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Honor Harrington--FIELD OF DISHONOR - finished reading (*spoilers*)
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No space battles, but that doesn't mean there aren't conflicts galore. This is, so far, my favorite of the Honor Harrington books that I've read. Several places I found myself tearing up...lots more emotional depth in this story than the first three in the series.
I will enjoy getting to know the head of Honor's Grayson bodyguard better--he's smart, stubborn, and good at his job!
I hope it's not too long before Honor finds someone to love. She's a more fully realized character when she has someone besides Nimitz to love.
Pavel Young's brother may or may not carry on a vendetta against Honor, but it will not have the layers of hate and humiliation that the feud between Pavel Young and Honor had, and that's good. Time for the series to move beyond that relationship.
Can't quite bring myself to give the book as 5 star rating. As much as I like her, Honor is still, and probably always will be, just a little too perfect
I liked the realism in the way that all factors boiled together into the perfect storm where Honor got to shine, yet again. Yes, she shines a bit to brightly, but that's pretty much what the story is about. I thought it was a good one. Not my favorite, but I liked seeing her deal with so much outside of her element & the way her people helped her out was neat, too.
I have to agree with Kathi. Honor is too perfect. Everyone loves her, and if they don't, you know there bad guys. (And why are there so many men? Okay, Grayson makes sense, but its always men standing up for her for the most part. Is that because us women are so catty?)I like the Grayson bit the best. The whole tramua about Paul didn't do it for me. I never really felt anythiing for the relationship either way. In some ways, it felt like a Mary Sueish relationship.
I think Weber is better at political world-building and intrigue than personal relations. Honor is supposed to be a charismatic leader but this is the fourth book and charismatic is the last world I'd use to describe her.
I loved this book when I was 14ish but now I'm more than twice that old and the way Honor just emotionally shuts down kind of bugs me.
I thin you have a point, both SID and Helene. There is something lacking about Honor in this book. Perhaps Weber was trying to experiment with Honor needing protection. But for some reason it didn't work. Maybe because no one called her parents, maybe because everyone is really helping her is male so it felt strange. Mike is the only female and the only thing she really does is tell Honor. Yes, I know there is Hilson but she really doesn't do anything. In some ways, intentionally or not, Grayson felt more equal in the sexes than HOnor's own Navy or society. And why are treecats always male?
I just finished a little bit ago, and it's my favorite too. I'm like Kathy on this one, I guess. I liked what the rest of you don't seem to about this one.Maybe the change of pace and lack of infodump technology had something to do with it.
I really liked Paul, especially as we got some POV chapters with him. I enjoyed Pavel Young as a villain for the same reasons. It was cool to get into his head, even if he was still deplorable.
I finished this this morning. It is a reread. I guess there are 3 things that sort of interfere with my enjoyment. One is the men issue, Honorverse seems to have many more real male characters than female.
The second is the politics. Weber should get out of the way and explain how the different sides feel without making his own feelings so clear. I think this is basically the same writerly failing as the Honor is too perfect complaint.
The third is possibly because i read a lot of thrillers as well. and we all know the hero in a thriller can never be just a good guy he has to be an aggreived good guy. He has somebody dead in his past, or if he seems to be happy he must suffer a personal loss. It is a rare hero, who has a happy home life, mostly they are all wounded. And Honor getting the guy and then losing the guy so quickly strikes me as the same.
Nevertheless, I am going to continue the series read....I do find the politics and military aspects of Weber's work interesting and most of his writng basically fun.
Marty,I thought I was the only one who was wondering about the male/female ratio. You're right about the whole wounded hero thing.
Honest to God, I was sure I had 'read' this one (I listened to the first three), but am beginning to think I read reviews at Amazon.com or something and decided I didn't like the series enough to continue. I had remembered that her boyfriend got killed, and was thinking that happened in book 3, but I was wrong. I actually liked this one a lot better than the first three. Honor seemed almost human in her grief and I felt for her. Also there was a lot less infodumping and military tactics and hardware description, and that suited me fine. I started the next one already, though, and it starts out with a big space battle, so.... the Clancyesque Popular Mechanics aspect of the series continues, I suspect.
