Review::Ashes of Victory ( Honor Harrington Book 9) by David Weber

Ashes of Victory by David Weber

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ashes of Victory ( Honor Harrington Book 9) by David Weber

I enjoyed this novel for what it is and what it is is a large deviation from the normal. This novel is the heaviest tense political thriller to date of the Honor Harrington series. This means that those who love the battles and strategy might be put off. Those don't start till somewhere near the 300th page. That's better than half way through the story. For me that meant that this ended up being a book I kept picking up and putting down depending on how much I could endure of the long political details or in some cases the lengthy explanation of the details of training for use of the new LACs and the Harrington series of ships.

Honor Harrington is sidelined by her injuries from Echos of Honor and In Enemy Hands. While she's mending she spends first some time at her Steadholder estate and then time at her new estate when Manticor's Queen Elizabeth III elevates her to Duchess. This conveniently takes care of all potential problems of the heirs that have taken her place while everyone thought she was dead. To move the story along the Manitoran Navy promotes her to Admiral and assigns her temporarily to Saganami Island Naval Academy to teach. For those waiting for her to go back to battle a forewarning that she see's little action and is in fact being cultivated for a more politically active position.

The People's Republic of Haven is still undergoing dramatic changes as the political landscape is littered with bodies. No one trusts anyone. And there are some devious plans going on that only a few know pertaining to espionage in Manticoran space. This thread is rapidly moving into a demonstration of how they manage to bungle the war efforts.

Admiral White Haven (Hamish Alexander) is rapidly moving toward a special offensive operation which ties in neatly with the training that Honor is putting the students of Suganami through.

On the Grayson political front there is still a conflict with Benjamin Mayhew and the Steadholder Keys and some intrigue that will put Honor and Benjamin and the Queen of Manticor in grave danger.

There are battles, but by the time that they occur David has demonstrated the superiority of the new technology of Manticor and the battles are almost a sure win to further demoralize the People's Republic of Haven.

There are a lot of surprises and suspense but mostly in the way of a suspense thriller with espionage and politics. And this book seems to serve mostly as bridge between Echos of Honor and War of Honor.

One special function of this novel is to fully introduce the sapience of the treecats to a select number of characters.

This novel is great for people who love the SFF Military and Political Suspense novels with the emphasis on Political. I really felt the lopsidedness of the battles made it less of a military thriller.

My favorite quote from this novel is from Peoples Republic of Haven's Commander Shannon Foraker.

"Oops"

You will definitely have to read this to know why this is such a singularly popular quote.

J.L. Dobias



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