Shadow of Freedom (Honor Harrington, #14)

Shadow of Freedom (Honor Harrington #14)

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89  ·  rating details  ·  711 ratings  ·  77 reviews
Wrong number? There are two sides to any quarrel . . . unless there are more.

Michelle Henke, Queen Elizabeth of Manticore's first cousin, Honor Harrington's best friend, and the commanding officer of Manticore's Tenth Fleet, is just a bit surprised when a messenger arrives from the Mobius System to inform her that the Mobius Liberation Front is prepared to rise in rebellio...more
Kindle Edition
Published March 5th 2013 by Baen (first published February 18th 2013)
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Aildiin
First this is not a Harrington novel per say but more a Talbot Quadrant novel ( in the line of The Shadow of Saganami and its sequels).
It fits within the current Harrington arc and we are retold events we have already been told 3 times in other books but this seems to be the current Weber paradigm( this is what happens when you have 3 ongoing series all taking places at the same time ).
The overall story arc doesn't advance much either but that wasn't a surprise as I believe it is the job of the...more
Betsy
Another Goodreads member said it was like "a good steak dinner without the steak and potatoes." That is an excellent metaphor. It is well written, as usual with Weber, but contains some repetition from previous installments. But it is so obviously an installment that doesn't really come to any final resolution. This is the second installment like this. It's not that nothing happens. Quite a bit happens, but it's all "secondary" to the real trajectory of the series. It's rather frustrating.

[11/17...more
Roberta
Weber is getting too caught up in his metaplot to really develop time to a book plot, characterization, and solid elements of telling a story. There are so many characters that it is hard to keep track of all of them, and every scene has a different point of view. I wish he would pick three or four POV characters and stick to them.

One good thing he continues to do is get into the minds of his villains. He doesn't create cookie cutter anything. He has true to life characters but do we really need...more
Christopher
Shadow of Freedom was not bad, but it should not be referred to as "Honor Harrington #14," since Honor Harrington was only mentioned a handful of times in the entire book and never made an appearance. Instead, it should be called "Michelle Henke #2, or #3," depending on how you count previous books where she had a major part. Or possibly, Honorverse spin-off #4, or some such.

In any case, at least the Mesan Alignment is finally starting to be revealed a bit, and Manticore is finally starting to m...more
Gallandro_83
OK so I feel the need to justify my rating.

I think overall I would rate the book at about 2 to 2.5 if it was on its own but since the novel is supposed to be part of the main series I have to rate it lower.

Like other reviewers have stated the book has about 20% that is recap or cut from previous novels and does nothing to move the story along that right there is a warning sign for me. Also this book just like the previous two starts off at about the same time . I'm don't mind when an author show...more
Liviu
read it in a go and need a reread at leisure but a few points:

- length, yes very short; I discount DW's books to about 2/3 size due to repetitions and the info dumps (here there is a Detweiler chapter and other stuff that I think is just c/p from earlier work), so the book at about 420 pages felt like an under 300 page one, but those ~300 pages were really, really good, better than 4-500 pages from almost anyone else

- lots of new beginnings and new characters which I actually like; gives one the...more
Neeuqdrazil
The latest Honorverse book (although it's part of the Saganami series, rather than the main Honor series.) It ends on a major cliffhanger - I can't wait for the next one to come out!

I did find that, as the series goes on (there are 14 in the main series, this is #3 of the Saganami series, and there are 2 or 3 Torch books), and as the POV characters and situations keep expanding (we've got Honor, Mike Henke, Aivars Terekhov, Helen Zilwicki, Anton Zilwicki & Victor Cachat, and those are just...more
Bjoern
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Aaron Brown
This is far and away my least favorite book in the Honorverse thus far. Mr. Weber: please, please, please STOP copying and pasting entire chapters word-for-word between your books. This book, by my count, has at least 3 chapters that have appeared verbatim in another book. It has 1 that has now appeared in 3 books. Come on. If you're going to rehash the same scene, at least make the effort to write it from another character's point of view.

To make matters worse, one of the chapters which was oth...more
Barbara
3 1/2 stars.

