Honorverse Today

As promised, here we are, back in the Crown of Slaves series talking about “Torch of Freedom”, another essential book assisting us in our passage through the Honorverse. This is the second of the novels that comprise the Crown of Slaves series or set of books within the Honorverse. As with the others in this set, Eric Flint was David Weber’s co-author.  The influence of his writing style and perspectives absolutely help us delve into some of the ugly issues associated with the genetic slavery storyline.This is another in what we’ll call the “stacked” novels, in that we are still looking at events that occurred around 1921 PD.  It’s actually the last one we’ll see as David completes his build-out of this significant turning point in the overarching Honorverse storyline.  The layers of events we see added here now span from 1919 through 1922 PD, but they address events we’re familiar with, now from the perspective of the still-new star kingdom of Torch and the associated Mayan sector.  A healthy amount of the story leans on the activities of Anton Zilwicki and Victor Cachat as they continue to investigate mysterious murder attempts on multiple people including Honor Harrington, Queen Barry and others.  It’s not exclusively Anton and Victor’s story, but quite a bit of what happens in the novel revolves around this investigative work they’re involved in.  We also have a heavy dose of the activities of the Mesan Alignment, and fuller attention is paid to the Detweilers.  We may have learned more about the Alignment in this novel than in any other so far.  Related, there are quite a few moral issues that come to the surface, or certainly come near the surface, that were previously only foreshadowed.  Most of them are directly associated with the connection between the Alignment and the genetic slave trade, but it’s not all about that.  We definitely get a lot more of the lives and intentions of Berry, Ruth, the broader leadership of Torch and how they’re doing in finding their place in the greater universe that we call the Honorverse.Note this book is a bit of a slower read in that there’s so much going on.  You’ll see less combat action and a lot more of the weaving together of multiple storylines as this book (along with the several that preceded it) are turning us in a new direction related to the overarching storyline.We rated “Torch of Freedom” with a 3, a 3 and a 4 (out of 5), for an overall rating of a 3.33.As always, thank you for listening and big thanks to those of you who also take the time to like and follow us on social media, to comment on our posts or even reach out through a longer note.Next time on the Honorverse Today podcast, we’re diving back into the “main sequence” to discuss “Mission of Honor”, the twelfth book in that set.  Get ready!  We’re back with Admiral Honor Alexander-Harrington as she finds herself serving as a diplomat as Queen’s Elizabeth’s direct representative and plenipotentiary during significant face-to-face negotiations with the President Pritchart and other senior government officials of Haven.  You’re not going to want to miss reading and discussing this one.  Grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

Swinging back to the Saganami Island series, in this episode we discuss the second book entitled “Storm from the Shadows”.Similar to the previous novel, this is another of several that cover certain key events in the 1921 PD timeframe, but from a different perspective.  This time a lot of what we see is through Admiral Michele Henke’s eyes. We made this point in the podcast and want to re-enforce it here:  this isn’t just a repeat of what we the readers already know.  Yes, certain key events are covered again, but we’re seeing those events differently as David Weber uses this technique to bring more richness or fullness to the story. And that’s not all this book brings us; there’s new material too, so don’t skip this one as David takes us down an important parallel path within the story.  Please consider it essential reading in the context of the greater story arc.   Perhaps most important, as anticipated we get to learn more about the emerging threat of Mesa, or more specifically of a body—a very quiet, or in some cases secret governing body—called the Mesan Alignment.  This is the third political entity we talked about in the previous episode.  The Alignment isn’t just a disruption to business as usual.  Rather, we’re learning just how powerful and manipulative they are as they’ve secretly and effectively orchestrated various events and outright hostility between Manticore and Haven.  It also appears that this manipulation isn’t the whole story, so strap in and hang on to your hats as we start to see just how an already ugly situation might get even uglier.  Much uglier.We rated “Storm from the Shadows” with a 5, a 5 and another 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of a 5 from your hosts.Friends, we always appreciate your encouragement as we make this adventure through the Honorverse together. Once again, thank you for listening and big thanks to those of you who also take the time to like and follow us on social media, to comment on our posts even reach out through a longer note. Next, we’re going to return to the Crown of Slaves series as we dive into the second book:  “Torch of Freedom”, bringing our attention back to the planet of Torch and all the galactic maneuvering around this new star nation.  As a reminder, this is the series that David Weber brought in co-author Eric Flint. Grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

