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***Dave Hill's Reviews > In Enemy Hands
In Enemy Hands (Honor Harrington, #7)
by David Weber
by David Weber
Another major transition for Honor and the series, setting the groundwork for several books to come.
The initial parts of the book are somewhat slow going; the first 20% or so focus on everyone but Honor, involving various Manticoran and Havenite talking head discussions. Once we get back to Honor on Grayson, things take an awkward lurch, as an improbable nascent love interest blooms and leads to silly reactions on all parts. Oh, and there are lots of somewhat cloying treecat scenes.
The action eventually picks up, as Honor, now a commodore (as a substantive, not positional, rank) falls into a trap by the increasingly competent and aggressive Peeps. Seeing Honor get captured (an event Weber seems to strain to make plausible) is oddly unpleasant, even as it's refreshing. It's more noteworthy for how it plays amongst her Peep adversaries, both the Enemies with Hearts of Gold and the Mustache-Twirling Bad Guys.
On the other hand, the captivity and the resolution to that capture are some fine, gripping action sequences, even where they dive headlong into bloody melodrama. Honor's stage time continues to dwindle, but the focus of those around her on her welfare and attempted rescue makes it still feel like an Honor book.
Overall, the book is a mixed bag, but it trends upwards as it goes, ending with a literal bang.
One small plus, and two small further critiques, for the record: (1) Bringing Honor's mother to Grayson is a nice touch, and allows for some enjoyable scenes, even if it feels like a setup for Tragic Tearfulness after Honor's capture. (2) Honor being revealed as a descendant of planetary genetic modification makes sense, and certainly explains some of her "extraordinary" physical abilities, but it also feels like it was tossed in here largely to make her captivity more torturous. (3) Cordelia Ransom plays a huge role in most of the book, then utterly vanishes during the climactic ship-board battle, without even a spittle-flecked scream of frustration over what's going on; it feels like an odd error on Weber's part.
The initial parts of the book are somewhat slow going; the first 20% or so focus on everyone but Honor, involving various Manticoran and Havenite talking head discussions. Once we get back to Honor on Grayson, things take an awkward lurch, as an improbable nascent love interest blooms and leads to silly reactions on all parts. Oh, and there are lots of somewhat cloying treecat scenes.
The action eventually picks up, as Honor, now a commodore (as a substantive, not positional, rank) falls into a trap by the increasingly competent and aggressive Peeps. Seeing Honor get captured (an event Weber seems to strain to make plausible) is oddly unpleasant, even as it's refreshing. It's more noteworthy for how it plays amongst her Peep adversaries, both the Enemies with Hearts of Gold and the Mustache-Twirling Bad Guys.
On the other hand, the captivity and the resolution to that capture are some fine, gripping action sequences, even where they dive headlong into bloody melodrama. Honor's stage time continues to dwindle, but the focus of those around her on her welfare and attempted rescue makes it still feel like an Honor book.
Overall, the book is a mixed bag, but it trends upwards as it goes, ending with a literal bang.
One small plus, and two small further critiques, for the record: (1) Bringing Honor's mother to Grayson is a nice touch, and allows for some enjoyable scenes, even if it feels like a setup for Tragic Tearfulness after Honor's capture. (2) Honor being revealed as a descendant of planetary genetic modification makes sense, and certainly explains some of her "extraordinary" physical abilities, but it also feels like it was tossed in here largely to make her captivity more torturous. (3) Cordelia Ransom plays a huge role in most of the book, then utterly vanishes during the climactic ship-board battle, without even a spittle-flecked scream of frustration over what's going on; it feels like an odd error on Weber's part.
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