Weber's Honor Harrington story-line has gotten so complex that it can't be contained in one linear series. So Weber has a couple of series going that are basically 'meanwhile, out on the frontier'. The Shadow series (or Saganami series)follows the exploits of Honor's best friend Michele Henke (Countess Gold Peak, Admiral at the head of 10th Fleet, cousin to the Queen). Admiral Henke is out showing the flag and battling the Solarian League in the Talbott Quadrant--far away from Mantic...more
Nick
I love this series. I only like this volume of the series. The reason is that there is no feeling of resolution, not even of any of the little subplots. Yes, a couple of bad guys get taken down, but they are not ones we care about. Yes, the timing of events in the series is becoming a bit more solidified, but that in itself was not worth a whole book. Yes, we got a few more clues about the Mesan Alignment...but not enough, or in a way that helped.
I really kept waiting for more to happen that wou...more
Mike
I feel like at this point my relationship with the Honor Harrington books is beginning to resemble my late 90s relationship with The Wheel of Time. I feel like I both dread and anticipate each new release. While the series never meanders in quite the way the middle books of Robert Jordan’s series do I still find a certain lack of satisfaction in each of Weber’s newer Honorverse novels. Over the course of each novel that sense of excitement and satisfaction waxes and wanes but the long(ish) gaps...more
Leons1701
The biggest problem with the Shadows subseries of the Honorverse books is the lack of a unifying central character. In the first book, it wasn't too bad, Abigail Hearns and Helen Zilwiki filled that role relatively well, in Storm from the Shadows we had Michelle Henke, but here, there is no focus. Henke gets the most screen time probably, but she suffers from the same problem as Honor does these days, Admirals are the people who tell other people to go do the interesting stuff most of the time....more
Geoff
The lack of granularity in the rating system still makes me sad. Consider this a 2.5 rating rather than a three. Overall, the book was okay, with some fun moments with old favorite characters (something I've generally liked about the Shadow books), and some really flat moments with new characters introduced to drive the plot of this particular book. In the doing of all of this, the pacing seems off, and the climax missing, almost as if there were supposed to be another couple hundred pages at th...more
Robin Juhl
I like how Mr. Weber is developing the careers of those not directly under Honor Harrington. He has a whole cast of them out on their own at the buttocks-end of the galaxy, far from home. They're kicking ass and taking names!

But they are also having a LOT of meetings. It's a bit like someone's complaint about a book in the Safehold series. He called it "A series of meetings."

Still, what action there is is good and the book moves the meta-story along, filling in some gaps left by other books.

look...more
Kathy Davie
Fourteenth in the Honor Harrington military science fiction series.

Although, I do have to question why it's considered an Honor Harrington. It seems to fit better within the Talbott Honorverse instead.

My Take
Yup, it's a short one, LOL. This is a combination bridge and tidy-up as Weber provides us with a ton of worries, state-sanctioned terrorism, and a determined Mike, Admiral Gold Peak. She's the kind of person we need more of throughout every aspect of life. A person willing to do what's right...more
Launian
If I could, I'd give this book a 3.7 rating, but since that's not possible (yet)... Just a warning, thos: this is going to contain spoilers, so if you haven't read the book yet, please close the window.

Yes, it's a great continuation from A Rising Thunder (although, if you ask me, it's better suited as the 3rd book on the Saganami Series), with a lot of sweet twists and a lot of my favorite characters (Dicey rocks, btw, and even if Scotty's missing), but there're some things that are simply bad a...more
Per Gunnar
The book in itself is not a bad book but then David Weber generally does not write really “bad” books. At least I cannot remember having read one. However, I quite frankly feel cheated by this book. I have waited eagerly for quite a while to get my hands on a new Honor Harrington book and when I finally do…there is no Honor Harrington in it!!!

Yes the story takes place within the main story arc of the Honor Harrington novels but it does not really advance the story in any major way. A good chunk...more
Glennis
Another book in the Honor Harrington series but not really dealing with Honor at all. This follows Michelle Henke, her friend and cousin to the Empress of the Star Kingdom. The book was ok but it didn't feel like a complete story more like an episode in a long running series. None of the action happens in the Star Kingdom at all and some of the story was more infodumping. I'll still read these but I long for the days of the early books. Not a book for a new reader to the series.
David
The latest book in the Honor Harrington series is part of the sidebar story-line, paralleling the main story-line. A little frustrating because half of the book takes place during the last main book, so the plot doesn't progress as much as you'd hope. My main complaint is that not much happens during the course of a 400 page book. When you wait that long for the new book, you would like something to actually happen! The writing remains very good and hopefully the next "main" book will move the p...more
Will
Some show that David Weber's latest in the Honorverse is "Honor Harrington Book 14", others just say "Honorverse Novel" (#26?), others say Michelle Henke Series Book #3, Saganami Island Book #3, or Talbott Quadrant Book #3. Why not just add Wages of Sin Book #3?