We’re back in the “main series” to discuss the eleventh novel, “At All Costs”. While this is the eleventh of fourteen novels here, we’re only about halfway through all the Honorverse content. So, if you’re enjoying the podcast don’t worry, there’s lots more to come!The timeframe of this novel has us overlapping some of the events we saw in “The Shadow of Saganami.” Again, this is in no way a rehash of events. What David Weber is doing here (and in the next novel we’ll read) is to provide an incredible amount of fullness to a massive part of the Honorverse storyline. With so many threads of storyline happening on such a large scale, this was really the only way David could effectively fill in the incredible amount of story needed to give us the full picture of just how complex the events actually are. While there are things you’ll recognize, you’re not going to get bored. So, fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the ride. The title says it all. We are witnessing the climax of the Manticoran – Havenite War. With a momentary pause in the fighting and a brief moment where peace talks might have happened, due to a series of truly unfortunate circumstances, both sides resume combat operations with a ferocity that represents conducting warfare in a manner that victory will come to one side or the other at all costs.We see confirmed in this book the previous appearance of a possible third party involved in the war — a party that isn’t Manticore or Haven, or one of their allies. We definitely have some idea who it is, but what we know appears to only scratch the surface. This other actor on the universal stage has its own selfish interests and agenda. It wants to see Manticore and Haven continue to attrit each other’s militaries and economies down to a level that leaves them ineffective to deal with anything else. That party would then presumably be able to operate relatively freely and maybe openly, unopposed by either of these primary star nations. When they sabotage the intended peace talks, war resumes, and with incredible scale and violence. We watch what is described as the largest naval battle in history. When the story ends, we see both Haven and Manticore having lost the preponderance of their navies, with Manticore only effectively retaining 8th Fleet under the command of Honor Harrington. The stage is set at the end of the novel for this semi-mysterious third party to become more fully known and begin to take advantage of the new “international” political and military landscape.We rated “At All Costs” with a 5, a 5 and another 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of a perfect 5 from your hosts.As always, we truly appreciate the support of everyone who takes the time to wander through the Honorverse with us. Special thanks for those of you who like and/or comment on our posts, and even reach out and send us a note.Next, we’re going to return to the Saganami Island series to read and discuss book two: “Storm from the Shadows”. It’s going to continue this wild ride we’re on, so grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

We’ve already put out toes in the water of the Wages of Sin series (more commonly known as the Crown of Slaves series), and we’ll return to it soon enough. In this episode we discuss the first book in the Saganami Island series, entitled “The Shadow of Saganami”.Events in this novel overlap with and complement, to some extent, events we read about in “Service of the Sword”, “War of Honor” and “Crown of Slaves”. Don’t worry though, there is zero redundancy. What David Weber is doing is giving us more depth and breadth than what we already had. Your hosts all felt this could have been two novels on some level. That said, breaking it into two would have damaged what Mr. Weber does for us by keeping the multiple storylines within a single book. For that, we’re thankful for this lengthy and satisfying book!With the resumption of hostilities between the Star Kingdom and Haven, the story shifts to the relatively new Lynx Terminus of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction. This junction is located in the economically poor Talbott Cluster. Manticore has offered the benefits of annexation to the systems in the Talbott Cluster, which would benefit all parties involved. It would not necessarily benefit other players on the Honorverse stage. It certainly causes issues and concerns for Mesa, and perhaps, to others. This novel captures the story of the resultant honorable (and less than honorable) maneuvering within the Cluster. We’ve used the “DIME'' construct to analyze the story as it’s unfolded in the previous novels. That continues here, but now we see a very clear shift from a focus on the military instrument of power (the “M”) to a much heavier emphasis on diplomacy and economics (the “D” and “E”). For those of you who have been on this adventure for a while, you’ll remember we’ve anticipated this happening.The book is aptly named. We experience a