I agree with you all about all the men, so much so that I'm always surprised when a woman appears. They seem out of place almost. Still, we are inundated with Honor's 'specialness' and 'superiority' constantly.
I think, especially early, it's hard for Weber to write a female character who can hold her own against Honor. Anyone else is just going to pale in comparison. Not that this excuses a lopsided gender ratio. In my recollection, the spin-off series are better about this. There are some more prominent female characters later but, although I don't think it's spoilerific, I'll refrain from particulars.very minor spoiler on the treecat gender question: (view spoiler)
I definitely enjoyed re-reading the introductions to Honor's bodyguards, especially LaFollet, who's one of my favorite characters. I had forgotten that they appeared so prominently this early. I also enjoyed the glimpse of Manticoran politics.
Did anyone who followed the tech descriptions think this book felt slow? I like both aspects of the HH stories but I'm curious if others feel that way or not.
What about the scene where Honor's friends get Summervale's confession? I think this scene has a lot of potential for controversy. Do you all agree with their methods?
I thought Honor's friends getting the information - not confession - out of Summervale was great. Yes, it was torture & politically incorrect, but I liked it. It, like her shooting Young down, were justice personified, IMO. Perfect situations for both, unlike the real world.
I enjoyed the book quite a lot - I liked the break from the politics with the People's Republic and the space battles. I agree about the Grayson bodyguards - I am looking forward to seeing more of them and I'm guessing we will next book.
Didn't miss the Space Battles one little bit reading this. The change of emphasis from military hardware and tactics to something a little less 'hard' was a breath of fresh air for me. I hope to see more of the Steadholder stuff and the Grayson society development is also interesting.Pavel Young was still a bit of a cartoon villain, not unhappy to see the end of him, let's just hope his evil replacements can be a touch subtler and a little less black and white.
My major gripe with this episode of the series is that I struggle with the idea that a well functioning civil governance can have its upper house almost totally populated with a bunch of self important, ignorant blustering buffoons, apart from a handful of central characters that can see what is in front of their noses. Being a Brit I'm vaguely aware of what a hereditary aristocracy involved in parliament can be like, and the Manticoran upper house just doesn't ring true to me.
Other than that I found this an enjoyable read and will soon be moving on to the next.
Richard wrote: "...My major gripe with this episode of the series is that I struggle with the idea that a well functioning civil governance can have its upper house almost totally populated with a bunch of self important, ignorant blustering buffoons, apart from a handful of central characters that can see what is in front of their noses. ..."You haven't paid much attention to the U.S. Senate lately, have you?
;-)
Pfft. He said well-functioning.I do feel like some antagonists do seem to be simply holding the idiot ball, at times, rather than actually being principled people holding a different viewpoint, in this series....
I took the other side on this one in that I liked the space navy/space opera aspects of the stories. I read the first few of this series back to back and by the time I got here I was beginning to tire or maybe burn out on the books. I noted that for me they had started to bog down and then sort of do a come back. The biggest problem for me here was that I didn't think that the Honor character stayed true to the Honor I'd gotten to know getting here. (my review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...). It just bugged me the way she flip flopped as to "who she is/was" as the book progressed.Just me of course. I still rated this one 4 stars, but I was losing my taste for the character by the time I got here.
I quite enjoyed this one after starting it reluctantly. I didn't miss techno-dumping or space battles. I enjoyed the banter with her bodyguard, loved the scene where she forced Denver into challenging her and her challenging of Pavel. Shall read the next.
you're a speed demon andyou've finished reading, here's the place to discuss without worrying about spoilers.Please keep spoilers up to and including this book only though. We have a thread for the entire series, but this one is just for Books 1-4.
Also, remember to uncheck the "add to my update feed" box under the text window while posting spoilers. You don't want to accidentally post something that will ruin a friend's reading experience.