twist the reader's view of the Peeps. The Manties still have their split in the political arena, but the military is slowly galvanizing and partly because of Honor having dragged Hamish out on the carpet about his views of the plans of Horrible Hemphill. There is still room for that conflict to rekindle, though.

Hamish Alexander has as much as admitted his love for Honor, to himself, despite his loyalty to his wife. Honestly speaking Honor has been way to busy to dwell on the feelings she'd sensed through Nimitz from Hamish.

With everyone certain that Honor is dead they try to move on and forward. It's difficult to say that some decisions that are later shown to be fateful might have been influenced by this frame of mind, but we do get to see the Honor Harrington Medusa class superdreadnoughts come off the line from the Grayson Space Navy's joint effort with Manticore.

The war is winding up on both sides with all the players being showcased in their good and evil glory while Honor is struggling to get out of Hell.

Superb addition to the Honor collection definitely a great read for any fan of Honor Harrington. It's a given that if you have been indoctrinated to these books to this point they will just get better. You must love the Political intrigue and the military buildup descriptions and have at least some understanding of the universe itself.You either love it or hate it by now and it's all pure David Weber.

As always I suggest a person start at Baslisk Station and go from there. If you make it past the first five in the series you're doomed-in a good way.

J.L. Dobias



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