part of the fatal battle Edward Saganami is known for, and we see why he’s regarded as highly as he is within the Royal Manticoran Navy. We get to hear Honor’s words to a graduating class at the Academy at Saganami Island, and then we roll into political intrigue, diplomatic (and less than diplomatic) posturing and maneuvering, piracy, terrorism, and even a large and very significant naval battle. The naval operations and ultimately combat requires the RMN officers, women and men assigned to the ships involved to make comparably difficult decisions to those made by Edward Saganami. They’re inspired by what they know of him, strive to honor his legacy, and ultimately live in the shadow of this great man. It seems this book has something for everyone!We rated “The Shadow of Saganami” with a 5, a 5 and another 5 (out of 5), for an overall rating of a perfect 5 from your hosts.As always, we truly appreciate the support of everyone who takes the time to wander through the Honorverse with us. Special thanks for those of you who like and/or comment on our posts, and even reach out and send us a note.Next, we’re going to return to the “main story line” with our discussion of “At All Costs”. Grab your copy, invite a friend, and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

With this series and novel, our adventure shifts away from the story featuring Honor Harrington as the main character or even seeing her as the focal point.  Even so, she’s not gone and appears in the periphery quite often.  Remember, this “related” storyline doesn’t mean we’re shifting away from the “main” storyline.  As you’ll see, we are not.  The Wages of Sin series, and this first novel in it, are absolutely a part of the core narrative that is The Honorverse.    We’ve seen the stories in this series foreshadowed and now we’re going to see why the Wages of Sin set of books are essential to the main story.  By the way, you’ll often hear people refer to this series as the Crown of Slaves series rather than Wages of Sin.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with that at all.  In fact, the series is probably more commonly referred to as the Crown of Slaves series.If you like placing each story into a chronological timeline, the events in Crown of Slaves happen while the High Ridge government is still in power, just before the main events captured in the novel War of Honor.  While there isn’t a lot of emphasis placed on High Ridge and others in the cabinet, Queen Elizabeth and some of the actions revolving around her play a little more of a prominent (but a relatively minor) role.  Crown of Slaves was first published by Baen Books in August 2003.  This is the series we have previously mentioned was written by the dynamic duo of David Weber and Eric Flint.As we saw mentioned in earlier parts of the story, the Star Kingdom’s ally Erewhon has been grieved by the actions and attitudes of High Ridge and the cabinet.  Perhaps outside of Grayson, Erewhon may be the most neglected and offended of all of Manticore’s primary allies.  In an effort to quietly address the problem, and perhaps prevent the loss of a key ally, Queen Elizabeth sends a delegation led by Captain Zilwicki, along with his daughter Berry, and her niece, Princess Judith Winton, to Erewhon.  You’re going to see a small cast of other familiar characters as well.  Within this atmosphere of tension, and significantly amplified by competing agendas outside of the Queen’s control, nothing goes smoothly.As suggested by the title of the series, and especially this novel, the focus of the events that unfold relate directly to Mesa and Manpower, Inc., and broadly to the ugly issue of slavery.  It shouldn’t be a surprise, but the theme is certainly heavy, and the events and language are not “kid friendly”.We rated Crown of Slaves with a 3, a 4 and another 4 (out of 5), for an overall rating of 3.7 from your hosts.We absolutely appreciate the support of everyone who takes the time to listen to our thoughts as we wander through the Honorverse.  Thank you!  And as always, thanks for those of you who like and/or comment on our posts.  Whether you agree with our thoughts, or hold differing viewpoints, your comments are genuinely appreciated and warmly received.   We truly enjoy hearing your thoughts on the Honorverse and the show.Next up:  we’re making a visit to another related storyline as we jump into the first novel in the Saganami Island series:  The Shadow of Saganami.   Grab your copy and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

