Somewhere in the monstrous 869-page War of Honor, I seem to remember seeing Honor Harrington sitting in her office reading an ancient classical novel by C. S. Forrester. This is David Weber having a little bit of fun with his character, whose life is evidently modelled upon that of Horatio Hornblower, given a sex-change operation and moved a couple of thousand years into the future.

This is the tenth volume in a series that has grown apace — the original novel in the series, On Basilisk Station, was about a third the size. (Oh, and if you want to read those earlier novels, they’re all on a CD-ROM in an envelope in the back of this book.) The series follows Harrington from her second FTL command, the cruiser Fearless, through war, personal problems, exile, knighting, being raised to the peerage, captivity in the prison camp from hell, more personal damage than you can possibly imagine (at this point, one eye and one arm are artificial), and now into a second war that nobody wants.

Those who read Ashes of Victory will remember that Havenite admiral Thomas Theisman managed to snuff the evil and sociopathic Oscar Saint-Just at the end of the book, shortly after a truce had been declared between Haven and Harrington’s Star Kingdom of Manticore. But Saint-Just’s last blow at Manticore, wiping out a large part of its government, succeeded in bringing the Opposition into office — a coalition of far-right conservatives and far-left liberals, all of whom seem to be both amoral and idiotic, and all of whom are happy to string the peace talks out as long as possible since, as long as there is a technical state of war, they don’t need to hold early elections. And, on the other side, the responsibility for the peace talks falls into the hands of an ambitious Secretary of State who is not above editing the messages exchanged between the two sides to suit his own agenda. Meanwhile, Harrington is sent off to the distant planet of Sidemore, which she once helped rescue from a Really Nasty Dictator, to counter a supposed threat from the Andermani Empire. And Haven, having no faith in the good intentions of the Manticoran government, is secretly working to bring its navy up-to-date in terms of both quantity and quality …

Again, this is the end of the eighteenth century moved two thousand years into the future; the leader of the Havenite revolution was one Robert Stanton Pierre, more commonly known as Rob S. Pierre (anybody recognize the name?), and the commodore who provided the equipment to destroy the old government was named Danton. But I wonder how long Weber intends to keep that up. Who, for instance, is Haven’s Napoleon? I originally thought it might be Esther McQueen, but she was blown up by Saint-Just (and what a scene that would be for a movie version!).

Problem with this book is that far too little of it is about Harrington, and far too much about the political manipulations on Manticore and Haven. Long chapters go by while Harrington is buried out in the boonies at Sidemore and we are treated to the conniving and backbiting of High Ridge, Descroix, Janacek and New Kiev and the careful, studious, and ultimately boring manipulations of Secretary Giancola. The only pleasant part of all this is seeing how the good guys — including those now making up the major part of the current Havenite government (Eloise Pritchart, Thomas Theisman, Denis LePic) — are dragged slowly but steadily into a brand new war that none of them wants. There’s also a — so far pointless — return to the subplot about Admiral White Haven’s and Honor’s steadily growing love for each other, a love about which they can do nothing because of White Haven’s dedication to his wife who has been omniplegic for more years than I’ve been alive …

Note: special thanks to Eric Flint. Since he and Weber started working together (see e.g. 1633, the jointly-written sequel to Flint’s 1632), the influence of old union man Flint has apparently drawn Weber away from the idea that anyone more liberal than Lord North is pernicious and should be eradicated; at the end of this book, a newly reborn Liberal party — under the leadership of Cathy Montaigne, whom Flint introduced in his novella in the sharecropper anthology Changer of Worlds — looks like playing an important role in future on the side of the angels.

I recommend getting it, but in paperback. I only got the hardback because it was offered to me at half-price. However, note: the paperback won’t have the CD-ROM. And with this many pages, the cover will probably become unglued and peel off after relatively little use.