Much takes place during the same time period as the last Honor Harrington book "Rising Thunder" (In fact, while reading at the beginning I kept thinking "have I read this already?") and it is a sequel to "Storm of Shadows" .

Whatever you...more
Carlos Lowell
I must agree with many of the previous reviewers. This was a frustrating book in that the expected main character, Honor Harrington, never makes an appearance and is only casually mentioned a few times. I find Weber's writing as good as usual, but this book did nothing to move the main series along, except peripherally. Whenever the next book comes out (if?), this "no Honor" experiment will hopefully be concluded.
Rich Van Ollefen
I was pretty disappointed in this book. I expected more of Honor herself, as opposed to NONE, and given that the last book didn't do much to advance the storyline, I expected more from this one. Which I didn't get. It was, for all intents and purposes, a chapter in the overall story. The overall pacing of the the books is getting slower and slower.

I don't really look forward to the next book.
Jesse
Kind of meh, even for a bridge book. Ground combat portions were interesting, though not fleshed out as much as they might be. Naval combat is tepid, Manties shoot Solly fish in barrels, film at eleven. Not really enough time with Mike to please. Series very much feels like Weber has painted himself into a corner from which there is only one plausible exit. Hoping for better in the future.
Craig
Slightly better than the last. At least a little happens in this one - very little, admittedly, but at least a little. It's an easy read, but sorta pointless, as it doesn't advance the series' arc more than an inch or two. Weber really has become pitiful this way - in all his series. He's consistent at least, but I'm thinking it's perhaps best to just not bother with him anymore.
Lynne Hatter
As always Weber is excellent. He is very good at juggling multiple story lines, and in this case multiple planets. I wish he would flesh out Hanke more and allow us to know her better. Mostly what we know about her inner life is what we have read in the Harrington books, just because she doesn't have a treecat doesn't mean we should know more about her. Small complaint thought.
bookworm80
Feb 22, 2013 bookworm80 rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Honor Harrington fans
This should definitely belong to the Saganami spinoff series since Honor doesn't show up in the book and it's mostly about Michelle Henke's forces in the Talbott (the title kind of hints at that). As other have noted, it doesn't really have a resolution. As usual with Weber's latest books, the fleet and marine action is still good, the politics is mind-blowingly boring (especially since most of it is rehash from the last too Honor books). I also found it strange that neither Helen nor Aivars Ter...more
Kathi
7/10
Not really an Honor Harrington book at all, but a companion book to the events in Storm from the Shadows, mostly from other points of view and concentrating on event in and near the Talbott Quadrant.
Frankly, I'm ready for Weber to wrap this up... I care enough to want to know how the Manties get it to all work out, but I'm losing patience after 14 or so books.
Mark Hazen
A critical update to Honor-verse, bringing the Talbot Sector uptodate. A good read for the fan, I suspect it would be frustrating for a new reader. The plot is fairly light and does not really stand on its own since the book is really a 'link' setting the stage for the next phase of the overall story
Bj Norton
This isn't really another Honor Harrington novel, more of another Talbot Quadrant book. Weber is laying lots of groundwork for something big to happen, but sadly there isn't anything big happening here. If you like those TV shows that stop halfway in the story for a two part story you'll like this one...
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Beyond Reality: Shadow of Freedom - Roll Call and First Impressions (NO SPOILERS) 11 16 Apr 05, 2013 10:11am  
Honorverse: Shadow of Freedom 5 33 Oct 22, 2012 06:35am  
Shadow of Freedom (Hardcover)
Shadow of Freedom (Honor Harrington, #14)
Shadow of Freedom (Hardcover)
Shadow of Freedom (Honor Harrington, #14)
Shadow of freedom (Hardcover)

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David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952.

Many of his stories have military, particularly naval, themes, and fit into the military science fiction genre. He frequently places female leading characters in what have been traditionally male roles.

One of his most popular and enduring characters is Honor Harrington whose alliterated name...more
More about David Weber...
On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1) The Honor of the Queen (Honor Harrington, #2) The Short Victorious War (Honor Harrington, #3) Field of Dishonor (Honor Harrington, #4) Honor Among Enemies (Honor Harrington, #6)

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