Here we are, already discussing the fourth Honorverse anthology entitled The Service of the Sword.  This collection of six short stories written by six authors was originally published in April 2003 by Baen.  While we’ll call them “short” stories, two of them are novella-length (or arguably longer), so if you haven’t read this collection yet, be aware that a couple of these stories are lengthy.  The book is long, and since we’re talking about six stories, this summary is longer than usual too.The first story in this anthology is Promised Land by Jane Lindskold, an author we’re already familiar with.  This key story within the Honorverse introduces us to the Grayson character trapped on Masada named Judith.  Along with several other ladies, she’s a part of a separatist group seeking to escape their oppressive culture.  As they execute their plan they come into contact with Michael Winton, Crown Prince and Midshipman, on his “Snotty” cruise onboard the HMS Intransigent.  The ship is on an official visit to Masada and takes place back when Manticore was weighing the pros and cons to an alliance with either Grayson or Masada.  The events in this story helped inform Manticore’s decision, especially as Michael, and the crew he’s a member of, ultimately come to the aid of Judith and her friends.  The story’s important because we’ll see more of Judith in the future.Your hosts all gave this one a “thumbs-up”.Next came the story With One Stone by Timothy Zahn.  We join our favorite heroine Honor Harrington, now a captain in the RMN, and the captain of the Heavy Cruiser HMS Fearless very shortly after the events in On Basilisk Station.  The story returns us to her work to address the problem of apparent piracy as ships are being attached in Silesian space.  Another old “friend,” Sonja Hemphill is also involved in the effort since it seems some sort of advanced weapon is being used in these attacks.  Due to apparent similarities to Hemphill’s past project called a “grav lance,” she and the Office of Naval Intelligence are also involved.  We watch events unfold that ultimately expose the real power behind the attacks with this new weapon:  the People’s Republic of Haven.  We also get to see a young Rafe Cardones continue his early growth as a Naval officer as he’s detailed away from Honor’s crew and onto another vessel conducting intelligence operations related to the same problem.This one received three more “thumbs-up” from your hosts!The third story is A Ship Named Francis, written by John Ringo and Victor Mitchell.  Our authors took a very different approach to the Honorverse in that it was essentially an outlandish story that brought a bit of comic relief to what has really been what we’ll call serious story telling so far.  In this short story, we follow the adventures of a medic (Sick Bay Attendant) Sean Tyler and see the adventures onboard the Grayson Space Navy’s Heavy Cruiser, Francis Mueller.  Nothing is quite right about this crew.  Antics and follies occur as we’re introduced to a whole host of unbelievable and larger than life characters who do their best to do everything badly.  You may or may not be amused, but regardless you’ll go on an adventure with this story!Your hosts represented all the possible votes on this one, with a thumbs up, a neutral vote and a thumbs down.  (Be sure to let us know what you think after you read it.)The next story was Let’s Go to Prague, by John Ringo.   This one is a solo effort by Mr. Ringo, who co-authored the previous story.  While this one has comedic moments and whit, with some similarities in the writing style and “feel”, this is truly its own story and not just more zany adventures in the spirit of the last one.  Here we join two Manticoran...

Here we are, already discussing the tenth novel in the Honor Harrington main series: War of Honor, and if you’re counting the overall number of books we’ve covered in the Honorverse, this would be the thirteenth. For those who read this in the past, you may remember what the rest of us new readers discovered: we thought the previous novel was lengthy at 672 pages; this one buries that one and comes in at a substantial 869 pages! For story continuity, the events in this novel occur approximately three years after the events captured in the short story “From the Highlands'' (in the Changer of Worlds anthology). War of Honor was first published by Baen Books in October 2002. With the war between Manticore and Haven in a pause, as both sides agreed to an armistice, affairs have been dragging along with no formal peace apparent. Both sides have their own agendas driving the desire for a permanent peace. Even so, the current Manticoran government (the Queen’s government, but not the Queen herself) quietly prefers to keep the nation in a technical state of war. This allows them to maintain the wartime taxes they’re currently gathering. At the same time, they don’t believe that delay will compromise peace, which they truly want to endure even though they’re (selfishly) refusing to negotiate with Haven formally and fully. They are inappropriately using the wartime tax revenues to fuel non-wartime domestic and essentially “partisan” social programs. Meanwhile, the government of Haven (no longer the People’s Republic of Haven, having restored their original Constitution and the associated form of government) is growing increasingly frustrated with Manticore’s unwillingness to enter serious discussions about a formal peace. At the center of their desires rests the return of parts of Haven lost to Manticore in the war. More accurately, to allow those parts of their star nation to decide for themselves if they’d like to remain with Manticore, or to return to Haven as members of the restored old Constitutional government, or even have complete independence. The delay, fueled primarily by Manticore, causes concern (both real and contrived) that Manticore actually intends to continue the war. Within the government of Haven, there are those who quietly, if not secretly, desire to finish the war through a return to hostility so as to regain their lost territory and deliver a crippling and permanent blow to Manticore. There are also those who strongly support the idea of peace through strength. These agendas manifest through a secret program which is rebuilding the Navy.We also see the impact of political changes on both sides, primarily on the Manticoran side with regards to allies—for better or worse. While several allies are a part of the story, the focus is on Grayson and their strained relationship with the Manticoran government.In the end, hostilities resume and the pieces on the chessboard shift yet again within each star nation, and with several allies…We rated War of Honor with a 5 and two 4s (out of 5), for an overall rating of 4.13.As always, thanks for those of you who have liked and/or commented on our episodes so far. Your comments are genuinely appreciated and warmly received. Please keep those likes and comments coming! We truly enjoy hearing your thoughts on the Honorverse and the show.Next up: we’re on to the fourth in the Worlds of Honor anthology set, entitled The Service of the Sword. This one’s a cool package of six short stories and six authors, including Mr. David Weber himself, along with a few familiar favorites like Jane Lindskold and Eric Flint. Grab your copy and join us again next time!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

(Be sure to listen all the way through the closing credits. There may be a small surprise...)Time is flying as we work our way through the Honorverse! Here we are on the third anthology in the Worlds of Honor set: Changer of Worlds. It was first published in January 2001, comes in at 469 pages and contains four short stories. As with the previous anthology, the title is apt, given these stories capture key people and events at various times that truly changed the worlds we’ve grown to know and love in the Honorverse. Three of these stories were penned by David Weber and one by Eric Flint. This is significant for several reasons. Eric’s story is our first taste of what’s to come down the road. He also collaborated with David on the Crown of Slaves story arc. It’s a real treat to read what Eric wrote for us here. It definitely has us looking forward to his other contributions. (There’s more to the story behind David and Eric’s friendship. We’ll discuss this more in a future episode.)An important note: this anthology is extremely important, if not essential, to the second half of the Honor Harrington saga, and particularly important to a full understanding of the upcoming novel War of Honor.The anthology kicks off, and not in a slow way, with Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington, penned by David Weber himself. In this story, we join Midshipwoman Harrington as she and some of her classmates embark on what is traditionally called their “Snotty” cruise aboard the HMS War Maiden, commanded by CAPT Thomas Bachfisch. These cruises are when the Middies get to see the Navy they’ve been training for so long to serve in as commissioned officers, and for the Navy to see them and put these youngsters through a few trials of their own. Now they’re in the fleet, and not the classroom to learn.As readers we see what goes into the formation of officer Honor Harrington about as early as possible. Along the way we see a somewhat familiar set of personalities and predispositions in those around her: toward her (and her youthful looks and her early ability to command); her reputation (through CAPT Bachfisch and an officer onboard who is friends with Pavel Young), and her treecat (with many biases and misperceptions still in place about these “pets” not often seen among the fleet), to name a few. We also get to see CAPT Bachfisch directly influence and shape what will become a part of Honor’s command philosophy as she deals with issues and problems—some small and some significant. In this one short story we see snapshots and examples of officership and leadership, command (and how it’s not formulaic or one-dimensional), and to some extent the role and place of midshipmen in the Navy.Three “thumbs-up” from your hosts.The second story also was written by David Weber: Changer of Worlds. This was an interesting tangent in that we get a relatively significant glimpse into the inner workings of treecat polity and inter clan relations. The events in the story take place when Samantha and Nimitz visit the Brightwater Clan. The main point of the story, at least on the surface, is to show us what appears to be the initial proposal and discussion that occurs about possibly ending the treecats’ “Great Deception” and showing the humans their true intelligence. This also involves a related discussion about establishing the first-ever treecat colony in the Harrington Steading on Grayson.The pressing and unaddressed question related to this: what happens if/when treecats begin pairing with those who aren’t aligned with humans in the Star Kingdom? If they’re willing to consider colonies, then they must know there will eventually be contact outside of the Harrington Steading and more broadly, the Star Kingdom. The treecats know humans go to war with each other, and that some are deemed to be bad/immoral, not only by other humans, but also by treecats. We’re left to wonder how...

At the end of the last episode, we told you our next episode would be to discuss the anthology “Changer of Worlds”. Well surprise! What you’re about to hear is our interview with the man himself: Mr. David Weber. We had a list of questions of our own as well as some that several of you have submitted. In the interest of respecting David’s time, we paired the list down and took the opportunity to ask him about several things.The conversation was fantastic. We were blown away by two things. First, David didn’t just give us simple or surface answers to our questions. Instead, he dove deep into what we asked and gave us very detailed and full explanations. Second, when our session was over, we realized he didn’t just give us thorough answers, but gave us an incredible amount of time! As a result, you’ll get to hear a lengthy and quality session with the creator of the Honorverse.By the way, as with many of you, we’ve heard other interviews with David and can tell you he gave us equal or perhaps more time to talk with us. While there might be some ground he’s covered in other interviews, he definitely shared things we’d never heard before. As we wrapped up, David offered to join us again sometime in the future when we’re a bit further into the Honorverse. We have more questions to ask him from our original list. This also means if you have more questions to ask, there’s time to send them to us to add to our list. We don’t know when, but our intent is to take him up on his very kind offer.Mr. Weber, thank you again sir, for the incredible time you gave to all of us, your fans.Next time: we will discuss the anthology “Changer of Worlds” — only this time we mean it. We think you’ll all agree, getting to hear from David himself was more than a reasonable excuse to delay our discussion of this book.As always, genuine thanks to each of you for listening, and especially folks who have found the time to send us comments. If you haven’t already done so, consider spreading the word to others who you know are Honor Harrington fans, or to those who might enjoy the Honorverse!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!

In this episode we discussed the ninth novel in the Honor Harrington main series: Ashes of Victory. It’s the direct follow-on to Echoes of Honor. And if you keep listening through the end credits you might find a bit of extra “Oops!”At 672 pages (the trade paperback edition), it’s slightly shorter than Echoes of Honor, but not by much and with no complaints from your hosts about the length. The story is large, requiring equally substantial books to capture all that’s going on, and it picks up right where Echoes left off. Ashes of Victory was first published by Baen Books in March 2000. The war with Haven happens and as you can tell from the title, we’re going to see what emerges from the ashes of Honor’s apparent death (covered in the first half of the book), but also from the war (covered in the second half). As for Honor, it seems “The Salamander” is also a Phoenix!As we’ve grown accustomed to, David Weber has seamlessly woven in references to historical events that provide good background to what’s happening: the Battle of Midway (4-7 June 1942), the Battle of Savo Island (9 August 1942) and Operation Bagration (23 June through 19 August 1944). Note: the first two were quick references, while Bagration is mentioned several times because it was the name of a military operation in the book. While knowing the history of these events isn’t necessary or covered, interested readers may want to take the time to learn why David made these references. They add a lot of color to the story.Because the war we all saw coming occurs, the story in this novel brings quite a few things to culmination, and also exposes some new threads within the greater Honorverse storyline. This was done very well, too, given we all seemed to agree the action in this book wore us out at times. Yet it also left us eager to see what comes next. Related to that, consider and ponder just how the war with Haven actually ends…A final thought: we mentioned in our discussions that this book makes it clear how important reading the anthologies can be. Remember, they’re not throw-away side stories. Instead, they very deliberately inform the reader of things going on that weren’t included in the novels. Call it what you want—backstory, amplifying info, sidequels, something else—but whatever you call it, understand we all saw important elements in this novel that tied directly back to select short stories in the anthologies. Do you have to read the anthologies to appreciate how amazing the growing Honorverse is? No. Is it worth your time to read them? Absolutely yes. They’ll make the incredibly mature universe David Weber is building even more robust than it would be otherwise. If you haven’t been convinced already, we encourage you to read (or re-read) the anthologies, and in the order of publication if you can.We rated Ashes of Victory with three 5s (out of 5), for an overall rating of 5.As always, thanks for those of you who have liked and/or commented on our episodes so far. Your comments are genuinely appreciated and warmly received. Remember, we’re fans of the series just like you and we’re honored to have a venue to share our experiences and thoughts as we work our way through the Honorverse with other, like-minded people. Please keep those likes and comments coming!Next up: we’re back to another anthology, the third in the Worlds of Honor set, entitled “Changer of Worlds”. Grab a copy and join in!You can find us, and all our episodes at http://honorverse.net, and email us at honorverse@tpenetwork.com. We look forward to hearing from you.Now, let’s be about it!